Daily Slop – 19 Feb 25 – NFL Draft, Day 2 running backs: Omarion Hampton, Kaleb Johnson, TreVeyon Henderson

A collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders

Commanders links

Articles

The Athletic (paywall)

Commanders salary-cap analysis: Where key decisions exist this offseason

Harris wouldn’t state how that understanding “translates to aggressiveness and free agency.” Daniels is arguably the NFC’s top quarterback, and the conference power rankings are unsettled after the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Those are additional reasons to drop the green flag on spending, even if Peters keeps the future in mind. Washington’s primary needs include offensive tackle, defensive end and wide receiver, and depth everywhere.

Let’s get a feel for what may transpire by looking at those Washington contracts where savings are available. All 2025 salary-cap space [and] savings are via Over the Cap or Spotrac.

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Bullock’s Film Room (subscription)

Should the Commanders trade for Cooper Kupp?

Evaluating all aspects of a potential deal for Rams WR Cooper Kupp

Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp announced on social media that the Rams have informed him of their intent to trade him this offseason. There were rumors at the trade deadline that the Rams were open to trading Kupp then, and were even willing to take on some of his salary to facilitate a trade, but ultimately couldn’t find a trade partner. But now it’s the offseason, a deal could make more sense for a variety of teams. Should the Washington Commanders be one of those teams? Let’s take a closer look.

On the surface, Kupp doesn’t look like a great option to give up draft capital for. He’ll be 32 before the start of the season and has missed a lot of time through various injuries over the past three seasons. He had his career year in 2021, where he won the triple crown for most receptions (145), yards (1947) and touchdowns (16), but since then he hasn’t been able to play a full season. He played just 9 games in 2022 and 12 games in both 2023 and 2024. So trading for a receiver on the wrong side of 30 that has missed 18 games over the last three years feels like a bad move.

However, despite missing all those games, Kupp has still been very productive. Over the past three seasons, Kupp has averaged 67 catches for 753 yards and 5.6 touchdowns per season, despite missing an average of six games a year over that time. That average would have been the Commanders second best receiver by a significant margin this year. While he might not be the receiver he was back in 2021, watching his film from last season shows he’s still a very productive receiver. The Commanders would obviously have to be comfortable with his medical history, but I think he ticks a lot of boxes for what they are looking for at receiver.

The first thing that stands out when watching Kupp is how he is still the go-to guy in key situations. He’s always been a good route runner but he now has great experience and a wealth of knowledge to understand the small details required for getting open and making himself available in key spots.

Kupp was always a key target on third downs because of the skills demonstrated in the clip above. He’s a smart and efficient route runner, has great hands and can use his frame to box out defenders and protect the ball. Those types of skills endear him to the quarterback quickly and build a lot of trust. It’s not just on third down either. His veteran savviness shows up in a variety of situations.

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Commanders.com

Commanders 2024 position review | Quarterback

— Mariota didn’t start a game for the Commanders but contributed when called up and proved he can still be a quality NFL quarterback. He completed 77.3% of his passes — a career-high for the 10-year veteran — and posted the second-best QBR of his career. He also secured the 12th fourth-quarter comeback and 15th game-winning drive last season when he led the Commanders to a win over the Dallas Cowboys.

Questions to answer

— What’s the next step for Daniels? He’ll need to use that poise, preparation and work ethic that impressed his teammates to fine-tune some aspects of his skill set like staying in the pocket a tick longer to give plays more time to develop downfield. Based on how he approached his preparations for his rookie season, Daniels is likely already working to improve and help the Commanders get to another conference championship — and win it next time.

— Do the Commanders re-sign Mariota? The 2015 No. 2 overall pick was one of the many free agents Washington signed last offseason and proved to be an asset in the quarterback room, despite only playing in three games. Mariota provided mentorship to Daniels last season, and the rookie often spoke about how important their relationship was to him. Mariota also played well in his three games and directed the Commanders to wins over the Carolina Panthers and Cowboys. That’s going to generate some interest around the league for Mariota, meaning Washington could face some competition in bringing him back. Mariota praised his time in Washington, but if other teams show interest in him, he’ll have to consider every option.

