The Commanders will be sporting uniforms that hearken back to earlier times in the franchise’s history at times this season.
The team announced on Tuesday that they are bringing gold pants back into the fold. The team last wore gold pants in Week 17 of the 2018 season, which was before the name of the team was changed to the Commanders.
Washington regularly wore gold pants through the 1978 season and then used them sparingly until they were brought back as a regular part of the rotation in 2010. The move to bring them back comes during an offseason that has seen some renewed discussion about the team’s name, although switching it is not a primary focus at the moment.
The Commanders did not say when they will be donning the gold pants, but said they plan to release their scheduled uniform choices later this summer.
Tight end Zach Ertz was a limited contributor to the Cardinals last season before being waived in November, but he caught 103 passes in his first 21 games with the team and that’s likely what led the Commanders to sign him as a free agent this offseason.
Ertz’s first 21 games came when Kliff Kingsbury was the head coach in Arizona and Washington hired Kingsbury as their offensive coordinator earlier this year. During an appearance on 106.7 The Fan, tight end Cole Turner said that his veteran teammate has been a valuable resource for the position group and the entire offense during the installation process this spring.
“Zach and [Kingsbury] have been together for years before. That’s the first thing about Zack that he’s seen what Kliff expects from the offense, and he’s not a selfish guy, he wants to help everyone out. It’s been really fun to play with him,” Turner said. “Me and Zach have become friends in just a few months of knowing each other, he’s a very personable guy and a guy that goes out of his way and wants to see the team win. It’s been great having him around — not just for the tight ends, but for everyone. He’s one of the leaders on the team, for sure.”
The Commanders added third-rounder Luke McCaffrey to Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson at wide receiver this offseason, but an experienced tight end like Ertz would still be a valuable target for rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels if his reunion with Kingsbury sparks a revival in his productivity.
Cowboys defensive players loved Dan Quinn, who left as the team’s defensive coordinator to become Washington’s head coach. They won’t love Mike Zimmer as much, but could the defense be even better than it was under Quinn because of that?
Safety Malik Hooker seems to think it’s a possibility.
“I would say the biggest difference is the discipline that we are going to have this year,” Hooker said on Keyshawn Johnson’s All Facts, No Brakes podcast, via Ivan Lambert of USA Today.
Quinn was the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator for three seasons, and the team ranked fourth, ninth and sixth respectively in yards allowed and 19th, 12th and fifth in points allowed. He won assistant coach of the year in 2021 after taking over a defense that was the worst in team history in 2020.
“I love DQ,” Hooker said. “We still talk to this day. He’s a big reason why I am still in Dallas to this day. There is a certain way you have to coach certain guys. I feel like because of how player-oriented DQ was, guys would relate to him, and he wouldn’t have to coach a certain way that Zim does now.
“Mike Zimmer will give you a couple of chances to mess up. If you keep messing up and can’t get it right, [he] is going to get somebody else in there. Dan Quinn, on the other hand, is more player-oriented. If something wasn’t going right or we kept messing up, he’d level it down make it easier for everyone to go out there and do what they were going to do.”
The Cowboys’ coaching staff, all of whom are on one-year contracts, will begin the 2024 season on the hot seat. And, after not doing much in free agency, owner Jerry Jones is expecting the Cowboys to do more with less.
There’s always something new to make us feel old.
Here’s the latest: LaVar Arrington II has committed to Penn State, the college his father, LaVar Arrington attended.
Arrington II, also a linebacker, has chosen the Nittany Lions over Tennessee and UCLA, via On3.com.
The 3-star recruit had been leaning on his father, the second overall pick in the 2000 draft, for advice in picking a school.
“Having him helps me with making a decision,” Arrington II told On3.com. “He not only went through what I went through but he is smart and has a football mind too, so it is not like he is pressuring me to go to Penn State or anything like that. This is strictly my decision.”
LaVar Arrington, 46, played for six seasons with Washington and one with the Giants. He was very good in the NFL, making it to three Pro Bowls and landing on the All-Pro second team twice.
In college, he was dominant. For the 1999 season, he was a unanimous All-American and won the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Butkus Award, and the Jack Lambert Trophy.
The 49ers would surely love to persuade receiver Brandon Aiyuk to play for the team in 2024, at a fifth-year option salary of $14.1 million. Whether Aiyuk is ultimately willing to do that remains to be seen.
Regardless, Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that the 49ers and Aiyuk are no closer to a long-term deal.
“For Aiyuk and the 49ers, they had conversations recently,” Garafolo said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “They are no closer to a deal, from my understanding, but they are also no closer to a trade request. That’s never been something that he has explored in this case.”
There’s a game of semantics going on between the 49ers and Aiyuk. Even if he hasn’t asked to be traded, we believe his agent was given permission to seek a trade before the draft. The goal, we also believe, was to let Aiyuk realize that no one else was willing to give him the $30 million per year he reportedly has been seeking.
Ultimately, no one was willing to give Aiyuk what he wants in a contract and what the 49ers want in a trade. Otherwise, a trade would have happened.
If Aiyuk wants something more than the $14.1 million he’s due to make, he might have to take a stand. Whether he does or doesn’t remains to be seen. The deeper question is whether the 49ers will blink for Aiyuk, the same way they did a year ago with defensive end Nick Bosa.
