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Commanders.com

Ekeler brings versatility to Commanders’ 2-back system

“It was an opportunity to come in and be this two-back backfield,” Ekeler said. “That really was intriguing to me.”

Ekeler, who recorded 1,000 scrimmage yards for the fourth time in his seven-year career, will be joining third-year pro Brian Robinson Jr. to revitalize a backfield that showed flashes despite a lack of attention in 2023. Where Robinson will be the primary back between the tackles, Ekeler is expected to be versatile threat he’s been his whole career, providing Washington with an offensive weapon that’s lead the league in scoring twice.

And Ekeler predicts there will be a lot of scoring from him as a piece of Washington’s new backfield.

“I’m gonna score some touchdowns for you, that’s for sure, if you get me in the red zone and find a way to get me the ball in some space,” Ekeler said.

Ekeler dealt with a high ankle sprain that kept him sidelined for three weeks in 2023. That didn’t stop him from recording 1,064 total yards with six touchdowns, including 179 carries for 628 yards on the ground.

Ekeler’s hoping that he can inject some of his traits into a young running back room, and just because the Commanders are in what some would call a rebuilding year (head coach Dan Quinn prefers to call it a recalibration) doesn’t mean that they need to wait years for a turnaround.

“I know it’s been done before,” Ekeler said. “I’ve seen it. We saw it last year, too, with the Texans how they went through their season and had a bounce back season. So, it’s been done before, and those things can be done again.

“I’m looking forward to bringing some energy over here and getting ourselves on the right path.”

Commanders.com

Commanders sign DL Haggai Chisom Ndubuisi

Ndubuisi, (6-6, 298) [note: an article from Broncos Wire lists Ndubuisi at 6’7”, 323 pounds, as does Wikipedia; 2022 article from azcardinals.com listed him at 6’6”, 298 pounds] is entering his second year in the NFL. He joined the Arizona Cardinals in 2022 and the Denver Broncos this past season as a part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program. He also had a stint in the United Football League (UFL) with the San Antonio Brahmas in 2023 before joining Washington.

In 2023, Ndubuisi appeared in a single preseason game with the Broncos where he recorded two tackles. He served on the practice squad for the remainder of the season.

During his time with the Cardinals in 2022, Ndubuisi appeared in the team’s first preseason game as an offensive lineman.

A native of Lagos, Nigeria, Ndubuisi originally played soccer and basketball growing up before discovering football on YouTube. He taught himself the game of football before joining the UpRise Academy, a program that helps identify African football talent, in Ghana in 2021. Ndubuisi was invited to the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program from his performance in an International NFL Camp based in London.

Beginning this season, each of the 32 NFL clubs is eligible to fill a 91st roster spot entering training camp and a 17th roster spot on its practice squad, reserved for an international player. Washington will be permitted to elevate its international practice squad player to its active roster a maximum of three times throughout the season. This has been done to increase the flexibility for NFL clubs to leverage the additional player, while creating more opportunity to play. Washington will also receive one training camp roster exemption for its international practice squad player.

Sports Illustrated

Commanders Sign LB Mykal Walker in Free Agency: What’s He Bring to Washington?

In an offseason littered with change, linebacker Mykal Walker brings another seasoned voice to the middle of the Washington Commanders’ defense.

Walker, who stands 6-3, 230 pounds, spent the first three years of his NFL career with the Atlanta Falcons, playing in 49 games with 20 starts. He started 12 of 16 games for the Falcons in 2022, his last in Atlanta.

Atlanta changed defensive coordinators – and, subsequently, schemes – from 2022 to 2023, going from Dean Pees to Ryan Nielsen. Pees ran a 3-4 scheme while Nielsen’s was primarily 4-3. Smith didn’t delve into schematics when discussing Walker’s release.

Walker generated praise for his ability as a communicator and began the 2022 season with the green dot on his helmet, signifying his status as the defensive signal caller.

“Mentally, Mykal Walker is top shelf, Pees said during training camp in 2022. “He really is smart, football smart, understands, communicates. I have no qualms whatsoever about him understanding this defense.”

