Daily Slop – 10 Apr 24: 2nd round OTs, local pro day, TE top-30 visit; Commanders have options on Day 2 & 3 of draft

A collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders, the NFC East and the NFL in general

Commanders links

Articles

Bullock’s Film Room (subscription)

Draft Profiles: Day 2 Offensive Tackle Prospects

Taking a look at a few OT prospects that could be on the board for the Commanders in the second round.

Who are some potential options that could be available to the Commanders in the second round?

Jordan Morgan, Arizona. 6-foot-5, 311 pounds, 32 7/8 inch arms.

If you enjoy reading through mock drafts or even trying your hand at mock draft simulators, the name Jordan Morgan should be familiar to you. He’s one of the players most commonly linked to the Commanders in the second round of mock drafts. So could he fill the need at left tackle for Washington?

When watching Morgan, the first thing that stands out is his athleticism. It particularly stands out in the run game, where he’s able to reach blocks on zone runs that many tackles can’t and he’s very comfortable pulling to the edge on pin-pull schemes.

Kingsley Suamataia, BYU. 6-foot-5, 326 pounds, 34 1/4 inch arms.

Suamataia is also a name you’re probably familiar with by now if you’ve been following mock drafts. Suamataia is far less technically refined compared to someone like Morgan, but he’s much more of an athletic freak with significantly more upside. The questions with him is can you get the most out of that upside and how long will it take to get him there? That remains to be seen, but what is obvious is the athletic ability.

Patrick Paul, Houston. 6-foot-7 1/2, 331 pounds, 36 1/4 inch arms.

Paul is yet another name that will be familiar to Commanders fans as he’s the brother of current Commanders guard Chris Paul, a seventh round pick back in 2022. Patrick Paul is another athletic freak for a guy his size. He’s the biggest guy on this list at 6-foot-7, 331 pounds and has crazy long arms at over 36 inches. You might think a guy that big might struggle to move quickly, much like his brother did in pass protection last season. But for Patrick Paul, that’s not an issue. He’s light on his feet for a man of his size and is quickly able to cover ground and cut off speed rushes to the edge.

Commanders.com

Commanders host 20 prospects for local pro day

Former Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa headlines a group of 20 college players invited to the Washington Commanders’ facility for a pro day to provide prospects with DMV ties an opportunity to showcase their skill sets.

Tagovailoa, a two-time Second Team All-Big Ten selection, holds several program and Big Ten records after leading the Terps to three straight winning records — a first for the team since the 1983-85 seasons.

Tagovailoa, who transferred to Maryland from Alabama after his freshman year, holds program records in career passing yards (11,256), completions (955), completion percentage (67.1%), passing touchdowns (76), 300-yard passing games (15) and total offense (11,473). He’s also the Big Ten’s all-time leader in passing yards.

Most of the other 19 prospects invited to Ashburn, Virginia, either played high school football in the DMV or attended college in the area. Multiple HBCU athletes also participated in workouts, including Howard defensive linemen Darrian Brokenburr, Howard offensive tackle Anim Dankwah and Morgan State safety Jordan Toles.

Commanders Wire

Commanders to host TCU tight end Jared Wiley on top 30 visit

Washington brought in Texas tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders on a top-30 visit. Saunders is widely viewed as the second-best tight end in the draft behind Georgia’s Brock Bowers. We can now add another tight end to the Commanders’ visit list.

According to Ryan Fowler of Bleacher Report, TCU tight end Jared Wiley will visit Washington.

Wiley is a 6-foot-6, 249-pound prospect from Temple, Texas, and began his career at the University of Texas. After three seasons in Austin, Wiley transferred to TCU, where he played his final two seasons. In three years at Texas, Wiley had 19 receptions. Over the past two seasons, Wiley caught 71 passes for 765 yards and 12 touchdowns.

NFL.com

2024 NFL offseason: Projecting performances of running backs who changed teams

Austin Ekeler – Year 8 · Age: 29

Average salary: $4.215 million

With Chargers in 2023: 14 games | 179 att | 628 rush yds | 3.5 ypc | 5 rush TDs | 51 rec | 436 rec yds | 1 rec TDs | 5 fumbles

2024 numbers will be: BETTER

Ekeler’s injury-riddled 2023 came at a bad time. Dinged up from the start of the season, the dual-threat back lacked the between-the-tackles power we’d come to expect. Even so, he managed to surpass 1,000 scrimmage yards and remains a threat in the passing attack. Commanders coordinator Kliff Kingsbury is known as an Air Raid coach, but during his stint as the head coach Arizona, the Cards finished in the top seven in rush attempts twice and in the top 10 in rushing yards three times. Kingsbury helped make Kenyan Drake look good, including with a 955-yard rushing campaign in 2020. Who is a better version of Drake? Austin Ekeler. The two biggest questions are health — as with any RB — and how the Commanders balance Ekeler’s reps with Brian Robinson’s. Kingsbury has juggled multiple RBs in the past (SEE: James Conner and Chase Edmonds in 2021). With a rookie quarterback likely under center, Washington could lean on the duo early in the season.

