The Daily Slop – 15 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
Commanders Roundtable
Will Daron Payne become a trade deadline target?
The trade deadline arrives at 4 PM on Tuesday, Nov. 10 [right after the Week 9 Rams game]
Through five games, Payne has totaled 11 tackles while registering one sack and fumble in week five against the New York Giants. He’s drawn criticism for lackluster
efforts at times through the opening weeks of the season, though the defensive line depth has taken hits.
Defensive end Charles Omenihu was sidelined in week five after suffering a groin/ankle injury the week prior, while Deatrich Wise Jr. has yet to make his season debut despite having his 21 day practice window opened last week. Yet the absence of Johnny Newton also looms large after he was placed on the reserve/injured list due to a torn pectoral muscle suffered during preseason, leaving a potential hole in the meantime if Washington opts to make a move on one of the organization’s longest tenured players.
After entering 2026 with limited draft capital, the Commanders own their picks in all seven rounds in 2027 while Payne could draw a potential late day two or early day three pick. Yet with a chance to add assets in exchange for an expiring contract, especially for a player with questions surrounding his future in 2027 and beyond, general manager Adam Peters could cash in on arguably the most attractive trade deadline asset. Whether he stays, goes or even draws a second extension remain undecided, but only for a matter of weeks.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Sports Illustrated
Amik Robertson looked like another slot corner; Washington got more
Not every free agent pays off, but Adam Peters knocked it out of the park with the signing of cornerback Amik Robertson, who has an NFL-leading eight passes defensed through five games. Robertson also has 33 tackles and one forced fumble, but you can’t put a number on what he’s brought to the field.
Robertson has recorded a pass defensed in four consecutive games: two against Dallas, four against Seattle, one against Indianapolis, and one against New York. His best individual game was against Seattle: six tackles, four passes defensed, and a forced fumble. After the Seattle game, defensive coordinator Daronte Jones praised Robertson’s toughness and confidence: “Obviously, there’s a lot of room for growth, but in terms of his confidence, I like where he is with that.”
When the Commanders signed cornerback Amik Robertson on March 12, following two seasons in Detroit, I thought, okay, another slot corner. My first reaction was confusion since they already have Mike Sainristil, but after watching some film, I quickly saw why the staff wanted Robertson. Five games into the season, Robertson is starting on the outside alongside Rasul Douglas.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
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The Athletic (paywall)
Penalties and poor 2nd-half pass defense are causing Washington to swap wins for losses (or ties)
The Commanders have a minus-34 scoring differential in the second half of games this season to rank 31st in the NFL through Week 5. Of their 12 red zone drives, only three have come in the second half. They’re tied with the Eagles for the fewest in the latter half of games, three fewer than any other team.
Penalties have stalled many drives and negated points. Washington had 16 accepted pre-snap penalties (15 on offense) in the first five weeks of the season. Thirteen of those were on third downs, and eight of those third-down pre-snap penalties came in the second half.
Yet, the defensive issues are even more glaring. That unit has improved in some areas, notably against the run; it ranks eighth in the league with 95.4 rushing yards allowed per game, up from 30th last season, when the Commanders gave up 141.8 yards per game.
But in multiple games now, they’ve jumped out to strong starts and failed to maintain that level of play for a full four quarters. The last quarter of regulation has been especially costly for Washington.
Commanders opponents have averaged 4.8 yards per play (10th-fewest in the NFL) and 10.8 points (tied for 15th) in the first half of games this season. But in fourth quarters, they’re allowing 7.5 yards per play and 11.0 points, both ranking 31st.
Washington is also one of only four teams that haven’t recorded a single fourth-quarter sack this season.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Commanders.com
Commanders vs. 49ers preview | A trip out west
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
A to Z Sports
The quarterback comparison gives the Commanders a reason to believe
Jayden Daniels is a better quarterback than Brock Purdy. I’d argue he’s a full class better. Daniels is an A while Purdy is a B.
The difference, for me, is what Daniels can create when everything around him breaks down. Purdy has been excellent within Shanahan’s offense, but Daniels has the mobility and off-script playmaking ability to turn a busted play into a first down or a touchdown. That’s the kind of quarterback advantage that matters when the opponent has the stronger roster.
Is a class better enough to overcome a franchise that is 8-22 in its last 30 Monday Night Football games? It could be just enough to keep this from being an impossible matchup. I won’t call it a win. I’m a pragmatist about this team. But San Francisco is banged up, and Purdy has played a near-perfect season by Brock Purdy standards without hitting the wall yet.
