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ESPN
How Kliff Kingsbury found renewed joy with Washington Commanders
DURING HIS WEEKLY session with reporters on Jan. 2, Kingsbury was asked if he was ready to field all the head coaching questions that were bound to come his way. Kingsbury, who was seated in a chair against the wall, smiled as he started to stand.
“It would take a lot to leave this kid,” he said.
That “kid,” of course, is Daniels.
“He’s meant a lot, obviously, for my development and my growth from the day I stepped foot here to this point now,” Daniels said of Kingsbury. “Just to be able to see and get to learn the type of person Kliff is on and off the field, it’s only helped our relationship grow.”
Kingsbury turned down all coaching interview requests during the Commanders’ playoff run, which ended Sunday. On Tuesday, a team source confirmed to ESPN that he had elected to stay with the Commanders for another year. With Daniels’ emergence in Year 1, Kingsbury said it will take more than a big offer to make Kingsbury leave Washington.
“I didn’t get into this to be a head coach again,” Kingsbury told ESPN last month. “It’s not about money. It never has been about money. So, that won’t move me at all. It’s just I want to do the best job we can here for those guys and then kind of go from there.”
Quinn was recently in Kingsbury’s shoes, serving as defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys the previous three years, after Atlanta had fired him. He said Kingsbury has earned the right to be choosy.
“Nothing can replace the joy that you have of where you’re at,” Quinn said.
“Jayden is an incredible player, and he’s absolute a blast to coach [with] his confidence, humility, playmaking ability. This train ain’t slowing down. If you feel like you have to force it, then you’re probably not making the right choice.”
Regardless of what happens next, the path Kingsbury has traveled over the past two years has helped reshape his future.
“That’s why he’s in such a good place,” Klint Kingsbury said. “He’s figured out why he does it and what’s important.”
Commanders.com
Commanders receive No. 29 pick in 2025 NFL Draft
Washington holds the 29th overall pick for the third time in franchise history and the first since 1962. At that point in the NFL’s history, the No. 29 overall pick came in the third round. The team selected Penn State linebacker Bob Mitinger with that pick, although he ended up playing in the AFL with the San Diego Chargers, who drafted him in the fifth round of their league’s draft.
Washington currently has seven picks in this year’s draft:
- Round 1
- Round 2
- Round 3 (from PHI)
- Round 5 (from NO)
- Round 7
- Round 7 (from PHI)
- Round 7 (from PHI)
Bullock’s Film Room (subscription)
State of the Roster: Commanders Offense
Breaking down where things stand with the Commanders offense heading into the offseason
Running back
On the roster: Brian Robinson, Austin Ekeler
Free agents: Jeremy McNichols, Chris Rodriguez
Cut candidates: Austin Ekeler ($1.5m dead cap, $3.46m saved), Brian Robinson ($212k dead cap, $3.3m saved)
Analysis: Calling either Robinson or Ekeler cut candidates is probably a bit extreme. I think at least one if not probably both will be back next year. But just looking at the contract situation, both can save the team over $3m in cap space if they were to be cut with minimal dead cap hits. Saquon Barkley showed this season the value of a great running back, but there’s only a few of those guys around. Anyone less than great is replaceable at a cheaper rookie contract rate. Robinson and Ekeler are both good running backs, but neither are in that great category.
That being said, I’m not sure running back will be a priority position for the Commanders this offseason. I think we saw Brian Robinson can be successful in this system early in the year, but the Commanders struggled to execute blocks up front down the stretch and that slowed Robinson down. He’s not going to be a Barkley type that can break through four tackles and then explode down the field for a 60-yard touchdown, almost nobody is. But he was very valuable to their early season success.
His ability to break through the first tackle and fight back to the line, or fall forward and turn a two-yard run into a four-yard run was big in keeping that extremely efficient offense ahead of the chains at the start of the season. The fumbles against the Eagles certainly didn’t help, but I think Robinson is a good back that can do the job if they improve the offensive line, which will be a priority anyway.
Ekeler is a different situation. He made some key plays as both a runner and receiver and the Commanders offense always looked more of a threat with him on the field compared to him on the sidelines. But he is 29 and will be 30 in May. He’s had a lot of hits over the years and spoke during the season after he suffered a concussion that his wife wanted him to stop playing football because of the repeated concussions. So he may well have a retirement decision to make that could take this decision out of the Commanders hands. I’m sure his veteran presence and playmaking ability would be valued by the coaching staff, but they might prefer someone a bit young with a bit more explosiveness in that role.
