Can a heavy reliance on multiple tight-end sets mitigate Washington’s depth issues at wide receiver? ...Middle East

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ESPN

Offseason changes bringing new look to 2026 Commanders

Washington didn’t just switch coordinators, it changed philosophies on both sides of the ball.

The Commanders will play a different style on defense — at times using a 3-4 look and playing far more zone than the past two years. On offense, they returned to what guard Sam Cosmi called a more “traditional NFL offense” under Blough.

Kingsbury favored a more no-huddle approach with almost all plays out of shotgun or pistol formation. The Commanders ran 1,279 plays out of no-huddle under Kingsbury — that was 815 more than the No. 2 team, Philadelphia. Blough won’t ditch the tactic but told ESPN earlier this offseason that they’d use no-huddle around 20% of the time.

Under Kingsbury, Washington also ran the fewest snaps from under center — 157 fewer than the Cincinnati Bengals, the No. 31 team.

During an OTA practice Wednesday open to the media, the Commanders ran a lot more snaps from under center, using play-action out of this look as well.

“I really do like our offense a lot,” Cosmi said. “The style we are presenting is very beneficial to us, especially in the run game — and the play-action was brought back. … Being under center helps a lot, just not being one-dimensional than just being in gun. Having both [gun and under center] can definitely help us moving forward.”

Jones coached the past three years under defensive coordinator Brian Flores in Minnesota, and will borrow from him as well as other coaches he has worked under, including Vance Joseph, Marvin Lewis and Mike Zimmer. All feature various forms of pressure packages, particularly Flores.

The form Washington’s defense takes under Jones’ command is unknown. But the Commanders will, if nothing else, play a lot more zone than in the past. Over the past three seasons as the defensive pass-game coordinator in Minnesota, the Vikings tied for first in zone coverage plays and were 30th in man. Washington, in Quinn’s first two seasons, ranked 12th in man and 27th in zone.

Defensive lineman Charles Omenihu called the defensive system “D-line friendly” and said that it gives them “tools that keep you on one-on-one blocks in the run game and, for the interior guys, a lot of picks and stunts.”

Another aspect to consider: Some team sources said they believed the defense was hurt last season by practicing against an offense that was atypical, with fewer motions and shifts. The Commanders struggled against teams early in the season in particular when facing offenses that featured a lot of pre-snap movement.

Meanwhile, Washington’s offense struggled when facing defenses with creative pressure packages. Now both sides of the ball can work against what they struggled to beat in 2024.

“Seeing what [Minnesota] did to us last year, they’re a tough defense, and they have you guessing a lot,” Cosmi said. “It’s good to go against that.”

Bleacher Report

NFL Rookies Who Already Look Like Draft-Day Steals After 2026 OTAs

WR Antonio Williams, Washington Commanders

There wasn’t a team in the NFC that needed to add a wide receiver more in this year’s draft than the Washington Commanders. But it wasn’t until later in Day 2 that the team added one, selecting Clemson’s Antonio Williams at No. 71 overall after a 2025 season in which the 6’0″, 190-pounder tallied 130 catches for just over 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns over the past two seasons.

Per Ivan Lambert of Commanders Wire, while making a radio appearance in Washington, 14-year NFL veteran Brian Mitchell said that he was impressed by what he saw from Williams in early practice sessions.

“It’s not that you see a finished product,” Mitchell said. I think so many fans and a lot of people in the media (do this). They look for the finished product instead of, okay, I see why they drafted him. Antonio Williams yesterday? He gave you many reasons why. I could see why. You can see the quick twitch, you can see how the guy settles, or the route running. And if you continue with that, and keep building, then you see why. Then you start to see the person develop that we already look at now.”

The Commanders badly need someone to step up opposite Terry McLaurin at wide receiver. Williams isn’t [that] guy yet, but given Mitchell’s comments, early indications are that he can be.

And when teams can get real offensive contributors in the back half of the draft’s second day, that’s how winning is done.

Commanders Roundtable

Commanders Offensive Line Looking to Build on 2025 Success

The former Chiefs draft pick who started all 17 games at left guard for Washington in 2024, Allegretti drew confidence as a candidate to become the full-time starter after tabbing him as a “really intelligent guy.”

“He’s a smart dude and you’ve got to be pretty smart to play center,” Sam Cosmi said of Allegretti. “I always say if you can play guard really well, you can play center so he was able to do it in the 2024 season the whole year. I have full and utter confidence in his ability to play center at a high level.”

