The Daily Slop – 26 October 2026
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!
Commanders links
Articles
Last Man Standig (paywall)
The Jayden Daniels conversation is worth having; everyone will be okay
The third-year QB has played well since rejoining the lineup, but two baffling mistakes, a prolonged winless stretch and questions about his decision-making deserve scrutiny
Something feels off with Jayden Daniels — and it’s okay to discuss
why.
This isn’t about questioning whether the third-year player is Washington’s franchise quarterback. He is! Daniels’ potential is what keeps hope alive during tough stretches. The question is why a player whose poise, command and decision-making defined his extraordinary rookie season is suddenly making mistakes and choices that seem so out of character.
I’m talking about game awareness — the clock-management debacle against the Giants in Week 5 and throwing the ball away on fourth down against the 49ers. Two of the season’s most inexplicable plays, in consecutive games, involving a quarterback who previously seemed well beyond such moments.
Questions also linger about Daniels’ aggressiveness in the passing game. Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner discussed that concern as a recent guest on “Last Man Standig” (video below). The NFL Network analyst was impressed with Daniels’ performance against the 49ers in real time. A closer look at the tape left him wanting more.
But this is about more than two plays or passing up opportunities. The Commanders don’t win anymore.
For more from Ben Standig, click here
Sports Illustrated
Jayden Daniels — “I failed to the standard I hold myself to”
Week 6 — Following the Giants tie
Question: Looking back at the final play against the Giants, did the players realize how much time remained?
“I mean, just going back and reflecting on it and, you know, sitting back and ultimately, I know it’s a lot of he say or whatever you’re trying to make, but ultimately, like, it’s on me at the end. I know DQ is getting a lot of slack for it or whatever, you know, but regardless of what happens, I’m the person on the field that’s supposed to calm everything, control everything, and I failed to the standard I hold myself to and the standard in this organization. So it’s just something for me to move on. Not saying I’m proud of it or anything. Obviously looking back, like, it could have resulted in a loss, we tied, but it was a fail in my eyes and, you know, I know I’m better than that. I hold myself to a higher standard than that.”
At the bye: There has been plenty of criticism directed at Quinn and the coaching staff, but Daniels wasn’t interested in letting them take all the blame. He understood what happened and recognized that he had a responsibility to manage the situation on the field. That’s part of becoming the leader Washington needs him to be. The talent has never been the question with Daniels. How he handles moments like this will help determine what kind of quarterback he becomes.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Commanders Roundtable
Jayden Daniels: A new scheme and growing pains
Under relentless pressure, Daniels has occasionally looked rushed and confused. The constant threat of immediate pressure has accelerated his internal clock, causing him to abandon clean pockets prematurely or scramble before deeper route concepts can develop downfield.
Hall of Fame quarterback and analyst Kurt Warner highlighted this dynamic in his film breakdown, noting that Daniels is occasionally passing up open opportunities downfield. Warner claims that although Daniels has played “good” this season, his lack of aggression is preventing him from being great.
This leads to a larger question: is Daniels becoming too risk-averse?
The analytics back up Warner’s evaluation: PFF logs Daniels’ Big-Time Throw rate (BTT%) at just 2.9%, well below the league average for starters. While his extreme care with the football (0 INTs) protects possession, the low BTT% reveals a tendency to take safe check-downs or pull the ball down to run rather than attacking tight coverage windows.
What I’d like to see after the bye week is a renewed commitment from the coaching staff to protect Daniels in the pocket, alongside Daniels showing the poise to pull the trigger on downfield shots. The designs are producing open receivers on film, even if Blough’s overall sequencing and game feel have drawn criticism. Once Daniels regains comfort in his protection, he can overcome the gun-shy tendencies that have crept into his process.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Kurt Warner on JAYDEN DANIELS WEEK 6 | Kurt Warner Studyball 2026
Sports Illustrated
Daronte Jones — The defense should know what it is within four games
Week 2 — Before the Dallas Cowboys game
Question: “When you’re implementing a new scheme, at what point in the season does it usually click from your experience and kind of come to life in the way that you envision it?”
“In the past, it varies. You would like, as a goal, to be the first quarter of the season, you know, in those first four games. Sometimes it happens faster, like that Game 3, because you’re still working out some of the kinks. Sometimes you’re trying to get the continuity together, especially if you have a lot of new guys. Some things that goes into that. But definitely by the first quarter of the season, you have a good beat on, ‘Okay, this is who we are. This is how our guys respond and how they play.’ And then you can kind of build even from a staff perspective in terms of, you know, we’re still — I know I am — in terms of, you know, you watch these guys in practice and so forth like that, but also, you know, we say practice execution becomes game reality.
So how they respond in games, you kind of understand, ‘Okay, this player is better at that than I thought he was, so let’s utilize him more in that way,’ or, ‘He’s not quite where we want to be in that particular space, so let’s keep him out of those spaces.’ And so I think by the first four games, you kind of have a better idea of the team and the defense as a whole.”
