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Washington Commanders News & Rumors

Commanders To Hire David Blackburn As Player Personnel Director

May 20th, 2024 at 2:47pm CST by Adam La Rose

As the Commanders continue to make changes in the front office, the team is set to bring in another high-ranking executive. David Blackburn has an agreement in place to become Washington’s new director of player personnel, per Neil Stratton of Inside The League.

[RELATED: Commanders Add Brandon Sosna To Front Office]

Ben Standig and Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic were the first to report the Commanders’ interest in Blackburn (subscription required). The latter spent the past 17 years as part of the Ravens’ front office in a number of capacities. Most recently, Blackburn held the title of college scouting director.

This hire will therefore represent another move up the latter for Blackburn. Commanders owner Josh Harris has overseen a slew of changes recently after his first campaign in control of the organization. That process has included the hiring of Adam Peters to handle general manager duties. Blackburn will be one of his top lieutenants for a Commanders front office which has a number of new faces in place.

From a Ravens’ perspective, this move marks a continuation of the team’s offseason brain drain. Much like Blackburn, longtime front office member Joe Hortiz departed recently, taking on the Chargers’ general manager position. He brought a number of staffers with him, to no surprise, and the loss of Blackburn will leave Baltimore without another veteran executive. One of the Ravens’ 2024 storylines will be tied to the team’s ability to replace the lost personnel in the front office and along the sidelines.

In addition to Blackburn, Stratton reports the Commanders are hiring Dwaune Jones as a national scout. Jones has spent time with the Saints and Ravens, but his most recent tenure came as assistant director of college scouting with the Falcons. Jones will join Blackburn in being a new arrival with a scouting background as Harris, Peters and Co. aim to generate long-term success in the nation’s capital.

Commanders Add Brandon Sosna As SVP Of Football Operations

May 20th, 2024 at 9:08am CST by Ely Allen

MAY 20: Sosna’s title will be senior vice president of football operations, as first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. His duties will remain similar to the ones he held in Detroit, and as such he will be a lead figure in areas related to contract negotiations, salary cap management and the team’s analytics department.

MAY 19: The Commanders are adding a hot, young name to their front office to go along with a host of other new hires. To go along with relatively new ownership and a new coaching staff, new general manager Adam Peters is adding a strong piece to his front office staff in Brandon Sosna, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network.

Sosna, at 31 years old, is a fast-rising executive in the football world. A graduate of UPenn, Sosna began his front office work at the collegiate level with the Bearcats of Cincinnati. Starting at his hometown school in 2013, it took only three years for Sosna to be named chief of staff of the athletic department, a role in which he was responsible for organizing the search process that led to the hiring of head coach Luke Fickell.

Sosna broke into the NFL back in 2017 as a football administration intern with the Browns. It wasn’t long before he worked his way up to salary cap & contract analyst the following season. After dipping his toe in the NFL, Sosna was lured back to the University of Cincinnati in 2019, where he was granted the title of senior associate athletic director/chief revenue officer.

The USC Trojans poached Sosna later that year, hiring him as executive senior associate athletic director/chief of staff. In Los Angeles, Sosna was considered the athletic director’s right-hand man. Once again, he played a crucial role in the search that landed Lincoln Riley as the Trojans’ new head coach and reportedly played a key role in the school’s big move to the Big Ten Conference.

Most recently, though, the call of the NFL was too grand, and Sosna accepted a job as senior director, football administration for the Lions. Per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Sosna served as the point man in contract negotiations in Detroit. While his title in Washington has not yet been announced, his role will be “high-ranking” and will likely utilize his contract analyst talents.

Garafolo also reported that, whatever the job is, Sosna was not the only one to interview for the role. Eagles vice president of football administration Jake Rosenberg was also considered after the team allowed his contact to expire in Philadelphia so that he could pursue other opportunities. Rosenberg has been credited for his assistance in the Eagles’ unique strategy of utilizing void years on contracts to reduce current salary cap obligations, something the team has been regarded as ahead of the curve on for some time.

