Category: Washington

REPORT: Commanders sign former Steelers star WR Martavis Bryant

According to a report, the Washington #Commanders signed former Pittsburgh #Steelers star Martavis Bryant.

The Washington Commanders made waves on Tuesday morning by signing former Pittsburgh Steelers star wide receiver Martavis Bryant after their loss to the New York Jets in preseason action over the weekend.

Bryant, who was once considered to be among the NFL’s most exciting pass-catchers, has been in and out of the league for years after suspensions derailed his meteoric rise to stardom in the 2010s.

He was a member of the Dallas Cowboys practice squad last season but was released on May 8 shortly after the 2024 NFL draft.

The news of Bryant’s signing with Washington was reported by league insider Adam Schefter on Twitter:

It is unclear what Bryant’s role in the Commander’s offense would be if he makes Washington’s 53-man roster.

The veteran’s return to the NFL has the potential to be a major storyline heading into the regular season if he stands out during the Commanders’ remaining exhibition matchups over the next few weeks.

Jayden Daniels’ first NFL preseason completion goes for 42 yards

Jayden Daniels with a deep completion for the Commanders

The Washington Commanders received instant gratification — okay it is the preseason — from first-round pick Jayden Daniels.

In Saturday’s game against the New York Jets, the Heisman winner from LSU went deep on a third-and-six.

Forty-two yards later, the pass found Dyami Brown.

And then his first NFL touchdown.

Washington Commanders’ most underrated player: LB Frankie Luvu

Frankie Luvu is one of the NFL’s best and most versatile linebackers, and the Commanders got him in a steal of a deal.

The 2023 Commanders were absolutely abysmal on defense despite a slew of top talent, which leaves the goat horns on former head coach Ron Rivera and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio. To stem the tide, Washington hired Dan Quinn as their new head coach, and Quinn has a long history of turning defenses around. One of the primary instigators of that campaign is sure to be former Jets and Panthers linebacker Frankie Luvu, who signed a three-year, $31 million contract with $14,625 million guaranteed.

Not that anyone would turn down those numbers, but if you ask me, the Commanders got a major bargain here. Luvu will be the tone-setter for the Commanders’ defense just as he was for the Panthers in 2023. Then, he totaled seven sacks, 20 total pressures, 84 solo tackles, 10 tackles for loss, and he proved more than able to break off into coverage. In an era when linebackers have to do just about everything if they want to stick and stay as superstars, Luvu is already one of those rare beings. 

Why Jayden Daniels is a great fit in Kliff Kingsbury’s Commanders offense

Second overall pick Jayden Daniels could have a serious NFL head start in Kliff Kingsbury’s Washington Commanders offense.

New Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury has certainly coached his share of athletically amazing quarterbacks. He had that Patrick Mahomes guy at Texas Tech from 2014 through 2017, and Baker Mayfield for a year before that. He had Kyler Murray from 2019 through 2022 when Kingsbury was the Arizona Cardinals’ head coach, and Murray was the first overall pick in the 2019 draft. Last season as USC’s senior offensive analyst, he worked closely with 2024 first overall pick Caleb Williams.

Now, Kingsbury gets to work with 2024 second overall pick Jayden Daniels as his new franchise quarterback, and when you look at Kingsbury’s offenses over the years at Arizona, the fit could be fascinating.

First of all, Kingsbury wasn’t always beholden to spread concepts. Yes, the Cardinals ranked first in usage of 10 personnel in his first year there (a whopping 32%), but by 2022, Arizona was running barely any four-receiver stuff — this was now an 11 personnel team with more two-tight end formations than anybody would have expected. There were a few things Kingsbury wanted to do with Murray that he couldn’t always do, but Daniels should be able to fill those roles more than estimably.

We’ll start with quarterback draws, which Murray could do pretty well, and Daniels can do to an extreme degree. Last season, Daniels had 12 quarterback draw runs, and got plays of 12, 14, 17, 27, 35, and 40 yards out of them.

Most of the time, Arizona’s fade balls were disasters. They weren’t throws Murray was comfortable making, and as a result, Murray’s receivers were in bad placed to catch them more often than not. When I watched tape with Daniels last December (the day before he won the Heisman Trophy), we specifically discussed his amazing accuracy with fade balls. Because he’s a better fade thrower than anybody else in this class, and there aren’t many NFL quarterbacks to rival Daniels’ oeuvre in this regard.

Daniels is also a much better progression passer than you might expect, especially from the pocket. This is not a quarterback who bails when things get tricky. Last season from the pocket, Daniels completed 208 of 288 passes for 3,311 yards, 1,802 air yards, 35 touchdowns, four interceptions, and a passer rating of 144.0. No other NCAA quarterback had a better passer rating from the pocket than Daniels did, so before you rush to judge him as a run-around guy just because he’s an athletic freak… well, there’s more on the ball here than you might have recognized. And his average throw depth from the pocket was 9.8 yards, so this wasn’t dink-and-dunk.

