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, and a sprinkling of other stuff
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The Athletic (paywall)
The Commanders told Marcus Mariota, ‘Be you.’ It helped change his career
For much of his time in the NFL, Mariota endured an overwhelming anxiety born from a chase for perfection and an identity carved around the game. Football was both a blessing and a burden, turning his career into a roller coaster that only began to slow when he became a Commander in 2024.
But this Sunday, when he makes his second consecutive start for Washington in place of Jayden Daniels, who is recovering from a knee sprain, Mariota will confront another uncomfortable stop from his past and try to find that same joy in a place that ended with very little: Atlanta.
Mariota credits the “culture” in Washington for restoring his love of football when, previously, the lights and packed crowd of an NFL stadium would often instill fear. Fear of failing. Fear of not meeting others’ expectations. Fear of getting benched. Fear of being controlled by his fears.
Washington coach Dan Quinn sold him on a promise that he would build an environment where players love to play, where Mariota would compete but ultimately be himself.
“When you’re a young guy, you really want to try to come in and be perfect. And that’s hard,” Mariota said. “I really think you have to come out here, you’re going to fail, you’re going to have mistakes, and what you have to be able to do is to learn from those things.”
In a way, Daniels’ natural love for the game and ability to find enjoyment in the pressure — “pressure is a privilege,” Daniels has said — has seemed to rub off on Mariota, too.
When his contract expired in March, he left the door open for a chance to start again. But he re-signed another one-year deal in Washington, where he would serve the same role. To leave Daniels and Washington’s supportive culture, it could only be for a place that “really knocks my socks off,” he said in March.
“Being around this group, being around these guys, I truly just enjoy football. I enjoy coming to work,” he said this week. “I think it’s really kind of been refreshing to me and it’s made this entire experience so much better.”
Heavy.com
Jacory Croskey-Merritt : Slated to suit up in Week 4
Croskey-Merritt (knee) is in line to play Sunday in Atlanta, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports. Croskey was held out of all drills Wednesday and Thursday due to a knee injury, and despite his return to all activity Friday, the Commanders tagged him as questionable for Week 4 action. Assuming he avoids the inactive list about 90 minutes before Sunday’s 1:00 p.m. ET kickoff, he’ll resume his backfield committee with Jeremy McNichols and Chris Rodriguez in the wake of Austin Ekeler’s season-ending torn Achilles from Week 2.
Riggo’s Rag
Commanders’ role players must step up amid ongoing injury crisis
Marcus Mariota will step in as the starting quarterback again, a role he has performed well in all three times he has played significant snaps in Washington thus far. However, he’ll be forced to work with a limited array of weapons, with McLaurin’s absence serving as another unfortunate blow.
Deebo Samuel Sr. figures to be heavily involved, both in the receiving game and out of the backfield. Fourth-round rookie Jaylin Lane and second-year pro Luke McCaffrey both scored touchdowns last week (though the former was on a punt return) and will have prime opportunities to make a difference again.
Reliable tight end Zach Ertz will factor in as well, with yet one more chance for Ben Sinnott to make some noise in Bates’ absence. He didn’t catch a pass against the Raiders, but he was impressive in the blocking game. He’ll need to build upon that performance, and ideally even haul in a ball or two.
The run game was a strong suit for the Commanders last week, and it will need to be once again with such a depleted receiving corps. Rookie Jacory Croskey-Merritt missed two practice sessions this week, but indications are that he should play. He, Jeremy McNichols, and Chris Rodriguez Jr. will all need to bring their best.
The Commanders are also thin in the defensive backfield, with cornerback Jonathan Jones and safety Will Harris both being placed on injured reserve. All in all, Washington has a lot of holes to fill, and this will be a crucial test of the team’s depth and organizational structure.
Commanders Wire
Commanders DC Joe Whitt sees one issue with the secondary
Whitt is also frustrated because he sees the good things his secondary is doing, and then, boom!, they give up a big play.“I’ve seen it being really, really good,” he continued. “One reason that we’re getting so much pressure on the quarterback is because those guys are covering their ass off on the back end. You can say what you want to, the free runners sort of skew the look of, alright, everything’s open. Well, we’re number one in the league in completion percentage. We don’t give up a bunch of completions. But just the ones that we have given up have been just too long. And once we shore that up, and that’s why I just talked to those guys about if we do two things, we shore that up and start getting the dang ball, now the defense takes up, because the run game has been under control.”
