Daily Slop – 5 Jul 24: Johnny Newton, Sam Cosmi, Brian Robinson, Jayden Daniels and Kliff Kingsbury in today’s links

A collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders, the NFC East and the NFL in general

Commanders links

Articles

Commanders.com

Commanders 2024 training camp preview | Defensive line

• How will Jer’Zhan Newton fit on the defensive line? Drafting Newton was a luxury the Commanders could not pass up when they saw he was available at No. 36 overall. Considered by many as one of the top defensive linemen in the draft, the Commanders consider Newton to be a Day 1 contributor because of his ability to crash pockets and fill running lanes. The question the Commanders will have to answer, though, is how will Newton fit into what they already have? Allen and Payne are going to be the starters, which would assumedly make Newton a fringe starter based on his talent. Regardless of how many snaps he gets, deciding how to use Newton is a good problem to have.
• Who will be the starters at defensive end? The Commanders are going through a massive change at defensive end, considering that neither of last year’s Day 1 starters are on the roster. The team signed three new players and drafted another to find an answer at the spot. During OTAs, Armstrong and Ferrell were the two starters. They have the most experience of Washington’s options, and Armstrong is coming off the best two seasons of his career. Still, the team is encouraging competition at all positions, so perhaps Fowler, Obada or one of the other defensive ends will make a push in August.

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Sports Illustrated

Is Washington Commanders Offensive Lineman Sam Cosmi Top 10 in NFL?

Sam Cosmi is the best offensive lineman on the Washington Commanders roster, but is he top 10 in the NFL?

[The Commanders] have a top 10 guard in the NFL, according to CBS Sports’ Jeff Kerr.

“The Commanders switched Cosmi inside to guard last season and the results couldn’t have been better. Cosmi started all 17 games, allowing one sack and 30 pressures in 736 pass-blocking snaps (pressure rate allowed per dropback of 4.1%),” Says Kerr.

“Cosmi still has some work to do as a run blocker, but he’ll be vital toward keeping (quarterback) Jayden Daniels upright in his rookie season. He was a very bright spot on a poor offensive line last year.”

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Riggo’s Rag

Commanders breakout candidate could spearhead offensive renaissance

This would be tremendous news for the Commanders.

Hopes are high surrounding [Brian] Robinson’s scope for growth in 2024. This was a sentiment echoed by Tony Catalina from Pro Football Network, who named the Alabama product as the Commanders’ player most likely to enjoy a genuine breakout campaign next time around.

“Dan Quinn is changing things in a big way for the [Washington] Commanders, and with a ton of new pieces in place, the running game is going to be a rookie QB’s best friend. Following a season in which [Brian] Robinson showed some exciting potential, 2024 could be the year he puts himself in the breakout category.”

– Tony Catalina, Pro Football Network

Robinson has the on-field vision and explosiveness to achieve this objective. His evolution as a route-runner out of the backfield last season was encouraging. Picking Ekeler’s brain in his quest for additional progress in this ever-important area is only going to help.

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Commanders Wire

Why Commanders were the ideal choice for ‘Hard Knocks’ offseason

Of course, the NFL realized this offseason would be the first offseason for the Josh Harris ownership group, seeing it was the NFL who did not permit the Harris Ownership group to begin their tenure until July 2023.

Daniel Snyder had owned the Washington franchise since taking over in 1999. The NFL didn’t see this new offseason “Hard Knocks” as an opportunity to investigate and tell some of that story?

Harris declared immediately after the close of the 2023 season, “We didn’t get it done on the field, so we have decided to go in a new direction.”

That new direction was hiring Adam Peters as the Commanders new general manager. Did anyone at the NFL know that Ron Rivera had strangely proclaimed that if the 2024 team made it to the Super Bowl, give him a ring? Wasn’t that in itself a good video for the inaugural episode?

Dan Quinn getting his second chance in the NFL to be a head coach was not a good enough story for “Hard Knocks?” And how about all of these established assistant coaches Quinn was able to bring onto his staff? Did the NFL actually think the Giants were a better offseason story?

How could they possibly have thought that was the case?

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Pro Football Focus

Fantasy Football: Backfields to target and avoid based on play callers

Yesterday I dug into running backs roles and what that means for their fantasy production. Using that information, I put together three teams where it’s worth targeting their backup because the offensive playcaller has typically given them a feature role when the starter is injured. I also list three teams to avoid because their offensive playcaller has rarely given a running back a feature role.

Target: Washington Commanders

Kliff Kingsbury is the Commanders’ new offensive coordinator. He was the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals from 2019-2022. Throughout his four years, he consistently had someone who was a feature back on everything but third downs, and that back often changed with injuries. In his first two years, he went from David Johnson to Kenyan Drake and then James Conner joined the team in 2021. In each of the first three years when there were injuries, Chase Edmonds would take over as the feature back rather than having a committee take over. In 2022, both Eno Benjamin and Corey Clement had games with big roles when Conner missed time due to an injury.

Brian Robinson Jr. and Austin Ekeler seem locked into the top two spots. It’s unclear how snaps will get distributed between the two, but chances are someone will win that starting job and have a large role. If one gets injured, the other should be a feature back.