For Washington to pull it off, Daniels needs a near-perfect game. The receivers need one or fewer drops. The offensive line has to give up two or fewer sacks. With a bye next and Philadelphia waiting on the other side of it, there is no bigger game on the schedule right now.
It’s also been a season of firsts that should never repeat. Antonio Williams’ called-back touchdown against the Colts. Stefon Diggs jumping on the pylon and hurting Washington on a two-point try. Daniels, Quinn, and Blough each taking a third of a share for botching the end-of-game procedure against the Giants. Those firsts have to become learned, unrepeatable behavior now.
San Francisco is a wagon. Washington still has a quarterback capable of catching a team off guard, and if anyone in this league is fighting for his life more than Quinn, point him out to me. It’s going to be very difficult. It is not impossible.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Niners Nation
5 questions with Andrew York of Hogs Haven: How is Adam Peters viewed three years in?
Assessment of Adam Peters so far
Overall, he’s been good and he’s definitely improved the overall talent of the roster (which was abysmal when he was hired), but it definitely seems like he’s learning on the job and he’s made a few noticeable mistakes so far. His first draft (2024) was pretty bad outside of Jayden Daniels. He traded away players and accepted trade downs such that he had 6 picks in the top 100 of the 2024 draft, yet none of them outside of Jayden Daniels has looked like a full-time starter. Looking at his draft class, I think he focused too much on taking guys with high Relative Athletic Score (RAS) and not enough on traditional scouting. He certainly learned from it though, as his 2025 and 2026 draft classes look to be better with less draft capital.
Speaking of less draft capital, he’s also made some big trades, primarily a trade for Marshon Lattimore in 2024 that looks like a waste of draft picks, but a much better trade for Laremy Tunsil in 2025 that looks great outside of his unfortunate injury this year. Some might question trading away draft picks with a rebuilding roster, but this team was in desperate need of blue-chip players and they at least got that with Tunsil. Peters’ biggest mistake this offseason was cutting Center Tyler Biadasz because he had a handshake agreement with Tyler Linderbaum. Linderbaum later backed out of the deal when he got a bigger offer from the Raiders, leaving Washington with backup IOL Nick Allegretti as the only viable Center on the roster. Street FA Lucas Patrick has since stepped into that role, but the hole at Center was noticeable in weeks 1 & 2.
Adam Peters biggest strength so far has been his free agent signings. The hit rate among his free agents has been really good and allowed him to rebuild the roster quickly in his first year. However, in order to turn over so much of the roster and stay within the cap, he had to rely on many aging veterans on 1-year deals in 2024 and 2025, which led to an old, slow, and injury-prone roster as well as a significant amount of roster turnover every offseason. This past offseason, he finally signed more young free agents in their prime to multi-year deals, and pretty much all of them have been paying off, with standouts like CB Amik Robertson and EDGE Odafe Oweh looking like cornerstone players. So yeah, overall I think Adam Peters has been good, but he’s had a bit of a learning curve.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
ESPN
Dan Quinn still has time to turn the season around and secure his job for 2027
Dan Quinn
Any attempt to draw a line under 2025 as an aberration hasn’t been successful, given that the defense has continued to struggle and Daniels has already suffered another elbow injury in 2026. I thought calls to fire Quinn for the endgame on Sunday were too harsh, but there’s no denying that this is the sort of disaster that lingers in fans’ minds.
If Quinn can’t turn things around, there’s the risk of this becoming the sort of tenure-defining collapse that Quinn was on the other side of when the Hail Mary past Tyrique Stevenson Sr. in 2024 was the beginning of the end for Matt Eberflus in Chicago.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Podcasts & videos
Sonny Styles Spotlight, Bringing the Blitz & Offensive Ingenuity | Film Breakdown Show | Commanders
NFC East links
Bleeding Green Nation
Eagles Injury Report: Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, and DeVonta Smith among 24 players listed
The Philadelphia Eagles issued their first official injury report of the week on Wednesday in advance of their Week 6 game against the Carolina Panthers.
There are 24 players listed.
24!
Not all of them are on the 53-man roster, which is really a 52-man roster since Lane Johnson will count against the team’s limit all season, but that’s still insane.
Let’s sort through it all.
The Eagles listed six players under DID NOT PARTICIPATE: Saquon Barkley, DeVonta Smith, Drew Kendall, Jalyx Hunt, Michael Carter II, and Will Shipley.
