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SB Nation    •   52 min read

Daily Slop - 22 Jul 25 - Von Miller goes one-on-one; Frankie Luvu breaks into NFL top-100 list

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Washington Post (paywall)

Von Miller: ‘I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be’ with Commanders

The 36-year-old pass rusher and Super Bowl 50 MVP signed a one-year, $6.1 million deal with Washington ahead of training camp.

“I hate not knowing what’s about to happen next, but at the same time, it creates this inner peace in me where I can only control what I can control and I can be present. It just puts more

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emphasis on the now, to be great right now. Nothing in life happens by coincidence, so I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

Miller said he met with other teams. But when he flew to Northern Virginia in June to meet with Coach Dan Quinn and General Manager Adam Peters, he became more familiar with the answer to his problem. Quarterback Jayden Daniels joined their lunch at the upscale Ashburn steakhouse Eddie Merlot’s.

“It was the best team with the best quarterback,” Miller said. “That’s usually the math for me to be able to go and do what I do.”

But there was more that figured into this one for Miller.

The NFL’s active sack leader (129½) has a slew of records on his resume — the most sacks in Broncos history (110½); the most career earnings of any defensive player in NFL history (approximately $192 million, per Spotrac); and the most career sacks in Super Bowls, tying Charles Haley (4½) — to all but ensure he has a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Miller is hungry for more.

“You can’t leave Josh Allen and just go anywhere,” Miller said of Buffalo’s QB. “You can’t leave your old girlfriend and just go with just anybody. Like, Josh Allen was MVP of the league last year. I feel like Jayden Daniels has MVP potential as well.”

Commanders.com

Five things to know about Von Miller

2. He’s a self-proclaimed nerd.

Miller isn’t the stereotypical football player who only lives and breathes football. That’s certainly a key part of his life, but he has other interests as well, including video games, books and the Discovery Channel. He even described himself as “a geek” in a 2016 ESPN article.

“I had glasses, I had a ducktail, my mom would dress me funny,” **Miller said.** “I was smart, I was good at video games, I read books, I watched the Discovery Channel. I was good at sports, but I was a geek.”

Earlier that year, Miller went into further detail on his nerdy interests. In an article from The Players’ Tribune titled, “Nerd,” Miller discussed what it was like to be a skinny kid wearing glasses and trying to play football in one of the biggest high school hubs for the sport in the country. It includes commentary from some of his best friends who said he looked like Snoopy from “Charlie Brown” with his RecSpecs. They talked about how Miller was interested in sci-fi films and would prefer to watch National Geographic before the AFC Championship game.

“Biggest game of this dude’s life coming up, and he’s talking about the Dodo Bird,” said Damontre Moore, former Miami Dolphins defensive end. “Then he put on a documentary about coral reefs. He was so adamant about it.”

Check out the article yourself for a better look at Miller’s take on being a nerd.

ESPN

D.C. mayor ‘focused’ on Commanders stadium deal despite Trump threats

“This is what I believe,” Bowser told ESPN in an interview Monday. “I’ve had the opportunity to speak on a couple of different occasions with the president about this site and about our team. And I can say this without equivocation: He is a Jayden Daniels fan, and he said himself, and the presser we were at, that this is probably the best site of any site he’s seen for a stadium. I have to think that that’s what I’ve heard him say, and that’s what we’ll stick with.”

“Let me be clear, we’re on the 1-yard line and it’s time to get over the line,” she said. “I can’t even imagine having to start all over on this. There’s nobody waiting in the wings with $2.7 billion. And so this stadium is a catalyst, and it will attract other investments. Any impediment to it getting done should be discouraged. When you’re on the 1-yard line, you want to carry it over, right? That’s all you want. No fumbles, no interceptions — let’s just get it over the line. And that’s what we’re focused on.”