Podcasts & videos
HC Dan Quinn Previews Washington Commanders vs. Atlanta Falcons | The Gameplan | NFL
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Blogging the Boys
If Cowboys want to upset Packers, the defense needs to at least put up some resistance
Green Bay has scored 27 points in both of their wins this season, and will be looking to bounce back offensively after scoring just ten points in a loss to the Browns last week. The Cowboys are a good opponent for them to have this bounce back against, not just because of their struggling defense, but because the Packers have won five straight against the Cowboys scoring at least 30 points in all of them. The most recent Packers win against the Cowboys came at the site of this Sunday night’s meeting, when Matt LaFleur’s team came to AT&T Stadium and won 48-32 in the Wild Card playoffs of 2023. That offensive outburst stands at the most points the Packers have ever scored under LaFleur, making it the last game that Dan Quinn ever coached as defensive coordinator in Dallas.
This game stands to be broken most easily for the home team by their own defense again. The Packers offense will challenge them with motions, shifts, downfield threats like Romeo Doubs, and their leading receiver being tight end Tucker Kraft. Green Bay’s offense is built to stress communication issues within a defense, which is something Dallas has struggled mightily with this season.
Big Blue View
Jude McAtamney will kick Sunday for New York Giants
The New York Giants will go with second-year placekicker Jude McAtamney rather than eight-year veteran Younghoe Koo on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers.
The Giants on Saturday placed kicked Graham Gano on Injured Reserve due to the groin injury he suffered last week against the Kansas City Chiefs. Gano will have to miss a minimum of four games.
McAtamney, a former Rutgers kicker who has been on the Giants’ practice squad with an International Exemption the past two seasons, kicked in one game for the Giants last year. He was 1 of 1 on both field-goal and extra-point attempts. He was elevated from the practice squad to kick Sunday
Koo, 31, has kicked in 93 regular-season games. He was signed to the Giants’ practice squad this week after being released by the Atlanta Falcons.
Big Blue View
How will the Giants’ offense run with Jaxson Dart under center?
It was as if there were two different versions of the New York Giants’ offense this summer and at training camp. One that Russell Wilson and the first-team offense ran and the other that rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart operated with the second team.
In reality, the plays weren’t all that different, in fact, mostly the same. Yet, the on-field product looked vastly different when Dart was behind center.
The zone-read and the RPOs are almost certainly going to become a bigger part of the offense.
It’s a portion of what Dart did well last year at Ole Miss, when he completed 83% of his passes on RPOs. He also ran for 495 yards and three touchdowns.
Tempo is also a staple of the Ole Miss offense that Dart ran.
Playing with tempo and without a huddle a good chunk of the time is what the Washington Commanders have also done for their young quarterback Jayden Daniels. That led to an NFC Championship Game appearance in his rookie year.
It seems likely the Giants will do the same. They used no-huddle on only eight of Wilson’s 127 dropbacks in the first three games.
NFL.com
Giants QB Russell Wilson expected to emerge as trade candidate following benching
Wilson declined to ask for his release. He told reporters this past Wednesday that he would serve as a mentor for Dart, saying, “I know that I’m going to respond in the right way every day.”
Wilson also added this: “I’m not done.”
Don’t be surprised if another team wants to find out.
Wilson is expected to emerge as a trade candidate prior to the deadline on Nov. 4, the target of a QB-needy team in need of a veteran, according to sources around the league.
Wilson joins Atlanta Falcons backup Kirk Cousins as the top quarterback options potentially available if a team needs a long-term starter as quarterback injuries do happen.
The Athletic (paywall)
What I’m hearing on the Jaxson Dart decision, Houston’s problems and Kirk Cousins
Giants star wide receiver Malik Nabers wasn’t standing on any staircase, but his words after New York’s Week 3 loss to the Chiefs carried the same sting.
“We can’t win.”
Those three words told us exactly where he thinks this 0-3 team is right now: not built to go pound-for-pound with the league’s heavyweights. It doesn’t help that the schedule ahead may be scarier than a steroid-pumped Drago: The next six opponents include the red-hot Chargers, the defending champion Eagles (twice), the Broncos and the undefeated 49ers. Enter rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, not only to get the Giants into the win column, but to attempt to save head coach Brian Daboll’s job in the process.