As Washington, D.C., plans its bid to host the 2027 NFL draft, the city is hoping for a major event that would have hundreds of thousands of fans on the National Mall.
The National Park Service confirmed to the Washington Post that the National Mall could be used as a venue for draft events.
“The National Park Service has provided a letter of support to Events DC [the organization in negotiation with the NFL] for the NFL draft ‘to the degree that portions identified to take place on the National Mall can be organized and managed within the special event, sponsor recognition, and turf management guidelines in place for this iconic cultural landscape,’” NPS chief of communications Mike Litterst said in a statement.
In the years since the league moved it out of New York City, the NFL draft has become a massive tourist event and a huge source of money for the host city. Detroit officials said this year that the city had its all-time greatest hotel revenue week when the draft was in town. As a result, cities are now pulling out all the stops to convince the NFL to bring the draft to town.
The 2025 NFL draft will be in Green Bay and 2026 will be in Pittsburgh.
Jackie Taylor, the daughter of the late Washington safety Sean Taylor, has committed to play volleyball at North Carolina. And she’ll be honoring her father every time she puts on her uniform.
Taylor shared on social media a picture of herself in the No. 21 North Carolina volleyball uniform alongside Sean Taylor in his No. 21 Washington uniform.
“Like father, like daughter,” North Carolina posted on its volleyball social media account. “Freshman Jackie Taylor will wear No. 21 as a Tar Heel, honoring her dad, Sean Taylor.”
Jackie was 18 months old when an intruder broke into her family’s home and shot and killed her father, who was 24 and already a two-time Pro Bowler. Jackie and her mother were not harmed.
The Commanders retired Taylor’s No. 21 jersey in 2021.
The current expectation is that wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk will be playing for the 49ers in 2024, but he has thought about what other options might be in play.
Aiyuk met with the 49ers this week and a report said that the meeting ended with both sides saying they were not looking for a trade ahead of the season. Aiyuk hasn’t gotten a contract extension, though, and the continued absence of one means that things could still flare up again before we get to September.
During an appearance on The Pivot, Aiyuk said he doesn’t feel the two sides are particularly close to striking a deal at the moment and he was asked what uniforms he could see himself wearing in 2024.
“If I were to take a guess, probably a Niner uniform,” Aiyuk said. “Probably a Niner uniform. If not a Niners uniform, probably a Washington Commanders uniform. If not a Washington Commanders uniform, probably a Steelers uniform.”
The Steelers have previously been mentioned as a possible landing spot for Aiyuk and he was once college teammates with Commanders rookie quarterback Jaylen Daniels, but the fact the 49ers remain the likeliest choice should give nervous 49ers fans some solace about where the wideout will be this year.
When Austin Ekeler entered the league as an undrafted free agent with the Chargers in 2017, Anthony Lynn was his head coach and one of the reasons Ekeler made Los Angeles’ roster.
Ekeler’s role on the offense continued to grow with Lynn at the helm until Lynn was fired following the 2020 season.
But now the two men have been reunited with the Commanders, as head coach Dan Quinn brought in Lynn to be the club’s run game coordinator/running backs coach and Washington signed Ekeler to a two-year deal in March.
In an interview with the Rich Eisen Show this week, Ekeler said he got the sense that Lynn was pounding the proverbial table for the Commanders to sign the running back.
"[I]t’s been great catching up with him,” Ekeler said. “He knows how I work, he knows my philosophies. And I’m very appreciative of him because he’s one of the reasons I even got my start. The reason I’m talking to you here is because he utilized me — after I made it through special teams anyway — he utilized me on the offensive side of the ball in ways that fit my strengths. And I know he’s looking to do the same thing over here, especially with [offensive coordinator] Kilff Kingsbury as well.”
Ekeler had one of his best seasons under Lynn in 2019, accounting for 1,550 yards from scrimmage and 11 touchdowns.
In 14 games last year, Ekeler rushed for 628 yards with five touchdowns and caught 51 passes for 436 yards with a TD.
In a recent interview, running back Austin Ekeler said that part of the reason he’s no longer with the Chargers is because “they wanted a guy they can hand the ball off to 300 times a year” and “that’s not my game.”
Ekeler signed with the Commanders after parting ways with the Chargers and he took some time during an interview with Tom Pelissero of NFL Media to revisit those comments about the Chargers’ desire for a workhorse back. Ekeler explained that it’s not unwillingness to take on the role that helped him head to Washington but his own confidence that his best work comes in different circumstances.
“You’re going to get the best version of myself always, no matter what,” Ekeler said. “There’s been this controversy out there, like, ‘Oh Austin said he doesn’t want 300 carries, cause that’s what the Chargers said.’ I’ve never had that many carries ever. So, I don’t know why everybody’s in an uproar. It’s not that I don’t want to touch the ball. It’s the way that I’ve had the most production is when I’m able to split between catching and running the ball. That is when I’ve been the most productive, down in the red zone, right out in the field, when I can have both those type of environments.”
Ekeler will be joined by Brian Robinson Jr. in the Washington backfield and his position coach will be Anthony Lynn, who was once his head coach with the Chargers. Ekeler believes that will allow him to “go right back to my roots” and produce at a top level in his first year with his new team.