At the bye: We’ve passed that four-game mark, and the defense still doesn’t look like a finished product. There have been encouraging performances, particularly when it comes to creating turnovers, but the consistency Jones discussed remains a problem. Washington has had stretches where the defense looks capable of taking over games, followed by others where it struggles to get off the field. That’s something Jones and his staff have to figure out during the bye.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
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Athlon Sports
Answering 5 questions Commanders fans are asking
Can the offensive line hold up for Jayden Daniels?
Daniels was sacked four times in San Francisco, and McLaurin went down on one of them. Quinn said the line’s play fell below the team’s standard and left the door open to changes.
Left tackle Brandon Coleman is the pressure point. PFF charges him with 22 pressures allowed, 70th of 71 qualifying tackles, including four sacks, plus a 55.7 pass-blocking grade. Sports Info Solutions data cited on Locked On Commanders also put Coleman, Josh Conerly Jr., Nick Allegretti and Lucas Patrick among the league’s 40 highest run-block blown-block rates, which helps explain 53 rushing yards against the 49ers.
A reshuffle to protect Daniels is on the table, though the bench is thin. Swing lineman Andrew Wylie can play right tackle or guard but has logged only 15 offensive snaps. Daniels still completed 29 of 40 passes for 300 yards and two touchdown passes in that game, so the passing offense works when he has time to throw.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
A to Z Sports
Commanders lose ground in NFC East without playing as Giants stun Texans in overtime during Washington’s bye week
Washington stayed at 1-4-1 on its bye, but New York’s 27-21 overtime win in Houston pushed the Giants to 4-2-1 and made the Commanders’ NFC East climb even steeper
For a Commanders team that has managed only one win, that’s a costly development during a week when it couldn’t do anything to change its own record.
Houston actually gave Washington some late hope. C.J. Stroud connected with Xavier Hutchinson for a touchdown with 52 seconds remaining, tying the game at 21 and forcing overtime.
But the Texans went three-and-out on their opening overtime possession. New York needed only two offensive plays to end it, with Cam Skattebo breaking a 42-yard run before Devin Singletary scored from 30 yards out.
For Commanders fans rooting against the Giants, that was about as frustrating an ending as possible.
Look at where this leaves Washington. The Commanders come off the bye at a disadvantage in the division without having lost a game in the meantime. They’ll need wins of their own, obviously, but they’ll also need the rest of the league to start beating New York, and they’ll need the Monday night result to break their way.
That’s a lot of moving parts for a team that’s only won once. Every week Washington spends depending on someone else is a week it isn’t controlling its own fate, and the margin for error is already gone.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Riggo’s Rag
Commanders’ roster building will get much tougher after Jayden Daniels’ extension
It’s not ideal, of course. Daniels is up for an early extension after the campaign, which would make things much more expensive.
According to Spotrac, Daniels is projected to get a three-year, $159.93 million deal, averaging $53.31 million per season. That would rank him eighth among quarterbacks league-wide, making it harder to build a competitive roster around him.
Peters has shown financial restraint, knowing some big extensions are due. Daniels is the most important, and even though Year 4 on the deal will be relatively modest at $12.01 million, it will be the last season it’s cheap.
This is a problem.
There is real urgency to make the roster better around Daniels. He’s proven to be the franchise guy, and if he stays healthy the rest of the way, Washington would be wise to pay him what he’s asking.
But that doesn’t make it any less complicated to mold a team capable of challenging deep into the playoffs.
It’s a dangerous cycle. Theschedule gets easier after the bye week, but the pressure to produce remains. Daniels has already proven he can drive this team forward, but doing that on more than $50 million per year is different from his $10.29 million cap hit this season.
Washington is in a precarious situation. Paying Daniels is easy; what comes next is the tricky part.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Podcasts & videos
NFC East links
NBC Sports
Roob’s Observations: Why a Howie Roseman trade deadline sell-off is unlikely
I keep hearing about all the players Howie is going to unload before the NFL trade deadline on Nov. 10. Guys like Saquon Barkley, Moro Ojomo, Zack Baun, Riq Woolen, Landon Dickerson and Dallas Goedert. Basically, older players who may not fit into the Eagles’ future or players on the final year of their contract situation who may be unsignable. Don’t count on it.
While a sell-off is possible if this thing continues to spiral, there’s two important things to remember. First of all, you’re never going to trade a player for less or equal what he might bring you in the comp pick equation. Moro Ojomo for example is probably going to bring you a 3rd-round comp pick and you’re not going to get a 2nd-rounder for him. Howie Roseman values picks the same whether they’re a year later, so he’d rather have a comp 3rd-round pick in 2028 than a 4th-round pick in 2027.
The second thing to remember is that in the current NFC East landscape, there’s a chance the Eagles will still be in the playoff race when the trade deadline arrives on Nov. 10. They have the Cowboys, Commanders and Giants before the deadline, combined record 6-10-1. And 0-7-1 vs. teams with a winning record. So as grim as things look right now, they look just as grim for everyone else in the division, and if the Eagles win two of these next three Howie isn’t going to start selling off pieces at 4-5. He owes it to Jeff Lurie and the players and coaches and the city to keep the team intact if the Eagles are in contact with the division leaders.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Blogging the Boys
Cowboys at Eagles: Score predictions for Week 7
Brandon Loree (4-2)
The Cowboys are just a better team than Philly right now, so I have them winning 24-19
Dyllan Rivers (3-2)
Dallas takes care of business against a horrible Eagles team, 31-17
Mike Poland (2-4)
I’m taking Dallas to finally stop the slide on Monday night. Let’s go Cowboys to win 27-17.
