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Bullock’s Film Room (subscription)

Where does WR Luke McCaffrey stand entering his second year?

[L]et’s start our review of McCaffrey by looking at what he did well at the start of the season, when he had a few games with multiple catches.

Here against the Cardinals, McCaffrey lines up as the point man in a bunch set to the right. The Commanders run a Bow concept, which consists of a basic cross over the middle, a flat route and then a third receiver spotting up in between the other two. McCaffrey runs the basic cross here and the idea is to try and create a high-low read, where if a zone defender attaches to the spot route underneath, McCaffrey can break open behind him but if the defender sinks back to McCaffrey, the spot route will be open. However, the Cardinals play man coverage rather than zone, with McCaffrey matched up on safety Jalen Thompson.

McCaffrey runs a nice route, closing up the gap between himself and the defender quickly and then selling a little fake to the outside before making his cut. He really makes a point of stepping on the defenders toes as he gets close, which helps him sell the fake to the outside even more. The defender reacts to that fake, which enables McCaffrey to separate as he breaks over the middle. Jayden Daniels initially works to his left off the snap but comes back to the right side when he doesn’t like what he sees. McCaffrey’s route is the first one that comes into his vision as he progresses to the right side and he immediately pulls the trigger. From the end zone replay angle, we can see McCaffrey does a nice job reaching out and making a good hands catch away from his body. It’s a sneaky tough catch because McCaffrey is at full extension while running at full speed and the ball is slightly high with a lot of heat on it. But he secures the pass and picks up the first down before the safety makes the tackle.

Working across the middle of the field can be daunting for some receivers because you never quite know where that safety is that could land a big hit. But McCaffrey did show he has no fear in being targeted over the middle and will happily make a catch in traffic.

That play seemed to indicate that McCaffrey was developing a good rapport with Jayden Daniels and was ready to take a step up in terms of role and importance within the offense. However, that step up never materialized as the season progressed. What did materialize was how unlucky McCaffrey was throughout stretches of his rookie season.

This clip shows a few examples of the missed opportunities that the Commanders had with McCaffrey in his rookie season. The first play of the clip comes against the Steelers in Week 10. McCaffrey lines up in the slot to the left with the Commanders backed up near their own goal line. McCaffrey runs a deep over route and immediately burns the slot corner off the snap. He gives one jab step outside at the snap before releasing inside and runs right by the defender. He has two full yards of separation by the time Daniels makes the throw, but unfortunately the pass from Daniels, while under pressure, is just a yard overthrown. McCaffrey does his best to try and catch up to the ball, even throwing in a diving effort, but couldn’t quite reach it. If the throw had been on target, I think there’s every chance McCaffrey runs that into the end zone for a huge touchdown.

The second play of the clip goes back to Week 2 vs the Giants. McCaffrey lines up in the slot to the right this time and runs the inside post on a double post concept. This one isn’t as clear cut of an opportunity but it was still an opportunity nonetheless. Daniels hits the top of his drop and sees a lane emerging in front of him. He opts to try and take off scrambling, despite having a clean pocket to work from. This was a habit Daniels had early in the season but improved as the year went on. As he scrambles, you can see how the coverage plays out for McCaffrey. The deep safety was opening his hips to turn and run with the outside post route while there was nobody replacing him from the back side. McCaffrey was running into wide open field and had Daniels not scrambled, he could have found him for another huge play.

The third play of the clip comes from the Bears game. McCaffrey aligns in a stacked set to the right of the formation. He runs a simple corner route while the receiver outside of him works underneath. The Bears have a coverage bust with both defenders in coverage working to the underneath receiver, leaving McCaffrey wide open in the back of the end zone. Daniels sees McCaffrey open but is under pressure from Montez Sweat so can’t deliver the throw right away. He manages to scramble away from Sweat enough to deliver the throw, but the pass is just marginally too far out of bounds. McCaffrey catches the ball but can’t keep both feet in the end zone as he does it.

Those were three potential touchdown plays for McCaffrey that could have doubled the amount of yards he had on the season, but he just missed out on each one for one reason or another. This was a bit of a trend for McCaffrey. In his somewhat limited opportunities, he did run open a fair amount, but the ball couldn’t find him. As we saw there, sometimes there was pressure preventing Daniels from making a throw, sometimes it was Daniels scrambling and not seeing him and sometimes it was just a missed throw. There were also some plays where McCaffrey had run open and the ball wasn’t thrown his way.