ESPN

Ranking 2025 NFL rosters: Best projected starting lineups

7. Washington Commanders

Biggest strength: Off-ball linebacker. It was tempting to pick Jayden Daniels and the quarterbacks, but the terrific Bobby Wagner/Frankie Luvu duo is too good to pass up. Wagner is entering his age-35 season, but he has shown almost no signs of drop-off, ranking in the top 10 among off-ball LBs in pass rush wins, tackles for loss and QB hits last season. Luvu is the only NFL player with 250-plus tackles and 20.0-plus sacks over the past three seasons. (He has 335 and 21.0, respectively.) The duo combined to play 98.2% of Washington’s defensive snaps last season. — Clay

Biggest weakness: Safety. It was a toss-up between this and edge rusher, but Luvu’s pass-rushing contributions pushed me toward safety. Jeremy Chinn is gone and set to be replaced by journeyman Will Harris, who will work opposite Quan Martin. Percy Butler is returning as competition at the position, too. None of these players posted a quality PFF grade in recent seasons. — Clay

X factor for 2025: Cornerback Marshon Lattimore. In his limited time with Washington last season, Lattimore didn’t look like the top-flight corner he has been in the past ... but the Commanders need him to be. The pass rush is a serious concern, and Washington will need Lattimore, Mike Sainristil and rookie Trey Amos to lock down opposing wide receivers for as long as possible. — Walder

Nonstarter to know: Wide receiver Luke McCaffrey. McCaffrey didn’t get as much playing time as expected in his rookie season, finishing with 18 catches for 168 yards and minus-12.7% receiving DVOA. However, he comes from an NFL family and entered the league with an 86.8% playmaker rating, which ranked eighth in the excellent 2024 receiver class. He is similar in style and usage to Deebo Samuel Sr., which is a problem because the Commanders just acquired the actual Samuel. But if Samuel gets hurt, don’t be surprised if McCaffrey succeeds as his replacement. — Schatz

NFL.com

Top 100 Players of 2025, Nos. 70-69: Frankie Luvu, Jordan Mailata voted to all-star list for first time

No. 70 - Frankie Luvu - Washington Commanders · LB

2024 stats: 17 games | 99 tackles | 12 tfl | 8.0 sacks | 14 QBH | 7 PD | 1 FF

In his first season with the Commanders, Luvu was a perfect fit in Dan Quinn’s defense. Luvu was a force in Washington’s front seven, recording career highs in sacks and QB hits. Luvu makes his first Top 100 appearance, and he’ll have an opportunity to continue his high-level play as he enters his eighth season in the league.

NFL Pro Insight for Luvu: Frankie Luvu was the only player to record over 200 snaps rushing the passer (213), in run defense (450), and in coverage (342) in 2024. Luvu generated the fourth-most pressures among off-ball linebackers (29) and his 27.6% pressure-to-sack conversion rate was the second-highest in the NFL (min. 25 pressures).

Riggo’s Rag

Good luck to defenders trying to tackle Commanders’ Deebo Samuel in 2025

“He’s so explosive, really good at acceleration, and very powerful. That’s what he is special at, and that is why when he gets the ball in his hands he is so dangerous; he is so quick from point A to point B. And that is still special to this day.”

Get this! Hill went as far as to say Samuel’s body type is similar to another player who has worked out and worked with Hill, Saquon Barkley: “Just strong, powerful, fast.” When Keim inquired regarding what type of worker Samuel is, Hill replied, “He’s the type of guy that once he gets something in his mind and he puts those blinders on, he’s going full speed. We are going at 6 am right now. He is going two or three sessions a day, going to bed and waking up the next day, and going after it again.”

Knowing of the photos and videos featuring Samuel that circulated a couple of months ago, Hill attempted to assure Commanders fans that Samuel had never reported to training camp or begun a season overweight.

Contending that Samuel is naturally built bigger, Hill was unrelenting with Keim that Samuel will never be a 180-pound receiver. He simply has too much muscle and is too big; he will most often play at 220 at this stage of his career. Apparently, Samuel has also expressed to Hill that he is enjoying his new identity as a receiver on the Commanders, who is here to prove himself under his one-year deal.

ESPN

Washington Commanders 2025 training camp preview

Will the defense improve?

