The Daily Slop – 6 September 2026
Editor’s note: Each day, Hogs Haven compiles 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, with a sprinkling of other stuff. Enjoy!
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Commanders links
Articles
ESPN
Inside Commanders DC Daronte Jones’ unusual coaching journey
BEFORE ARRIVING IN Washington, Jones had held 14 different jobs during his coaching career, from Division II to Division I-AA, high school, the Canadian Football League to multiple Division I stops and stints with three NFL teams.
“Perseverance is the best word that describes him,” said Morgan State coach Damon Wilson, Jones’ boss at Bowie State. “He’s had to endure a lot of things to get to where he is.”
THE COMMANDERS HAVE felt the results of Jones’ experiences. Commanders coach Dan Quinn said he has sat in on meetings run by Jones, listening to him ask questions of his position coaches — “What could have been done better in this scenario?” — almost like a teacher.
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“When you go through difficult circumstances, there’s a resiliency that gets developed,” Quinn said. “And one of the other things I love about him, there’s not one step that he’s missed in the coaching journey. He’s got remarkable teaching; he’s got perspective.”
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Riggo’s Rag
Rachaad White has everything riding on his one-year audition with the Commanders
The dual-threat’s deal in Washington is for only one year and worth a paltry $2 million. The NFL made a clear statement to him last spring: after being supplanted by Bucky Irving in Tampa, he wasn’t in very high demand.
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In 2025, White saw his numbers decline across the board, with his fewest rushing yards since his rookie year and fewest targets, receptions, and receiving yards of any of his four NFL campaigns. But now he’s in a position where he has a clear role, because his backfield running mate Jacory Croskey-Merritt is not a pass-catcher.
If all goes well for White, he could considerably raise his stock and earn himself a lot more money next time around. Playing a position where even the slightest falloff makes you damaged goods, it won’t be easy for him to re-establish himself.
But it won’t be impossible either.
The Commanders will rotate Croskey-Merritt and White, perhaps with some interludes from sixth-round rookie Kaytron Allen depending on the situation. Under Blough, who comes from a coaching tree that loves to establish the run, there should be plenty of chances for all of them to touch the ball.
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White should get the bulk of the third-down snaps, and it helps him that he already has a rapport with Daniels. In the best of worlds, he can play a D’Andre Swift-like role for Washington, where he and Croskey-Merritt complement each other and become the bread and butter of Blough’s offense.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Sports Illustrated
Commanders’ 20-Kicker Search Now Rests on Undrafted Rookie Drew Stevens
Washington has used seven different kickers since Dan Quinn took over as head coach of the Washington Commanders. 2025 is probably the best example, with Washington finishing 29th in the NFL in field-goal percentage (76.7). Matt Gay was so bad that the team moved on; Moody actually provided a late-season spark, going 10-of-11 over the last six games. That spark didn’t prove to be enough for Washington to hand the job back to him in 2026, as the franchise wants to lock this position up long-term and get away from temporary solutions, so they brought in Stevens to compete with him.
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To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
The Athletic (paywall)
NFL Hope-O-Meter 2026 results: Rams fans are feeling good; Browns backers? Not as much
28. Washington Commanders: 35.1 percent optimism
Pessimist: The offensive line lost Tunsil, and we don’t have depth. If we are leaky again (looks likely), Daniels will be running for his life!
Pessimist: Outside of Jayden Daniels, the roster just isn’t very talented.
Optimist: Getting younger and faster on defense, upgrading the receiver room and changing the offensive scheme. This team rises and falls with the health of Daniels. If he’s healthy: playoff bound. If he isn’t: Peters and Quinn are both on the hot seat.
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Pessimist: If a blade of grass grows over five inches, our quarterback trips and is injured.
Optimist: Jayden Daniels deserves a resurgence.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
The Ringer
NFC East Preview
Washington Commanders
Reasons for Optimism
The Commanders were 5-12 last season, but they had a lot of things working against them. Daniels wasn’t healthy and started just seven games. They were 31st in turnover EPA. They were 30th in AGL, which measures which teams were most hurt by injuries. And they were 1-5 in games decided by seven points or fewer. As mentioned above with the Eagles, turnover luck, injury luck, and performances in close games are not typically things that carry over from one year to the next. The 2025 Commanders got quite unlucky with those things. Perhaps the 2026 Commanders will land more around league average in those categories.
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If Daniels regains the magic from his rookie season, that will give Washington its most direct path to a playoff berth. Last year, he ranked 25th in EPA per pass play and 15th in success rate among 37 qualifying quarterbacks. The difference in the two numbers suggests that Daniels was slightly above average down to down, but he got dinged by turnovers and a lack of explosive plays. Like the Eagles, the Commanders appear to be implementing a massive offensive scheme change, going from Kliff Kingsbury to David Blough. Blough has just two years of coaching experience and will be calling plays for the first time. The expectation is that Washington will implement more under-center, play-action schemes, as opposed to Kingsbury’s shotgun, up-tempo spread attack.