Latest On Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders’ 2025 Draft Stock

May 19th, 2024 at 10:09pm CST by Rory Parks

There was a historic run on quarterbacks in the 2024 draft, with six signal-callers picked in the first 12 selections. In addition to the fact that QB is the most important position in sports, the flurry of passers flying off the board was partially explained by the talent of this year’s crop and the current belief that the 2025 class of prospects is not a particularly deep one.

Of course, much can change between now and next April, and there will surely be a number of players who author standout performances in their final collegiates seasons and put themselves on the radar of teams eyeing franchise quarterbacks. One player that we already know will be a focus of such clubs is Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders.

Sanders, the son of NFL legend and Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, was eligible to declare for the 2024 draft, though he elected to remain in school for one more season. Per Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post, there is a variance of opinion as to where Sanders would have been picked if he had entered the 2024 draft, but a number of top execs believe the Buffaloes’ star will be firmly in the No. 1 overall discussion in 2025.

The GM of one club who could be in the market for an elite QB prospect next year said of Shedeur, “absolutely, he was a first-round pick [in 2024]. Absolutely. There would have been seven [QBs taken in the first round]. We obviously didn’t do as much work on him as the other quarterbacks once he announced he wasn’t coming out, but he would have been in the top three [quarterbacks] for us this year, I think, had he gone through the entire process. He probably would have been up there with [Caleb] Williams and [Jayden] Daniels.”

The Buffaloes were the talk of college football at the beginning of the 2023 season, when they stormed out to a 3-0 start with the dynamic father/son duo leading the charge. The bloom fell off the rose pretty quickly, though, as Colorado lost eight of its nine conference games to finish at the bottom of the Pac-12 standings.

For his part, Shedeur completed just under 70% of his passes for 27 touchdowns against just three picks last year. That followed an even more impressive 2022 season in which he connected on over 70% of his pass attempts and piled up 40 TDs and only six picks, although that performance came as a member of Jackson State, the FCS program that his father coached before he moved to Boulder.

An agent who recruited many members of the 2024 class of QBs told La Canfora that the Commanders would have seriously considered Sanders if he had entered in the 2024 draft, while a different talent evaluator who is employed by a team that did select a QB this year said, “I would have been stacking him right there with Daniels or [Drake] Maye. Definitely would have had him before [Michael] Penix, [J.J.] McCarthy or [Bo] Nix. If this kid comes out, he’s going in the top five or six picks. He could be the first pick of [the 2025] draft.”

Several of La Canfora’s sources said that Deion’s involvement in the process could be a complicating factor, with one such source calling him a “loose cannon,” but that will surely not deter a team who places a first-round grade on Shedeur. If the younger Sanders can put together a 2024 showing similar to his 2023 output, it sounds as if he could be the first player off the board in April 2025.

Latest On Commanders’ Nickname, Logo

May 19th, 2024 at 12:53pm CST by Rory Parks

The Commanders have used their current nickname for the past two seasons after spending the prior two years as the Washington Football Team and the 83 years before that as the Washington Redskins. Last summer, a group led by Josh Harris purchased the club, and although there have been rumblings that new ownership may want to change the name or even revert back to the Redskins, that is not the case, per Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post.

Prior owner Dan Snyder, who repeatedly insisted that the “Redskins” moniker would never change, finally succumbed to sponsorship pressure to make a switch towards the end of his tenure. Harris & Co. have said before that there is no intent to change the current name, but recent events have made some skeptical of that proclamation.

For instance, during the club’s rookie minicamp earlier this month, new head coach Dan Quinn wore an (unlicensed) T-shirt that featured the feathers that were a prominent part of the Redskins’ logo dangling from the stylized “W” that represents the entirety of the current Commanders’ logo (via JP Finlay of NBC Sports Washington).

As Eric Flack of WUSA9 wrote last week, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana), a key member of the Congressional committee advancing a bill that would give Washington, D.C. control of the RFK Stadium site — which would be used for a new stadium for the Commanders — is demanding that the team bring back the Redskins’ logo. To be clear, Daines is not advocating the use of the “Redskins” name, and in remarks prepared for a hearing on the proposed legislation, he wrote, “[m]ake no mistake, this logo was inspired and envisioned by [Blackfeet Tribe member Blackie] Wetzel as a tribute to Native Americans. It is not a caricature. It is a description of pride and strength. Of courage and honor.”

