Commanders links
Washington Post (paywall)
Mike Sainristil’s unlikely path to the NFL added a special significance to the Commanders’ trip to Spain before an on-field mistake proved costly
The trip had a bitter ending for Sainristil, who muffed a punt late in the fourth quarter of the Commanders’ 16-13 overtime loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday in the NFL’s first game in Spain, but the hour he had spent teaching the sport he loves to children in a foreign country resonated. He could relate to those kids.
Sainristil, 25, was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He immigrated to the Boston area when he was 7 months old, but his parents had lived in Haiti for their entire lives and were unfamiliar with football. He later learned about the sport through an older cousin who had grown up in the United States, but his parents thought it was too dangerous and denied his request to play.
Sainristil’s parents eventually relented, and he has been hooked ever since. He relished the chance to give a group of kids in a country where knowledge about football remains limited early exposure to the game.
“Opportunities like this just show you it’s all about just having fun at the end of the day. Take the rules and stuff out of everything and just have fun playing a sport with your friends,” Sainristil said. “Just seeing how much they’re enjoying it is cool.
A to Z Sports
Dan Quinn needs to do something he doesn’t want to do
The best move Quinn can make is by bringing in a younger, defensive-minded guy similar to Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald, and adjusting to the league, not just another familiar face like Raheem Morris if he’s fired from the Atlanta Falcons. Whether that’s a coach in college, or someone on the rise in the NFL as an assistant or position coach, Quinn needs a fresh face, and not just another one of his guys from the past. Unless it’s Al Harris with the Chicago Bears, but that seems like a big ask.
It worked when they brought in Kliff Kingsbury as offensive coordinator to work with Jayden Daniels and revamp the offense. The success was there last season, and who knows what it would’ve looked like this year if Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin had stayed healthy. Quinn has to realize that what he’s done in the past hasn’t worked, and a drastic change needs to happen.
The new defensive coordinator needs to lay out his blueprint
Finding the right guy, which I will go more in depth on this week, is just the beginning of it all, and that’s when the work really starts. This is the most important offseason for Peters since he joined the Commanders, and he has to work with the new defensive coordinator to rebuild the defense. The new guy would come in, evaluate the roster, see who he likes and what role they would have in his scheme, and then find the missing pieces.
Jeremy Reaves : Strong performance in loss
Reaves compiled seven total tackles (five solo) in Sunday’s 16-13 overtime loss to Miami. Reaves was able to finish second on the team in takedowns behind linebacker Bobby Wagner (8), recording at least seven tackles for the fourth straight week and sixth time overall this season. On the year, the safety has now produced 63 total tackles (38 solo), including 1.0 sacks, while also adding three passes defensed over 11 games.
Commanders Wire
Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels makes a big off-field move
The reigning NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year signed with 3 Arts Sports in an effort to launch his production company and grow his presence in media, business, and entertainment.
Regina Jackson, Daniels’ mother, agent, and business manager, released the following statement.
“3 Arts understands that today’s athlete is also a storyteller, investor, and cultural leader,” the statement read. “What drew us to their team is their ability to operate with precision, creativity, and scale to help Jayden expand his influence across every vertical of sport, business, and entertainment.”
Daniels isn’t the only big-name NFL star to sign with 3 Arts. Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Browns defensive end Myles Garrett also joined.
Daniels made it clear his focus remains on football:
It’s been a frustrating season for Daniels and the Commanders. He’s missed five starts due to knee, hamstring, and elbow injuries. He dislocated his elbow in a Week 9 loss to the Seattle Seahawks and will be reevaluated after Washington’s bye for a potential Week 13 return.
NFL Week 11: Biggest questions, takeaways for every game
Commanders
What more could go wrong for the Commanders? Just when it looked like Washington could snap its five-game losing streak, the Commanders found new ways to lose. An overtime interception on the first pass by Mariota set up the Dolphins’ winning points. An injury to Jaylin Lane led to a new punt returner -- and a fumble by Mike Sainristil. Washington would have had the ball at its own 40. But it followed a series that ended on a failed fourth-and-1 when Mariota’s pass to tight end Zach Ertz fell incomplete because the veteran slipped on his route. It has been that kind of season for Washington, which had 10 players considered starters entering the season sidelined by injuries or suspensions. And the losing streak has no end in sight.
