Daily Slop – 21 Jul 25 – No surprise; Jayden Daniels headlines ESPN’s All-Under-25 Team

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

NFL.com

All-Under-25 Team: Jayden Daniels, Jared Verse among NFL’s top young stars entering 2025 season

Who are the best young players at each position heading into the 2025 NFL season? Nick Shook assembles an All-Under-25 Team below, listing 12 offensive players (including one flex spot) and 11 defenders.

NOTE: Each player’s listed age represents how old he will be on Sept.4 — the day the 2025 NFL season kicks off — which served as the cutoff for eligibility.

OFFENSE

QB Jayden Daniels – Washington Commanders · Age: 24

Because he played five seasons of college football, Daniels entered the NFL last season with a ton of on-field experience under his belt — and at a relatively advanced age. So he will only get one year to occupy this spot, before he turns 25 in December. When it comes to young NFL quarterbacks, though, he was an easy choice after running away with the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award and inspiring a remarkable turnaround by a team that had been directionless for far too long. Daniels revived a dormant fanbase in just one season, posting an excellent (especially for a rookie) season-long stat line: 3,568 passing yards, 25 passing TDs, nine interceptions, 891 rushing yards and six rushing scores. He also quickly became the face of a franchise that desperately needed one. And he did all of that in just one season.

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Heiserman’s Huddle (subscription)

Jayden Daniels’ Next Step: Trusting the Pocket

Daniels amassed a whopping 73 scrambles last season, which was 22 more scrambles than the second quarterback on that list, Caleb Williams. While Daniels averaged 8.1 yards per scramble in 2024, which was the third most of any quarterback across the league, 73 scrambles in a single season is nowhere near sustainable in the long-term.

The first thought is that Jayden Daniels had a below average offensive line, which caused the pocket to collapse quicker, which is not entirely true. In PFF’s Final 2024 NFL offensive line rankings, Washington placed at number ten. In fact, last season, Daniels was pressured on just 18.5% of dropbacks, which is 2.9% less than the league average.

Don’t get me wrong, Daniels was an extremely dominant dual-threat quarterback last season, rushing for 891 yards and 6 touchdowns, on top of 3,568 yards and 25 touchdowns in the air. So why is it that he has to cut down on the scrambles?

Injury Risk

When you look at some of the NFL’s top dual-threat quarterbacks, injuries are a very common theme. Throughout their careers, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, Anthony Richardson, and Josh Allen have all suffered concussions—or in Allen’s case, been placed in concussion protocol—which is something Daniels has already fallen victim to.

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Riggo’s Rag

Commanders want Trey Amos to start immediately, which would relegate Jonathan Jones to backup duties

Now that Amos has signed on the dotted line, there’s a good chance he’ll replace Jones in the starting group alongside Marshon Lattimore and Mike Sainristil. That doesn’t mean he won’t form a key part of the rotation, but the former undrafted free agent out of Auburn might be playing second-fiddle to the aforementioned trio when push comes to shove.

Amos isn’t going to get handed anything. The Commanders will make him earn the boundary spot opposite Lattimore. Quinn and his staff will give the Ole Miss product all he can handle at training camp and the preseason. If they come away suitably impressed, he’ll be in the starting lineup for Washington’s regular-season opener against the New York Giants.

The Commanders didn’t give Jones a one-year, $5.5 million deal with a $2.5 million signing bonus and $4.5 million guaranteed for him to sit on the sidelines. They want him involved, regardless of whether that’s as a fourth option or not. And looking at the passing attacks on Washington’s schedule this season, his accomplished production is only going to help their cause.

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NFL.com

2025 NFL All-Breakout Team, Defense

Jer’Zhan [Johnny] Newton

Washington Commanders · Age 22

The heavy-handed defensive tackle exhibited disruptive skills at the point of attack during his rookie campaign. Newton’s powerful hands and non-stop motor helped him amass 44 tackles (six for loss), seven QB hits and a pair of sacks in 16 games, including 11 starts. Given more responsibility and freedom within the scheme, the second-year pro could become Dan Quinn’s designated playmaker on the defensive front, given his unique talents as a power player in the trenches.

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AtoZ Sports

Von Miller’s contract numbers prove he’s all-in and it comes at absolutely zero risk to the Washington Commanders

Washington signed Miller to a one-year, $6.1 million deal that’s worth up to $10.5 million, per NFL insider Ian Rapoport. While Miller’s injury history brings a lot of questions, it’s a salary that makes sense for the Commanders. If he hits the incentives, well, that means nothing but good things for Dan Quinn and Co.

