Editor’s note: Each day, Hogs Haven compiles a collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders, the NFC East, the NFL and sports in general, with a sprinkling of other stuff. Enjoy!
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Commanders.com
Sonny Styles explains position switch from safety to 1st-round caliber lnebacker
Sonny Styles knew early into his college career that his days of playing safety were numbered.
Styles joined Ohio State’s football program as the No. 3-ranked player in the state and No. 2 high school safety in the country. He was also unnaturally big
for the position at 6-5 and 244 pounds. To him, it was a matter of “when” and not “if,” but when the day finally arrived during his sophomore year, the move was also the most logical next step for him.
“Just talking to [Ohio State head coach Ryan] Day and [former Buckeyes defensive coordinator Jim] Knowles and looking at the defense and everyone we had, it kind of just made sense for me to switch,” Styles said. “And then it also made sense because when I got to the NFL, I was probably gonna play linebacker at some point.”
Despite playing the position for just two seasons, Styles became not just the best linebacker in his class but also arguably the best defender regardless of position. Styles wouldn’t call it seamless, but the transition has worked out in his favor. The work he’s put in over the last two years has built up his confidence, so much so that he feels ready for both the professional game and the next step in his transition.
A to Z Sports
5 way-too-early predictions for the Commanders’ 2026 season
Expect a Jayden Daniels bounce back and a step forward on defense
The Commanders defense finishes top-10 in sacks
Dan Quinn was able to squeeze 42 sacks out of his defense last year, which tied for 12th-most. While you always want to be better, the final number was impressive when considering it came to be without a true difference-maker in the pass rush department.
Well, that won’t be the case in 2026. The Commanders added plenty of guys who can get after it in Odafe Oweh, K’Lavon Chaisson, Tim Settle, and Charles Omenihu via free agency. Those four veterans bring a combined 19.5 sacks over from last season, with both Oweh and Chaisson contributing 7.5, each.
Leo Chenal and Sonny Styles are also in the mix at the second level (as well as Frankie Luvu). Folks already believe Chenal’s role will be similar to that of Andrew Van Ginkel, who’s recorded 18.5 sacks, himself, over the last two seasons. Styles was a very effective blitzer in college and that should translate over to the NFL.
It took 45.0 sacks to crack the top-10 last year. There’s no doubt in my mind the Commanders will find their way inside that group by season’s end.
Heavy.com
Jayden Daniels has a lot to learn and a lot to prove in Year 3
David Blough replacing Kliff Kingsbury as offensive coordinator guarantees things will be very different for Daniels for the first time in his football career. Different because of how closely Blough’s scheme is likely to resemble what Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson runs.
It’s a timely change for Daniels because, as Ted Nguyen of The Athletic pointed out, the 2024 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year “hasn’t shown that he can protect himself as a runner, going back to his time at LSU. Commanders coach Dan Quinn promoted David Blough, who played for Johnson, to offensive coordinator, believing he can put together a Johnson-influenced under-center package. Daniels doesn’t have much experience playing under center, so it’ll be an adjustment, but a necessary one to prolong his career.”
Speaking to his ESPN colleague John Keim on an edition of ‘The John Keim Report,’ [Greg] Cosell broke down how “The whole point of that is to put second level defenders in conflict. So if you’re playing zone, you want those underneath defenders to have to wait that extra beat or two before they can retreat and sink to their zone.”
Cosell likes the under-center, play-action package for Daniels, but he warned “it’s a learned trait, because quarterbacks who’ve never really spent much time turning their back to the defense, that’s a learned trait because obviously you turn your back to the defense, you turn around, the defense is not in the same spot as they were before. So for some quarterbacks, that’s the whole change in world view. That has to be practiced, that has to be worked on.”
Riggo’s Rag
8 Commanders players who can turn OTAs into a personal launchpad
Josh Conerly Jr. – Commanders OT
There were a few raised eyebrows when the Washington Commanders took Josh Conerly Jr. at No. 29 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft. He had to endure a real baptism of fire over the first few weeks of his rookie campaign, but there was a lot to like about his performance levels over the second half of the year.
Conerly has been working exceptionally hard away from the team. Photos from Washington’s voluntary workout program show the second-year pro looking more defined and in shape. It was instantly noticed by fans, which only raised optimism about what could potentially be in store as an NFL sophomore.
The former Oregon standout should get a lot of good work over the summer. Washington’s edge rushing unit is much improved, which should test Conerly’s skills throughout. As the old saying goes, iron sharpens iron, and if the right tackle can hold his own, a massive campaign could await.
Treylon Burks – Commanders WR
The Commanders took a chance on Treylon Burks when the Tennessee Titans cut ties last season. His time with the AFC South club was always doomed to fail, but his contributions last season were enough for Washington to keep him around on a one-year deal worth up to $4 million with incentives.
This was the vote of confidence Burks needed at an important time. A conversation with new offensive coordinator David Blough persuaded him to stay, which indicates there could be a decent role for him to play if everything goes well this summer.
Staying healthy is key. Burks needs a full offseason to hone his craft and build back confidence. Looking at the options behind Terry McLaurin in the receiver room, an opportunity is undoubtedly there for the taking.
