NFL News

[wcfwtf]

Nice to be a Billionaire

[whatever_gong82]

Nice to be a Billionaire

And be able to spend money like a drunken man in a strip club, and not even feel it in your bank account.

[ghandi]

Money well spent.

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IT just shows that teams need to be more careful with whom they hire....Most people questioned both hires, especially giving Gruden 100M when he hadnt coached in years.....Then hiring an arm chair GM as their real GM....Same with McDaniel hire...he was a total disaster in Denver.....and they just watched Matt Patricia and Bob Quinn destroy the Lions with the "Patriots way"......It shows that Mark Davis has a long ways to go

[jaadam4]

But it’s the Raiders. Those were all the perfect hires. Especially the arm chair GM. Sooooo many head scratching picks

[froot loops]

Mark Davis isn't that rich, he's probably the poorest owner in the NFL. The money he has to pay those guys isn't helping him.

[Tom]

He saves a lot of money on haircuts…

[Iron Lion]

Why do they have to pay Gruden? Thought he quit.

[chemiclord]

Why do they have to pay Gruden? Thought he quit.

As I understand, it was less Gruden resigned and more that he and the Raiders reached an agreement for him to resign.

[Mainevent]

Yeah, he didn’t get all of the money from that $100M but he got most of it.

[whatever_gong82]

Missed picks, bad deals: How the Commanders failed at roster-building


(From this article from the Washington Post, it seems like our old 'friend' Martin Mayhew is still whiffing on building a team.
Can't say that I'm surprised that he's mediocre. whatever_gong82)

By Nicki Jhabvala

Ron Rivera and the Washington Commanders.jpg

When Washington selected Chase Young with the second pick in the 2020 draft, Coach Ron Rivera and the team’s personnel staff, then led by Kyle Smith, believed he was the right guy for what the team needed at the time. They had a young, developing quarterback in Dwayne Haskins, and Young was regarded by most analysts to be the best overall player in his class.



“It’d have been very hard to convince me that somebody else would be as impactful as the guy we drafted,” Rivera said at the time.

Young was a Pro Bowler and the NFL’s defensive rookie of the year in 2020, but missed 23 games over the next three seasons because of injuries. When he was healthy, his impact was notable but inconsistent, and Washington’s starting line of four former first-round picks failed to meet expectations. Washington traded him to the San Francisco 49ers for a compensatory third-round pick Tuesday, with Young still months from finishing his rookie deal.



“Everything’s a possibility,” defensive line coach Jeff Zgonina said Friday. “Every time you step out of your car, you can be fired in this business. There’s only one person safe in this building. That’s the guy that owns the team, or the owners of this team.”



The problem has been that too many of Washington’s “possibilities” have ended in disappointment. When Ron Rivera took over as coach with control over personnel in 2020, his attempts to fix the flawed roster he inherited have resulted in modest successes getting undermined by glaring misses in the draft, free agency and trade market. With Rivera coaching in the fourth year of a five-year contract, the Commanders continue to pay for those problems, literally and figuratively.

The offensive line has undergone multiple iterations, the defensive line failed to meet expectations, the linebacking corps is still problematic and the secondary is often a liability.



It’s enough to obscure what has worked out. The team selected safety Kamren Curl in the seventh round in 2020, and he’s now a staple of the defense. So are cornerback Benjamin St-Juste and safety Darrick Forrest, third- and fifth-round picks, respectively, in 2021, who impressed in relief roles and prompted the Commanders to find ways to get them more snaps.


And last year, one of the more savvy decisions of the Commanders was trading back in the first round of the draft to select receiver Jahan Dotson and use the extra picks to grab running back Brian Robinson Jr. (third round), quarterback Sam Howell (fifth) and tight end Cole Turner (fifth).

“Four young guys that we think can be part of what we're doing going forward,” Rivera said in January. “Those are the kinds of things that we want to be able to get better at and continue to find that kind of talent. Because one of the things that when Martin [Mayhew] and Marty [Hurney] came in, we talked about was roster-building as much as we can through the draft and putting those pieces into place.”


But the problem is that when Washington manages to find pieces that fit, too many holes remain.