To read more of this article, CLICK HER
Blogging the Boys
5 questions with Bleeding Green Nation
BTB: What’s the story on Nick Sirianni? Is he the coach next year? What’s your personal take on him as coach right now?
BGN: The way things are currently trending, I don’t think Nick Sirianni will be the Eagles’ head coach next year.
When you consider that he’s never previously missed the playoffs and ranks among the top head coaches in NFL history in terms of winning percentage, dismissing him might seem crazy.
But Lurie already went against precedent by bringing Sirianni back for 2026. The Eagles’ 2025 offense was one of the team’s worst since 2000. In all other years where their offense was similarly ineffective, the head coach got fired (2012, 2015, 2020). It’s not hard to see why Sirianni wouldn’t be fired less than one year after he won a Super Bowl.
But I tend to think that Lurie will not be so patient to tolerate another terrible offense, which has been the case in 2026. Sirianni is not the play-caller, no, but that’s because he really struggled in that capacity back in 2021. His hand-picked OC struggled in 2025 and he clearly hasn’t been capable of helping Sean Mannion find answers in 2026.
BTB: It feels like a lot has gone wrong for Philly this year. What are the biggest things going wrong besides the Jalen Hurts situation?
BGN: If you want the full scope, BGN alumnus Jimmy Kempski came up with an “Eagles season from hell tracker” that lays out all the crazy stuff going on with the team this season:
To put it more succinctly: the offense totally stinks and is super injured while the defense is underperforming lofty expectations.
Sometimes it’s just not your year. And that much is easier to swallow given the Eagles’ sustained success in recent years.
But this season sure seems doomed.
To read more of this article, CLICK HER
NFL league links
Articles
ESPN
Packers rip officiating after roughing penalties prove costly in loss
No one was more outspoken than All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney.
“I don’t know how the NFL’s going to treat it, but I’m not a big fan of the refs right now,” McKinney said. “I don’t think it’s great officiating, if I’m being completely honest. I think it’s bulls— a lot of the times.”
He didn’t stop there after the Packers were flagged for two more roughing the passer penalties to run their season total to eight over the first seven games, on top of an unnecessary roughness on a play Green Bay thought was still ongoing but referee Alex Moore did not — even if there was no whistle to signify its end.
“It’s annoying even talking about it because these are critical drives throughout the game, and we might have a drive where we’re getting stops but you’re calling penalties and it’s like, this is not a penalty,” McKinney said. “To me, it just don’t really make any sense, and it’s killing our momentum, it’s killing our drives, and it’s kind of f—ing up the games, if I’m being honest.”
McKinney said he did not care if his comments drew a fine from the NFL.
“I would rather get fined and try to help my team out because I see what’s going on, and it’s killing us,” McKinney said. “We all see it. We all see what’s going on. Everyone sees what’s going on, the fans see what’s going on, we see what’s going on when we’re out there.”
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
From The Athletic:
Earlier on Sunday, the referees were under scrutiny for a flag they didn’t throw. With under 30 seconds left in regulation, the Cleveland Browns and Tennessee Titans were tied at 24. Cleveland was driving down the field and had first down on the Browns’ 45-yard line.
Browns right tackle Dawand Jones appeared to get an early jump on the snap, but there was no penalty for false start. Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson hit tight end Harold Fannin Jr. on a short pass that Fannin turned upfield and gained 36 yards, setting the Browns up in field goal range. Cleveland let the clock run down to three seconds remaining before calling a timeout and kicking the game-winning field goal as time expired.
To read more of this article from The Athletic, CLICK HERE
Front Office Sports
NFL Plays Its Paris Game Without Delay or Incident
As with the week’s worth of public discussions about the field conditions that preceded the Cowboys-Ravens game in Brazil in Week 3, the buildup to the game produced far more drama about potential complications than game day itself.
“To be able to play in the first game in Paris in the league’s history is great,” Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers told reporters afterward.
It was about football—and about the NFL’s ever-burgeoning global ambitions—for the teams and fans Sunday in Paris. The game kicked off at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time (2:30 p.m. Paris time) and was carried by the NFL Network, now owned by Disney’s ESPN. An announced crowd of 78,488 fans watched inside the stadium.
Front Office Sports’s Amanda Christovich attended the game and wrote beforehand on Twitter/X: “Almost kickoff here in Paris for Saints-Steelers. Beautiful weather for the NFL’s first game in France. NFL and team houses were closed yesterday [because] of protests, but those areas weren’t disturbed. Some shops were boarded up, some police. But city center felt mostly normal.”
Reporter Nick Underhill, who covers the Saints, wrote on social media: “Getting the stadium was no problem by taxi. No signs of anything going on. Just absurd traffic.”
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