Washington’s offense ranked fifth in points and seventh in yards and drove last season’s 12-5 finish, which culminated in a trip to the NFC Championship Game. Meanwhile, Washington’s defense ranked 18th in points and 13th in yards. However, the Commanders could not stop the run (30th) and were bad in the fourth quarter — ranking 29th or worse in multiple areas including points, third downs, total QBR and sacks. The Commanders added key players including rookie corner Trey Amos and defensive linemen Javon Kinlaw, Eddie Goldman and Deatrich Wise Jr. If the defense doesn’t improve it will be hard to build on 2024’s success.

Key position battles

Right tackle. Josh Conerly Jr. will ultimately win this battle with Andrew Wylie. The question will then be: When will they elevate him to the starting lineup? Washington did not hand Daniels the starting QB job and waited to announce he’d be the guy until after the second preseason game. If he has to earn it, so does Conerly (and any other rookie). But Conerly’s quick feet and ability to play in space should eventually enhance the offense. His play strength will be questioned, but it won’t prevent him from eventually becoming the starter.

Commanders.com

2025 opponent breakdown | Philadelphia Eagles

  • Can the defense recover from the losses in free agency? Half of the Eagles’ offseason departures came on the defensive side of the ball. Some left to sign with other teams, while others either retired or were traded. Most of the unit’s core, like Baun, Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith and Reed Blankenship, are still in Philadelphia, but its depth took a noticeable hit. The Eagles are clearly planning for the future and want to get younger on defense, as six of their 10 draft picks are on that side of the ball. There’s no immediate need for any of them to be starters, thanks to general manager Howie Roseman’s ability to craft one of the best rosters in football, but many of their rookies like Campbell will need to have meaningful contributions sooner rather than later. Roseman tends to draft good players, so there’s a solid chance the class will be impressive, but they still need to prove themselves.
  • Can Barkley have another strong season? Barkley joined an elite club when he rushed for 2,005 yards in 2024, becoming just the ninth player to eclipse that mark in a single season. It’s an impressive feat, especially when considering that Barkley is in the latter half stages of his career, but it’s reasonable to ask whether he can be just as dominant in his second straight season with the Eagles. Every player who rushed for 2,000 yards before Barkley experienced some form of regression, whether because of injury or lack of production. Most followed their historic season up by rushing for 1,000-1,300 yards, which are still productive stats but also a steep drop-off. There is a chance Barkley can buck that trend, as he has what many consider the best offensive line in front of him. Teams are going to be determined to stop him, so if he can replicate some of the success he had last season, he will further cement himself as one of the best running backs in recent memory.
  • Can the Eagles get more out of their passing game? The Eagles had one of the best offenses in the sport last season, but if there was one area that seemed to be lacking, it was the passing game. Philadelphia has one of the best receiving corps in the league with Brown and Smith leading the group, but despite that, they averaged the fourth fewest yards per game through the air. Some of that was because they rightly leaned on their running game, but their pass-catchers are simply too talented to have that low of a performance. It will come down to whether Hurts can take another step as a passer. Hurts did his job within the scheme but only threw 18 touchdowns in 2024. If the Eagles can unlock that part of their system, it will make them even more potent and more difficult for defenses to handle. We’ll see if Kevin Patullo, who was promoted to the offensive coordinator role this offseason, can get more air yards out of the roster.

Podcasts & videos

The Real Reason Von Miller Signed with the Commanders | Next Man Up | Washington Commanders | NFL

NFC East links

Blogging the Boys

Jerry Jones’ training camp comments on contract negotiations prove Cowboys still don’t get it

Jones was specifically pressed by multiple reporters in attendance for his willingness to take his time on negotiations with players like Micah Parsons. At one point, he left everyone speechless when he implied regret for being aggressive in his early extensions for Trevon Diggs and Terence Steele.

Then, Jones elaborated a bit on his philosophy of dragging out contract extension talks, and the ramifications of it were the most alarming part of anything said on Monday.

One of the things that exacerbates this is that you have a kind of policy or a practice to have contracts, but have like it’s some kind of obligation to do something before the contract is over. In other words, not have the benefit of the contract. Well that goes completely against the benefit of the club...