A $4.4 million increase is plenty of motivation to produce, hit those incentive marks, and cash out after the season. Nobody knows the exact details of the incentives listed in his contract just yet, but everyone knows that a pass rusher gets paid off of his sack production.

Miller has made a career of massive contracts, and showed last season that he can still stack up stats in the backfield with six sacks and added 32 total pressures as well.

This is likely Miller’s last year before he retires, and his last chance to rack up more money, and become the first defensive player in NFL history to earn $200M in career earnings.

How this impacts Terry McLaurin’s contract

The biggest question asked anytime Washington signs a new player is, “How does that impact McLaurin’s deal?”

The answer in this case is: it helps. Signing Miller means Washington passed up on a handful of other free agents still available that would’ve cost more such as Za’Darius Smith or Matt Judon, and they are now free of all rumors of trading for Trey Hendrickson.

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Podcasts & videos

FORGET The Air Raid! The TRUTH About Kliff Kingsbury’s Offense for Jayden Daniels

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Washington Commanders Just Got A Triple Dose Of Good News

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NFC East links

Blogging the Boys

Why 2025 may be the best chance for the Cowboys to take the next step

It has been 29 years since the Cowboys reached a NFC Championship game. The longest drought in the NFL. The good news for the Cowboys? A new season is just around the corner for them to do something with it. The bad news? This may be the best chance for the Cowboys to make the conference championship game in the foreseeable future.

Dak Prescott is not getting any younger, and outside of his MVP-caliber 2023 season, injuries have started to pile up for the almost 32-year old quarterback. Along with Prescott’s age and injury concern, Micah Parsons, Tyler Smith, DaRon Bland, and George Pickens are all nearing the end of their contracts. Combined that with a front office that has showed little aggressiveness to get deals done early to save money, and you could see a very different team after 2025.

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Big Blue View

Make or Break: Is this the last stand of Evan Neal?

Can Evan Neal successfully transition to guard?

Will Evan Neal be a member of the New York Giants beyond 2025?

Neal was the second pick made by Joe Schoen as the Giants’ GM, who picked Neal 7th overall in the 2022 NFL Draft. The Giants have one of the best left tackles in the NFL in Andrew Thomas, but the rest of the offensive line had been a massive question for years. The selection of Neal was widely praised, and it was believed that he would give the Giants young, athletic, and talented bookends for the foreseeable future.

That, obviously, isn’t how things worked out.

Instead, Neal has only played 29 of 51 possible games due to injury and has been inconsistent at best when he has played. While injury has obviously disrupted Neal’s development at tackle, the Giants simply can’t afford to devote any more time to hoping he can become a consistent starter there. Instead, they’re settling on Jermaine Eluemunor to reprise his role at right tackle and are moving Neal inside to guard.

This is his last chance to prove that he can be a starting lineman and a long-term piece for the Giants. If he can’t secure a starting job this year, he’ll likely have to hope he can rehabilitate his career on a one-year deal with another team.

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NFL league links

Articles

CBS Sports

JC Tretter resigns from NFLPA in surprise move, opening up about Lloyd Howell, executive director candidacy

In an exclusive conversation with CBS Sports, Tretter expounds on his sudden decision to walk away from the NFLPA

The former NFLPA president, who has served as chief strategy officer for the players’ union since October, told CBS Sports on Sunday that he will not only be excluding himself from the running as interim executive director of the union, he will no longer remain with the NFLPA as of this week.

“Over the last couple days, it has gotten very, very hard for my family. And that’s something I can’t deal with,” Tretter said. “So, the short bullet points are: I have no interest in being [executive director]. I have no interest in being considered; I’ve let the executive committee know that. I’m also going to leave the NFLPA in the coming days because I don’t have anything left to give the organization.

In an exclusive, hour-long conversation with CBS Sports, Tretter sought to address what he considers to be “mistruths” about him and his motivations during his years with the union. After being quiet for weeks, Tretter wanted his side of the story out there as he leaves a union he spent his adult life working to make better.

For the first time, Tretter now reveals that Howell was not the executive committee’s top choice. In a straw poll conducted prior to the candidates being presented, the committee voted 10-1 in favor of White over Howell. Members of the committee did not share their preference with the board.

“We said, ‘OK, what do we want to do with this information?’ And we said, ‘Listen, if this is the best candidate, the board will see that. They’ll agree,’” Tretter recalled. “‘But we’re not going to put our thumb on the scale. We’re not going to push them. We’re not going to go in there after doing all this work and make it look like we jammed in the person that we would’ve picked after this moment. So we’re going to let both people interview and we’re going to let the board make the decision.”

