The Daily Slop – 21 June 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
Brandon Colemanneyes re-joining Washington Commanders starting OL
Washington brought back Chris Paul in free agency on a one-year deal that many questioned would materialize with the early outlook that the former seventh-round pick would be in line for a payday this offseason. The lack of activity that ensued
allowed Washington to lean on its retention with a chance to finalize the left side of the line, but Coleman has a chance to disrupt that by becoming the starting left guard once again.
Offensive line coach Darnell Stapleton credited Coleman as versatile enough to play along the offensive line while Quinn pointed to a screen play in practice when the former third round pick joined Javon Kinlaw “flying out of the stack,” later adding that Coleman can “run like a defensive lineman.”
[Despite some speculation about playing center], Coleman will stick at guard into preseason just like he’s been through the spring into minicamp.
“Let’s give him the chance to say, alright, what does left guard look like with you and Chris [Paul] much like we’re doing at center,” Quinn added.
Heavy.com
Nick Allegretti Set for Crucial Role in New Offense
Allegretti will be the starting point for run-blocking schemes set to heavily feature zone-based techniques. As Svrluga put it, Blough’s “offensive line will use a primarily zone-blocking scheme reminiscent of the one Mike Shanahan employed in Washington from 2010 through 2013 — a system he perfected in Denver in the 1990s.”
Fortunately, Allegretti pointed out how “Under-center snaps with some wide zone — with some pulling — I’ve done it before. But it’s gonna be a bigger part of the bulk of that offense. I’m just getting out in space.”
Having a center already well-trained in zone-style concepts gives the Commanders a better chance to quickly adapt to key parts of Blough’s playbook. That transition perhaps explains why the Commanders made the surprise move to let Allegretti take over from former starter Tyler Biadasz.
Commanders Roundtable
Chig Okonkwo proving himself as a fit on and off the field
His 73.7% catch rate in 2025 ranked 11th among tight ends with at least 70 targets, while he tied for fourth at his position in missed tackles forced. Okonkwo’s 6.1 average yards after the catch ranked second among NFL tight ends with at least 50 catches in 2025, doing so on 560 receiving yards, 56 catches and 79 targets – all narrowly new career highs.
“You can see him with his speed and everything, give him the ball in space and man, he can make a lot happen,” Daniels said of Okonkwo.
Sure, the scheme in 2026 contrasts with what fans are used to, but his combination of athleticism and explosiveness, as Blough calls it, adds another downfield target who can also become a primary target to move the sticks. Rookie Antonio Williams will look to step up where he could be a big piece in determining whether Jayden Daniels does have enough weapons, but it isn’t a stretch to point to Okonkwo as the primary likely challenger to Terry McLaurin for overall targets.
ESPN
Top five takeaways from Commanders offseason practices
4. Daniels looks like Daniels again
Daniels and the offense rarely looked in sync during the spring and summer of 2025. A big part of that stemmed from an offseason holdout by McLaurin, who was Daniels’ No. 1 target the previous season.
McLaurin appears happy this spring. And Daniels, who is coming off an injury-filled season that limited him to four full games and parts of three others, has been more on target than last year.
Quinn said he’s liked what he’s heard from Daniels as they break the huddle, such as reminding receivers about their splits or telling another “I’m coming to you.” Daniels is providing information before the snap.
“The better you know [the offense], the more you’re able to share,” Quinn said. “The fact he can call out who should be where, that’s a big deal. I’m excited to see him grow more into it.”
McLaurin said in the past the quarterbacks and receivers would meet each Friday during the season. He said Daniels and Mariota have been running meetings at 8 a.m. in the spring. Daniels watches film with coordinator David Blough and has notes for the receivers on various plays.
“We’ve connected on a new offense just like that,” McLaurin said. “I know he has a feel for how I run certain routes; I have a feel for how he’s going to throw it.”
Last Man Standig (paywall)
See and hear from Dan Quinn and others as Washington wrapped up the offseason program
Whatever trepidation Quinn had ahead of the offseason program, wondering if quarterback Jayden Daniels would easily process Washington’s new offensive scheme wasn’t on the list.
“I didn’t ever doubt,” Quinn said. “It was never like, ‘Well how long will it take to get it?’. [What] does surprise me, like the quickness that takes place. Where it’s like he’s further elevated along than others in that process. The benefit of that is he can help multiply others more quickly.
“Sometimes playing quarterback as you break the huddle, it’s also to direct. ‘Hey man, this is a minus three split’, giving a little cue to the people on the way out of the huddle. And so, to hear that, that’s been beneficial, like, ‘Hey, I’m coming to you’. The alerts coming out of the huddle for the player. Ypu can imagine being a player on the receiving end of that. ‘Yeah, thanks man, I got it’.