Walker once appeared poised for a multi-year run as a starter in Atlanta. That was cut short, and he’s now left looking to jumpstart his career – and Washington may just be the place to do it.

Commanders Wire

Should the Commanders trade for 49ers star WR Brandon Aiyuk?

Why Aiyuk? First, he’s good—really good. So why would San Francisco trade him? For one, the 49ers already paid Deebo Samuel and have a ton of big contracts on the books. They may not be able to afford what Aiyuk will command.

Aiyuk is heading into his fifth NFL season in 2024. He’s a free agent after the upcoming season. Ahead of this year’s NFL draft, his value will never be higher.

Back to the Commanders. They still have plenty of salary cap room and do not have a ton on the books in future years. Washington is a perfect trading partner for San Francisco. Most importantly, the Commanders have the picks to satisfy the 49ers without trading the No. 2 overall pick.

Trading for Aiyuk and pairing him with McLaurin would give the Commanders one of the NFL’s best duos. Add in Dotson, who could play in the slot, and that’s a dangerous trio.

Then, there is the new Washington GM, Adam Peters. Peters came to the Commanders from the 49ers, where he spent the past eight seasons. He was a major decision-maker in selecting Aiyuk in the first round of the 2020 NFL draft.

There is one more connection. Aiyuk played at Arizona State in 2018 and 2019. His quarterback for his final season with the Sun Devils was Jayden Daniels. Daniels, along with North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye, are the top contenders to land in Washington with the second overall pick.

For as much as Peters has talked about using the draft to build the roster, it seems unlikely he’d part with too much draft capital. However, in this instance, he’d be trading for a player he knows and likes.

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NFC East links

The Athletic (paywall)

NFL executives unfiltered on 2024 free agency: The best and worst from all 32 teams

Philadelphia Eagles

“I just don’t know who they are,” an exec said. “I think they lost their identity and lost their confidence. Teams say they want to build from the inside out, but you lost your two staple inside players in Kelce and Cox. Not only that, but those two guys were the culture guys. You lose those guys in a year when the head coach already has his back against the wall, I don’t see it ending well.”

The Eagles weren’t necessarily the most likely team to set the bar for running back price tags in free agency, but that bar fell well below market leader Christian McCaffrey. Barkley’s deal averages $12.6 million per year, fourth-best in the league.

New York Giants

Only the Falcons invested less than the Giants in re-signing their own players this offseason, with potential building blocks Xavier McKinney and Saquon Barkley among those leaving.

The Giants instead landed Brian Burns from Carolina for one relatively small price (second- and fifth-round picks) and one very large price ($28.2 million APY on an extension).

“The narrative there can’t be that their defense took a step back without Wink (Martindale), because if that happens, the media is going to say, ‘See, the head coach is unable to do this, that and the other,’” an exec said. “I see Brian Burns giving the new coordinator a chance at having a better defense than Wink had, which I think matters there, given where they are at and all that has happened.”

Dallas Cowboys

With Dak Prescott’s contract counting $55.1 million against the cap, and with Dallas having waived its right to trade him or use the franchise tag to keep him, the quarterback could be a candidate for the first $60 million APY in league history.

“If the guy wants $60 million a year, you know what we are going to do instead?” an exec from another team hypothesized. “We are going to have an average team, and you are going to play worse and we are going to get you at a better price.”

Owner Jerry Jones is known for paying his own players to a fault. Prescott signed his current deal only five months after suffering a season-ending broken ankle. It carried the No. 2 APY in league history at the time.

NFL league links

Articles

Pro Football Talk

NFL works with college presidents to form “Super League”

The NCAA is dead. The long-overdue reckoning has killed it. The powers-that-be know it’s time to move on. They’re trying to, with the only solution that can introduce control into the chaos that has become college football.

Andrew Marchand and Stewart Mandel of TheAthletic.com report that a group of college presidents, working with NFL executive Brian Rolapp and others, are trying to form what is being called a “Super League.”