Biggest hole in the game plan: Washington’s red zone offense. The Commanders failed to convert any of their three trips into touchdowns and it cost them. There was a false start on a fourth-and-1 that forced a field goal; there was a failed run by Mariota and the Ertz slip. Had he not slipped he would have been in position to score. The Commanders entered ranked 22nd in red zone offense. It cost them a game Sunday.
Best quote from the locker room: “I was going to walk in probably if I don’t slip like that,” Ertz said about his fourth-and-1 slip from the Miami 1-yard line with 6:06 left in a tie game. “A play I’ve ran probably 10,000 times in my career and never slipped like that. This is the first time they played an NFL game here. It was not ideal. There was a lot of slippage. But you can’t blame it on the field by any means.” -- John Keim
Next game: vs. Broncos (Nov. 30, 8:20 p.m. ET)
Midseason reports on NFL offensive coordinators, playcallers
Washington Commanders
Offensive coordinator: Kliff Kingsbury
Playcaller: Kliff Kingsbury
What has gone right? Left tackle Laremy Tunsil, acquired in an offseason trade, has played well. Veteran tight end Zach Ertz and receiver Deebo Samuel combined for 81 catches, 741 yards and 8 touchdowns through Week 10. Washington needs more explosiveness around them. Seventh-round running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt has shown flashes with 470 yards and four touchdowns heading into Week 11.
What has gone wrong? Injuries. Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels has missed four games -- and counting -- with three different injuries. Receivers Terry McLaurin and Noah Brown have missed a combined 15 games -- and counting. Running back Austin Ekeler (Achilles) was lost for the season in Week 2. Washington played only two games with all of these players healthy.
Key to second half: Health. There’s uncertainty over whether Daniels (dislocated left elbow) will return -- or if he should, particularly if the team is out of the playoff race. But even if only McLaurin and Brown return, it will provide a major boost. McLaurin would give Washington the downfield boost it desperately needs. The Commanders’ offensive line needs to become more of a factor.
Pro Football Focus (Premium content)
Grading all 32 first-round rookies after Week 11
Pick No. 29: Washington Commanders: T Josh Conerly Jr.
Overall Rookie Grade: 54.2 (Rank: 7/7)
Principal Opponent: Chop Robinson
Week 11 Snaps: 67
Week 11 Grade: 74.3
Week 11 wasn’t a banner day for Washington’s offense as a whole, but Conerly recorded a season-high 74.3 PFF overall grade in the team’s overtime loss to the Dolphins. He continued his hot streak in the run game, where he recorded five positive grades. His lateral movement appears to be improving with each passing week. Since Week 8, Conerly has earned a 78.4 PFF run blocking grade — a top-15 mark among qualified tackles.
Pro Football Focus (Premium content)
NFL season-long statistical review ahead of Week 12
Podcasts & videos
NFL Week 11 Recap: Commanders fall to Dolphins 16-13 | Booth Review | Washington Commanders | NFL
NFC East links
Bleeding Green Nation
The Eagles All Pro right tackle could land on IR, but early thoughts are he’ll be able to return this season.
On Monday, it was reported that Johnson likely suffered a Lisfranc sprain and could miss 4-6 weeks — while that wouldn’t make the injury season-ending, it would likely land him on injured reserve through most of the back-half of the regular season.
However, that timetable is still very much in question, with Jeff McLane reporting on Tuesday that due to inflammation in his foot, Johnson hasn’t been able to get X-rays yet to determine if his injury requires season-ending surgery. It could be another week or so until they know more definitively.
Blogging the Boys
Cowboys playoff chances: Dallas has uphill battle, but hope nonetheless
The Dallas Cowboys were victorious on Monday night against the Las Vegas Raiders. It was “only” one win and was “just the Raiders”, but winning feels good and makes the sun shine a little bit brighter.