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The Athletic (paywall)

Receiver room potentially takes a hit

Quinn didn’t hesitate when asked about the primary goals for minicamp at the start of the week.

“No. 1, always the health of the team,” Quinn said before diving into football-specific topics. The lack of tackling in the no-pads sessions eliminates overt physicality, but caution remains. Noah Brown’s potential injury during Wednesday’s practice was an unwanted reminder.

Brown went low to snag an intermediate pass from Mariota near the left sideline. Washington’s projected starting Z-receiver landed awkwardly and remained on the field for a few additional seconds before slowly rising to his feet. Brown gingerly walked to the sideline with training staff members.

After a few minutes, the eight-year veteran moved into a cart that drove uphill to the team’s main building. Brown, 29, yelled loudly upon arriving, but, like the injury, the impetus was unclear. Maybe frustration, perhaps more, but offering any guesses beyond the above details would be unfair speculation.

ractice ended a few minutes later. Quinn is not slated to speak with the media again until after Thursday’s session.

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ESPN

Commanders CB Marshon Lattimore feeling healthy, ‘explosive’

“I feel way better than last year,” he said. “I feel explosive.”

“I felt a little timid [last season], not mentally, but I could tell watching my game film by the way I was stepping,” Lattimore said. “I looked timid in my game.”

He played all three postseason games, having some issues against Tampa’s Mike Evans and again against the Eagles — which came after a solid game against Detroit. Against the Eagles, he allowed a key fourth-down pass to Brown and was later called for pass interference in the end zone.

Lattimore said he felt internal pressure to play.

“I wanted to prove they made the right decision,” he said. “I wanted to show what I could do. I was hurt but I don’t want to make excuses. I was out there. If I was good enough to play, I can be evaluated on that. I just want to get out there this year to show what I could do.”

Lattimore opted to skip the voluntary workouts this spring, as he did at times in New Orleans. During minicamp practices, he has aggressively driven on receivers when they cut on a route — sometimes leading to trouble, other times to breakups.

But the results of the play aren’t the focus right now for Lattimore. It’s how he feels.

“Just the burst, getting out of my breaks,” he said. “Dealing with a hamstring takes a lot out of you; it takes a long time to heal.”

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Commanders.com

Johnny Newton looking forward to bigger role in Year 2

Newton’s last offseason was busier than normal, even by rookie standards. While much of his time was spent learning the defense and getting acclimated to NFL practices, he also had to rehab multiple foot injuries that forced him to miss basically all of OTAs, minicamp and training camp. This year, he’s had some free time to enjoy with his family while getting a breather from his rookie campaign.

But it hasn’t all been relaxation for Newton. He’s also been preparing for his second season, and he’s looking forward to having a bigger role up front.

“I’m ready for it all this season,” Newton said. “I got the rookie jitters out of me, so I’m ready to go.”

As someone who spent college in the Big Ten, Newton was used to the speed, but it took time for him to adjust to the intensity and speed of offenses. Newton said he spent much of his rookie season learning from his veteran teammates on how to smooth out the process.

“I’m still doing it,” Newton said. “It’s Year Two for me, but I’m still a rookie in the locker room. So, I’m still cherry picking. [Daron] Payne, [Javon] Kinlaw, Sheldon Day, those guys are great vets for me.”

Now that Newton doesn’t have to spend time rehabbing, he’s able to build on the success he had later in the season. He started the final 11 games and recorded 33 tackles with two sacks and a fumble recovery.

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Commanders.com

Minicamp notebook | Lattimore feeling healthy, eager to prove himself

— The defense came to play after the offense had a strong performance on Tuesday, and it started with a heads-up play by rookie Kain Medrano. He forced a fumble early in seven-on-seven drills, and the ball fell into Car’Lin Vigers’ hand for the easy turnover.

— Deebo Samuel continues to look like a perfect fit for Washington’s offense. Without giving too much away about plays and formations, Samuel has been all over the field and used in several ways, which emphasizes the versatility the Commanders’ staff valued whenever they first traded for him.

— We likely won’t get a full picture of Jacory Croskey-Merritt’s skill set until the pads come on. He’s a physical runner, which doesn’t translate well to OTAs and minicamp. Still, Croskey-Merritt clearly has a good burst and feel for navigating traffic. He had another solid run today, this time up the middle of the defense.

— Although the defense had a better day, Jayden Daniels was still accurate and poised. He had to scramble more often than normal, but he threaded a few impressive passes into tight coverage, including one to Luke McCaffrey.

