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Daily Slop – 5 Jun 25 – Trench Thursday: Brandon Coleman, Daron Payne, Javon Kinlaw, Eddie Goldman & more

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

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Articles

Bullock’s Film Room

How will Brandon Coleman handle shifting to guard?

The good news for Coleman is that he has some experience playing left guard already, having played some in college. Many draft analysts projected him as a guard at the next level. The Commanders have been bullish on his ability to play tackle, but with Tunsil and Conerly likely the bookend tackles, the only available spot for Coleman to start at is guard. But is Coleman actually better suited to guard and how will that move mesh with his strengths and weaknesses? Let’s take a closer look.

Run blocking

As a run blocker, Coleman showed a lot of tenacity and the ability to move defenders off their spot last season. In a lot of their gap scheme runs, Coleman would be responsible for helping a guard secure a block inside before working up to the second level, which he proved effective at.

However, at guard, Coleman’s responsibility on a lot of these gap run schemes will be slightly different. Instead of helping the guard secure a block and then working up to the second level, Coleman will be the guard that has to secure the block on the defensive tackle inside. Fortunately, there were a few different instances where he had to do just that last season.

Commanders.com

OTA notebook | Quan Martin could become one of NFL’s ‘better safeties’

Martin, a second-round pick from the 2023 season, had the best campaign of his career so far, recording 87 tackles in the regular season and two total interceptions, one of which was the touchdown he scored in the Divisional round against the Detroit Lions. He started 16 games, compared to just five in 2023, and forced three fumbles as the team’s strong safety.

But Martin’s growth has been a work in progress under Whitt and his defensive staff. Whitt had him playing with the second group during last year’s OTAs, primarily because he was making mistakes that the defensive coordinator said, “We can’t afford to make.”

After that, Martin ripped off three consecutive strong practices. He worked his way back onto the starting defense, which is when he made one of the more impressive plays of the offseason by catching an interception behind his back.

Now, Martin has taken his development a step further and become a leader in terms of communicating on the field with his teammates.

Washington Post (paywall)

‘We got some big ol’ guys’: Why the Commanders’ defensive line bulked up

After last season’s struggles to stop the run, Washington has spent the offseason confronting some weighty issues

After losing longtime tackle Jonathan Allen and last season’s sack leader, Dante Fowler Jr., in free agency, the Commanders bulked up by signing defensive tackles Javon Kinlaw and Eddie Goldman and defensive end Deatrich Wise Jr., who combined weigh close to half a ton and stand 6-foot-4 on average.

Washington also brought back 335-pound interior lineman Carl Davis and saw returning tackle Sheldon Day tack on a few pounds — he’s now listed at 294, up from 285. And the team still has 2018 first-round pick Daron Payne anchoring the interior at a svelte 320.

“We wanted to get bigger and longer, and we definitely did that up front,” defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. said ahead of Wednesday’s workout. “The vision of how we want to play and how we want to be and how we will look, you’re seeing more of it right now from a size and length and speed standpoint.”

The Athletic (paywall)

Commanders’ Daron Payne is leading by example with his inspiring offseason work

“(Payne) looks really good. He looks in tempo,” Whitt said. “Like, every day this dude is — I’m having to tell him, ‘Hey, man, let’s calm down.’”

Washington fans previously witnessed Payne playing the role of interior monster. The 2022 version collapsed pockets and engulfed ball carriers en route to earning his lone Pro Bowl selection with 11 1/2 sacks and 18 tackles for loss. The 2018 first-round pick signed a four-year, $90 million contract the following offseason. Whitt and Quinn will become unabashed cheerleaders if Payne’s performances sniff that level.

While solid in the subsequent two seasons, Payne’s combined sack (8) and tackles for loss (18) numbers didn’t pop. There were a few individual standout moments during Washington’s all-smiles 12-win regular season. Maintaining this intensity when the games count would help regain that form.

“I walked past (Payne) today and said, ‘Man, you’ve had a remarkable offseason,’” Quinn said following Wednesday’s session. “I felt that way through the drill work, through the skill (work). You just see something that jumps out differently. … I felt that from him coming into this offseason, and I’ve certainly been impressed by what I’ve seen so far.”

Yardbarker

Commanders need big year from Daron Payne

Washington is now rebuilding the line for the second straight year around Payne. However, Payne’s play was lackluster the past two seasons, with four sacks each year. While interior linemen’s contributions aren’t completely seen on a stat sheet, Payne has underperformed.

“I’ve been really pleased,” defensive coordinator Joe Whitt said of Payne. “[Payne] is leading by example. This year you can see him taking that leadership role to the next step.”

The Commanders focused on interior defensive linemen for depth hoping to bolster their run defense, which ranked third-worst leaguewide (137.5 yards per game) last season. They added Javon Kinlaw, Eddie Goldman, Deatrich Wise and Jacob Martin in free agency.

If Washington is to improve, it’s up to Payne and his pupils.

Washington Business Journal (paywall)

Commanders conducting preliminary search for D.C. stadium architect

The spokesperson said that because of D.C.’s height limit, the stadium “cannot be built with a ‘straight up’ design similar to other modern stadiums and still achieve the 65,000-seat capacity the team is seeking.” But they added that those limitations “will allow the team to ‘do some really interesting things both from the experience inside the stadium as well as the aesthetics of it outside the stadium.’”

Podcasts & videos

Commanders Defense in SPOTLIGHT as Jayden Daniels Shines in Red Zone

NFC East links

The Athletic (paywall)

The Scotsman who helped the Eagles perfect the tush push: ‘Nobody else is doing what I do’

“I’ve spent the last 20 years working on how to move bodies: angles, force, height, weight, you name it,” Gray says. “So on watching it we kind of ripped the whole play to bits and built it back up again, and out of that conversation, I’m sure there were two or three things the group took and added to the play.