Something that is often more visible as a result of that sunlight is the box where we keep discussions about the playoffs. In times like these it feels less ridiculous to open it and poke around, but we can obviously do so with the context that the situation for Dallas is dire right now.
Let’s say the Cowboys can get to nine wins on the season. This is admittedly very optimistic, but it is going to in all likelihood take at least nine wins for the playoffs to be a possibility.
This scenario would involve the 49ers and/or Seahawks only winning two more times across the rest of the season.
Upcoming opponent
The Athletic (paywall)
Is Broncos’ potential capped with Bo Nix?
Bo Nix is a conundrum.
The Denver Broncos quarterback, part of a historic 2024 draft class that might actually live up to the hype, has led his team to the best record in the NFL (9-2) despite enduring stretches that could succinctly be described as both very good and very bad.
Nix leads the NFL with 387 pass attempts, a 3.01 sack percentage and five fourth-quarter comebacks. It’s not easy to do all of those things at once.
In fact, it’s wildly bizarre.
Tom Brady (three times) and Peyton Manning (once) are the only quarterbacks since 2012 to lead the NFL in pass attempts and make the playoffs, so Nix has an opportunity to break an extraordinary barrier. Brady and Manning, arguably the two best quarterbacks in NFL history, accomplished the feat because of their unique value to their offenses.
But typically, the league’s leader in pass attempts is someone like…Jameis Winston (2019) or Ben Roethlisberger (2018), a QB on a mediocre (at best) team who is forced to over-chuck it because of the score. Pass attempts and team success don’t often go hand in hand.
Even Drew Brees (2007-08, 2014, 2016), who, like Nix, also commanded a Sean Payton offense, only led the league in attempts during down seasons for the Saints. New Orleans won just seven games in three of those four seasons and eight in the other.
Still, it’s worth pointing out that Brees was better equipped to take on that heavy passing workload in Payton’s scheme. Brees, who briefly held the league’s all-time passing title, was a pocket passer with all-time accuracy who delivered the ball with precise rhythm and timing because of his ability to read the field and anticipate the play.
Nix, a more gifted athlete than Brees, is at his best with the RPO game, utilizing play action and deep balls to carve out explosive plays. Nix doesn’t operate out of the pocket with timing and processing speed like Brees did. Not yet, at least.
Going into the draft, teams viewed Nix as more of a facilitator than a driver of the offense. Evaluators liked his potential in the right situation, with a good running game and defense, and Nix got that with Payton’s Broncos.
But strangely, they’ve put more on Nix’s plate than anyone would have anticipated. He’s completing 61.2 percent of his passes for 2,421 yards, 18 touchdowns and eight interceptions this season, and he has added 213 rushing yards and three scores.
The Broncos rank 17th in points, 13th in total yards, 17th in passing yards and 21st in net yards per attempt. More or less, they’re average across the board.
His comebacks are no fluke. Nix has high-end intangibles, according to those who scouted him before the draft, and he is comfortable in chaos. He also tallied three fourth-quarter comebacks as a rookie.
However, it’s not like the Broncos are saving Nix for the fourth quarter. He’s actually delivered more passes in the first half (205) than the second (182). The attempts aren’t disproportionately tilted like they may have been for previous leaders in pass attempts.
One struggle has been consistency, according to coaches and execs who have studied Nix, but that’s true for nearly all second-year QBs. The Broncos have gotten into trouble when defenses have forced them to methodically work down the field, taking away the bigger plays where Nix has been known to thrive.
On one hand, Payton should be thrilled that he’s been able to test his quarterback in a variety of situations while they’ve raced out to the AFC’s No. 1 seed. If Nix improves his pocket presence and the Broncos can add players who can gain yards after the catch, he could really take off in future seasons.
On the other hand, the scheme fit still looks a little funky. The dramatic ups and downs on offense could doom the Broncos in the postseason. And if there’s something to the “square-peg, round-hole” theory with Nix and the scheme, it’s fair to wonder if there’s a cap on the offense’s potential.