“What’s great about Kliff is he can really mold the offense around anyone,” Commanders general manager Adam Peters said of the new combination. “He’s gonna build the offense around Jayden. And he’s worked with a lot of athletic quarterbacks, so he knows how to do that and there’s some terminology carry over… They’ve discussed a little bit of that, so they’re already vibing, and it’s gonna be a really great marriage with him and really all of our offensive coaches.”

The vibe could be quite something when it manifests itself on the field.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: The best offensive scheme fits in the 2024 NFL draft

From Jayden Daniels to Xavier Worthy, Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar get into the best offensive scheme fits from the 2024 NFL draft.

There are at least two stages of evaluation when dealing with draft prospects. There’s the work you do watching tape of a player in a vacuum pre-draft, when you’re looking at a player’s attributes and liabilities overall. Then, when the player is drafted, you’re trying to figure out why the team selected the player, and how that player best fits in his new home from a schematic and performance perspective.

With the 2024 NFL draft in the rearview, it’s time for Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire and the USA Today Sports Media Group, to determine the best scheme fits from this class.

Greg and Doug begin on the offensive side of the ball, with these players:

  • Jayden Daniels, QB, Washington Commanders
  • Bo Nix, QB, Denver Broncos
  • Troy Franklin, WR, Denver Broncos
  • Blake Corum, RB, Los Angeles Rams
  • Jonathon Brooks, RB, Carolina Panthers
  • Brian Thomas Jr., WR, Jacksonville Jaguars
  • Xavier Worthy, WR, Kansas City Chiefs
  • Ladd McConkey, WR, Los Angeles Chargers
  • Kimani Vidal, RB, Los Angeles Chargers

You can watch this week’s Xs and Os right here:

You can also listen and subscrive to the Xs and Os podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Washington Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu embraces the underdog mentality

Frankie Luvu has been an underdog his entire career, and continues to embrace that mentality heading into his first season with the Washington Commanders

Frankie Luvu may very well be the most underrated linebacker in the NFL, and is arguably the most underappreciated player in the league, period.

The veteran linebacker is heading into his seventh season in the NFL, and his first with the Washington Commanders after putting pen to paper on a three-year, $36 million dollar deal.

Speaking on his new contract, and new team, Luvu tells Touchdown Wire that the plans in store for him, as well as the overall outlook of the franchise, made Washington his ultimate destination.

“Just the opportunity and what they have planned for me,” Luvu said. “The culture. Talking to the coaching staff and everyone now that I’m here, I know they’ll know how to utilize me in every way in this defense.”

Luvu added that playing for new head coach and defensive guru Dan Quinn is something that he is very much looking forward to in this new endeavor with Washington.

“Man, I can’t wait,” Luvu said with an excited grin. “Everybody speaks highly of him, and rightfully so. You see what he’s done with the guys that he’s had over the last few seasons in Dallas, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but under his wing.”

Luvu isn’t the only linebacker Washington added to the middle of their defense, though. The Commanders signed future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner to play alongside Luvu — a move that has the former Carolina Panther very galvanized.

“Bobby is the epitome of what it means to be a linebacker in this league,” Luvu said. “How he walks in the building, his habits, how he takes care of his body, how he watches tape- what more can I ask for in a guy to come in and learn from? To pick his mind and better my mind, make myself better. Every day, we’re in the room competing, talking, and building that bond and chemistry, and it’s an absolute blessing to be in that room with him.”

Luvu spent the previous three years of his career with the Carolina Panthers. While there was constant turnover in terms of head coaches and quarterbacks, Luvu doesn’t have a bad word to say about his time in Charlotte.

“I can say I had a good time in Carolina,” Luvu said. “The relationships I built out there with all the coaches, all my teammates- I’ll always have love for them, as well as the organization and the city of Charlotte. I look at every year as a blessing. I had three years out there to build my name and build my brand. And because of that, I have new opportunities in Washington where I feel like the sky is the limit.”

Luvu has consistently been one of the league’s top off-ball linebackers. He finished last season in the top 25 in total tackles and once agin being one of PFF’s highest rated linebackers with an overall grade of 80. Despite his production, though, few seem to mention him in the same breath as the Fred Warners and Roquan Smiths of the NFL — something that Luvu himself says just adds more fuel to his fire.

“That’s just another chip on my shoulder, man,” Luvu said. “I came in undrafted and now I’m going into my seventh year in the league. I’ve been an underdog, doubted, counted out my whole life. That’s just the type of mentality I’ve had, and what’s got me this far. So when I see the headlines of ‘underrated linebacker,’ that’s just more wood to the fire for me.”

Not only is Luvu a perennial underdog, so too is his new squad. The Commanders haven’t won more than 10 games in a season since 1991, a streak that the Washington State product and the rest of the veterans on the team are hoping to break.

“I truly believe we’ve got a good squad,” Luvu said. “Having Bobby in there, Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne, Jeremy Chinn. Plus on offense you bring in a guy like Austin Ekeler, who is one of those top guys at the running back position, Terry McLaurin- we have the guys. Now it’s just a matter of us being able to put it all together. Vets like myself and those names I just mentioned, we just have to lead from the front.”