Earlier this week, there was a report that Barkley and Smith “have a shot” to return against the Panthers. Both of them missing Wednesday’s practice isn’t an encouraging start in that regard.
With Barkley hurt, Tank Bigsby on injured reserve, and Shipley also banged up, the Eagles are tracking to be without their top three running backs on Sunday. They currently have two healthy backfield options on the roster: Dameon Pierce and Carson Steele. They also have Jaydon Blue on the practice squad … and they’re reportedly going to sign Ja’Quinden Jackson, though that move has yet to become official.
Smitty is now listed with “hamstring/toe” injuries after previously just being listed with a hamstring injury. Seems like he’s in jeopardy of missing his third straight game.
Kendall is “week-to-week,” according to a report from NJ.com’s Cayden Steele. Steele noted that Kendall was walking gingerly in the locker room with a big sleeve on his leg. With Kendall expected to miss a second straight game, the Eagles could once again go with Jake Majors at center. Unless they move Willie Lampkin to the pivot if Landon Dickerson comes back at left guard? Or go with Dickerson at center and Lampkin at guard, which seems less likely?
Vic Fangio said “it’ll be pretty miraculous” for Hunt to play this week. But it sounds like Hunt will avoid going on injured reserve, which is good. Still, the Eagles are going to be without their leader in quarterback hits this season.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Bleeding Green Nation
5 Eagles thoughts after 5 games
[D]espite all the things that are bad about this team, and there is plenty to be frustrated about, I don’t want to throw in the towel on this season. Washington is a mess, the bottom is going to come out on Jameis Winston in New York, and the Dallas Cowboys have been the same 9-8 team since the Obama administration. The NFC East is stupid every year and the Eagles can still tighten up the operation and go on a run. 10 games probably wins the East and if you would rather blow it up midseason instead of piss off Cowboys fans with a third straight division title… I don’t know what to tell you.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
ESPN
15 NFL players, coaches on the hot seat entering Week 6
Daron Bland
Dallas restructured Bland’s deal just before the season, which reduced his cap hit and made his contract more tradable. But it also creates more dead money if (or more realistically when) the Cowboys decide to move on from the 27-year-old cornerback. Bland is owed $13 million next year, and at the moment, it’s only guaranteed for injury. The Cowboys don’t want to be on the hook for that money, so it would hardly be a surprise if they took Bland out of the lineup altogether once Durant and Porter are back on the field to avoid triggering those guarantees, which would happen if Bland suffers a significant injury.
Nick Sirianni
Sirianni’s lack of clear ownership over any one particular piece of the operation makes him more likely to receive blame for what goes wrong than credit for what goes right. Sirianni’s résumé through five-plus years as Eagles head coach is as good as anybody’s in NFL history, but for various reasons, there’s a clear perception that Sirianni isn’t the one driving much of that success.
And while Sirianni has racked up a gaudy win-loss record during his time in Philadelphia, the Eagles are 5-7 over their past 12 games, including a three-game losing streak. Three of their next four games are at home against the Panthers, Cowboys and Giants, all games we would expect Sirianni’s team to win. If the Eagles win games, even in ugly fashion, fans will tolerate the struggles. But if the losing streak continues, well, the sudden end to Doug Pederson’s tenure with the team in 2020 should tell you just how quickly an otherwise successful run can come to a sudden close in Philadelphia.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
More from ESPN:
The hiring of Mannion signaled a shift in thinking, an implementation of more under-center and play-action work for Hurts. A transitional period was expected, if not inevitable. But the Eagles now have to rebuild the offensive line at the same time, which is a huge challenge. It can’t be ignored that the Eagles needed a last-minute drive in Week 2 against still-winless Tennessee to avoid a 1-4 start, a reality no one in Philadelphia will tolerate very long.
If they aren’t going to tolerate it, then what are they going to do about it? We know general manager Howie Roseman is always on the lookout for trades to improve the roster, and the NFC East is certainly there for the taking. But the way the Eagles conduct themselves at this year’s trade deadline will tell us a lot about how they view themselves. The Cam Jurgens trade wasn’t a sign of a roster-wide sell-off; they were done with Jurgens, and the return was good. But if they lose a couple of more games in the next three to four weeks, things could get very interesting in Philly.
To read more of this 2nd ESPN article, CLICK HERE
The Athletic (paywall)
Are the Cowboys wasting prime years of Dak Prescott’s career?