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Podcasts & videos

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Locked on Commanders: Washington Commanders Left Tackle Brandon Coleman Battling Cornelius Lucas for Starting Job | OLine

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NFC East links

Pro Football Talk

Dak Prescott says walking boot is part of regular maintenance since 2020 ankle injury

Dak Prescott caused a stir when a photo on social media showed him wearing a walking boot on his right ankle while vacationing in Cabo San Lucas.

The Cowboys quarterback, though, attempted to alleviate any concern.

He told Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that it’s part of the regular maintenance he has had to do since fracturing his right ankle in 2020.

“The same ankle, same issues,” Prescott told Hill.

Prescott underwent immediate surgery after a right ankle compound fracture dislocation during a game against the Giants almost four years ago. He missed the final 11 games.

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NFL.com

2024 NFL season: Predicting each NFC team’s MVP

Dallas Cowboys – Micah Parsons – OLB · Year 4

Prior to the playoff loss to the Packers, QB Dak Prescott was playing some of the best ball of his career, leading the league in completions (410) and TD passes (36) and finishing second to Lamar Jackson in MVP voting. He’s certainly a strong candidate to be his team’s MVP again this season, and yet, I’m just a little bearish of that happening in 2024. First, Dak’s had a bit of a hard time stringing together back-to-back great seasons over his career, and the Cowboys have some roles to iron out at receiver and along the offensive line.

Parsons is my pick to be Dallas’ MVP this season, although his candidacy is not a slam dunk, either. Even with a career-best 14 sacks in 2023 and the high level of play we’ve come to expect, there were a few games where Parsons was notably quiet, especially down the stretch as cracks started forming in the defense. I still think he has a DPOY in his future, perhaps even this season, although the loss of defensive coordinator Dan Quinn also opens this pick up to scrutiny.

New York Giants – Brian Burns – OLB · Year 6

Burns might have been the Panthers’ co-MVP a year ago (with Derrick Brown), and I think he will thrive on a Giants defense that features an emerging Kayvon Thibideaux on the opposite edge and an established Dexter Lawrence in the middle. This offense lost Saquon Barkley, still has OL issues to iron out — and there’s that curious QB situation to figure out. New York isn’t likely to be winning games 38-35.

If the Giants are going to surprise people this season, the defensive line likely will have to be a big reason why. The Burns trade and extension felt like one of the savviest fell swoops of the entire offseason. Some teams might not have viewed Burns with the same reverence because of his solid but hardly eye-popping sack numbers, but the tape reveals a consistently disruptive edge capable of earning All-Pro honors in New York.

Philadelphia Eagles – Jalen Hurts – QB · Year 5

This pick wasn’t hard, per se, but I paused for a minute. There has been this strange cloud over Hurts since about December or so, at least in my mind, and if I’m being honest with myself, I felt like he was never quite right in 2023. Coming off his brilliant 2022 season, that was a disappointment. And this season, he’ll have to deal with the retirement of Jason Kelce and will have his fifth play-caller in a five-year span — obviously less than ideal.

How Hurts and Kellen Moore will mesh is anyone’s guess. It wasn’t the most natural-sounding pairing I could have imagined, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work, of course. I believe in Hurts, his ability to pick up new schemes quickly and his weapons. There might be a little more balance this season with Saquon Barkley in the mix, and I could see Hurts ultimately rising back closer to the level we saw in his MVP runner-up season.

Washington Commanders – Jayden Daniels – QB · Rookie

Earlier, I explained how Caleb Williams might not be the Bears’ team MVP, but it doesn’t mean I don’t think any rookie QB could win that honor. Every situation is different, and the Commanders do have a top-tier playmaker in WR Terry McLaurin, who easily could provide the same level of comfort for Daniels as D.J. Moore can for Williams. But if the thinly built Daniels can make it through his first season relatively healthy, I think he has a slightly better chance of being the Commanders’ most important player this season.

One reason is that Chicago has a stronger all-around roster right now than Washington does. But another reason is that Daniels also figures to be a heavier runner than Williams, which I believe makes Daniels just as much an Offensive Rookie of the Year threat, if not more. If he leads the Commanders to the franchise’s first winning record since 2016, Daniels could have a Stroud-like effect on this franchise. I’m expecting a very encouraging first year from the No. 2 overall pick.

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NFL league links

Articles

ESPN

Best and worst NFL diets: Rams, Bengals, Dolphins dish it all

For the Commanders, the change came when owner Josh Harris bought the team.

“It was very selective in what we were eating [before], obviously,” Reaves said. “And new ownership and new coaches came in and they changed all of that stuff. They made an emphasis on that. When we came in, when new ownership came in, they took the time personally to come talk to some of the leaders that’ve been here for a while and ask us what we want to exchange and what we wanted different. And we are seeing it.”

Enhancing onsite accommodations is something teams have put an emphasis on in recent years, as is clear with moves made by the Chargers, Rams and Commanders. The goal of the NFLPA survey, according to the association, was to “not only help [players] make important career decisions, but also help raise standards across the league.” It has become increasingly clear nutrition is something teams will continue to enhance as they not only try to recruit players but push for them to play at the highest level.

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