Free agency

Click HERE to see all the players the Commanders could pursue in free agency with their available cap space.

Draft

Click HERE to see Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr.’s Big Board of draft prospects.

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Commanders.com

Commanders hire Brian Schneider and Jesse Madden

The Washington Commanders announced today that Brian Schneider has been named the team’s new assistant special teams coordinator. Schneider takes over for John Glenn who served as the team’s assistant special teams coordinator during the 2024-25 season. Jesse Madden has been added to the coaching staff as an offensive quality control coach. Madden joins the team following his graduation from the University of Michigan.

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The Athletic (paywall)

NFL 50 under 40: Young coaches ascending, along with other league difference-makers

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Podcasts & videos

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JUICY Commanders Draft Rumors From Joel Klatt & Field Yates | Top Left Tackle FALLS To Washington!

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NFC East links

Bleeding Green Nation

Eagles release Nick Gates

The Philadelphia Eagles released offensive lineman Nick Gates on Tuesday afternoon, according to an official team announcement.

Gates, 29, was set to be an unrestricted free agent on March 12. It’s a little surprising that the Eagles didn’t just let his contract expire but perhaps the team is doing a favor to Gates and his agent by giving them more time to potentially catch on with a new team.

Gates really only played in garbage time prior to making a Week 18 start against the New York Giants (one of his former teams) when the Eagles were resting their starters. The Eagles placed Gates on injured reserve to open up a roster spot for activating Brandon Graham the day before Super Bowl LIX.

Gates leaves Philly as a Super Bowl champion.

He’s the shirtless guy below, in case you didn’t already know.

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Bleeding Green Nation

NFL free agency will not be fun for the Eagles

No money, mo’ problems

As the high from the Super Bowl starts to fade, a harsh reality is about to set in: the Eagles have several key free agents, and they can’t afford to keep them all. They can’t afford to keep most of them.

The Eagles have just under $14M in effective cap space, currently the 21st lowest (and they’re 27th in 2026 cap space and 32nd in 2027 cap space). The Eagles have basically no avenue create more cap room.

Because they have structured contracts to be extremely bonus heavy, every player not on their rookie contract makes the minimum in salary. This means that they can not convert anyone’s 2025 salary into a bonus to create immediate cap space because no one makes enough in salary to restructure. Nor can they cut or trade anyone to create meaningful cap space, the only player who saves more than $1.5M to move is Cam Jurgens, which isn’t going to happen. The only on paper option available to the Eagles to create significant cap space would be to restructure the contract of Jalen Hurts to lower the salary cap hit of his option bonus.

So get ready for the Eagles to lose some players they would like to keep. At least they go out as Super Bowl winners.

Eagles Unrestricted Free Agents, in order of snaps played:

• Zack Baun
• Mekhi Becton
• Josh Sweat
• Milton Williams
• Avonte Maddox
• Brandon Graham
• Kenneth Gainwell
• Oren Burks

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Blogging the Boys

Jeffrey Lurie sets the example that Jerry Jones should be following

Jerry Jones could not be farther away from the way an NFL owner should act if they care about winning.

Jerry Jones could learn a lot from Jeffrey Lurie

Maybe you care about the Cowboys being the most valuable professional sports franchise in the world. Around 10 years ago it was a cool thing to say and a weird point of pride. Obviously that has gotten old as the franchise has continued to falter.

Bragging about the financial value of the team is sort of bragging about team ownership and that is something that sports fans rarely do; however, Eagles fans have every reason to brag about their ownership because Jeffrey Lurie seems to understand what they want.

Consider that Lurie bought the Eagles just five years after Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys. Comparing which owner is more successful seems like a waste of time, but consider that the latter now only has one more title than the former.

Albert Breer had a great piece about Lurie and his ownership of the Eagles relative to the success that they have had over the last decade. One part stood out where Lurie discussed finding financial liberty to keep the team competitive on an annual basis.