Commanders Roundtable
The Athletic’s puzzling take on Bengals-Commanders game in Week 11
The week 11 home game against the Cincinnati Bengals ranked as fourth-worst in The Athletic’s ranking, one spot ahead of Atlanta’s road game against New Orleans in week four. Nicki Jhabvala, the team’s beat writer for the network, also tabbed the week 11 matchup as the must-watch game on the 2026 slate.
It’s a peculiar pick given the obvious quarterback battle between Jadyen Daniels and Joe Burrow. The Bengals drew surprise ahead of last month’s NFL Draft after trading the tenth overall pick in exchange for interior defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence, one of several projected upgrades on Cincinnati defense that was in dire need of attention. How they stack up against a new-look Commanders offense will be the intrigue, while the potential complexity of what Daronte Jones’ defense may look like adds another layer of excitement around the primetime matchup.
While it will mark the third consecutive primetime game for Cincinnati, The Athletic also noted the possibility of, “a litany of chaos around each quarterback, but their combined presence does raise this matchup’s ceiling a bit.”
The November home game will mark the first meeting between the two teams since they met in 2024, also on Monday Night Football. Washington took the week three meeting, 38-33, after Jayden Daniels completed all but two of his 23 pass attempts while throwing 254 yards and accounting for three total touchdowns, including his iconic 27 yard dot to veteran Terry McLaurin to seal the game with just over two minutes remaining.
PFF, meanwhile, tabbed the Commanders’ week eight home game against the Eagles as the worst on this season’s Sunday Night Football slate. It will be a massive game for Washington midway through the season and fresh off the bye week, the first of two tough matchups at Northwest Stadium with the Los Angeles Rams headed to town the following week.
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Commanders.com
PHOTOS | Joshua Josephs is a Washington Commander
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Breakfast & Commanders ft @GrantPaulsen & @Gcarmi21
The Most Pessimistic Washington Commanders Fan in the World Lives in Australia | The Rich Eisen Show
Offseason grades for EVERY TEAM in the NFC East
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Sports Illustrated
Cooper DeJean will play safety
With his good friend Blankenship now in Houston after signing with the Texans in free agency and veteran outside CB Riq Woolen brought by the Eagles, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s working plan is to have the versatile DeJean play opposite of second-year safety Drew Mukuba in the base defense, something the Eagles have played about 10 to 15 snaps per game in the Fangio era. Woolen will handle the outside work at CB on the other side of All-Pro Quinyon Mitchell.
DeJean will continue to move to the slot in nickel looks while an open competition will be in play, with veteran Marcus Epps and Michael Carter as the lead combatants.
Bleeding Green Nation
The Eagles DC told reporters he wasn’t close to retiring this offseason
Fangio was quick to claim that he wasn’t really close at all the retiring after the 2025 season, and while he took some time to think about it — as he had after the 2023 and 2024 season — it was an easy decision. He quipped that at the coach’s annual physical, the tests showed he was “reverse aging,” so he let everyone know they were stuck with him for awhile longer.
The DC explained that he still likes doing the job, and he likes the group of guys he gets to work with, and appreciates the challenge of the job and working for a good organization.
“In the end, I didn’t come close to doing it. I really don’t foresee myself doing it — I’m good for two years, at least.”
Blogging the Boys
Looking back at what happened to the 2025 NFL preseason favorites
Technically, the post-draft win projections have free agency, the draft, coaching changes, and anything else that happened since the end of the previous season priced in. But much more importantly, the oddsmakers are trying to provide odds where the action from the betting public will remain even on both sides of the bet. And the betting public, by and large, believes that the most likely outcome this year is going to be largely the same as the outcome last year.
Case in point: Last year’s post-draft win projection.
Red marks the teams that missed the playoffs last year, (*) marks the teams that made the playoffs the year before.
Six teams missed the playoffs despite being pre-season favorites for another playoff appearance. And that six-team total is perfectly in line with the average of the last 24 years since re-alignment in 2002: Every year, an average of six to seven new teams make the NFL playoffs.
Yet the win projections look like little more than a repeat of last year’s playoff field: 12 of the 14 playoff participants from 2024 were projected to repeat their playoff appearance in 2025.
So why would a sportsbook put up such an unlikely scenario? Because they are playing the betting public, and that betting public is heavily influenced by recency bias, the tendency to think that trends and patterns we observe in the recent past will continue in the future. But predicting the long-term future based on what has happened in the past is often no more accurate than flipping a coin.
We know that in the NFL, less than half of teams repeat as division winners from year to year, and that an average of about six to seven new teams make it to the playoffs every year. That means only half of each year’s NFL playoff participants make it back to the playoffs the following year. Yet every offseason or pre-season team ranking/win projection/Super Bowl odds list has last year’s top teams still sitting at the top. Why? Recency bias.
This year’s win projection is almost carbon copy of last year’s approach, with 10 of 14 playoff participants from 2025 projected to repeat their playoff appearance in 2026.