Additionally, the team recently posted birthday wishes to longtime linebacker London Fletcher on X, and in so doing, it used an image prominently featuring the Redskins’ helmet. As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk observes, the team’s social media birthday wishes to Fletcher in prior years included images in which the Redskins’ logo was not visible.

As Florio opines in a separate piece, “there are no accidents,” and he believes matters like Quinn’s T-shirt are “trial balloons” to test the public response to the old name and logo (although the team had no official comment on the T-shirt). While it would be hard to imagine Harris deciding to bring back the “Redskins” name, it would be less difficult to see the team incorporate elements of the prior logo, especially in light of the merchandising sales it could generate.

NFL Staff Updates: Commanders, 49ers, Slater, Colts, Panthers

May 18th, 2024 at 4:14pm CST by Ely Allen

The Commanders announced three updates to their front office staff this week. With new leadership in general manager Adam Peters and head coach Dan Quinn, the team sees two staffers depart and one scout join his former boss.

Firstly, senior director of player development Malcolm Blacken will not be retained in 2024, per Ben Standig of The Athletic. Serving multiple stints with the team since 1999, Blacken had risen to his role from years as a strength and conditioning coach.

Joining Blacken in departure will be college scout Harrison Ritcher. According to Neil Stratton of SucceedinFootball.com, Ritcher is headed to Atlanta to serve as a national scout for the Falcons, reuniting with former Washington staffer, and current assistant general manager in Atlanta, Kyle Smith. Ritcher had been with the team since 2017.

Lastly, the Commanders will be adding Jack Quagliarello to the scouting staff as a pro scout, per Stratton. Quagliarello follows Peters from San Francisco after spending last season as a scouting assistant with the 49ers.

Here are a few other staff updates from around the NFL:

  • The 49ers also made some announcements, all to their scouting staff. San Francisco has promoted Josh Williams from national scout to director of scouting & football operations, per Stratton. Williams started with the team in 2011 as a scouting assistant and has quickly risen through the ranks. As a part of the NFL’s accelerator program, Williams is widely considered a future general manager candidate. He’ll work closely with general manager John Lynch and executive vice president of football operations Paraag Marathe in 2024. In addition, Stratton notes that Ryan Schutta has been hired as a scouting assistant, filling the role vacated by Quagliarello’s departure mentioned above.
  • Following his retirement, we learned that former Patriots special teams ace Matthew Slater would join the Patriots staff in a full-time role. Now, Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald tells us a bit more about Slater’s new role. Kyed says that, while Slater “hasn’t advanced into a coaching role” just yet, he will serve an advisory role on the staff in 2024.
  • The Colts had reportedly finalized their 2024 coaching staff back in March, but we did note that they planned to announce two Tony Dungy Diversity Fellowship hires at the time. The team has officially made such announcements, per team writer JJ Stankevitz, naming Kalon Humphries and Diego Ortiz as the two fellows. Indianapolis also announced a title change for Joe Hastings, who will now serve as senior assistant special teams coach, and the hiring of Brent Stockstill as a defensive assistant. Stockstill makes his NFL coaching debut after five years coaching at the collegiate level with a focus on offense.
  • Lastly, the Panthers have added Brad Obee as their new Midwest scout, according to Stratton. Over 21 years with the Bears and Eagles, Obee has spent time in numerous scouting roles, often focusing on pro scouting. He most recently spent the last three seasons as an area scout for Philadelphia, departing after the expiration of his contract.

NFC Front Office Notes: Eagles, Rosenberg, Falcons, Giants, Panthers, Bears

May 16th, 2024 at 3:01pm CST by Sam Robinson

Jake Rosenberg‘s Eagles exit is now official. After a report earlier this offseason indicated Rosenberg would step down following a 12-year tenure with the team, the Eagles’ VP of football administration made the announcement (via PHLY.com’s Zach Berman). A friend of GM Howie Roseman‘s dating back to elementary school, Rosenberg assisted the Eagles on the salary cap front. The team has frequently been ahead of the curve in this area, as its 2024 offseason reinforced. It is not known where Rosenberg is headed, but this marks another key departure in the Eagles’ front office. Two years ago, four of Roseman’s lieutenants — Brandon Brown, Ian Cunningham, Catherine Raiche, Andy Weidl — left for assistant GM roles elsewhere. Another key piece will need to be replaced now.