“My philosophy is …” Lurie said, pausing for a second to consider the question. “You’re obviously trying to run a sound business, but I think success is determined by your success on the field and your success in the community. And so anything you can do to maximize those two, the value of the team is going to be appreciated more by your performance and your reputation in the community than anything else. It’s not going to be the EBITDA in a certain year, or two or three or four.

“There’s a reason we just sold limited partnerships for the highest price in sports history. It wasn’t based on being the most profitable team at all. It’s based on the performance over time and the reputation in the community and the forecasting of where we hope to be able to sustain over the next multiple years. It’s much more than the financial bottom line. Now I guess you could get criticized by some Wall Street analysts, but we don’t operate that way. We just don’t operate that way.”

Indeed, Lurie sold 8% of the Eagles in December to two family investment groups, with the valuation of the franchise coming back at $8.3 billion. That meant Lurie got $664 million, or roughly three-and-a-half times what he paid for the entire team in 1994, for a small percentage that, as he sees it, will allow him to continue investing back into the team.

That last paragraph is the most important and perhaps the most telling with regards to the future of NFL franchises. The league is so popular and lucrative nowadays that while the worth of them continues to skyrocket, the idea that any one person or level of financial backing could support it all has grown to seem impossible. It is easy to understand how Lurie sold a minority share of the Eagles to generate some liquid cash that could be used to be aggressive relative to the current day team. That makes sense.

Consider that this seems to be a philosophy that even the New York Giants – one of the league’s true Tiffany brands – are looking to sell up to 10% of their team. It is worth noting that the league only began to allow private equity firms to purchase stakes in teams (up to 10% so the Giants piece makes sense) late last year. This is a relatively new sector of the wild west that is these high financial waters.

But Jeffrey Lurie is an example of being at the forefront of that and using it to his advantage in terms of on-the-field successes for the Eagles. Can any one of us imagine a world where Jerry Jones and Co. sell a minority stake in the Cowboys in an effort to generate some cash so that they can be equally aggressive? It sounds to be in the best interest of the team, but it involves adding more people to the mix which runs counter with the way the Cowboys have been run in the Jones era.

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Blogging the Boys

Abnormal year of running back success has brought more heat to the Cowboys approach to free agency

It should surprise no one that the one team who spent less than $20 million in free agency is the Cowboys. In fact, Dallas hasn’t allocated over $50 million to free agency since 2016 when they barely eclipsed it at $53.8 million. And you’d have to go back to 2012 to see them do it again when they spent $84 million in free agency with the most notable expenditure being the Brandon Carr signing.

Many view the Cowboys’ scarce free agent spending as a lack of trying, or some inability to take roster building seriously. But that’s not the case. The Cowboys front office just views free agency as a roster-building pitfall. Stephen Jones has repeatedly said that free agency is not a good way to get a good return on your investment. And he’s right. Statistically, it’s a losing proposition, but that doesn’t stop teams from taking shots each year as they look for those prize purchases.

This perception is something we deal with every year when the Cowboys aren’t players in the free-agent market and they get criticized for it. But this past season, the criticism has come with greater force. A big reason is the success of the free-agent running backs combined with the Cowboys’ struggles in the running game. The team lacked talent in this area while many other teams strengthened their rushing attack with free-agent purchases.

Cowboys fans have complained often about missing out on Bobby Wagner, and he had a great year for the Commanders. Washington shows up quite a bit on the “hit” list for free agents which only frustrates Cowboys fans even more. Every year there are a small number of teams that have more success than others and it just so happens that the Commanders and Eagles have landed some of these good players this past year. People shouldn’t get too caught up in that as it’s not sustainable

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NFL league links

Articles

Pro Football Rumors

Buccaneers, WR Chris Godwin Agree To Delayed Void Date

[T]he Buccaneers have come to an agreement with wide receiver Chris Godwin to move his contract void date, per Greg Auman of FOX Sports. With what’s becoming a popular negotiation strategy, Tampa Bay is following the Vikings early lead this offseason.