As for Cosmi, he’s among the players transitioning to what he described as a “traditional style, NFL style offense” under first-year coordinator David Blough, but he’s also approaching the 2026 season looking to return to form.

Cosmi was limited to nine appearances in 2025 after missing the first six games as he recovered from a torn ACL suffered during the 2024 postseason, while he was placed on injured reserve late in the season after suffering a concussion. Yet in a season when Cosmi allowed just 11 pressures and two sacks on the season and closed the year with six consecutive games without allowing a pressure, there’s confidence in returning to that form as the starting right guard after admitting “I really, really like where I’m at right now.”

Riggo’s Rag

7 post-June 1 low-cost trade candidates the Commanders should already be watching

[Bill-in-Bangkok: Because teams can designate 2 veterans as Post-June 1st cuts, it is rare for players to actually be released in June; they are, instead, released in early March with the designation so that the players can participate in free agency.

Trades are a different story. Teams cannot execute a trade and designate it for a future date, so a GM like Howie Roseman who wants to move on from a player like AJ Brown has to actually wait until June 1st to get the salary cap relief that comes with being able to split the dead cap hit across two seasons.

Riggo’s Rag wrote this article about ‘cut candidates’, but I can assure you that there will not be 7 veterans released at the start of June for salary cap reasons — there probably won’t be more than 1 or 2 and there may not be any at all. The only reason to monitor these players if, like the Eagles and their disgruntled receiver, the team wants to move on from the player but won’t do so without getting some trade compensation in return.]

Commanders should monitor Malik Hooker

It was somewhat surprising to see the Commanders keep faith with their safety options. Only Nick Cross came into the franchise to bolster the defensive back end, indicating confidence in those who underperformed in the previous campaign.

Daronte Jones’ scheme could bring out more from them. It’s a calculated risk, but there are growing signs that nothing more will be done unless an opportunity they can’t refuse falls into the Commanders’ lap.

Given head coach Dan Quinn’s connection to Malik Hooker from their time together with the Dallas Cowboys, he could change the conversation if Washington’s bitter NFC East rival cuts him this offseason.

It would be surprising, despite the claims of some in the media. Hooker should start, but the arrival of first-round rookie Caleb Downs shifts the landscape. Much will depend on what the Cowboys have planned for the Ohio State product, but the veteran’s future may no longer be clear-cut.

Commanders Wire

How would you describe the Washington Commanders WRs in 2026?

“This isn’t Monk and Clark.”

What a line. It’s a great line because it is so true. That’s what Ben Standig told Brian Mitchell and J.P. Finlay of “BMitch and Finlay” on Friday. That was his answer regarding the 2026 Washington Commanders receiving group, and Standig provided a thoughtful, succinct, yet shrewd way to get to the point.

Standig is correct. The Commanders went out and made their biggest receiver additions at receiver, a draft choice (Antonio Williams) and a free agent tight end (Chig Okonkwo). They want to run the ball better, and the best protection for quarterback Jayden Daniels is when he is able to simply hand off the ball more often.

Consequently, the Commanders playing two tight ends more often will mean there is less being demanded of fewer receivers. It also means they will be Terry McLaurin, and then the other receiver on the field could be by committee.

Summing up his thoughts on the receivers group, Standig expressed, “Don’t look at it as who’s wide receiver two. Look at it as, how do you take the skills they have and turn that into sort of a number two receiver in aggregate?’

Photos

THROWBACK TO 2025

PHOTOS | Commanders face off against Jets in rainy joint practice

The Washington Commanders wrapped up their joint practice with the New York Jets. Check out the top photos from that practice.

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Bleeding Green Nation

Make or break factors for the Eagles’ 2026 draft picks

Eli Stowers

Make:Stowers plays tight end with the instincts of a former quarterback, and that background shows up constantly in the passing game. His understanding of zone spacing, timing, and leverage makes him a natural receiving option underneath. He sees coverage the way quarterbacks do, which gives him a reliable floor as a pass catcher almost immediately. That kind of awareness is difficult to teach, and it gives him a legitimate chance to carve out an early offensive role.

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Break:The issue is whether defenses will even identify him as a tight end before the snap. If his blocking never becomes even functional, opponents will treat his presence as a bigger receiver and remain in nickel at all times. Defensive coordinators at the NFL level are ruthless about identifying weak points in personnel packages, and a tight end who cannot hold up physically becomes exploitable quickly. If he doesn’t develop at all as a blocker, he might end up as a full-time receiver.