The early rebuild



Go back to 2020, when Washington ended a tenuous situation with left tackle Trent Williams by trading him to the 49ers during the draft. That netted the team a 2020 fifth-round pick and a 2021 third-round pick, which was used on center Keith Ismael and St-Juste, respectively. Ismael was released from injured reserve with a settlement before his third season. St-Juste later became the eventual replacement for one of the team’s biggest misses.

But first, issues up front continued to pile up.

Washington paid guard Brandon Scherff roughly $33 million on consecutive franchise tags for 24 total games from 2020-21. The team would’ve had trouble paying him a long-term deal after that, so he left for Jacksonville as a free agent in 2022 — a second Pro Bowl lineman, gone.



All the while, Washington tried to add speed and talent to its defense, only to create more issues.

In March 2021, Washington signed cornerback William Jackson III to a three-year contract worth $40.5 million. Jackson played well in Cincinnati’s man-heavy scheme, but he was a poor fit in Washington’s system. So Washington traded him to Pittsburgh for a future conditional seventh-round pick swap before the deadline last year.



The team is still feeling the ripple effects.

Jackson’s contract is the largest Washington has given a free agent over the past four years, and the team ultimately paid him around $24 million. Of that, $9 million is on this year’s books as “dead money,” or money that was already paid and counts against the salary cap. For context, Jackson’s cap hit this year is larger than that of defensive tackle Daron Payne ($8.61 million), who signed a four-year, $90 million contract in March.


Jackson is not currently on anyone’s active roster.

To address Washington’s woes at linebacker — a position that has struggled despite having a coaching staff with three former NFL linebackers in Rivera, Del Rio and linebackers coach Steve Russ — the team selected Jamin Davis in the first round of the 2021 draft.


A one-year starter at Kentucky, Davis was said by Rivera to be “what you look for in a football player,” with his athleticism and positional flexibility. But Davis struggled in his first two seasons, even prompting Del Rio to call him out publicly for his poor performance. Now, in Year 3, he’s starting to come into his own.

“… I mean, the young man’s really come a long way,” Rivera said last month. “He’s done some really good things for us, and we’re pretty excited about who he’s become.”



The Commanders hoped to get more out of their 2021 draft class, however.



The team selected defensive ends William Bradley-King and Shaka Toney in the seventh round, looking to develop them into key depth players up front. But neither developed into much of anything. Bradley-King is no longer on the roster, and Toney is suspended indefinitely for betting on NFL games.



Washington also drafted receiver Dax Milne in the seventh round that year, with hopes he’d become a viable returner. He was reliable, no doubt. But the team opted to turn to Milne and move on from DeAndre Carter, one of their best returners in years, instead of paying Carter a minimal one-year contract, which the Los Angeles Chargers did in free agency.

Milne is on injured reserve now, and his replacement is Jamison Crowder, a 30-year-old and former Washington draft pick who has so far been one of the team’s most promising acquisitions this season. His 61-yard punt return against the Atlanta Falcons was the franchise’s longest return since … his 89-yard return in 2016.


continued..

[whatever_gong82]

Recent misses


The compounding of problems has been especially noticeable up front.


To replace Scherff and Ereck Flowers at guard last year, the team signed older veterans Trai Turner and Andrew Norwell, who previously played for Rivera in Carolina. The result? Turner was benched in Week 4 last season, and Norwell had well-documented struggles.

The two lasted only the season together before Washington looked to shuffle the O-line again.

It’s also been an issue at quarterback, where Rivera inherited a roster with the late Haskins and benched him twice amid a cycle of eight different starters.


The most glaring whiff there: Carson Wentz, whom Washington traded multiple picks to acquire from Indianapolis and paid his full salary for 2022. Wentz suffered a finger injury in Week 6 and was replaced by Taylor Heinicke for a stretch — until Rivera decided to bench Heinicke and give Wentz one more chance. The Commanders lost spectacularly to the Browns, ending all hope of a playoff run.



The hope now is that Howell can finally turn into the guy the team has been searching for at quarterback. But it doesn’t erase the fact that, over the past four years, Washington has struck out with a first-round rookie, veterans acquired by trade (Kyle Allen and Wentz) and an undrafted free agent (Heinicke) at quarterback.