The scheme change on defense also appears to be significant. Quinn hired Daronte Jones from Minnesota, and he is expected to employ a creative Brian Flores–style attack with heavy blitzing to make up for roster deficiencies. Jones has an intriguing background, but like Blough, he has never been an NFL coordinator before. In addition to the scheme change, the Commanders overhauled their personnel, adding edge defenders Odafe Oweh and K’Lavon Chaisson in free agency and drafting linebacker Sonny Styles seventh. If Jones proves to be a capable schemer, there are some pieces to work with here.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Podcasts & videos
Take Command: The Paulsen’s see the needle pointing up for Washington
Gearing Up For The Season With Quarterback Jayden Daniels | The Player’s Club
NFC East links
Blogging the Boys
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How the Cowboys season could go wrong
For a defense that was as dreadful as it was last year, it’s a little strange to see so much optimism for this current group. The overhaul is real. Between the coaching staff and players, this is a completely different group, so drawing comparisons to the 2025 unit makes little sense.
While the optimism is warranted, we must also understand that new defensive schemes don’t manifest into greatness overnight. There is an expected learning curve when a new coach shows up. A new philosophy with an influx of new components opens the door for communication breakdowns and blown assignments. The whole point of bringing Christian Parker in was to alleviate this, but there is no guarantee that it will work, and there’s a reasonable chance they’ll experience the typical growing pains early in the season.
Not enough pass rush
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On paper, the Cowboys have done a lot to improve the team’s pass-rushing group. They’ve acquired two veterans, one via trade in Rashan Gary, and one in free agency in Von Miller. They have two young draft picks in Donovan Ezeiruaku and Malachi Lawrence. And they have one reclamation project in James Houston. These are fresh faces to the organization, as none of them had logged a single snap in a Cowboys uniform this time last year. It should be a fierce unit.
But what if it’s not? What if Gary lives up to the billing that all those Green Bay Packers fans tried to warn us about? What if Miller plays like a regular 37-year-old pass rusher rather than one who defies Father Time? And what if the recent draft investments do not pan out?
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
ESPN
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Does OBJ still have it? Fans and teammates seem to think so
Beckham was undoubtedly the most popular player at training camp. The Giants are a forgiving fanbase after Beckham left on a sour note after the 2018 season — his behavior and distractions reached a point where then-general manager Dave Gettleman wanted him off the roster and traded him to the Cleveland Browns.
Beckham, 33, is back eight years later and it’s as if none of that ever happened. He has being embraced by a fanbase that hasn’t seen much exciting football since his departure — only one winning season in seven years.
This is part of the package for a player who has 16.5 million Instagram followers. It doesn’t matter if he’s now the fourth or fifth receiver on the depth chart.
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To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
NFL league links
Articles
ESPN
Will Kyler Murray end the Vikings’ tragicomic QB history?
Barring injury or an unexpected level of ineffectiveness, Murray will finish this season as the 18th different quarterback to lead the Vikings in passing since the NFL’s free agency era began in 1993. The only teams with more are the Cleveland Browns (20) and Washington Commanders (19), according to ESPN Research.
Generations of Vikings team builders have tried everything.
Finally, in 2018, [GM Spielman] dug deep into the pockets of owners Zygi and Mark Wilf to sign Cousins.
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[Drama surrounded] the Vikings’ efforts to find Cousins’ replacement after he left for the Falcons in 2024.
That season, McCarthy became the first quarterback drafted in the first round to miss his entire rookie campaign because of injury in the NFL’s modern draft era, which began in 1967. Darnold, signed as a hedge in case McCarthy needed more time to develop, had a career season. Midway through the season, the Vikings signed Jones to their practice squad — a move widely interpreted to be a precursor to Jones returning to pair with McCarthy in 2025.
That plan left the Vikings comfortable with letting Darnold leave for Seattle in free agency, making him one of two quarterbacks in NFL history to play elsewhere the year after a 4,000-yard, 30-touchdown season. Jones surprised the Vikings by signing with the Indianapolis Colts, however, making McCarthy the starter by default, and Darnold went on to win Super Bowl LX.
It took the franchise only 10 games and 243 pass attempts to render judgment on McCarthy, far quicker than even Ponder (35 games and 1,013 pass attempts over three seasons).
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Even before Murray plays in his first regular-season Vikings game, it’s easy to see how the franchise could be in a familiar position next spring. His contract includes a clause that prevents the Vikings from using the franchise tag on him, so if he has a great season, he has a clear path to a market-level contract in free agency. If he has a poor or even average season, the Vikings might not re-sign him.
Diamond called that scenario a “sticky situation.”
It’s a familiar one for the Minnesota Vikings.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Discussion topics
aBit o’Twitter
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