NFL.com

2024 NFL mock draft … with a twist! What every team SHOULD do in Round 1

2 – Washington Commanders – Jayden Daniels – LSU · QB · Senior

Daniels should be the second player off the board. That’s why I have him listed here. But I’m telling you, Commanders, you are not a quarterback away from seriously competing. You could be next year — if you were to take multiple first-round picks from the Vikings in exchange for this selection. Or if the Broncos/Raiders were willing to give you a haul like the Panthers shelled out for the right to take Bryce Young one year ago. I know you saw the Texans take a quarterback at No. 2 overall last year, surge to the top of the division and win a playoff game. Now you think that’s in the cards for you in 2024, huh? Well, I just don’t see it like that.

However, I feel like there is no way of talking you out of sticking and picking a quarterback. So, yes, go with Daniels.

Podcasts & videos

Locked on Commanders: Washington Commanders NFL Draft Connection to Jayden Daniels Tied to Sam Howell and Marcus Mariota

NFC East links

NFL.com

Joe Schoen: People assume Giants will draft a QB but we have other needs

“We don’t wanna be up here again — we don’t want to be picking in the top 10,” he told Breer. “We have multiple needs. We are going into Year 3. People assume we’re going quarterback, but we have other needs. If the quarterbacks go 1–4, then we’re getting the second-best position player, not quarterback, at six, which is O.K., too. That player will really help us. Even last year, our quarterback coach was at the C.J. Stroud workout. We spent a lot of time with Will Levis, Anthony Richardson.

“We still spend time with those guys … and] it’s not just for right now, but when they become free agents. [Brian Burns, we spent a lot of time with him in the draft process, so you feel comfortable making a trade for a guy. Drew Lock, too. Sam Darnold, we spent a ton of time with because that was the Josh draft.”

Pro Football Talk

Cowboys have a contract mess with Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Micah Parsons

That’s how they got into their current mess with Prescott. By not offering him a fair contract after his third season as a fourth-round, Day 1 starter, the Cowboys tabled the matter until after his four-year deal expired. Then, they used the franchise tag and didn’t sign him to a long-term deal before the mid-July deadline, delaying the issue again. When faced with the application of a second tag and no ability to punt for another year (for his third tag, he would have gotten a 44-percent raise over his second tag), the Cowboys panicked, giving Prescott a four-year, $160 million contract that guaranteed he’d get to the open market without an extension.

Now, they seem content to let him finish the contract and hit the market in 2025. Basically, he’ll be next year’s Kirk Cousins.

The Cowboys seem to be banking on the fact that no other team will pay him whatever he has been seeking in talks aimed at extending the deal, last year and this year. They also seem to be daring him to leave, believing that the attraction of playing for the Cowboys — with the marketing and post-career opportunities it entails — will get him to take their best offer, whatever it might be.

It’s a calculated risk that the Cowboys have no choice but to embrace, because they painted themselves into a corner by dragging their feet early in Dak’s career.

They’re doing the same thing with Lamb. Four years into his 2020 first-round contract, they can squat on him for the fifth-year option (at $17.99 million) and a franchise tag, or two. By waiting, however, they’re only making the eventual contract more expensive. Especially after other receivers (like Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase) get their second contracts.

The Cowboys could end up painting themselves into a corner again by waiting, and it might cause them to let Lamb hit the open market without ever giving him a second multi-year deal.

Then there’s Parsons. Some think the take from the team’s flagship radio station that his act is “wearing thin” was planted by the team, in an effort to leverage him to want less. If that’s not the case (and we believe it isn’t), the Cowboys probably should find a way to publicly repudiate the opinion, given the whiff of legitimacy the relationship between the Cowboys and 105.3 The Fan carries.

The Cowboys had no qualms about posting on their official website an item that twisted the words of Lamb to make it look like he won’t boycott offseason workouts. Why not take 15 or 20 minutes and cobble together something that pushes back on the comments about Parsons?

It’s a strange situation, all things considered. And it raises questions about whether the Cowboys truly know how to manage, and mollify, star players in the salary cap/free agency era.

NFL league links

Tweets