The current system would be blown up. The conferences would fold. The playoff system would go extinct. In their place would be a league with 70 fixed teams and 10 others that will be subject to relegation and promotion from the remaining 60 schools.

The “Super League” would have eight 10-team divisions, with the division winners and eight wild-cards qualifying for a 16-team playoff.

College football would essentially become pro football. Which it already is, without the levers and protections that create stability for the teams.

The idea would be to embrace a unionized workforce, which would legitimize rules that, in the absence of a multi-employer bargaining unit, are antitrust violations that have been hiding in plain sight, for years. Now that one case after another is proving these violations of federal law — and racking up potential liability that currently exceeds $5 billion and counting — those who get it know that college football needs to break glass in event of emergency, because emergency has arrived.

“The current model for governing and managing college athletics is dead,” Syracuse chancellor Kent Syverud said.

“We are in an existential crisis,” added West Virginia president Gordon Gee told TheAthletic.com.

“I really think conferences in the NCAA are at a very significant likelihood of going bankrupt in the near future because of the lawsuits, both the ones that are going to trial soon and those that will follow,” Syverud told TheAthletic.com.

It won’t be easy. Many within the structure will resist. They’ll resist because they’ll still refuse to realize it’s the only way out of the mess they’ve created and maintained. Those who just don’t get it need to get out of the way, before it’s too late for the entire sport.

The Athletic (paywall)

2024 NFL mock draft: What sources say about Williams, Daniels, McCarthy and other prospects

My aim with this project is to provide unique insight directly from the rival coaches who have scouted, game-planned for and then faced each of these prospects. Those sources, granted anonymity to speak freely about the prospects, know exactly what they’re dealing with and what they’ve tried to do to them in real game situations.

2. Washington Commanders: Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU

This group of quarterbacks has had some wild journeys in college. Daniels left an imploding Arizona State program for the SEC, where he turned some heads with a strong debut season in 2022. The following season, he put up staggering numbers and won the Heisman. In 2021 at Arizona State, he threw 10 touchdowns and just as many picks. Last year at LSU, he threw 40 touchdowns and four picks, running for 10 more TDs and over 1,100 yards. Colleague Alec Lewis had a terrific story on the high-tech German VR flight simulator that helped spark Daniels’ special season.

Daniels has a tight repeatable release to go with unbelievable feet and the ability to stay balanced. Where LSU coaches saw the most growth was in his trust in his progressions. Daniels isn’t as thick as Williams or as big as other QBs in this draft. He arrived from ASU at a wiry 187 pounds, but he played at 207 pounds last year.

The Coaching Intel

“I tell people this: Outside of Patrick Mahomes, I haven’t coached against someone like this. He’s just very hard to defend. We tried to force him to run it to take it out of his hands. The throws he makes and the timing he has, I thought was second to none. He throws the deep ball extremely accurately.”

“As a junior (in 2022), he would just hang onto the ball, but he got so much better playing quarterback. Without him, with as bad as they were on defense, I think they’d win six games. Tops. If there’s a concern if you’re an NFL team, it’s that he will take some shots and he is narrow. How well will he hold up?”

“He improved a lot. He’s a really good deep ball thrower with more than above-average arm strength. Those 15-, 20-yard touch throws were better than I thought. He didn’t look like he was that fast, but he just glides and runs by people, and he outruns their angles. Florida wasn’t very good last year but they still had team speed, and even when they had angles on him, he’d run by them. When you eyeball him before the game, he doesn’t look very big, but he’d lower his shoulder and could take punishment.”

3. New England Patriots: Drake Maye, QB, North Carolina

The Patriots figure to get some offers for this pick, but as they begin the post-Bill Belichick era, passing on a franchise quarterback will be tough. Maye is a very gifted prospect. The 6-foot-4, 223-pounder didn’t put up as impressive of a stat line in 2023 (63 percent completion rate, 24 TDs, 9 INTs) as he did in 2022 (66 percent completion rate, 38 TDs, 7 INTs), but it should be noted that he was transitioning to a different system. It also didn’t help that UNC’s O-line hasn’t been great throughout his time as the starter.

