Daily Slop – 6 Apr 25

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

Commanders links

Articles

Riggo’s Rag

Commanders must buck increasing trend to bolster Super Bowl hopes in 2025

Duplicating the Buccaneers’ model might be the right move…

Over the last four Super Bowls, the winning team has had a roster among the top 10 youngest in the league. Outside of the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles, the other three winning teams over the last four years have also been top 10 in the number of Day 2 draft picks on the roster.

The Commanders will have to buck that recent trend if they want to be Super Bowl champions this season. This is something the Tampa Bay Buccaneers accomplished not so long ago with the third-oldest roster in the league.

Getting a franchise quarterback changes everything. Just look at how Daniels elevated what was a subpar roster in 2024. The reason that the Commanders have some of the least homegrown talent in the league is a direct correlation to just how poorly the Ron Rivera-led regime drafted.

The year before Tom Brady joined the Buccaneers, the team had gone 7-9 in Bruce Arians’ first year. But, as we mentioned before, having a franchise quarterback can elevate your franchise.

Along with Brady, the Buccaneers brought in other key veterans including Rob Gronkowski, Antonio Brown, LeSean McCoy, and Leonard Fournette. They also re-signed Ndamukong Suh to a one-year deal and tagged Shaquil Barrett, both of whom had joined the franchise in 2019.

Jason Pierre-Paul, who the team traded for in 2018, was also re-signed to a two-year deal before the Super Bowl-winning season. He would go on to make the Pro Bowl.

With the quarterback question answered, the Commanders look to be duplicating this formula by re-signing key veterans from last year’s team. These include Bobby Wagner, Zach Ertz, and Marcus Mariota.

It wouldn’t be the first time Washington won a Super Bowl with an aging roster either. The 1991 squad had one of the highest average ages of a championship team in NFL history.

---

Riggo’s Rag

Commanders should not be worried about Jayden Daniels’ sophomore regression

The silly narratives have already begun.

Now that Daniels has set such a high standard early on, there will be no more room for patience as he continues to grow. Therefore, some around the league believe he is fated to disappoint in 2025.

An anonymous executive compared the hype following Daniels’ rookie season to that surrounding the Houston Texans signal-caller C.J. Stroud a year ago, when the Ohio State product conducted a similar turnaround. The AFC South club went from three wins in 2022 to 10 in 2023. They won a playoff game and were projected to take the next step into Super Bowl contention last time around.

The Texans compiled the same record and playoff success from 2023. Stroud’s statistics regressed, throwing for fewer yards, touchdowns, and more than doubling his interception count.

Washington has capitalized off of its magical title game run by putting all of the right pieces in place around Daniels, notably trading for wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. and offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil. The Commanders’ roster figures to be much more talented than a season ago. That’s what happens when you have a rookie contract to build around your franchise player.

Regressions like Stroud’s are the exception, not the rule. It can be considered fair to temper expectations for Daniels and the Commanders in 2025 at the risk of getting too carried away. Realistically, all signs are they should only continue to improve.

---

Commanders Wire

Draft analyst says Commanders should not take a receiver in the first round

Is there a wide receiver that the Commanders should consider drafting that would be a good value selection at No. 29?

Jeremy Greene, Sportsocracy host and NFL draft analyst, was a guest on the “Take Command” podcast with Logan Paulsen and Craig Hoffman, and was quite entertaining and informative in attempting to answer that very question, Thursday.

“No.”

That’s how Greene responded when asked by Hoffman: succinct and right to the point. Then Greene elaborated further.

“I will go ahead and tell you, I am very low on this receiver class.

You may have noticed Luther Burden (Missouri) was not listed as a receiver the Commanders should consider in the first two rounds. What did Greene have to say regarding Burden?

“The character issues with Luther Burden? Can confirm… I am not doubting your natural athleticism or your natural God-given ability. What I am doubting is your role and how I am going to manufacture your touches, because you are not a good route-runner…Can you develop into a natural route runner? Your attitude is kind of a big deal in that. Because I am going to have to teach you something you should have learned five years ago…It’s hard to get him the ball because he is not a big guy nor a good route-runner…Every time I watch Luther Burden, he goes down about ten spots for me.”

---

Podcasts & videos

Commanders INSIDER Chick Hernandez from NFL Annual League Meeting | Dan Quinn, New Era, and More!

---

---

NFC East links

Giants Wire

Report: New York Giants’ Joe Schoen, Brian Daboll are ‘working as separate entities’

Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News reports that more than at any other point in their tenure, Schoen and Daboll are “working as separate entities.”

Mara publicly blamed the previous regime’s failures on a lack of communication and collaboration between GM Dave Gettleman and head coach Joe Judge. Schoen and Daboll projected a united front and worked as a complementary pairing early on, having arrived together from Buffalo in the first place.

Gradually, however, that dynamic has shifted to the point that Schoen and Daboll now more than ever are working as separate entities, sources say.

This offseason, there have been some notable changes. Many will point to Daboll’s lack of presence at certain Pro Days, but that isn’t necessarily outside of his norm. However, he and Schoen holding separate press conferences when they have traditionally held joint press conferences, is.

Moreover, Leonard reports that there “was some hope” from members of the front office and personnel department that Daboll would get the boot.

Daboll noticeably then met the media alone on Jan. 6, standing behind a lonely podium inside the Giants’ practice facility on the turf. Schoen followed that with a solo press conference of his own in the team’s indoor auditorium, seated on stage behind a table.

The new optics of those press conferences were not lost on anyone inside or outside the building who understands how the organization works.

Some sources have said, in fact, that there was some hope on the front office/personnel side of having the opportunity to reset with a new coaching staff after the Giants’ 3-14 season. But with Daboll retained, a once mutual marriage now feels more like a forced one.

---

All aTwitter