“The play is over three levels, firstly, the offensive line. You’ve got some phenomenal O-line athletes at the Eagles, one of the heaviest in the league, some huge humans. You’ve then got Jalen Hurts, who is pound-for-pound one of the strongest quarterbacks in the league, so the play is completely made for his body type.” Hurts squatted 600 pounds (272 kilograms) while in college at Alabama.

“Then you’ve got two players in behind him who actually don’t add that much at all in the push. It’s called the push, but if you watch it, there’s actually not a lot of pushing involved in it. It’s thought of as a pushing play, but a lot of the time, those two back pushers never get to Hurts. The job’s done before then. I always class it as organised mass.”

NFL league links

Articles

NFL.com

Derek Carr on decision to retire: I didn’t want to ‘just take the Saints money’

“That part was tough because I didn’t want to have surgery and just sit there and — it sounds crazy but — just take the Saints money,” Carr told David Rumsey of Front Office Sports.

Carr framed his May 10 decision to walk away as being in the best interest of all parties.

“I wouldn’t have been able to play if I had the surgery,” Carr said. “And then if I tried to play with it, I wasn’t near 100%, and so that doesn’t help them, either. I just felt like it was the right thing to do for myself and for the team.”

The Saints and Carr came to the decision that the quarterback would retire, leaving $30 million guaranteed that he would have received in 2025, and the club wouldn’t pursue the $10 million roster bonus that would have been forfeited by retiring.

Discussion topics

Washington Post (paywall)

Are cold plunges good for you? Here’s what the science says.

Cold plunges are very popular, but a new study shows they may interfere with muscle recovery and growth.

Ice baths and cold plunges — interchangeable terms for soaking in near-freezing water — have grown wildly popular in recent years, thanks to podcasters, social media influencers, professional athletes and others touting their uses for exercise recovery and personal wellness.

But do they actually work?

That question was at the heart of a new study of frigid water and resistance training. The study’s authors found that plunging your limbs into icy water after lifting weights slows blood flow to muscles, hampering their ability to recover and grow, potentially reducing the benefits of the workout.

“It looks like it’s not a great idea” to soak in freezing water after lifting weights, said Milan Betz, a doctoral student at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who led the study.

The findings add to mounting evidence that ice baths may undermine the effects of lifting and also raise the provocative issue of when, if ever, ice baths are a great idea.

[S]cientists in Australia asked 21 men to lift weights twice a week. Half of the men cold plunged after every session; the others didn’t. After three months, the cold plungers’ muscles were nearly 20 percent smaller and weaker than the other men’s, although everyone followed the same exercise routine.

The review’s authors speculated that frigid temperatures shrink blood vessels, impeding blood flow to muscles. Blood carries nutrients, including protein, that muscles rely on to rebuild and bulk up after draining exercise. Less blood flow means less protein and a feebler recovery.

[In one recent study] volunteers…sweated though a tough session of leg press and leg extension exercises, before immediately clambering onto a bicycle-like contraption with large buckets where the pedals should be. One contained tepid 80-degree water, the other icy 30-degree water. The men slid a leg into each bucket, so one limb cold plunged, the other didn’t, and stayed there for 20 minutes.

Afterward, the volunteers drank a recovery shake containing protein molecules marked with a biochemical tracer. Researchers could track the tracer to see whether the proteins wound up in muscles or not. The scientists also checked blood flow with an ultrasound several more times over the next few hours.

What they found was that blood flow dropped substantially in the volunteers’ cold-plunged leg, compared to their other limb, and stayed low for hours. The muscles in that chilled leg consequently received and absorbed far less protein from the shake. Over time, this reduced protein intake would likely mean blunted gains in strength and muscle mass from the lifting.

Some people also ice bathe for reasons unrelated to exercise recovery, including to make themselves feel mentally stronger and more resilient. The new study did not consider psychological outcomes from chilling out, Betz said, and, if you find comfort in cold plunges, “there’s no reason to change your mind.”

But, to get the most gains from weight training, he said, the bulk of the available evidence, including the new study, suggest you should probably skip an ice bath soon afterward.

Pro Football Focus

Ranking each NFL team’s top QB-WR/TE duo ahead of the 2025 season

2. PHILADELPHIA EAGLES: JALEN HURTS & A.J. BROWN

Brown came in at No. 1 in PFF’s wide receiver rankings, thanks to his dominant 96.5 PFF receiving grade versus single coverage over the past three seasons. Hurts hasn’t always been the most efficient quarterback, but he bounced back from some bad PFF passing grades under pressure to start 2024 and became a Super Bowl champion.

3. HOUSTON TEXANS: C.J. STROUD & NICO COLLINS

Stroud’s 2024 campaign was largely the same as his rookie year in terms of PFF grade (80.4 PFF passing grade in 2023 compared to 77.5 in 2024), and Nico Collins has been his safety blanket. Collins has generated a 117.8 passer rating when targeted over the past two seasons with Stroud, which ranks sixth in the NFL.

4. WASHINGTON COMMANDERS: JAYDEN DANIELS & TERRY McLAURIN

Daniels came in at No. 6 in PFF’s quarterback rankings for the 2025 season, while McLaurin cracked the top 10 of the wide receiver rankings. What puts this duo even higher on this list as a collective is the fact that Daniels earned an elite 92.9 PFF passing grade when targeting McLaurin and Marcus Mariota earned an elite 93.2 PFF passing grade when targeting McLaurin while Daniels was hurt.

All aTwitter