So there’s a lot of reasons, timing is a lot of reasons... why would you go out and, basically, spend money just to spend money and not have had to spend it [when] you can spend it three years later. Money costs money.

These comments essentially sum up the issue so many have with the Cowboys’ overall approach to the contract negotiation process. For Jones, he feels entitled to have his players make as little money as possible for as long as possible so he can (theoretically) spend more money on more players.

Just like the Cowboys did when Dak Prescott was on a fourth-round rookie salary for four years and decided they needed to cut Dez Bryant because they could get by with Deonte Thompson. Right?

Jones believes in the player essentially serving out the entirety of their contract before getting a new one, which is how things were done back in the 90’s (an era he can’t stop talking about) but now how they’re done in 2025.

It’s why Jerry and Stephen are comfortable with taking so long to pay their players; philosophically, they don’t seem to believe they even should be extending their players as soon as possible. Jones went on to specifically admit his non-belief in the basic concept of inflation with regards to the football market.

There’s a lot of reasons why this whole business of thinking “well, my goodness, it’s pretty obvious to me everything goes up, so why don’t you catch it when it’s low?” Have you ever thought that when it’s low, they’re counting on it going up? And those are the numbers coming out? Not the ones that are going on right then. Have you ever thought about that?

I’d say ninety percent of the time they’re not dealing with you in those numbers today, they’re dealing with projected numbers which, honestly, usually have more fluff than reality. They’ve usually got an expectation that those numbers are going to be higher than they are.

What Jones is more or less arguing here is that players are negotiating with the belief that the market is rising and, therefore, they should be paid more relative to the market. Not unlike the cost of living adjustments that are present in most day-job compensation plans, which makes sense.

Instead, Jones believes that these players who see a rising market are actually just looking at pie in the sky numbers, and that Jones is savvy enough to know that he can just wait and get these players inked to a cheaper deal once those numbers are exposed for being said pie in said sky.

The problem is that second part never happens, because he is wrong.

NFL league links

Articles

Heiserman’s Huddle

How Noah Fant’s Release Opens Up Seattle’s Tight End Room

On Sunday, July 20, the Seattle Seahawks released 27-year old tight end, Noah Fant. Fant was selected by the Broncos with the 20th overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft, out of the University of Iowa. Fant had a fairly productive first three seasons with Denver, racking up 170 receptions for 1,905 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns.

In March of 2022, Fant was traded to Seattle, as part of a blockbuster deal that sent nine-time pro bowler and Super Bowl champion, Russell Wilson, to the Mile High City. During Fant’s three seasons with the Seahawks, he saw a slight decrease in production, appearing in 48 contests, accumulating a total of 130 receptions for 1,4000 yards and 5 touchdowns.

On March 11, 2024, Fant signed a two-year, $21 million contract with the Seahawks that would have expired following his 2025 campaign. Before his release, Fant was to make a non-guaranteed salary of $8.49 million this upcoming season, and was set to carry a $13.41 million salary cap hit, according to OvertheCap.com. This would have been the second-highest cap hit of any Seahawks player in 2025, behind Leonard Williams’ $15.04 million.

The Athletic (paywall)

Pre-training camp NFL Power Rankings

1. Philadelphia Eagles

Last ranking: 1

The big names on offense are all back, a good thing because a defense that lost Milton Williams, Darius Slay Jr., C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Josh Sweat and Brandon Graham might have a tough time matching last season, when the Eagles finished second in scoring defense (17.8 ppg). The two biggest offensive questions: Can Jalen Hurts match a career-best season (.25 EPA per attempt) and how does Saquon Barkley respond after a 378-touch season, the fifth-highest workload in the last five seasons?

6. Washington Commanders

Last ranking: 6

The Commanders added two offensive linemen — trading for Laremy Tunsil and drafting rookie first-rounder Josh Conerly Jr. — to protect the franchise’s most important asset — second-year quarterback Jayden Daniels. After a dynamic rookie season, Daniels is going to have to be great again. The Commanders finished in the bottom half of the league in almost every defensive category, lost defensive tackle Jonathan Allen and didn’t make any serious personnel upgrades on that side of the ball.