Both Jeremy McNichols and Chris Rodriguez are free agents this offseason. I never would have thought McNichols would have played as big of a role as he did this year, but he did a very good job, especially in pass protection. At 29, McNichols is another veteran that the Commanders might want to move on and get younger, but if Ekeler retires or is cut, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Commanders try to bring McNichols back. He’s unlikely to be all that expensive and a reliable pass protector at running back that has experience in this system and trust with Jayden Daniels has value. I doubt it will be a priority for them and if Ekeler stays for another season I could easily see them moving on from McNichols, knowing he’d likely be available to them in training camp or at the start of the season if they were to suffer an injury and need another back.
Chris Rodriguez is an interesting one. He’s much younger at 24 and has far less wear on his body. Given how effusive Dan Quinn was with Rodriguez at times this season, I would think they’d like to have him back. Quinn praised his work ethic to battle through being a back up that got cut and then called up from the practice squad and still showed development and production when he saw the field. He’s a much more natural zone runner than Brian Robinson, so if the Commanders opt to lean more into zone running schemes, he’d be a good fit. But while he offers some thump, he doesn’t have the explosiveness that the Commanders are likely looking for in a second option to pair with Robinson. So like McNichols, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was brought back on a cheap deal but I could just as easily see them moving on from him.
Overall the running back position is in a bit of a weird spot. Robinson and Ekeler are likely a good enough one-two punch if the offensive line improves the way it should this offseason. But neither are going to put the team over the top. To find the guy that can would likely require a high draft pick, which is of course possible but the Commanders have so many other needs that they might have to be content with the state of their current running back position and focus those resources elsewhere. I think the likelihood here is that Robinson and Ekeler are both back (assuming Ekeler doesn’t retire) and the Commanders look to add a third or fourth running back on the third day of the draft to develop behind them.
Level of need: Low/Medium
Sports Illustrated
Commanders’ Jayden Daniels, Terry McLaurin opt out of Pro Bowl Games
The Washington Commanders won’t have their top two stars at the Pro Bowl Games.
“Commanders WR Terry McLaurin will not participate in the 2025 Pro Bowl games,” The Athletic insider Ben Standig tweeted.
“The Seahawks announced that WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba would be a replacement, citing a McLaurin “injury.”
“I asked about the injury. No specifics were provided other than basic wear and tear. Minor.
Standig is also reporting that Jayden Daniels won’t be traveling to Orlando.
“Jayden Daniels will also skip the 2025 Pro Bowls games. Like Terry McLaurin, there is no specific injury I’m told, but wear and tear from a long season,” Standig tweeted.
“Baker Mayfield replaces Daniels.”
Commanders.com
Five takeaways from Dan Quinn, Adam Peters’ end-of-season press conference
Evaluations for next season
Peters said the team is still going through the “sting” of losing in the NFC Championship, but he’s “really thankful” for the players and how much work they put into the season. However, they can’t spend much time pondering over the loss because they need to start working on next season’s roster.
“And now, once we turn that page, we’ll meet with the coaches and really discuss where we want to go next,” Peters said. “And our scouts have been working their tails off on the draft and free agency.”
Peters and the Commanders have several decisions to make heading into the offseason. Almost two dozen of their players, including Dyami Brown, Bobby Wagner and Zach Ertz, are set to hit free agency. Fortunately, the Commanders have the third most projected available cap space, but they also need to strengthen their roster at positions like cornerback, edge rusher and wide receiver.
There are also seven draft picks to consider. The Commanders’ loss locks them into the No. 29 overall, but they also have picks in the second, third, fifth and seventh rounds. Peters will need to repeat his success in putting together last year’s class, which included Daniels, cornerback Mike Sainristil, defensive tackle Johnny Newton and wide receiver Luke McCaffrey.
Peters said the Commanders will approach the offseason by starting from the bottom.
“I know it’s a boring answer, but…we’re going to look at every single day as getting better each day and doing what’s best for the team and trying to get back up.”
Riggo’s Rag
Dyami Brown casts doubt over Commanders future before 2025 free agency
Things ended sourly for Brown after a costly fumble in the NFC Championship game, eventually finishing with three receptions from five targets for 42 receiving yards at the Philadelphia Eagles. The Commanders now have a big decision to make regarding his future and that of several others looking for new deals.