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NFL.com
Cardinals, QB Jacoby Brissett ‘significantly’ far apart in contract negotiations
The 33-year-old QB has one year remaining left on his current pact with the Cards, which comes with a base salary of $4.9 million and includes $1.5 million guaranteed, per Over the Cap. He has so far elected not to attend Arizona’s offseason program, all of which has been voluntary to this point.
New head coach Mike LaFleur told reporters talks were the “same as where we were a few weeks ago” and downplayed Brissett’s absence during the first day of the Cardinals’ organized team activities on May 18, noting it wasn’t mandatory.
Considering the reported chasm between the parties, it’s worth wondering if LaFleur will be faced with similar questions about the signal-caller when the Cardinals hold mandatory minicamp from June 8-10.
Brissett seeking an extension that better compensates him comes after he started 12 games for the Cardinals last season. He played perhaps the best ball of his career, completing 64.9 percent of his attempts for a career-high 3,366 yards and 23 touchdowns with just eight interceptions. He eclipsed 300 passing yards in a third of his starts, made Michael Wilson look like a budding superstar with the wide receiver’s first 1,000-yard campaign and helped elevate Trey McBride to the top of the tight end ladder.
However, wins didn’t follow. Brissett went 1-11 and the Cardinals finished the season with a 3-14 record.
Arizona has since signed Gardner Minshew, another veteran capable of sparking an offense off the bench, and drafted Carson Beck in the third round of the 2026 draft.
Pro Football Talk
Texans LB E.J. Speed partially tore a quadriceps while lifting weights
Dr. Dan Cooper, the Cowboys’ team doctor, will perform Speed’s surgery, and Speed is expected back “at some point” this season, Wilson adds.
Speed re-signed with the Texans on a two-year deal with a maximum value of $13 million, including $7.5 million guaranteed, this offseason. He had signed a one-year, $5 million contract with the Texans in the 2025 offseason.
The Colts made Speed a fifth-round pick in 2019, and he spent six years in Indianapolis.
Discussion topics
NFL.com
NFL’s make-or-break players in 2026: Keon Coleman, C.J. Stroud among 11 individuals at a crossroads
Keon Coleman – Buffalo Bills · WR · Age 23
Coleman said it best himself on Tuesday: “For me, it’s make or break.”
He’s right about that. The No. 33 overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft has yet to break 1,000 career receiving yards, hasn’t risen to WR1 (or even WR2) status in Buffalo and fell entirely out of the game plan via multiple healthy scratches in the 2025 season, a campaign in which the Bills desperately needed more production from their receiving corps. Things got worse in January, when Bills owner Terry Pegula seemed to blame fired coach Sean McDermott for Buffalo’s decision to draft Coleman, as if the owner had already chalked up the second-round pick’s tenure as a failure.
Bills leadership quickly pivoted into damage control, pledging faith and confidence in Coleman’s potential for 2026 while praising his work ethic. Coleman heard the chatter, too, acknowledging it Tuesday.
“I ain’t scared of s—,” Coleman said. “I know what they saying, I hear it. I just don’t care, you know what I’m saying?
“My job is to come out here, put my cleats on and strap them up and prove my work ethic.”
He’ll need to lean on that work ethic and hope it produces better results, because 67 catches, 960 yards and eight touchdowns in 26 regular-season games simply doesn’t cut it. He needs to take a step or two forward in the pivotal third year of his career. Buffalo is a franchise that has harbored Super Bowl ambitions for the last half decade and doesn’t have time to be patient while attempting to keep its title window open. If Coleman is going to come anywhere close to meeting the expectations that accompanied his selection atop Round 2, he’ll need to do it in 2026 or else face the possibility of moving elsewhere in 2027.
Pro Football Focus
3 NFL teams who could take a step back in 2026
The Bears took a legitimate step under first-year head coach Ben Johnson, going 11-6 and claiming the NFC North crown while also winning a playoff game. It’s difficult to dismiss what Chicago has blossoming, but there are reasons for worry.
Johnson is one of the sport’s preeminent offensive minds, and quarterback Caleb Williams (72.2 PFF passing grade) should only continue to scale up in his third season. At the same time, the Bears suffered a big loss up the middle when center Drew Dalman retired — and replacement Garrett Bradbury has never earned above a 68.0 overall PFF grade in any season. Likewise, the team’s receiver room is counting heavily on inconsistent talents like Rome Odunze and Kalif Raymond, who each earned a sub-73.0 PFF receiving grade last year.
Defense is where more anguish surrounds the Bears. The team’s unit ranked 21st in EPA per play last year, with the big culprit the 26th-ranked pressure rate. Chicago’s defensive line looks concerning, with Montez Sweat the only returning starter to produce even a 63.0 overall PFF grade or 45 pressures. In the secondary, Chicago is relying on better play from corners Jaylon Johnson and Tyrique Stevenson, who both fell below a 62.5 PFF coverage mark.
The Bears could very well wind up in the playoff mix yet again under the visionary Johnson. But the margins look thinner on Chicago’s path back to late January, especially considering the team plays the eighth-hardest schedule by PFF Power Ratings. Williams’ third pro campaign could unfortunately mirror that of Daniels’ second, where the team’s bad defense leads to disappointment.
