The pre-season mercifully comes to an end this week. Washington has the honors to close it out on a national Sunday night broadcast. If you’re tuning in to see Jayden Daniels he’ll be on the sidelines in sweats. His pre-season work ended last week. The joint practice with the Dolphins went well. The two series in the game went fairly well. Both ended in field goal attempts. One of them actually was good. The WFT started the pre-season with two place kickers. They’re both gone. Another one is on the way from Cleveland. He may just be another body in the conga line. Teams get criticized for drafting kickers. But, after a watching this kicking crew butcher the job it becomes more understandable.
An Eventful Week
Monday started the work week with the announcement that Jayden Daniels would be QB1. Hopefully, no one was surprised by that. Dan Quinn held his cards fairly well. There’s no “right” way to handle that situation. Chicago declared Caleb Williams to be QB1 BEFORE Training Camp. Daniels did nothing but impress all during camp. There was never any real doubt about this. David Moulton, the long-time Spotter for Troy Aikman and Gary Danielson says he is “All in” on Daniels. The training camp tour folks at Sirius XM radio gushed about him after visiting a camp session. Already Daniels is calling protections and checking into and out of plays. Most of these young QBs getting thrust into the role take a full season, or more to get there. It all feels good right now. But, there are worry beads.
The O-Line in front of him is, ahem, ragged. His protection is going to be an issue. Look for Adam Peters to grab a camp/cap casualty O-Lineman or two after cutdowns on Tuesday. Daniels is not a thick guy. He loves to run. But, he hasn’t demonstrated that he knows how to avoid contact. Dan Quinn has been in his ear about it incessantly. The hope is that Daniels doesn’t have to find out the hard way that he needs to get down.
On Thursday Peters swung a deal, in-division with Howie Roseman in Philadelphia for Jahan Dotson. WFT packaged Dotson and a 2025 5th-rounder to receive a 3rd-rounder and two 7th-rounders. This is a tea leaf reading exercise if there ever was one. What we don’t know is who initiated the deal. Roseman has two stud receivers, not much in the way of backups, and two of them are in concussion protocol. He was in the depth market. Washington has Terry McLaurin and a lot of question marks. One was Dotson. But, apparently another one is not Luke McCaffrey. The thinking by some is that McCaffrey’s work is such that it made Dotson vulnerable.
The old workplace adage is that, “A new broom sweeps clean.” Dan Quinn has obviously set his vision for the team into motion: High Energy; High Effort; and High Commitment. He praises players by name on a routine basis. Never once did he mention Dotson in that vein. When the first pre-season game came Dotson was on the field for 31 plays. Starters don’t get that quantity of reps in PS Game #1. When asked specifically about Dotson early this week here was Quinn’s measured response: ““I think we’re right in the middle of that competition at receiver. … We’re really digging into that group, and it’s a really competitive group.” A few days later Dotson was gone.
There are those out there clutching pearls over this trade. Having Dotson go the bus ride up to the most stacked team in the Division can produce visions of him torching his former team for years to come. Nationals’ fans recall Daniel Murphy absolutely gutting his former team the Mets at every opportunity. That may come to pass. Some alarmists have said that Dotson will elevate the Wide Receiver room in Philly to juggernaut status. Somehow a Superman cape will materialize for a struggling player. We’ll just have to see. One thing is for certain, the afterguard in Washington did not put much stock in Jahan Dotson. Another thing is becoming obvious as well: Adam Peters is not afraid to make a move.
If one looks at the overhaul that took place in Detroit the blueprint of what’s happening here takes some shape. Dan Campbell had numerous players shown the door. You’re either on the bus, or you’re on the street.
Drake Maye Comes to Town
New England comes to town with their high draft pick QB, Drake Maye. His training camp and Daniels are a tale of two cities. In all likelihood the veteran Jacoby Brissett will be QB1 to start the year. If you haven’t seen this breakdown of Maye by Bill Belichick it is worth the watch.
The last half of the game will be people fighting for jobs. With it out of the way we can move on to real football.
Scheduling Note: The first regular-season game will be Sunday, September 8th at 4:45pm in Tampa Bay. The NFL gave up on Labor Day weekend long ago due to poor TV ratings. Talkcommanders will have an article up next Sunday to discuss the new beginnings of the team.
This game will be featured on “Sunday Night Football” on NBC. It is also the very last pre-season game of the year.
New England @ Washington
8:00 PM ET
NBC
Talkcommanders wishes a Happy 90th Birthday to Hall-of-Famer Sonny Jurgensen. When playing the nemisis Cowboys, Sonny said, “I always knew where to find Charlie Waters.”