“And so, giving them information before the snap, that doesn’t show up on a stat sheet, but it does multiply and the better you know it, the more you’re able to share that. You know, like on this route is this split that like the fact that he can call out who should be where that’s a big deal. And so, I’m excited to see him grow more into it.
For more from Ben Standig, click here
Podcasts & videos
NFC East links
Sports Illustrated
McMullen: Are Eagles Making It Easier On Defenses By Playing Copycat (And Harder For Jalen Hurts)
Copying the smart kids is an astonishingly ordinary move for an organization that prides itself as forward-thinking and being ahead of the curve
After engineering the most successful stretch in modern franchise history with their distinctive scheme, [Philadelphia] has decided the rest of the NFL has caught up. So instead of doubling down on what made them different and chasing better execution, the Eagles are pivoting to a more conventional Shanahan/McVay-style offense.
By chasing the copycat trend, the Eagles aren’t just behind that curve — they’re so far back they can’t even see the pace car.
As SI’s Conor Orr put it perfectly: “If your strategy is to simply copy off the smartest kids in class, you’re in for a rude awakening in 2026.”
Right now, half the league will try to run last year’s version of what Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay were doing, likely chasing 13-personnel packages or other bigger formations and outside zone concepts that will no longer be catching defenses off guard.
On defense, the Eagles employ Vic Fangio — the godfather of modern NFL defensive thought — whose concepts get copied league-wide as everyone else plays catch-up. Yet on offense, the Eagles have now voluntarily enrolled themselves in the remedial class while betting on a trickle-down effect in a system that doesn’t suit their quarterback on paper.
After years of blazing their own trail, the Eagles have chosen to become just another team running the same scheme as everyone else.
Blogging the Boys
Why Cowboys left too much meat on the bone in the red zone
Take 2025. The Cowboys RZ TD% of 57% last year ranked “only” 18th in the league. Yet compared to the No. 1 red zone offense in 2022, the Cowboys were short by only three TDs. And in terms of the number of red zone drives, 2025 matches the record-breaking 2021 scoring offense. So as a pure performance indicator, RZ TD % can be a bit misleading.
Perhaps a better way to think of RZ TD% is as a “meat-left-on-the bone” stat. League-wide, an elite red zone offense generally operates above a 65% touchdown conversion rate, so the 2025 offense left a lot of meat on the bone relative to some other teams in the league.
Red zone drive killers
If you’re in the red zone and didn’t score a TD or a FG, only a finite number of things can have happened to end the drive, most of which are some kind of turnover. Here are the RZ drive killers for the entire NFL in 2025:
- 96 turnovers on downs
- 62 interceptions
- 26 fumbles
- 18 missed field goals
- 7 blocked field goals
- Not a turnover, but the drive ends anyway as the clock runs out: End of game (19) or end of half (2)
The 2025 Cowboys had 11 such drive killers. As a total of the 65 RZ drives, that’s 16.9% and ranks the Cowboys 25th. So that’s a key point to better understand the Cowboys’ red zone woes. Here’s the breakdown:
- six turnovers on downs (rank: 30th)
- four interceptions (tied for last place in the league), three by Prescott, one by Milton
- one fumble by Miles Sanders in the season opener against the Eagles. 14 teams did not have a single RZ fumble, the Cowboys are one of 11 teams with one fumble.
So that’s it in terms of hard numbers that affect scoring. We saw that the Cowboys are a prolific offense outside the red zone, but leave a lot of meat on the bone once in the red zone, partly driven by a high number of turnovers.
[I]t feels like the Cowboys have correctly identified the issues that have held them back in the red zone and are looking to fix them, even if it’s not going to be that one big thing that affects that change.
But with a lot of work and a little bit of luck, that should leave much less meat on the bone this year. And you know what that means
Playoffs, baby!
Big Blue View
NY Giants fans think their team will win the Super Bowl first
[T]he Giants’ Super Bowl parade 14 years ago was the last time New York got to celebrate a championship. Until this week, that is, when the Knicks brought a championship back to New York this spring.
In honor of the Knicks winning their first championship in 53 years, we asked you which of New York’s football teams would be the next to win a Super Bowl. The response was both predictable and a bit surprising.
As of this writing, the Bills have the best odds in the AFC (and the second-best odds overall) of winning the Super Bowl. Per FanDuel, the Bills are tied with the Seattle Seahawks at +1000 to win the Super Bowl, trailing only the Los Angeles Rams at +550.
The Giants, meanwhile, are 24th at +7500, nestled right between the Carolina Panthers (23rd, +7000) and the Atlanta Falcons (25th, +8000).
