Offseason Moves Put The Roster Squeeze On Commanders 3rd Yr Defender Javontae Jean-baptiste - Daily Slop

The Daily Slop – 10 July 2026

Editor’s note: Each day, Hogs Haven compiles a collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders, the NFC East, the NFL and sports in general, with a sprinkling of other stuff. Enjoy!

Commanders links

Articles

The Athletic (paywall)

Hall of Famer John Riggins to have No. 44 retired by Washington Commanders

In his nine seasons with Washington, Riggins topped 1,000 rushing yards four times and led the NFL in rushing touchdowns twice. Including the playoffs, he had 25 100-yard rushing games for Washington.

Riggins’ most iconic performance came during the 1982 postseason, when he ran the ball 38 times for 166 yards to lead Washington to a 27-17 Super Bowl XVII win — the franchise’s first Super Bowl victory — over the Miami Dolphins. On fourth-and-inches with about 10 minutes remaining, Riggins took a handoff and powered his way upfield for a 43-yard go-ahead score. He was named Super Bowl MVP, but his remarkable performance stretched throughout that entire postseason; in four games, he amassed 610 rushing yards on 136 carries, totals that still stand as NFL postseason records.

He produced more in his 30s (5,683 rushing yards, 71 rushing TDs) than in his 20s (5,669 yards, 33 TDs), an astounding feat considering he didn’t play at all in 1980; he sat out the season because of a contract dispute, then returned for Joe Gibbs’ first year as Washington’s head coach.

He finished his 14-year NFL career with 11,352 rushing yards and 104 rushing touchdowns, to go with 2,090 receiving yards and 12 TDs.

From Commanders.com:

Riggins…will have his No. 44 jersey number retired during at halftime of the Washington Commanders’ Week 9 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams.

Riggins will be just the seventh player in franchise history to have his jersey number retired, joining Sammy Baugh, Bobby Mitchell, Sean Taylor, Sonny Jurgensen, Darrell Green and Art Monk as the only players to receive the honor.

Riggins was known for his physical running style and unrelenting work ethic that used to wear down opponents throughout games. He was also known for his durability, as he played in 175 games over the course of his 14-year career. At the time of his retirement following the 1985 season, he was the oldest player to rush for 150-plus yards in a single game; have at least 30 rushing attempts in one game; have 1,200 rushing yards in a season; record at least 10 rushing touchdowns in a season; and record the most rushing attempts after his 30th birthday, among numerous other records that highlighted his longevity.

From Sports Illustrated:

The current management of the Washington Commanders has struggled to reconnect with fans who have not accepted the name change. Acknowledging some of the legends who built the foundation they inherited is at least a place to begin.

The Harris ownership group has made an effort to correct some of the disconnect created not only by the name change, but also by two decades of dysfunctional front-office behavior. While no single ceremony will fix that, the group at least seems to understand that the fractured relationship has to be repaired.

Riggins himself was unhappy after the franchise changed from Redskins to the Commanders, saying he felt “completely disenfranchised.” That situation later escalated into Fanatics pulling the Commanders jersey bearing his name and No. 44 after he objected to being connected to the new branding.

Since then, Riggins has softened his stance somewhat. Hopefully, enough for his fans to see him run onto the field one last time. For a number that already felt untouchable, November 8 will simply make it official.

Riggo’s Rag

6 Commanders players facing a role squeeze that feels hard to escape

Javontae Jean-Baptiste – Commanders OLB

Standing pat in the edge-rushing room would have been unacceptable. They were old. They were slow. Aside from Dorance Armstrong Jr.’s breakout before a serious knee injury halted his momentum, there was nothing remotely positive to cheer.

Fortunately, the Washington Commanders recognized this. Adam Peters prioritized the group more than any other, bringing in several intriguing players who should all play their part under Daronte Jones.

Odafe Oweh, K’Lavon Chaisson, and Charles Omenihu joined the ranks in free agency. The Commanders spent a fifth-round pick on Joshua Josephs, and Armstrong is reportedly making good progress with a view to returning sooner rather than later. As such, these upgrades could make the pass rush a strength.

It also leaves little room for the rest. Javontae Jean-Baptiste is among them, and the 2024 seventh-round pick has a tall order on his hands to secure his place on the roster for a third season.

Jean-Baptiste remains something of an unknown quantity. He flashed some promise as a rookie, but any hopes of building on it were dashed early in the 2025 campaign when he went to the shelf. The Notre Dame product is now healthy, but the standards on the defensive edge have also been raised exponentially.