Adam Peters has a plan in place to take the Commanders forward. This project is way ahead of schedule and Washington is an attractive football destination for the first time in decades. The general manager won’t hesitate to implement more changes to build additional momentum in 2025.
Commanders WR Dyami Brown keeping options open before free agency
What the means for Brown’s future is anyone’s guess. The former third-round pick cast doubt over his future with the franchise. He stated it was a wait-and-see scenario and didn’t sound too bullish one way or another. The North Carolina product was more interested in showing appreciation to teammates and coaches who helped him along the way.
“I’m just taking this moment right here to show my gratitude. To each and every person that’s been here along this journey. If I’m back here again, open arms. Wherever else I’m at, I’ll continue to build on what’s happening. It wouldn’t be a problem staying. But you know, at the end of the day it’s still a business. So we’ll see.”
Dyami Brown
It seemed that Brown would be made surplus to requirements this offseason. Things are still hanging in the balance, but the player’s chances of another contract improved exponentially as the campaign got to the business end.
Much will depend on the money involved. Peters will have a price in mind and won’t overpay to keep Brown on the books. His physical upside suggests interest will arrive in free agency, perhaps with a more important role to further sweeten the pot.
The Athletic (paywall)
Kliff Kingsbury to remain with Commanders, Mike McCarthy out for Saints’ head-coaching vacancy: Reports
Kliff Kingsbury will remain the Washington Commanders’ offensive coordinator despite interest from the New Orleans Saints and other teams during this head-coaching cycle, according to multiple reports. Former Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy also will not be the Saints’ new head coach this season, according to multiple reports.
Kingsbury staying in Washington isn’t a surprise for the NFC conference runner-ups but is another point of frustration for the lone team with a head coach opening. The Saints and Chicago Bears requested an interview with Kingsbury at the start of the hiring cycle. Chicago eventually landed former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, but New Orleans’ search continues.
McCarthy and the Cowboys ended negotiations for a contract extension after the season. Speculation had McCarthy potentially in the mix with the Saints and Bears, but he had yet to interview with New Orleans.
Three candidates are known to have interviewed twice with the NFC South organization, including potential front-runner and Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
The Saints announced the second meeting with Moore on Tuesday after team officials reportedly flew to Philadelphia for an in-person interview. Reports on Kingsbury’s and McCarthy’s withdrawals came later in the day. Choosing Moore would mean waiting to finalize a deal until after the Super Bowl.
Podcasts & videos
Talking about Kingsbury staying and what it means. Link: https://t.co/nib6BQbcY6
— John Keim (@john_keim) January 29, 2025
Episode 995 – Analysis of Adam Peters’, Dan Quinn’s & Commanders’ players’ end-of-season media sessions on Monday.
– JD5 on fans: “We’ve awoken a sleeping giant”
– Zach Ertz’s resurgent season
– AP on Marshon Lattimore
– FA preview
– lots on big picture https://t.co/13wXZHGo7i— Al Galdi (@AlGaldi) January 28, 2025
It was a Vibe Check Tuesday, so @CraigHoffman looked at the vibe of the Commanders’ rookie class: https://t.co/SAw7w1VDlU pic.twitter.com/X8W1ytYO7d
— The Team 980 (@team980) January 29, 2025
NFC East links
Blogging the Boys
Former Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy to focus on 2026 cycle, will not coach this season
Mike McCarthy is sitting out the 2025 season.
Mike McCarthy left the Cowboys on some, um, interesting terms, and since he has he has been on the look for a new gig.
It was reported on Tuesday night that he will have to wait until at least 2026. Mike McCarthy is apparently taking the 2025 season off, according to NFL Network.
Blogging the Boys
Hiring Brian Schottenheimer doesn’t feel like maximizing the chance to win with Dak Prescott
If limiting turnovers and reinvigorating the run game were two of these things, the Cowboys already dabbled in both and have nobody to blame but themselves for falling short on these goals in 2024. The absolute main story of the NFL playoffs that have forged on without the Cowboys even being a thought for the first time in three years has been turnovers, with every winning team except the Chiefs in the AFC Championship winning the margin here.
The rival Commanders, with former DC Quinn as their head coach, scored the upset of the entire playoffs so far by beating the Lions in Detroit thanks to four turnovers, two of which they scored touchdowns off of to win by 14. Instead of actually backing up their talk on the field, the Cowboys are appearing content with merely talking a big game about how turnovers plagued them, while wasting yet another season (albeit a partial one) of Prescott setting him up to fail with an inexperienced offensive line, inadequate receivers, and regressed play-calling. Doing so in just the first season where Prescott was the highest paid QB in the league, and now aligning the rest of his contract with the OC that was a part of the last two seasons, makes it an understandably hard sell that this team is going to be in real contention anytime soon.