The Commanders will all but certainly be riding the hand of a rookie quarterback this season, which will have its own set of built-in challenges. However, if the team can lean on their defensive stars and whomever their rookie quarterback is can make enough plays to win games, who’s to say they can’t have ride all the way to surprising the NFL with a playoff berth?

Commanders bag two underrated defensive stars in Frankie Luvu, Dorance Armstrong

The Commanders added two underrated stars to their defense in linebacker Frankie Luvu and edge-rusher Dorance Armstrong.

The Washington Commanders hired Dan Quinn as their new head coach in part because they saw the need to re-define a defense that struggled (to put it kindly) last season under defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio and head coach Ron Rivera last season.

The Commanders worked to give Quinn two outstanding and underrated defenders in the first wave of free agency, agreeing to terms with former Carolina Panthers linebacker Frankie Luvu and ex-Dallas Cowboys pass-rusher Dorance Armstrong.

Luvu was one of my favorite player in this free agent class because the more you watch his tape, the more you’re stumped on the things he can’t do as a linebacker. Last season, he played 56% of his snaps at inside ‘backer, 23% outside, and the rest at the line of scrimmage as either a stand-up rusher or as a blitzer. Luvu had seven sacks, 20 total pressures, 84 solo tackles, 47 stops, 10 tackles for loss, and he was great in coverage when asked to do that. If you need a green dot guy in the middle of your defense, there’s nobody better (or more versatile) in this free agency class. He’ll be an ideal fit for what Quinn wants to do with his defense.

 

Of course, Quinn already knows that Armstrong is a great fit for what he wants to do. The Cowboys selected Armstrong in the fourth round of the 2018 draft out of Kansas, and he became a force under Quinn, who was Dallas’ defensive coordinator over the last three seasons. Micah Parsons was the talk of the Cowboys’ pass rush, and justifiably so, but Armstrong racked up nine sacks and 35 total pressures last season — one year after amassing nine sacks and 43 total pressures in 2022. No one-year wonder, he.

The Commanders have a lot of work still to do on that side of the ball, especially in a secondary that might lose cornerback Kendall Fuller and Kameron Curl in free agency. But the first wave of Quinn Guys has what it takes.

Commanders’ hire of Dan Quinn is yet another positive for formerly dysfunctional franchise

The Washington Commanders’ hire of Dan Quinn as their new head coach is yet another positive step for this formerly dysfunctional franchise.

And then, the 2023-2024 head coaching cycle was complete.

The Washington Commanders, who fired former head coach Ron Rivera after four disappointing seasons, have made former Atlanta Falcons head coach and Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn their man. The Commanders were the last NFL team to hire a head coach, and it should point to significant improvement on the defensive side of the ball right away.

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Under Rivera and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, Washington’s defense was a crazy quilt of bad design and execution, where busted coverages were the order of the day.

Washington Commanders had no choice but to fire defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio

Quinn, throughout his stops as a defensive coach — the Seattle Seahawks’ “Legion of Boom” defense was at its peak in 2013 and 2014 when Quinn ran it — has had a knack for making the most out of his players on that side of the ball, and that was the case for the Cowboys as he built that defense over the last three seasons.

As the Atlanta Falcons’ head coach from 2015 through 2020, Quinn compiled a 43-42 regular-season record and a 3-2 postseason mark. The 2016 season was obviously Quinn’s marquee year in Atlanta — quarterback Matt Ryan won the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award with Kyle Shanahan as his offensive coordinator, and the Falcons had a 28-3 lead over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI before everything went very far south.

Quinn is known as a players’ coach who builds consensus and understands the psychology of the roster. We’ll see how the staff plays out, but between this hire and a non-Daniel Snyder ownership group — not to mention the second overall pick in the 2024 draft and a league-high $62,595,334 in effective salary cap space for the 2024 season — things are turning around in the nation’s capital as they haven’t in a long time.

The perfect head coaching candidates for each vacancy

The perfect head coaching candidate for every current vacancy around the NFL.

There have been a plethora of teams around the NFL that decided to move on from their now former head coaches. From the totally expected to the outright shocking, there are currently eight head coaching vacancies around the NFL- each one with a candidate that could help turn their tides.

Side note: I don’t think Bill Belichick or Mike Vrabel take any current vacancy.

4-Down Territory: Most, least serious wild-card teams, Secret Superstars, new coaches

In this week’s “4-Down Territory,” the guys get into most and least serious wild-card teams, Secret Superstars, and new head coaches they’d like to see.

Now that the 2023 NFL regular season is over, and it’s Super Wild-Card Weekend, it’s time once again for Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, and Kyle Madson of Niners Wire, to come to the table with their own unique brand of analysis in “4-Down Territory.”

This week, the guys have some serious questions to answer:

  1. Which wild-card team should be taken most seriously for a Super Bowl run?
  2. Which wild-card team should be taken least seriously?
  3. Who’s your Secret Superstar for the wild-card round?
  4. Which assistant coach would you most like to get a vacant head coaching job?

You can watch this week’s “4-Down Territory” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “4-Down Territory” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.