Tag: free agency

Where are the Commanders in ESPN’s post-draft power rankings?

Did the Commanders rise in the latest post-draft power rankings?

The 2024 NFL draft is over. NFL teams are now in the third phase of their offseason program and will have a mandatory minicamp next month before breaking for training camp in July.

NFL rosters are mostly set unless a team releases a veteran in a salary-cap move. This gives other teams a chance to add a potential starter, much like Washington did in 2021 with Charles Leno Jr. and Bobby McCain.

With 90-man rosters set, ESPN released its first power rankings since the NFL draft. After adding quarterback Jayden Daniels, did the Commanders move up in the power rankings?

Washington received plenty of praise for its draft haul and free-agency signings.

ESPN has the Commanders at No. 27, which is higher than where they ended the 2023 season. ESPN’s John Keim said Washington’s most improved position this offseason is at linebacker:

For the long term, they’re in a better spot at quarterback with Jayden Daniels. But he remains an unknown in the NFL. So for right now the Commanders improved their linebacking play considerably by adding Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu. Wagner might not be a Pro Bowl, three-down linebacker anymore, but he led the NFL in tackles (183) last season, and Luvu’s pass-rush ability — 12 combined sacks the past two years and 29 tackles for loss — will provide a boost.

It’s indisputable that linebacker is Washington’s most improved spot. Former first-round pick Jamin Davis is not a starter after the additions of Luvu and Wagner. Davis will have a role, but it will not be as an every-down linebacker.

The future looks good for the Commanders, but, as Keim noted, Daniels remains an unknown until he proves himself on the field. If Daniels is the player that Washington thinks he is, the Commanders are in excellent shape for the foreseeable future.

 

 

Free agency: Four players who hurt their stock in the playoffs

HoopsHype breaks down four impending NBA free agents who hurt their value, stock with their 2023-24 playoff performances.

Very often, an impending NBA free agent will get hot in the playoffs and up their value heading into the offseason when they can negotiate for a new contract.

Unfortunately, the opposite can also occur where a player who’s about to hit free agency will perform poorly in the playoffs and cost himself up to millions of dollars in free agency.

Below, we discuss four players we believe hurt their value, or stock, heading into 2024 free agency.

49ers roster: Most improved position group on defense

The 49ers most improved position group on defense isn’t hard to find.

The 49ers’ defense was good in 2023, but it lacked some of the edge that came to define that unit beginning in the 2019 campaign. Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks was let go this offseason and replaced with first-time coordinator Nick Sorensen in an effort to get San Francisco’s defense back on track. That wasn’t the only change that needed to be made though.

There was a personnel problem for the 49ers as well that sparked some of their defensive woes, particularly along the defensive line. It was clear they needed upgrades up front and they addressed those needs often during the offseason, making their defensive line the most improved position group.

Defensive end Nick Bosa didn’t put up another Defensive Player of the Year campaign, but despite notching just 10.5 sacks he was still excellent as an edge setter against the run and at pressuring quarterbacks. The pressures just didn’t turn into sacks as often as they had in the previous two seasons where Bosa averaged 17.0 sacks per year.

Defensive tackle Javon Hargrave was also good despite not reaching the lofty standards he’d set with a dominant 2022 campaign for the Eagles.

Beyond that the 49ers had a ton of trouble finding production from their defensive line, which spurred a dramatic overhaul up front in the offseason.

DL Arik Armstead was released after not agreeing to a pay cut to stay with the 49ers. Neither DE Chase Young nor DE Randy Gregory were re-signed. DT Javon Kinlaw also exited in free agency.

With glaring needs up front, San Francisco signed Browns free agent DT Jordan Elliott and added DT Maliek Collins in a trade with the Texans. Both players have good track records as run stuffers which should help the 49ers shore up a run defense that got torched in the postseason.

They also secured DEs Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos in free agency to help lead the way in front of unproven players like Drake Jackson and Robert Beal Jr.

Floyd has consistently produced with at least 9.0 sacks in each of the last four seasons, while Gross-Matos offers the same type of versatility and upside that made Charles Omenihu such a valuable player for them in 2021 and 2022.

Adding proven veterans was something the 49ers didn’t do on the defensive front last year and it forced them to try and fix it on the fly mid-season. Now they’ve aimed to fix it in the offseason, and on paper it appears that group will be their most improved in 2024.

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Commanders LB Bobby Wagner almost reunited with Dan Quinn in Dallas

Bobby Wagner came close to reuniting with Dan Quinn in Dallas.

Now that Bobby Wagner is a Washington Commander, could you imagine him in a Dallas Cowboys uniform?

It almost happened. Quinn was the Dallas defensive coordinator for the past three seasons before accepting the head coaching position in Washington this offseason.

In the past two offseasons, the Cowboys had a need at linebacker, and Wagner was a free agent both years. For the first time in 2022, the Seahawks released Wagner in a salary cap move. He signed with the Los Angeles Rams, where he put together another All-Pro season before they released him in a cost-cutting move in 2023.

He chose a return to Seattle, where he had yet another excellent season.