Maye did struggle late in 2023. In UNC’s only two games against ranked opponents, he completed 51 percent of his passes with three touchdowns and three interceptions in a pair of double-digit road losses: one at NC State, the other at Clemson. The feedback I received was really mixed, reflecting a younger quarterback who has a smaller sample size than the rest of the first-round crop.

The Coaching Intel

“Really good arm. Love his pocket presence. His awareness of where all the rushers are — whether it was four, five or six (coming) — was off the charts. It made him hard to pass rush. Any risk you took, whether it was going above and trying to turn the corner, or going inside, he felt it and was able to expose you. He could make you pay on just about anything you do. Pretty soon, he’d force you into pass rushing without aggression. He was really hard to deal with. I wouldn’t say he’s Trevor (Lawrence) but he’s probably the best we’ve seen since Trevor.”

“I think he could be a better quarterback than Caleb Williams if you can protect him. He throws the s— out of it, but the last two years we could tell that he really doesn’t like all that stuff around him. He gets a little bit scared back there, in my opinion. He is a good athlete, big, really good arm. But I thought (former UNC QB) Sam Howell was a tougher kid. He’s not as talented as Drake Maye. Sam could run it but he would stay in that pocket and be effective. But I didn’t think Kenny Pickett was worth a s— and he got drafted in the first round.”

“He checks all the boxes. Can roll left, can roll right; can be on the wrong foot, can throw off-platform. He’s great laterally. Was very busy with his feet earlier in his career; he got better quieting that down. That seemed to help his decision making and accuracy, but it looked like he regressed with that and got a little erratic.”

“Preseason, I was super impressed watching him on film. He played pretty good against us. He wasn’t super accurate. I think there were growing pains with his footwork and fundamentals, trying to adjust to a new system.”

4. Minnesota Vikings (from ARI*): J.J. McCarthy, QB, Michigan

Kirk Cousins is off to Atlanta. Kevin O’Connell needs a new quarterback to utilize a talented group of receivers. I hear the Vikings are very interested in McCarthy, who went 27-1 as the Wolverines starter and led Michigan to the national title last year. The 6-2 1/2, 219-pound McCarthy didn’t put up the gaudy stats that the rest of these first-round quarterbacks did, but he operated in a different system and has honed pro-style footwork after three years in Jim Harbaugh’s system. There were also several conference games in which he played just one series in the second half of a blowout win.

In two seasons as Michigan’s starter, McCarthy threw 44 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He’s got good wheels, too, having run for nine touchdowns and more than 500 yards. His agility showed up in Indianapolis, where he posted a 6.82 3-cone drill time — sixth fastest among all players at the combine and best by a quarterback in five years. His completion rate improved from below 65 percent to over 72 percent last year. He put some more air on his deep ball, making him more accurate. Michigan coaches loved his leadership skills and his demeanor, with one saying: “He doesn’t have a bad day. And if he does, he doesn’t let anybody know it, and that’s the mark of a good leader.” Even more impressive, coaches say, is his intellect and his understanding of coverage. After a drive, his coaches would ask what the coverages were, “and he’d be exactly right.”

The Coaching Intel

“I think too many people are getting caught up trying to look at box scores instead of watching film. He makes a lot of plays for them after the play breaks down. There’s some ‘wow’ stuff in there. He’s on a dead sprint, and he makes some perfect throws. When he has to get out and make a play, he can really do it.”

“We thought he throws a little bit of a flat ball and you wouldn’t see much of him layering it in there. But he’s really dynamic. You wanted to keep him in the pocket but he’d still get out whenever they needed him to, and he’s great throwing on the run. He could get out to his left or his right and get you, but especially going to his right.”

“I thought he was great. You could tell he was the alpha male on that team from a leadership standpoint. He was coached up well on how to make throws and make the decisions very fast. He throws very well on the run. He did have a really good O-line and a good defense, but we didn’t think their wide receivers were great, and he made it all go.”

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