Count Tretter among the 10 individuals who voted for White. Tretter, a labor and industrial relations major from Cornell, says his archetypal leader for the NFLPA is someone with a union background. Howell came from the financial world.

If Tretter wanted to be the interim executive director, he had his opening. The union was weak, and he was the former player with a labor background in position to lead them for at least several months.

Instead, three days later, he has decided to walk away entirely from the organization.

“I don’t have any proof of this,” Tretter said. “I think a lot of the attacks on me came from inside the building over the last six weeks. And I don’t want to walk inside that building anymore.”

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Discussion topics

The Athletic (paywall)

NFL training camp watchlist: Shedeur’s debut, Kelce’s encore and Pickens in Dallas

Real football (sort of) is here as training camps kick off in earnest across the league this week.

And with that comes a myriad of storylines and tidbits to follow for the next few weeks. However, it’s often easiest to follow the players. So, The Athletic’s NFL writers made it easy and picked one to watch as training camp commences.

Chicago Bears

QB Caleb Williams

Sure, the left tackle battle between Braxton Jones and rookie Ozzy Trapilo will be a storyline. We’ll watch how wide receiver Rome Odunze looks in Year 2, and how rookies Colston Loveland and Luther Burden step in after missing OTAs. But it’s all about Williams. Over the years, we hear — and, in fairness, echo — the narratives, “Well it’s a veteran defense against a young group learning a new scheme.” At some point, the franchise should see its quarterback dominate camp practices. Maybe there will be understandable growing pains, but everything is supposed to be in place for Williams to thrive. — Kevin Fishbain

Dallas Cowboys

WR George Pickens

Finally getting to see the offensive line and running backs in full pads will be high on the list because of all the questions with Dallas’ running game, but that’s not close to Pickens. Trading for him was the most notable move the Cowboys have made since adding Amari Cooper during the 2018 season. In that situation, Cooper was at least able to play two weeks later. Pickens was at all of the organized team activities and minicamp, but that’s nothing compared to seeing what he can do with Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb while everyone is going live in full pads. The expectations for the passing game should be highlight plays just about every day in Oxnard, Calif. — Jon Machota

New York Giants

QB Jaxson Dart

I debated putting Abdul Carter here because with the pads on, we’ll finally get a more accurate sense of his dominating potential at edge. But all eyes have been on Dart since he was drafted and those won’t shy away as camp picks up. Especially interesting will be how the snaps are divided among quarterbacks with Russell Wilson the clear No. 1 coming out of the spring. Will Dart move into the QB2 role (he took more second-team offensive snaps than Jameis Winston this spring) or will he settle into a QB3 role that benefits his long-term development? And will those camp snap assignments tell us anything about the Giants’ game-day plans? – Charlotte Carroll

Philadelphia Eagles

DB Cooper DeJean

DC Vic Fangio’s experimentation with perhaps his best defensive back will pick up in earnest when training camp begins. While Fangio disclosed his plan to keep DeJean at nickel and test DeJean out at cornerback or safety in base packages, OTAs ended without any public viewing of DeJean at safety. The Eagles secondary underwent yet another significant transition in the offseason. There are position battles at both cornerback and safety. By keeping an eye on how DeJean is deployed, you’ll partly see where Fangio believes the secondary’s strengths and weaknesses are. — Brooks Kubena

Pittsburgh Steelers

QB Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers’ indecision dominated the headlines throughout the offseason. Now that he’s finally put pen to paper, we can stop wondering when and where he’ll sign and start asking a more important question: How will he perform in the Steelers’ offense? Rodgers only participated in individual drills during the three minicamp practices he attended. That means training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., will be the first glimpse of the Steelers’ newest old gunslinger. Will he play like a four-time MVP or will he look more like a 41-year-old who flirted with retirement? — Mike DeFabo

Washington Commanders

QB Jayden Daniels

After a dazzling rookie season, which featured a surprise run to the NFC Championship Game, the expectations in Washington surrounding Daniels are sky high. Daniels will not be able to sneak up on anyone this season, however. So he’ll need to make additional strides forward to help Washington return to the playoffs and challenge for the NFC East title. Daniels and Washington were at risk of losing offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury to a head coaching job, but Daniels’ talented mentor remains in the mix. New offensive weapon Deebo Samuel should add another dimension to the playbook, and his integration into the offense should be compelling. But it all starts with Daniels. — Mike Jones

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All aTwitter

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