Heavy.com

Commanders Given ‘Sticky Statistic’ Warning About Jayden Daniels

Daniels won the Heisman Trophy at Baton Rouge, but “the only negative from him was, you know, the pressure-to-sack rate is high, and the nerds tell you that’s a really sticky statistic going from college to the NFL,” according to “Check The Mic” podcast co-host Sam Monson.

Unfortunately, there’s something prophetic about what the so-called “nerds” have to say about pressure-to-sack ratios. Taking too many hits and sacks has been an ongoing problem for the Daniels in the pros, partly because, as Monson put it, the second-overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft “treats himself like a crash-test dummy and has no self-preservation instincts whatsoever. For somebody who’s pretty, you know, lightweight, small, not built like Josh Allen, that’s just scary and year one it wasn’t a problem, but year two already we’ve seen him, you know, come away with injuries.”

The tension between whether a new offense will afford the young signal-caller the structure to protect himself better, or whether Blough’s system will become a hindrance to Daniels’ natural fondness for playing off-script and attacking defenses with the full range of his athleticism [is] a difficult balancing act for Blough.

Bleacher Report

Outlook for Each 2026 NFL 1st-Round Pick Heading into Training Camp

Sonny Styles, LB, Washington Commanders

Initial Role: Starting MLB

The Washington Commanders were always expected to go defense with the seventh overall pick, and they were likely thrilled to have Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles fall to them there. Styles, the sixth-ranked prospect on the final B/R board, is a do-it-all defender with an elite athletic ceiling and All-Pro potential.

This past season, Styles recorded 82 tackles, one sack, one interception, and 5.5 tackles for loss. He then wowed scouts with a 4.46-second 40-yard dash and a 43.5-inch vertical jump at the scouting combine.

Styles’ relative athletic score ranked fourth out of more than 3,300 linebackers tracked since 1987.

Ability and upside aren’t enough to guarantee a starting spot for most rookies. However, the Commanders are widely expected to have all new starters at linebacker after adding the likes of Leo Chenal, Odafe Oweh, and K’Lavon Chaisson. Styles should start somewhere in the middle of the group.

Podcasts & videos

Riggins Jersey Retirement, Smoot’s Secondary School, Best Memories! | Command Center | NFL

Why I find the Chargers & Commanders’ offenses FASCINATING for 2026-27 ???? | NFL Live

NFC East links

Bleeding Green Nation

Is safety the Eagles’ biggest weakness?

Among the projected Eagles starters at the safety position were Andrew Mukuba, who’s heading into his second season coming off a major injury, and Marcus Epps, the often overlooked veteran who has earned Vic Fangio’s trust. When ranking the overall starting lineup, this group was considered the weakest by ESPN’s Mike Clay.

“Biggest weakness: Safety. Reed Blankenship signed with Houston, which positions second-year man Andrew Mukuba (who missed half of his rookie season with a broken ankle) and Marcus Epps (a backup for most of 2025) as the team’s top full-time options. Cooper DeJean will also get a run at safety, but his role as the team’s primary slot corner will keep him occupied most of the time. — Clay”

Big Blue View

Why the NY Giants scouted Arvell Reese as a LB when others saw him as an edge

John Harbaugh and Joe Schoen told the New York media up front that while Reese would rush the passer as a blitzer, he would be playing (weak side) linebacker. Rather than treat him as a convert and a project, the Giants are going to play Reese in the same way he was used at Ohio State.

In that light, it now seems like something of a blind spot that Reese is still being evaluated as an edge defender and not a linebacker — a blind spot that’s enabling poor analysis of the Giants’ defense elsewhere.

So in an effort to fix that blind spot, I dove back into Reese’s tape to evaluate him purely as a linebacker. That’s a different grading sheet with different traits from my original scouting report in April.

In a change from my usual scouting reports, I’ll be peeling back the curtain a bit in this one and sharing some of my process. As part of that, I’ll share the 11 traits on which Reese was graded, the grades for each of those, and the final grade.

Ed has repeatedly asked me to add grades to my scouting reports, but I’ve consistently refused. I generally believe they’ll detract from a more nuanced conversation. However, in this case, I think they might be constructive.

Discussion topics

USA Today

Ranking all eight NFL divisions from NFC West to NFC South

6. NFC East

The Commanders and Giants, the two teams at the bottom of the division in 2025, each have their own reasons to believe in a bounce back in 2026. Washington was unable to overcome injuries to starting quarterback Jayden Daniels and top wideout Terry McLaurin for large portions of the year. New York struggled with late blown leads and poor coaching in 2025, leading to midseason firings of head coach Brian Daboll and defensive coordinator Shane Bowen.

If the Commanders stay healthy and Giants excel in their first year under John Harbaugh, the NFC East might start looking like the NFC Beast again. For now, there are too many “ifs.”

aBit o’Twitter