Delaying the deadline provides benefits for parties. First, it grants the team more time to communicate and work towards an extension with their pending free agents. Second, it decreases the likelihood that a player will receive a franchise tag, since the deadline to announce the franchised players falls before the void deadline.

With Godwin, his impending void deadline was set to trigger $18MM in dead money against the team’s 2025 salary cap. Instead, the veteran wideout and team will have until the final day of the league year to figure out a new extension and avoid that dead money hit.

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NFL.com

NFL to return to São Paulo, Brazil in Week 1 of 2025 season; Chargers designated team

The National Football League today announced it will return to play a regular-season game in Brazil in 2025, following the success of the inaugural game in 2024.

As part of the 2025 International Games, the Los Angeles Chargers will play as the designated team in São Paulo at Corinthians Arena, home to Brazilian soccer team SC Corinthians, on Friday night of Week 1 of the 2025 regular season.

The Chargers’ opponent, along with kickoff time for the game on Sept. 5, 2025, will be announced when the full 2025 NFL schedule is revealed this spring.

Who should face Chargers in Brazil?

Harbaugh has coached one international game in the NFL so far, a 42-10 pasting of the Jaguars in London when he was running the 49ers back in 2013. In terms of growing the sport, giving the global audience another dose of the coach’s inimitable style can only help — and is there a more entertaining possible foe than Harbaugh’s former prized pupil? J.J. McCarthy remains something of a mystery, thanks to the August knee injury that leveled his rookie season. Presuming he is ready to go by Sept. 5, this will give us — and Minnesota’s decision-makers — a prime chance to see what the 22-year-old quarterback can do on the NFL stage. And it will be fascinating to see how Harbaugh and Jesse Minter go after the G.O.A.T. of college QBs (per Harbaugh) less than two years after they all won a national title together at Michigan. Might the rising QB guru on the opposite sideline, Kevin O’Connell, push McCarthy to his first win against the coach who helped turn him into a top-10 draft pick?

Finally, there’s the added spice provided by this narrative quirk: Harbaugh interviewed for the Vikings job in 2022, and O’Connell ended up with it, while Harbaugh foreswore (temporarily, it turned out) future interest in the NFL — leaving him free to guide McCarthy to collegiate glory. Dramatic potential abounds here.

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Veteran Free Agency – potential salary cap cuts

NFL.com

2025 NFL free agency: Davante Adams, Travis Kelce, Derek Carr, Tyler Lockett among 21 notable cut candidates

Samson Ebukam – Indianapolis Colts · Edge

This is a tough decision for Indy’s front office. Samson Ebukam started all 17 games in 2023 and led the roster with 9.5 sacks. Unfortunately, he tore his Achilles in training camp and missed the entire 2024 season, while 2023 first-rounder Kwity Paye and 2024 first-rounder Laiatu Latu showed promise as the future of the Indy pass rush. Now, the Colts will need to decide whether to hold on to Ebukam entering a contract year with a $10.5 million cap hit. They could part ways for $7.5 million in cap savings or keep him for one more year while Paye and Latu continue to develop.

Braden Smith – Indianapolis Colts · OT

Braden Smith has been a Colt for seven seasons and started 92 of 94 games played since being drafted in 2018. He’s a solid rock on the right side of the offensive line … when he’s healthy. And therein lies the problem. Smith has missed 12 games over the last two seasons and at least five contests in three of the last four campaigns. His $19.8 million cap hit in 2025 is top 10 at his position — a fair price for his services, if he can stay on the field. Indy will just need to decide whether his spotty availability is a concern at that price point, given a bottom-half-of-the-league cap situation and the mountain of work it’ll need to do to compete in the AFC.

John Franklin-Myers – Denver Broncos · DE

The Broncos are right in the middle of the league in cap space and have a promising quarterback (Bo Nix) on his rookie contract, so they’re not in bad shape financially. That said, if they want to make extra room — perhaps to acquire some weaponry for Nix — the first candidate for release would be John Franklin-Myers. Despite appearing in all 17 games (16 starts), Franklin-Myers played just 46 percent of defensive snaps. He still managed seven sacks and 18 QB hits on those snaps, which is a solid production rate, but he carries a $10 million cap hit in 2025 and can be released prior to June 1 for $7 million in savings. It’s not a necessary move by any means, but it’s a possible one, depending on Denver’s priorities.