NFL.com

Saquon Barkley reached out to Todd Gurley as Eagles RB seeks bounce-back season in new system

The Eagles running back told reporters this week at organized team activities that he reached out to two-time All-Pro Todd Gurley, who played with Mannion on the Rams from 2015-18, to pick his brain.

“There’s a lot of guys that do it in the system right now, but one guy that I’ve been focused on and talked to him a little over Instagram, Todd Gurley, watching his film,” Barkley said. “Obviously it’s a little bit different, but the big years that he had when he was playing and he was healthy, the way that he attacked it.”

Gurley, who didn’t play beyond his age-26 season as knee injuries shortened his career, is one of the bigger what-if running back cases of the past decade. Even his realized goals were stupendous, though. Gurley was the 2015 AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, 2017 AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year and made three Pro Bowls, his last such honor coming in Barkley’s 2018 rookie campaign. A two-time league leader in scrimmage touchdowns, Gurley finished his career with 6,082 rushing yards, 2,254 receiving yards and 79 TDs.

Outside of his final NFL season with the Falcons in 2020, Gurley doled out that damage in a Rams offense that shares similarities with the Eagles’ new-look approach. He’s an ideal individual to impart wisdom to Barkley, who is already entrenched among the NFL’s running back elite in his own right.

Sports Illustrated

Ranking Cowboys’ 4 Most Intriguing Position Battles Entering OTAs

Reserve Inside Linebacker: Shemar James, Jaishawn Barham

Shemar James was a surprise contributor for the Cowboys as a rookie. The fifth-round pick out of Florida played in 14 games with six starts and recorded 91 tackles and 1.5 sacks. While the numbers were impressive, James earned a low grade of 39.9 from PFF, including a 40.9 in coverage and 38.2 in run defense.

To be fair, he didn’t get much help, which put him in bad positions often, so there’s hope that he can improve with a better supporting cast. He won’t be handed the main reserve spot behind Dee Winters and DeMarvion Overshown, however, with rookie Jaishawn Barham offering plenty of competition.

Barham lined up at linebacker and EDGE for Michigan and offers an intriguing skill set. He claims he’s in Dallas to take jobs and OTAs will give him his first chance to make a name for himself.

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Deadspin

The NCAA May Be Losing Control of College Football as SEC Frustrations Boil Over

Georgia president Jere Morehead and head coach Kirby Smart were the first people to say what has been boiling under the surface for years at this point: The way things are trending, it seems less and less likely that the future of the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference are in the NCAA.

As the NCAA pushes Congress to institute laws that would govern the sport and these attempts, like the SCORE Act, which stalled out this week, fail, college sports continue to be Wild West of sorts.

While the NCAA has instituted a cap for how much of its revenue it can share with players ($20.5 million across all sports for the 2025-26 academic year) and instituted a clearing house to approve all NIL transactions, things aren’t being forced on that front.

Tampering continues to be rampant — just ask Dabo Swinney — but we’re still waiting on the first punishment for anything of the sort. That leaves coaches at power programs, like Georgia, open to what they view as a better, NCAA-less future.

“I’ve been a huge advocate that if we can’t find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play on our own,” Smart told reporters this week at the SEC’s spring meetings in Miramar Beach, Fla. “I’m not afraid of that. I’m not afraid to break away and say that our conference is strong enough to go out and play.

“If we could actually function financially, it would make our programs more stable. We could support things financially — I’m talking about all the sports — and do our own rules. I’d be all for that.”

There have been discussions for years about if the college sports landscape, especially college football, is heading for a super league. Could a subset of the SEC and Big Ten break off and go independent, with a few ACC/Big 12 schools potentially replacing those conference’s lower tiers?

It’s always been a possibility this is where things were heading. This new league, which would likely contain an even greater percentage of the best players than these conferences already do, would have no trouble getting a TV contract to televise its games.

If these basketball programs also left the NCAA’s purview, that would seriously hinder the organization’s main cash cow in March Madness and drastically change its finances.

The NCAA is left with no real choice. It needs to bring actionable rules and real governance to college sports or it feels like just a matter of time until it becomes a college sports afterthought.

Even if it does those things, it’s still possible that there’s no keeping the band together at this point. But the NCAA has to try.

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Can a heavy reliance on multiple tight-end sets mitigate Washington’s depth issues at wide receiver? Top World News Today.

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