The Bills’ path to the Super Bowl is complicated by the fact that we just don’t know if Joe Brady will be as good a head coach as Sean McDermott was for the Bills. It could prove that their decision to fire McDermott was rash and they’ll quickly come to regret it.
The Giants, meanwhile, have a young roster that may just be coming into its own. The hope here is that Jaxson Dart can prove to be a franchise quarterback, while the young players across their roster can reach their potential under the new coaching. The Giants would certainly be perceived differently if players like Abdul Carter, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Tyler Nubin, Deonte Banks, Theo Johnson, or even Jalin Hyatt could consistently play up to the flashes we’ve seen from them.
NFL league links
Articles
The Athletic (paywall)
2025 NFL Draft QB film study: Can Cam Ward continue to improve in year two?
He can make every throw on the field. He can fit passes into tight windows over the middle, between two — and sometimes three — defenders. The ball explodes off his hand when he’s on the run, to the right or the left. He’s a natural passer with a calm, repeatable motion and finish. He’s also just a great athlete. Despite his ability to throw off-platform and from a variety of arm slots, Ward’s lower half is almost always balanced and in contact with the ground at the release point.
Athletically, Ward’s feel for the rush at the line of scrimmage and his escapability are advanced. His sack number last year was the result of poor blocking, Ward’s own poor decision-making or a blend of the two, but sensing pressure was not the issue. Ward is not a burner, but his foot speed and core strength make him hard to tackle. If he can stop scrambling backward and horizontally, his sack totals will dip and his mobility will become a bigger threat.
More than anything, though, the strongest part of Ward’s game last season was his ability to get better each week.
Ward had two head coaches last year and is now on his third before the start of his second season. He played on a bad roster, and he never flinched.
The Titans still have a lot of work to do. If you watched Ward’s full season last year, though, you’d understand why Tennessee wanted wide receiver Carnell Tate in the top five in the 2026 draft. If Tennessee can surround Ward with weapons, he’s going to make everyone (except me, thanks to that 2025 pre-draft take) look really good.
Deadspin
Three teams that make sense for Brendan Sorsby in NFL supplemental draft
New York Jets
The Jets need a quarterback. They’re loaded with 2027 draft capital, which would make a flier on Sorsby worthwhile.
Even though the Jets sold everything at last year’s trade deadline, they held onto wide receiver Garrett Wilson. It would be unwise to continue wasting his prime. Landing Sorsby would be music to Wilson’s ears, as he’d instantly become a viable QB option in New York.
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers have been perpetually too good to tank their way into a franchise quarterback.
But after Ben Roethlisberger retired in early 2022, the Steelers haven’t had any luck finding a serious replacement.
Arizona Cardinals shouldn’t chase Sorsby
The Cardinals are another quarterback-needy team. But they just used a third-round pick on Carson Beck in the 2026 NFL Draft, and that could complicate things.
Heading into 2026, the Cardinals are moving with Jacoby Brissett as their starting quarterback. They have plenty of holes to fill throughout this rebuilding process, and the Browns and Jets are closer to contention than the Cardinals are.
Deadspin
T.J. Watt’s Contract Has Pittsburgh Steelers Stuck in NFL Purgatory
The Steelers currently have the least cap room in the NFL and are paying $42 million to an aging outside linebacker. Even if Watt was performing at his MVP level, I still find that it was a massive overpay for the position.
Maybe a contract like this is why the Steelers organization is so great, but Watt was given this contract as a legacy deal. He wasn’t getting paid based on what they thought he could do, but on what he had done in the past.
Watt’s contract is obviously not as bad as Deshaun Watson’s contract in Cleveland, but this deal limits Pittsburgh’s ceiling. He’s simply signed to one of the worst contracts in the sport.
14% of your team’s cap going to a player past his prime just can’t happen if you want to genuinely contend for a Super Bowl.
Discussion topics
ESPN
Which NFL breakouts, nosedives will continue in 2026 season?
Development is not linear. It’s a truism, but it’s a valuable one in the NFL. Teams don’t always get better incrementally. If they did, the 4-13 Patriots wouldn’t have become the 14-3 Patriots in one short offseason. NFL players don’t get better incrementally, either. And even when they improve one season, they are not guaranteed to improve again the next year.
As such, it is a challenge to stand in one moment of time and say with certainty which players will continue to improve or continue to decline. The 2025 season was rife with risers and fallers. Later, we might call those same players one-hit wonders or flashes in the pan. But we might also call them bona fide stars and faces of the league. We just won’t know until we get there.
But from here, we can at least predict. I circled five players who suddenly broke out in 2025 and five players whose performance fell off a cliff out of nowhere to ask one simple question: Was it a blip or a trend? Is this player’s current arc destined to continue in 2026, or will his trajectory suddenly regress back to previous years — for better or worse — in the upcoming NFL season?