Marshon Lattimore – Washington Commanders · CB

Marshon Lattimore is a four-time Pro Bowl cornerback … but those four Pro Bowl seasons all came between 2017 and 2021. Since 2022, he’s missed 25 games with a variety of injuries. Washington traded for him at the 2024 deadline, sending a package of picks but only getting two regular-season games and the three playoff contests out of him. And notably, he was awful in the postseason, earning a horrific 29.6 coverage grade from PFF and allowing 10 catches for 172 yards and a 136.6 passer rating on 14 targets. With a release, his entire $18 million cap hit would become savings in 2025, and while the Commanders are in superb shape (projected to be $75 million under the cap), they might rather spend those millions elsewhere as they seek to build around Jayden Daniels and become a lasting powerhouse in the NFC. It would be a bit surprising to trade for a player of Lattimore’s career caliber and then cut him a few months later, but it might make too much sense, given all the variables.

Cameron Jordan – New Orleans Saints · Edge

Outside of a long snapper or two, no player under contract for 2025 has played more seasons on their current team than Cameron Jordan, who is headed for his 15th season in New Orleans. He’s a future Hall of Famer and arguably the current face of the franchise, so it sounds extreme to suggest he will be cut. But he also carries a $20.1 million cap hit, $11 million of which the Saints could translate into savings if they designated him as a post-June 1 release. Plus, unfortunately, he’s 35 years old and on the decline. He logged six total sacks over the last two seasons (34 starts) combined and played just 48 percent of the Saints’ defensive snaps in 2024. For context, Jordan had more than six sacks in each of the previous 11 seasons. If he’s willing to reduce his pay to finish his career in the Bayou, maybe he remains on the roster, but otherwise, it might be time to sunset his tenure with the Saints.

Tyler Lockett – Seattle Seahawks · WR

Seattle is currently projected to be $13.5 million over the cap, the fourth-worst mark in the league. For a five-year stretch (2018 through 2022), Tyler Lockett was one of the most underrated receivers around, but since 2023, the veteran has averaged just 747 yards and four touchdowns per season. With the 2024 breakout of Jaxon Smith-Njigba and the presence of DK Metcalf, it would seem that the 32-year-old Lockett’s declining services are no longer needed … especially given his monster cap figure ($30.9 million) in 2025. The Seahawks would save $17 million by releasing him, and while they’d eat nearly $14 million in dead money, it’s still worth it, considering the cost-to-production valuation at this point in Lockett’s career. I could see him signing elsewhere as a crafty complement to a young stud WR1, but it will likely have to be at a heavily reduced price point.

Noah Fant – Seattle Seahawks · TE

We’re really piling on the Seahawks passing game in this column, but these suggested moves make the most sense for a team in need of financial breathing room. In three seasons since joining Seattle, Noah Fant has just five touchdowns total (with just one the last two seasons) and has maxed out at 50 receptions (2022) and 500 yards (2024). While those aren’t awful numbers for a low-cost starter or a TE2, they aren’t nearly good enough to justify Fant’s $13.4 million cap hit in 2025. Seattle can save $8.9 million by cutting the 27-year-old tight end, and I can’t really see them passing up on those savings to keep a player who has not fulfilled the potential that made him a first-round pick by the Broncos in 2019. Fant could get another job elsewhere on a much lower salary, but I don’t expect he’ll be in Action Green next season.

Darius Slay – Philadelphia Eagles · CB

The Super Bowl-champion Eagles are in the bottom half of the league in cap space and don’t have great options when it comes to pre-June 1 releases. That means their best bets for saving will be to designate at least one post-June 1 cut, and arguably the most viable options would be James Bradberry IV or Darius Slay Jr. Designating either cornerback as such would result in cap savings of $4 million to $5 million, and it could be argued both were made more “expendable” by the play of rookies Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean in 2024.

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All aTwitter

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