Post-draft front office changes are common around the league. Here is the latest from the NFC:

  • Despite not being a Terry Fontenot hire, Tokunbo Abanikanda will rise to a key post in the Falcons‘ front office. The team is promoting the veteran scout to its college scouting director post, InsidetheLeague.com’s Neil Stratton tweets. Abanikanda has been with the Falcons since midway through Thomas Dimitroff‘s GM tenure, arriving in 2012. He will now take a pivotal role in the team’s draft preparation. Elsewhere in the Falcons’ front office, the team’s player personnel coordinator — Brian Zeches — is moving on, Stratton adds. Formerly an exec in Washington and Kansas City, Zeches was named to this post during the 2023 offseason.
  • In addition to adding Chris Snee to their scouting staff, the Giants are making multiple in-house promotions. They are bumping Nick La Testa to assistant director of pro scouting and naming Charles Tisch their football operations manager, The Athletic’s Dan Duggan tweets. Charles Tisch, who had been a football ops assistant, is the nephew of Giants co-owner Steve Tisch. With the Giants since 2017, La Testa had previously worked on the scouting level for the team.
  • A Carolina-to-Washington pipeline formed during Ron Rivera‘s NFC East stay, but the Commanders will now lose an exec to the Panthers. Carolina is hiring David Whittington for a college scouting role, according to Stratton. Whittington had been with Washington since 2009, holding several positions. Most recently, he worked as a national scout with the Commanders. The Panthers are also adding Eric Eager to their analytics department, per Stratton. Eager, a former Pro Football Focus staffer, worked most recently as the vice president of SumerSports, an analytics-based website that also employs Dimitroff presently.
  • The Bears are going through with a round of promotions as well. GM Ryan Poles is elevating Breck Ackley from assistant college scouting director to the director post, while Stratton notes national scout Francis St. Paul will become the assistant director. Area scouts Brendan Rehor and John Syty are also moving to national scouting roles.

Commanders To Add WR Damiere Byrd

May 15th, 2024 at 4:31pm CST by Sam Robinson

A seventh team will sign off on a Damiere Byrd contract. The veteran wide receiver, who spent 2023 with three teams, will join the Commanders, per Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz.

Byrd trekked to Washington on Wednesday for a workout, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson tweets, noting the well-traveled vet joined Martavis Bryant on this audition. Bryant remains unsigned, while it will be Byrd receiving an opportunity in Washington.

While a number of Dan Quinn-driven reunions have commenced in Washington this offseason, Byrd will return to a Kliff Kingsbury-run offense. Byrd, 31, was in Arizona for Kingsbury’s Cardinals HC debut back in 2019. While Byrd’s 2023 journey makes it far from certain he will be on the Commanders’ 53-man roster this season, he will bring some experience in the system Kingsbury is implementing.

Byrd’s original team, the Panthers, reacquired him during the ’23 offseason but released him from IR after an August injury settlement. The Falcons, who employed Byrd in 2022, brought him back after his summer hamstring injury healed. By mid-January, Byrd was in Houston as an emergency option for a Texans team down multiple wide receivers. Altogether, however, Byrd played in just one game last season. He will attempt to rebound from a lost year.

A diminutive target at 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds, Byrd has been with the Panthers, Cardinals, Patriots, Bears, Falcons, Texans and Commanders. Moved from a special teams presence into a more regular receiving role under Kingsbury in 2019, the former Panthers UDFA’s best season came during Cam Newton‘s Patriots starter year. Byrd caught 47 passes for 606 yards in 2020; he has operated as more of a role player since. Byrd did average 20.6 yards per catch with the Falcons in 2022, scoring two touchdowns in a 268-yard season.