Yet, the more recent decisions are among the most perplexing ones.



The Commanders selected corner Emmanuel Forbes in the first round of the draft, believing his 165-pound frame wouldn’t be an issue at the pro level. For the most part, it hasn’t been; the overall play has been the problem.

The team benched Forbes in Week 5, after he allowed a string of big completions in coverage to Eagles receiver A.J. Brown and Bears wideout D.J. Moore. Forbes has played sparingly in a reserve role since, but issues have cropped up — such as when he allowed three big completions to Brown again in Week 8. Forbes played only five defensive snaps in that loss to Philadelphia.



“It’s about trying to find that balance of you get to a certain situation and say, ‘You know what, let’s sit him for a while. Let’s let him grow,’” Rivera said. “I mean, we went through the same thing with Jamin, and look at him now …”

Forbes wasn’t the only player to be benched this year, however. Washington pulled center Nick Gates, whom it signed to a three-year, $16.5 million contract in the offseason, because he allowed five sacks in seven games.



The team moved on from center Chase Roullier after he suffered consecutive season-ending injuries and drafted Ricky Stromberg in the third round. But Stromberg was supposed to learn behind Gates. Stromberg is now recovering from a knee injury he suffered during an extra-point attempt against the Eagles.

The Commanders also drafted tackle Braeden Daniels in the fourth round to add depth to the end of the line, but he was viewed as a raw player by many analysts before the draft and proved to be just that when he arrived in Washington. He was placed on injured reserve before the start of the season and won’t see a snap as a rookie.



So, in a year when Washington desperately needed offensive line help — still — its two rookie additions are essentially washes, and one of its top free agent signings is on the bench.

Meanwhile, Washington’s rookie class has yet to provide consistent contributions.



Consider that five of the team’s eight picks in 2020 have had considerable starting time since entering the league, be it as true starters or fill-ins.

Five of the team’s 10 picks in 2021 became starters, too. And in 2022, two of the eight picks (Dotson and Robinson) became immediate starters while two others (Howell and safety Percy Butler) have been elevated into those roles, by performance or injury.



This year’s class, however, doesn’t include a single current starter. Forbes is still listed as the No. 1 corner on the team’s depth chart, but he has not regained his lead job over Danny Johnson.

“We have some questions that we’d like to get answered about the particular play, but he’s working at it,” Rivera said of Forbes on Monday. “He’s getting better, and he’s just got to continue to work.”



The five other drafted rookies on the active roster have played a total of 63 offensive and defensive snaps, according to TruMedia.

Quan Martin, a safety/nickelback taken in the second round, has played only 15 defensive snaps. Defensive end Andre Jones has played all of five defensive snaps. And fellow end K.J. Henry, whom the team traded up to select at 137th overall in the fifth round, hasn’t played a single one.



That’s likely to change, as the Commanders move on without their star defensive ends. But if the trade of Young reminded of anything, it’s that “there are no guarantees,” as defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio said Thursday.

“I’m certain of one thing, and that is when that pick was selected back then, nobody envisioned that it would go the way it has in terms of missed time to injuries and whatever, then ultimately ended up being traded,” Del Rio added of Young. “Not exactly what we all kind of were anticipating.”



Nicki Jhabvala joined The Washington Post in July 2020 after spending six years covering the Denver Broncos, first for the Denver Post (2014-2018) and later the Athletic (2018-2020). She has also been an editor and producer for the New York Times, Sports on Earth and Sports Illustrated. https://twitter.com/@NickiJhabvala

[ghandi]

I think most of us are surprised Mayhew ever got a lead GM job again

[whatever_gong82]

I think most of us are surprised Mayhew ever got a lead GM job again

Yep, and to hear from the Washington fans on the Post discussion thread is kind of like eating popcorn: Not so filling, but fun all the same.

I've hated that franchise since the Joe Gibbs days 4 decades ago, when we could never beat his teams regardless of our record or theirs, so to see them be mediocre or worse makes me happy.

[mason reese]

If Rivera has control over personnel, what are the responsibility of the GM?

[edindetroit]

He saves a lot of money on haircuts…

Captain Kangaroo

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