This offseason, the Seahawks had a new coach. Wagner’s longtime head coach, Pete Carroll, was gone, and he was a free agent. A return to the Seahawks was not in the cards this time, so the stars aligned for a Wagner and Quinn reunion.

In an appearance on “Up & Adams” with Kay Adams, Wagner explained why he chose the Commanders and how he negotiated with the Cowboys, but the two sides couldn’t agree to a deal.

“I had a ton of respect for him from afar,” Wagner said. “We actually tried to make it happen a couple of times, but it just didn’t work out structurally from a contract perspective. But we finally got it right. Him as a person, him as a leader has always been amazing.”

Wagner spoke of being from the West Coast, playing college football out West, and all 12 seasons of his NFL career in the Pacific Time Zone. So, coming to the East Coast, he wanted to be around some familiar faces, which he’d have in Washington with Quinn and linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr.

Quinn was Wagner’s defensive coordinator for the first two seasons of his NFL career. In Wagner’s second season, the Seahawks won a Super Bowl. Wagner then called Norton his favorite coach of all time. Norton was Wagner’s linebacker coach for three seasons and his defensive coordinator for another four seasons.

Wagner also discussed his connection with quarterback Jayden Daniels and being from the same area.

Wagner is excited to be with the Commanders in 2024 and is one of the team’s most important players, both on and off the field.

PFF says Andrew Wylie is Commanders’ most underrated player

PFF says Andrew Wylie is underrated.

Who is the Washington Commanders’ most underrated player? If you ask 20 people, you’d likely get 15 different answers, but one answer you wouldn’t get is right tackle Andrew Wylie.

Pro Football Focus thinks otherwise.

PFF recently named one underrated player on all 32 NFL teams, and Wylie was Washington’s pick. Here’s what PFF said about Wylie:

Wylie came over from Kansas City with offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy to play right tackle for the Commanders. Although he gave up a sack in each of his first four games with Washington, Wylie got better as the season went on and eventually earned a 69.2 PFF overall grade — a career-high mark for him on his way to ranking 16th among right tackles.

PFF’s grading system is often controversial. The grades are helpful but don’t always tell the complete story. If you watched all 17 Washington games last season, you’d know Wylie wasn’t very good. Was he as bad as some fans thought? Maybe not, but it was difficult to call the right tackle position a strength.

General manager Adam Peters didn’t replace Wylie this offseason, and he had plenty of cap room to do so. Finding an answer at left tackle was a more significant issue, and the Commanders only addressed that by re-signing veteran swing tackle Cornelius Lucas and selecting Brandon Coleman in the third round of the 2024 NFL draft.

Will Wylie be better in 2024? Peters and the new coaching staff believe so.

 

Former Panthers WR Damiere Byrd signing with Commanders

Former Panthers WR Damiere Byrd has landed in the nation’s capital.

Ron Rivera may be out from the nation’s capital, but perhaps Marty Hurney still has some pull within the Washington Commanders organization.

As first reported by Bleacher Report NFL insider Jordan Schultz on Wednesday, the Commanders are signing former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Damiere Byrd.

Byrd initially joined the Panthers as an undrafted free agent out of the University of South Carolina in 2015. His first stint with the team lasted for three seasons, a run yielded 12 receptions for 129 yards and two touchdowns over 17 games.

He’d move on to four different teams over the next four seasons—picking up stops with the Arizona Cardinals, New England Patriots, Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons between 2019 and 2022.

The 30-year-old pass catcher rejoined the Panthers on a one-year deal last spring. Byrd would then be released in late August after sustaining a hamstring injury.

His most recent stop came with the Houston Texans, whom he joined during their playoff run this past January.

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Panthers GM Dan Morgan: ‘We’re still in contact with some other cornerbacks’

Dan Morgan on finding a No. 2 CB: “We’re still in contact with some other cornerbacks that you guys may know.”

The Carolina Panthers are still on the prowl.

President of football operations and general manager Dan Morgan joined WFNZ’s The Kyle Bailey Show on Tuesday to talk about his first offseason at the helm. Host Kyle Bailey asked Morgan if he’s hoping to find a more solidified starter at cornerback to pair with Jaycee Horn.

“You wish you could fix everything little thing in one offseason. But sometimes, that’s not the reality,” he replied. “Now, we’re gonna try to do so. But sometimes, it doesn’t always work out the way that you want it to.

“But we’re really excited about some of the guys that we do have on the roster. Dane Jackson—we signed him in free agency. We re-signed Troy Hill. We have D’Shawn Jamison. We have [Dicaprio] Bootle. So there’s some guys that we are excited about. But that’s not to say we’re not gonna be aggressive to attack the waiver wire. We’re still in contact with some other corners that you guys may know about.”

One of the guys we may know about is probably five-time Pro Bowler and 2019 Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore. The Rock Hill, S.C. native has been linked to the Panthers over the past handful of weeks, even by Morgan himself.

He continued.

“So, yeah, we’re gonna be aggressive,” Morgan added. “We’re gonna try to make this roster the best that it can be, to be as competitive as it can be this season. But we also are gonna be smart. We definitely have a plan and we’re gonna do things the right way.”

Some other notable free-agent corners include Xavien Howard, Adoree’ Jackson and Steven Nelson.

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