— The “catch of the day” award goes to Michael Strachen, who made an over-the-shoulder grab near the sideline. Strachan is likely on the outside of the battle for spots in the receiver room for now, but catches like the one he had today should help his cause during training camp.

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Podcasts & videos

Dan Quinn Dishes On Jayden Daniels’ Success, The Washington Commanders & DEFENSE

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Chris Simms’ ‘25 QB Countdown: Jayden Daniels in ‘Surgicality’ tier | NFL on NBC

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Photos

PHOTOS | Commanders kick off minicamp

Check out the top photos of the Washington Commanders going through the first day of mandatory minicamp.

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NFC East links

Bleeding Green Nation

Jalen Hurts talks about building more chemistry with Jahan Dotson and others

On having more time with Jahan Dotson

“I think that time has been valuable. It’s been valuable working with Jahan [Dotson], working with Terrace Marshall — he made a lot of big plays this offseason —, Dallas [Goedert], Grant [Calcaterra], Harrison [Bryant]. Everyone — Saquon [Barkley] out there. Everyone who was able to go and available, working with them and taking advantage of that, that was big.

I think that’s important for developing that chemistry, and we all know the season can go any type of way, and so just making sure you kind of can have a foundation of some sort with everyone is important. And then I’ve also had the conversation with Coach Patullo of who’s available matters, but ultimately it’s about how we put them in a position to do what we’re going to do.”

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NFL league links

Articles

NFL.com

Top 101 free agents of 2025: Amari Cooper, Gabe Davis among best players available

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Pro Football Talk

Shemar Stewart has options (but not many)

The Bengals and first-round defensive end Shemar Stewart remain at odds regarding his rookie contract. If the impasse over Cincinnati’s effort to change its standard language regarding the voiding of guarantees in future years lingers, Stewart has options.

Not many, but he has options.

Here’s what he can do, given the relevant terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

First, he can refuse to sign and demand a trade. The window for trading an unsigned draft pick expires 30 days before “the first game of the regular season.” This year, the regular season begins with the Eagles hosting the Cowboys on September 4. The window for trading Stewart closes on August 5. After that, Stewart can’t be traded by the Bengals at all in 2025 — whether he signs or doesn’t sign.

Second, Stewart can wait to sign until the Tuesday after Week 10 and still play in 2025. After that, he can’t play at all in 2025, “absent a showing to the Impartial Arbitrator of extreme Club or extreme personal hardship.” The CBA contains no definition or explanation of the term “extreme hardship.” Whatever it means, the arbitrator must make a decision within five days of the application, and the decision “shall be final and binding upon all parties.”

Third, he can refuse to sign at all until the 2026 draft begins. At that point, he’d re-enter the draft pool. During the 2026 draft, he could be drafted by any team except the Bengals.

Fourth — and this is something that we contemplated during the 2025 draft both as to quarterback Shedeur Sanders and quarterback Quinn Ewers — Stewart could try to return to college for the upcoming season. Even though it would require an actual or threatened legal battle against the NCAA, the rule that prevents a player who has been drafted but who hasn’t signed an NFL contract from returning to college football could be susceptible to an attack under the antitrust laws.

Somewhat surprisingly, the CBA contemplates the possibility that a drafted player will instead go back to college. Here’s the language, from Article 6, Section 6: “If any college football player who becomes eligible for the Draft prior to exhausting his college football eligibility through participation is drafted by an NFL Club, and returns to college, the drafting Club’s exclusive right to negotiate and sign a Player Contract with such player shall continue through the date of the Draft that follows the last season in which the player was eligible to participate in college football, and thereafter the player shall be treated and the Club shall have such exclusive rights as if he were drafted in such Draft by such Club (or assignee Club).”

In English, this means that, if Stewart returns to college football in 2025, he’d be treated as a draft pick of the Bengals in 2026. Which means that he wouldn’t be permitted to re-enter the draft next year.

Fifth, he could refuse to sign with the Bengals and play in another pro football league, like the CFL or the UFL. The CBA addresses that possibility, too. If Stewart plays in another professional league in the 12 months after being drafted, the Bengals would hold his rights for three years after the 2025 draft. After that, the Bengals would have a right of first refusal as to any contract Stewart would sign with another NFL team.

One last point. Any player that wants to avoid the draft entirely would have to sit out up to two years. If he re-enters the draft and is picked again, he could refuse to sign a contract and become an undrafted free agent after the next draft.

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Discussion topics

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