Washington has added two smaller wideouts in free agency, with Byrd joining ex-Falcons teammate Olamide Zaccheaus on Quinn’s team. They join the re-signed Jamison Crowder, who goes 5-9, as potential auxiliary options under Kingsbury. The Commanders closed this year’s third round by drafting Rice’s Luke McCaffrey. Holdovers Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson lead this Commanders position group

Minor NFL Transactions: 5/14/24

May 14th, 2024 at 9:03pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s minor moves:

Cleveland Browns

Los Angeles Chargers

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

San Francisco 49ers

Washington Commanders

Commanders To Host WR Martavis Bryant

May 14th, 2024 at 8:35pm CST by Ben Levine

After getting cut by the Cowboys last week, Martavis Bryant will work out for a division rival. According to Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 in Houston, the Commanders will work out the veteran wide receiver tomorrow.

[RELATED: Cowboys To Release WR Martavis Bryant]

Bryant’s five-year ban from the NFL ended last November when the wide receiver was reinstated by the league. He subsequently caught on with the Cowboys practice squad but never made his way to the big-league roster. He signed a reserve/futures contract with the organization in January, but he was released shortly after the Cowboys added three rookies to the position.

The wideout burst onto the scene with the Steelers after being selected in the fourth round of the 2014 draft. He hauled in 14 touchdowns through his first two years in the NFL (plus another two playoff scores) before being sidelined for the entire 2016 campaign thanks to his second career suspension. He topped 600 yards following his return in 2017, and the Steelers quickly sent him to the Raiders for a third-round pick.

He got into eight games with Oakland before being hit with his most-recent suspension in 2018. Between that initial suspension and his 2023 comeback attempt with the Cowboys, Bryant spent time in a handful of other leagues, including stints in the CFL and XFL.

While Commanders head coach (and former Cowboys defensive coordinator) Dan Quinn didn’t deal with Bryant directly in Dallas, he did get an extended look at him at Cowboys practice. If the 32-year-old catches on with the Commanders, he’d have an uphill battle to make the active roster. Still, the team does lack experienced depth behind Terry McLaurin. Former first-round pick Jahan Dotson and third-round rookie Luke McCaffrey will likely take up two spots, but Bryant could compete with the likes of Dax Milne, Dyami Brown, Jamison Crowder, and Olamide Zaccheaus for a job.

Commanders DT Johnny Newton Undergoes Foot Surgery

May 14th, 2024 at 3:52pm CST by Sam Robinson

MAY 14: Shedding some light on Newton’s latest foot injury, Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz confirms it is a Jones fracture. Newton underwent his second 2024 foot surgery Monday. Given the timetable associated with this injury, it will be months before the No. 36 overall pick is ready to suit up again for the Commanders. The team is, however, optimistic Newton will be ready for Week 1.

MAY 12: A foot surgery helped lead to Johnny Newton sliding out of the first round following a first-team All-American season. Another such procedure will be necessary, stalling the second-round defensive tackle’s development with his NFL team.

After undergoing a procedure to repair an injury to his right foot in January, the Commanders defensive tackle will need another foot procedure done — this time to address an issue with his left foot. Dan Quinn confirmed (via ESPN.com’s John Keim) the No. 36 overall pick will be sidelined for the foreseeable future. The latest Newton foot surgery is expected to occur this week.

Newton sustained a partial foot fracture that led to the January procedure; this operation caused a weekslong delay in Newton’s pre-draft preparation. He did not participate in Combine workouts but did recover in time to hold a belated pro day in mid-April. That timeline provides a positive sign the Commanders will have the first of their three second-round draftees available by Week 1, though it is not certain exactly what injury Newton sustained to his other foot.

This draft’s third defensive tackle chosen, Newton did not participate in Washington’s rookie minicamp. The high-level prospect said upon being drafted he was fully healed, making his absence from the Commanders’ weekend workouts interesting. A recent checkup revealed the new issue, and it will produce another run of rehab work. Newton played through the partial fracture during the second half of his final Illinois season, but the Commanders will attempt to have him at 100% by the time be debuts as a pro.

Despite rostering Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne — along with 2022 second-round D-tackle Phidarian Mathis — Washington chose Newton with its second draft choice this year. He produced a career-high 7.5 sacks last season, collecting Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year acclaim — the first Illinois player to do so in 29 years — and first-team All-American honors. While Newton undergoing surgery now will help his chances of debuting on time for the Commanders, a rookie undergoing procedures on both feet in the months before his NFL debut is a bit of a concern.

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