The other element that may potentially make Schottenheimer a perceived upgrade to McCarthy is his desire to establish a strong running game. Just like turnovers though, this was yet another area the Cowboys already talked a big game but did so after digging their own hole. Dallas notoriously passed on even courting Derick Henry to join a backfield that was barren after Tony Pollard left, and went into the season with only Ezekiel Elliott as a fresh face alongside Rico Dowdle.
McCarthy played the cards he was dealt and tried to establish both Elliott and Dowdle at times early in the season, hardly finding any creative ways to get either the ball. Things only improved once Dowdle was named the lead back and allowed to do what he does best running between the tackles consistently. If the Cowboys want to sell that Schottenheimer will help move the run game forward, with the team in tantalizing position to potentially use another top pick on Boise State running back phenom Ashton Jeanty, they will first have to admit to all the ways they passed on doing this very thing in year one of the “all in” approach after Prescott was paid.
At every turn, the rest of the league is proving with painful obviousness how behind the Cowboys are and how their ongoing decisions are not conducive to winning. They are either a step behind or too far ahead of themselves constantly, something also highlighted by the way quarterbacks making plays with their legs this postseason has been a revelation that feels very much like a thing of the past for Prescott.
Discussion topics
Washington Post (paywall)
Ranking the NFL’s newest coaches in this underwhelming hiring cycle
The Patriots and Bears seem to have done well by hiring Mike Vrabel and Ben Johnson. The Cowboys? Not so much.
This always looked like a bad year to be in the market for a new NFL coach. And after a series of bizarre events, meandering searches and unexpected hires, it’s fair to wonder how many of the six teams that have hired new coaches actually made an upgrade — and whether their owners will be patient enough for it to matter.
These teams should have been forewarned; many experienced executives who surveilled the field of likely — and even not-so-likely — potential candidates had opined that years of extreme churn had left the market relatively barren. Things would be even trickier if owners insisted on prizing one particular sort of candidate — say, younger quarterback-coach types with a link to Los Angeles Rams Coach Sean McVay. Turns out that archetype was, in fact, still en vogue, and the shortage of even quasi-qualified candidates from that lineage led owners to expose themselves throughout the month.
It struck many in and around the NFL as odd that Bill Belichick apparently met nothing but closed doors yet 73-year-old Pete Carroll popped up from a year seemingly spent underground, at least from a football perspective, and immediately found work — with Tom Brady of all people. Similarly, perpetually climbing 30-something Liam Coen convinced Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan to blow up his front office while scouting college all-star games, just for the chance to possibly secure his services.
Here’s how some general managers and executives sized up this hiring cycle, in rough order of most likely to least likely to work.
Jacksonville Jaguars (Liam Coen)
Coen’s ambition is being viewed by some as a bit too blind, and a possible red flag. That it took the franchise this long to finally fire general manager Trent Baalke — whom Coen and other candidates had no intention of working with — speaks volumes about Khan’s deficiencies as an owner. The hiring process was laughed at in other corridors.
“He was going to hire [former Jets coach Robert] Saleh if Coen didn’t take it,” the first GM said. “How crazy is that?” Just because Coen learned from McVay doesn’t mean he can lead 53 men. Oh, it’s also his sixth different job in the past six years, and he has never stayed anywhere for more than three seasons in his 15-year coaching career. “You know I’m old school,” said one longtime executive who has hired many head coaches, “but he can’t stay anywhere for more than one year, man. That’s a bad sign.”
Dallas Cowboys (Brian Schottenheimer)
Jerry Jones basically eschewing a search and just giving the job to out-of-demand offensive coordinator Schottenheimer is, in many ways, a quintessential move for the GM/owner. “He’s telling you he doesn’t value the head coaching position,” the first GM said. “It doesn’t really matter to him. He doesn’t want to pay a coach because he doesn’t want the coach to have any voice or any power. Jerry is in charge, and he’s going to do whatever he wants, picking the players and doing the contracts.”
Jones couldn’t even release a coherent public statement explaining the hire. “Jerry punted on hiring a coach,” the executive said. “He never thought he was losing McCarthy in the first place.”