17. Dallas Cowboys

Last ranking: 16

Dak Prescott missed nine games last year because of a hamstring injury. He wasn’t good in the eight he played. The 10th-year pro had his worst career passer rating (86) and EPA per dropback (minus-.05) and second-worst interception percentage (2.8). Dallas traded for wide receiver George Pickens and drafted guard Tyler Booker to replace the retired Zack Martin. Pickens, one of the game’s most dynamic deep threats, might be the perfect complement to CeeDee Lamb. Or his antics might drive everyone in Dallas crazy.

21. Chicago Bears

Last ranking: 19

Chicago hired head coach Ben Johnson, added three starting offensive linemen and drafted tight end Colston Loveland in the first round this offseason, all to help revive quarterback Caleb Williams. They have a big job. Williams took 68 sacks last season, the second most of any quarterback since at least 2000. His EPA per dropback ranked 733rd out of all qualifying quarterbacks since 2000.

30. New York Giants

Last ranking: 31

New York has gone from nine wins to six wins to three wins in Brian Daboll’s three seasons. If the trend continues and the Giants go winless this season, it’ll be his last. New York has added quarterbacks Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston and Jaxson Dart, and hopes to boost an offense that was 31st in scoring last year (16.1 ppg).

Discussion topics

Front Office Sports

Regarding the proposed Commanders stadium in DC, it’s still largely a local issue

[The president’s] legislative pathways to interfere with the potential stadium deal at the site of RFK Stadium are generally limited, particularly as it is now essentially a local issue.

  • Revising the D.C. budget: This would be the primary means for Trump to get involved. In the complex nature of D.C. local governance and existing Home Rule provisions, local residents elect a mayor and council members, but the budget remains subject to congressional oversight. The situation historically has been the subject of political friction, with federal officials who do not represent D.C. often exerting outsized control over another set of constituents. To that end, the current proposed D.C. budget includes a series of cuts championed by Republicans in the House of Representatives. In this situation, one potential countermove would be to delay public disbursements for the stadium project until after next year’s midterm elections, when Democrats are expected to regain control of the House.
  • Rescinding the transfer of control of the RFK Stadium property: The deal between the Commanders and D.C. happened only after the federal government ceded control of the land where the team previously played. There is a reversion provision in the act, should D.C. fail to redevelop the stadium property. That provision, however, requires Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to provide written notice to D.C. officials and give them 90 days to correct the stated areas of non-compliance.
  • Developing another bill to undo the prior RFK one: Another option would be to pass another bill undoing the transfer of the RFK property, which could prompt legal challenges. Such a move would also pass back through the House Committee for Oversight and Government Reform, which championed the original legislation—so much so that committee chair Rep. James Comer (R., Ky.) wrote the D.C. Council last week to demand a vote on the stadium deal before a scheduled August recess.
  • Lobbying individual D.C. Council members: As the stadium bill still holds uncertain support within the D.C. Council, a more conventional political path would be for Trump and his allies to lobby individual members and push for a vote to defeat the measure. There are no Republicans, however, on the council, which is made up of 11 Democrats and two Independents.
  • Leveraging regulatory oversight: Trump has supporters on the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, two bodies that would have oversight roles in the stadium project, particularly around design. Those bodies, however, would not enter the situation until after the council.
  • Undoing D.C. Home Rule entirely: This would be the most radical option, but one that’s already been proposed. Amid longstanding friction between Trump and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, two Trump allies in February proposed the Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident (BOWSER) ACT, undoing much of the existing Home Rule provisions. That legislation, however, has not moved out of committee in either the House or the Senate.

Sports team name changes, meanwhile, are typically lengthy, cumbersome, and costly processes. Ones for the Commanders and Guardians each happened only after years of consideration, lobbying from multiple groups, cooperation from league officials, and millions of dollars spent. In the meantime, the council has scheduled two days of hearings next week related to the stadium proposal.

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