The biggest criticism of Dak Prescott’s career is the same one Tony Romo faced during his time as the Dallas Cowboys’ franchise quarterback: a lack of playoff success.
With either quarterback healthy for a full season, the expectation was to make the playoffs. The bigger question was whether they could deliver in January.
That’s no longer the case. The Cowboys have taken a notable step back.
Under head coach Brian Schottenheimer since the start of last season, the Cowboys have had the 33-year-old Prescott for every start. They are 9-12-1. Certainly not good enough to even make the playoffs.
During that stretch, Dallas has won consecutive games only once. And that three-game winning streak last November was followed by a three-game losing streak. It’s been inconsistent ever since.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Blogging the Boys
Christian Parker’s reported move from sidelines not written in stone
Tuesday morning Dallas Cowboys owner, president, and general manager Jerry Jones took to the radio airwaves of 105.3 The Fan and shared a piece of rather revealing information. Jerry noted that Cowboys defensive coordinator was set to move from the sideline to the booth in terms of gameday operations.
This came just a day after Brian Schottenheimer announced that Mike Pettine was joining the Cowboys’ defensive staff amid, um, some challenges that the team is facing. Coupling these two things (Pettine and the literal Parker move) together made it seem like the Cowboys were really focused on making some adjustments.
Hold the phone, though. Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer took to the podium himself on Wednesday and said that nothing has been decided.
It is sort of rare to see anyone affiliated with the Cowboys, even the head coach, declare that something Jerry Jones said may have been wrong. This is the case because of the unique nature that is everything Cowboys and Jerry’s role within/above it all. Ultimatley, when Jerry Jones speaks it is usually pretty set in stone given who he is relative to the team. Schottenheimer publicly challenging that (so to speak) is rather bold.
If that really is the case… good for Brian! Take the reins of your football team and go at it on your terms.
As things relate to Christian Parker though, obviously there is a lot of discussion surrounding him given the poor performance from the Cowboys as of late. Whether he is on the sideline or in the booth… the on-field product has to change.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
Upcoming opponent – 49ers
Commanders next game is on the road on Monday Night Football vs the San Francisco 49ers
Niners Nation
NFL insider on the 49ers’ WR trade market: ‘The issue is the amount of roster spots you’re allotting to the position’
We spent Tuesday afternoon discussing potential trade targets for the San Francisco 49ers at wide receiver. Getting Mike Evans help feels like a priority. But the team has to balance that with what it would do when everyone is healthy.
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer answered the question in his weekly mailbag about the Niners potentially adding a wide receiver. Here’s what he said:
I would say keep an eye on veteran additions, like the ones they made with Brandin Cooks. Certainly, the hope would be that some of the younger players that they drafted over the last couple of years are able to step up and contribute.
Jordan Watkins and Jacob Cowing have flashed over the course of the last couple of years and in training camp. Those would be two guys that I think you would hope would be able to step up and play some snaps.
The key here is, to me, is what you’ve already got on the roster, and the fact that De’Zhaun Stribling is not out for the year. The fact that Deebo [Samuel] is not out for the year. The fact that Mike Evans is not out for the year. That to me would prevent you from really going all in on anybody.
Especially when you consider 2027, you’re going to have Ricky Pearsall coming back. So, I know it’s not the sexy answer to say stand pat with what you’ve got, try to make your development work with guys like Cowing and Watkins.
The issue is the amount of roster spots you’re allotting to the position, the logjam that you’ve got there, and the fact that I think when these guys are healthy, they’re a relatively good receiver group, who has Brock Purdy playing at an MVP level. And who has the Niners now 5-0. I wouldn’t be jamming the panic button.
But again, if you can add a veteran body like they did Brandin Cooks, I’m good with that. Go ahead and do it. They’re a team, over the next couple of years, that’s going to need to get younger. At this point, they need draft picks. I don’t see a scenario where they’re gonna go out and spend two first-round picks off somebody else’s roster.
To me, with the looming cap problems, with the looming questions about how you’re going to get younger, you hold on to the assets that you have, so you can go and get young, cost-controlled talent.
If the 49ers get through the Commanders and Falcons, Robinson and Samuel will likely be back after the bye week.
Washington’s defense is leaky. Atlanta’s is respectable, but it’s been propped up mostly by its run defense. The next couple of games feel like good chances to see whether Purdy can build trust with Cowing, Cooks, and Watkins.
Then, heading into the bye, you can decide whether to add someone.
To read more of this article, CLICK HERE