The Giants actually considered turning to Jaxson Dart after their Week 1 loss to the Commanders, but they instead stuck with Russell Wilson, who had a vintage performance against the Dallas Cowboys. Wilson kept his job, but it was just one epic showing before he fizzled against the Chiefs. Now, sitting at 0-3, Daboll’s calculation is simple: Go down swinging with your guy. Ask fired head coaches what they regret most, and you’ll hear the same answer: not doing it their way. Daboll is making sure he does.
This was his decision, for better or worse. Giants ownership doesn’t typically force these kinds of moves, and I’m told they didn’t this time either. It wasn’t GM Joe Schoen’s mandate. The call belonged entirely to Daboll and he wants everyone to know it.
Upcoming opponent
The Falcoholic
What to know about Falcons – Commanders in Week 4
Atlanta’s hosting former head coach Dan Quinn and his banged-up squad, hoping for a much-needed win.
Here’s what you’ll need to know as we cross our fingers and hope the Falcons can turn up the intensity several thousand notches and emerge victorious against the Washington Commanders.
We know that Mariota is a dangerous, fast runner, and the Falcons have already scuffled when asked to keep Bo Nix and Bryce Young in the pocket. The Falcons can hope to crank up the pressure on Mariota if he plays to force some ill-advised throws, but they have to remember that once they miss, he’s gone. Mariota with time is also not shy about airing it out, and while Washington isn’t nearly as dangerous without Terry McLaurin, they can certainly still hurt this secondary. Mariota is not, in other words, an easy mode opponent for Atlanta.
Penix and this offensive line will have their hands full, too. While the Commanders haven’t forced many turnovers, they’ve been able to make plays on the ball and are ninth in the league in passes defensed. They’re also fifth in the NFL in sacks, meaning a slow, ponderous operation with a nervous Penix is going to lead to another long afternoon for Atlanta if this team can’t get it going. The worst thing that can happen is snowballing and receivers failing to take advantage of a reasonably porous secondary; Mike Saintrisil and Marshon Lattimore are talented but are both struggling mightily in the early going. The Falcons [offense] has looked so bad that a quality pass rush is still extremely threatening, and the Washington run defense is stout enough to potentially stymie Bijan a bit. Things have been compounding rapidly for this offense, and if that happens early in this one with mistakes and lost drives, the Falcons are probably in real trouble.
The Falcons are catching Washington at a decent time, with the team…missing Daniels and McLaurin and having just lost Will Harris in their secondary. This is a winnable game for a Falcons team that can limit mistakes, show the strength of their defense, and get Bijan rolling, as they did against Minnesota. The problem is that against Carolina and at times against Tampa Bay, they have been a far lesser team, and that version of our Falcons almost certainly will lose this game.
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The Athletic (paywall)
What I’m hearing on the Jaxson Dart decision, Houston’s problems and Kirk Cousins
As for Kirk Cousins, he is sitting in Atlanta right now as the backup quarterback, and because of his no-trade clause, it’s not as simple as just shipping him somewhere. He’d have to sign off, and that’s only going to happen if the situation is right.
Even then, the math isn’t easy. Any team thinking about taking a swing would need cap room and budget space to absorb what’s left of his $27.5 million base salary for 2025. They’d have to give up a draft pick or two on top of that.
That said, desperation usually gets deals done in this league. If a playoff contender loses its starter midseason, Atlanta could flip the script. If the Falcons are willing to eat some of Cousins’ money, they’d essentially be buying themselves a better return: a higher draft pick from whichever desperate team picks up the phone.
Heavy.com
Major ‘Issues’ Continue to Follow Chase Young
More than a few eyebrows were raised when the New Orleans Saints decided to drop a bag on edge rusher Chase Young this offseason with a 3-year, $51 million free agent contract.
Young, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft by the Washington Commanders, received a significant raise over the 1-year, $13 million contract he played on with the Saints in 2024 and did so by being pretty average with 31 tackles, 5.5 sacks and 8 TFL but did have a career high 21 QB hits.
What Young has given back to the Saints in return to this point seems more on brand with how the rest of his career has gone — he was set to miss a fourth consecutive game with a calf injury for the winless Saints in Week 4 and has yet to play this season.