That’s the conundrum.
NFL league links
Pro Football Focus
NFL Week 11: PFF Team of the Week
QB: Jordan Love, Green Bay Packers
RB: Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco 49ers
WR: Michael Wilson, Arizona Cardinals
WR: Drake London, Atlanta Falcons
TE: George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers
Flex: WR George Pickens, Dallas Cowboys
LT: Trent Williams, San Francisco 49ers
LG: Ezra Cleveland, Jacksonville Jaguars
C: Blake Brandel, Minnesota Vikings
RG: Sam Cosmi, Washington Commanders
RT: Larry Borom, Miami Dolphins
EDGE: Myles Garrett, Cleveland Browns
EDGE: Maxx Crosby, Las Vegas Raiders
DI: Osa Odighizuwa, Dallas Cowboys
DI: Quinnen Williams, Dallas Cowboys
LB: Robert Spillane, New England Patriots
LB: Nate Landman, Los Angeles Rams
CB: Jack Jones, Miami Dolphins
CB: Deommodore Lenoir, San Francisco 49ers
S: Kamren Kinchens, Los Angeles Rams
S: Kyle Hamilton, Baltimore Ravens
Flex: CB Brandin Echols, Pittsburgh Steelers
Special Teams
Discussion topics
Front Office Sports
NFL Refs Are Ruining the TV Experience
Take the Eagles’ 16–9 win over the Lions on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Philadelphia iced the game after the refs made a “terrible” pass interference call, in the eyes of NBC game analyst Cris Collinsworth.
NBC replays showed Detroit cornerback Rock Ya-Sin hand-fighting with Philadelphia’s A.J. Brown—but nothing worth a pass interference. As a former WR himself, you’d think Collinsworth would have been on Brown’s side. Instead, he went off on the call.
“Oh, come on! Come on! That is terrible! That is an absolutely terrible call that’s going to decide this football game! If anything, it’s an offensive push,” said an exasperated Collinsworth. “I said offensive foul … if you want to call it, it’s an offensive foul. Wow.”
“It’s certainly hand-fighting, but not even at the level we’ve seen,” added play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico. “Rock Ya-Sin thought it may have been going the other way as well. He played a good game tonight.”
Kurt Warner serves as a game analyst for the league’s own 24/7 NFL Network. But he was appalled by the call, writing on X/Twitter that officials “just can’t make those calls in deciding moments.”
The strongest comment came from Albert Breer, senior NFL reporter for Sports Illustrated.
“I’ll reiterate my stance: Officiating needs to be torn down to the studs,” he tweeted. “They need to rebuild it with the technology that’s now available. What they’ve done instead—which is to continually add on to what they already have, and overcomplicate everything—clearly isn’t working.”
Then there’s the abomination known as the Tush Push. Even if the refs can’t see the Eagles frequently moving offside on their patented short-yardage play, viewers can. It’s frustrating that refs can’t or won’t make obvious calls while inventing others seemingly out of thin air.
Consider the ref’s controversial call during the Eagles’ 38–20 win over the Giants on Oct. 26. On a fourth-and-1, Kayvon Thibodeaux of the Giants appeared to strip the football from Jalen Hurts as the Eagles QB reached for the first down. But the refs swooped in with one of the most atrocious calls of the season, ruling that Hurts’s forward progress had been stopped—and the play couldn’t be reviewed. Social media exploded.
As frustrated NFL analyst Jordan Schultz tweeted: “You can’t possibly call this forward progress and call the play dead. You just can’t. He’s literally getting pushed. The point of the TUSH PUSH.”
The NFL’s in great shape. Through Week 10, game telecasts were averaging 17.6 million viewers, up 7% from last season, and the best mark since the 2015 season. But maybe the league should be concerned.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football is the league’s marquee package, ranking No. 1 in prime time for an unprecedented 14 years. Does the league really want tens of millions of viewers to avidly watch a game for three and a half hours—only to throw up their hands over a bad call that decides the game?
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