“Whatever the best case scenario for the Saints and what they expected (from Young), it ain’t that,” Locked On Saints host Ross Jackson said on his official X account. ” … When you are the top paid edge rusher and the biggest, best player on defense and you’re expected to be out there and you’re not that’s going to cause some frustration and going to cause some issues. So I don’t play anybody for being frustrated about that.”
Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox put Young’s new deal at the top of his list of the NFL’s “Biggest Contract Blunders” in the 2025 offseason.
In 5 seasons, Young has never finished in the Top 25 in the NFL in sacks.
“It was strange to see Young get that sort of deal this offseason following another good-not-great season,” Knox wrote on July 21. “What made this a poor decision by New Orleans, though, was its cap situation … Given Young’s injury history and the state of the Saints franchise, his extension represented a very unnecessary risk. Young is only 26 years old and still has the potential to develop into a dependable starter, but New Orleans’ money would have been better spent elsewhere.”
This week’s division games
Commanders.com
State of the NFC East in Week 4
New York Giants (0-3) vs. Los Angeles Chargers (3-0):
The Giants had another disappointing performance in their home opener loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Giants were unable to score a touchdown in the 22-9 loss, with quarterback Russell Wilson getting intercepted on the team’s best chance with a deep ball picked off by Jaylen Watson in the end zone.
Through three games, Wilson has completed a career-low of 59.1% of passes for 778 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. Against Kansas City, Wilson finished with a 56.25% completion rate for 160 yards and two interceptions. The offense just couldn’t get going despite the defense holding the Chiefs within striking range throughout the first half. On Tuesday, Giants’ fans got what they wanted when the team announced they would be making a change at quarterback and starting rookie Jaxson Dart in place of Wilson.
Rookie running back Cam Skattebo stepped into Tyrone Tracy Jr.’s role after he went down with a dislocated shoulder against the Chiefs, a trend that is expected to continue against the Chargers. Skattebo had 10 carries for 60 yards and one touchdown, as well as six receptions for 61 yards. Top wide receiver Malik Nabers should be Dart’s go-to guy through the air, although he’s also nursing an injured shoulder.
Dallas Cowboys (1-2) vs. Green Bay Packers (2-1):
The Cowboys played from behind the entirety of their Week 3 matchup against the Chicago Bears, ultimately giving the Bears (and their first-year head coach Ben Johnson) their first victory of the season, 31-14.
Dallas’ defense has allowed 92 points through the first three games of the season, which is the fourth-most to open a season in franchise history, according to ESPN. Against the Bears, Dallas’ defense allowed five pass plays of 25 yards or more (13 on the season). Sunday was the first game in Chicago quarterback Caleb Williams’ career he was not sacked despite his offensive line allowing him to be taken down a league-high 68 times last season. Williams had one of the best games of his career against the Cowboys, with a career-high 94 total QBR with four passing touchdowns and zero interceptions.
The defense could look slightly different against the Green Bay Packers in their Sunday night primetime bout, as the newly-signed linebacker Jadeveon Clowney could be activated and bolster the pass rush for the Cowboys. Green Bay reportedly looks to be playing without starting right tackle Zach Tom, who reinjured his oblique and is widely considered to be the strongest member of the Packers’ offensive line.
Philadelphia Eagles (3-0) vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-0):
Although it looked like the Eagles were struggling for the first time this season, they came back from a 19-point deficit in the third quarter to score 26 unanswered points and beat the Los Angeles Rams, 33-26. A game-winning field goal block from Philadelphia’s defensive tackle Jordan Davis and his ensuing run to the end zone sealed the game in the Eagles’ favor. Davis’ block was the second of the game, the first coming from defensive tackle Jalen Carter earlier in the fourth quarter.
The Eagles’ offensive production has declined significantly from Week 1 to Week 3, putting them in the middle of the pack at No. 27-overall in offensive production. The Rams’ defense put pressure on the Eagles’ offensive line, sacking quarterback Jalen Hurts four times and holding Philadelphia’s rushing unit to just 86 total yards. They also effectively shut down running back Saquon Barkley well; he averaged 2.6 yards per carry with 18 carries for just 46 yards.
The Eagles’ O-line looked weaker in part due to the absence of right tackle Lane Johnson, who exited the game after one series due to a neck stinger. Without Johnson, the unit allowed 14 pressures (including the four previously mentioned sacks on Hurts) on 37 pass plays.
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