Washington
3 Offensive Washington Commanders Players in ‘Prove-It’ Seasons in 2024
There’s a lot of pressure on the Washington Commanders, not just in 2024, but down the road as well. And nobody is immune from it.
From the top of the Commanders organization down everyone is entering this new season needing to prove they are the right person for the job they’re holding.
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With around 40 contracts expiring next year Washington just finished the busiest offseason of any NFL team and could be in the same situation in 2025 depending on how effective the team is in 2024.
Here are three of the offensive players who need to prove something in order to solidify their roles as it pertains to the future of the Commanders.
JAYDEN DANIELS, QUARTERBACK
We’re going to start off with a guy who is going to be part of the plan in 2025, the question is how much of that plan will be about his ability and how much will be about hiding his deficiencies.
As a No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft the expectations for Daniels almost couldn’t be higher and the only quarterback with bigger expectations to meet is No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams (Chicago Bears).
A solid 2024 on the field will make Daniels’ 2025 much less pressure packed as hype replaces anxiety when good football is played by young players. However, a poor rookie season by the quarterback will make a lot of people very nervous very quickly.
Especially when being compared to quarterbacks Washington could have selected over him like Drake Maye (New England Patriots), J.J. McCarthy (Minnesota Vikings), and Michael Penix Jr. (Atlanta Falcons), Daniels needs to have a solid rookie season to inject more confidence in the turnaround project coach Dan Quinn has taken on.
Despite how much fans have come to love McLaurin and the years he’s spent as the best receiver on the Commanders roster there is doubt creeping into the narrative on whether or not he’s good enough to be the team’s longterm No. 1 option.
TERRY MCLAURIN/JAHAN DOTSON, WIDE RECEIVER
We’re putting this duo together because they’re both in very similar positions entering 2024.
Despite how much fans have come to love McLaurin and the years he’s spent as the best receiver on the Commanders roster there is doubt creeping into the narrative on whether or not he’s good enough to be the team’s longterm No. 1 option.
After a solid rookie year Dotson wasn’t able to take the next step toward NFL stardom as the entire offense got bogged down in predictability and quarterback protection issues. So, it’s fair to say that he also hasn’t shown enough to be considered a longterm No. 1 option in Washington.
If general manager Adam Peters decides to decline Dotson’s fifth-year option in 2025 then both he and McLaurin could play on expiring contracts next season. If neither shows No. 1 ability it’s highly possible at least one of them is not retained beyond that as the team looks for a true top receiver and impact playmaker to pair with their still young quarterback.
BRIAN ROBINSON JR., RUNNING BACK
Most of us who watch Washington football with a tight focus see a ton of potential in Robinson.
The national media and those with a wide lens see a back who was 19th in carries in 2022 and 33rd in 2023. Robinson’s targets in the passing game jumped up from 12 to 43 between his rookie and second seasons, but even that higher number only ranked 27th among NFL backs.
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That lack of usage can easily give outsiders the impression the Commanders simply aren’t in love with Robinson as much as some fans and even media might be. Which is why a lot of them have veteran running back Austin Ekeler penciled in as RB1 on the Washington depth chart.
The best way to get respect is to go earn it, and if Robinson leads that room and leads it well then his future with the team – and credit from the national media – should be solidified.
Stick with CommanderGameday and the Locked On Commanders podcast for more coverage of the Washington Commanders throughout the 2024 season.
Trinity Rodman signs record deal with Washington Spirit
USWNT forward Trinity Rodman signed a three-year deal with the NWSL’s Washington Spirit. The deal makes Rodman the highest-paid female footballer in the world.
unbranded – Sport
Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has announced that she and her husband Matt are expecting a baby in July.
The couple made the announcement in a video on the Spirit’s social media channels, holding a baby goalkeeper jersey on the pitch at Audi Field.
Kingsbury becomes the most recent Spirit star to go on maternity leave, following defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Andi Sullivan and forward Ashley Hatch.
Sullivan gave birth to daughter Millie in July, while Hatch welcomed her son Leo in January.
Krueger announced she was pregnant with her second child in October.
Kingsbury has served as the Spirit’s starting goalkeeper since 2018, and has been named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year twice (2019 and 2021).
The 34-year-old has two caps with the U.S. women’s national team, and was named to the 2023 World Cup roster.
The club captain will leave a major void for the Spirit, who have finished as NWSL runner-up in back-to-back seasons.
Sandy MacIver and Kaylie Collins are expected to compete for the starting role while Kingsbury is on maternity leave.
The Spirit kick off their 2026 campaign on March 13 against the Portland Thorns.
YAKIMA, Wash. — Yakima could soon take a major step toward redesigning Sixth Avenue after the Washington State Public Works Board awarded the city a $985,600 loan.
The loan was approved for the design engineering phase of the Sixth Avenue project. The funding can also be used along Sixth Avenue for utility replacement and updated ADA use.
The Yakima City Council must decide whether to accept the award. If the council accepts it, the city’s engineering work will move forward with the design of Sixth Avenue.
The cost of installing trolley lines is excluded from the plan. The historic trolleys would need to raise the funds required to add trolley lines.
The award is scheduled to be discussed during next week’s City Council meeting.
Microsoft will ramp up its investment in the University of Washington.
Brad Smith, the company’s president, made the announcement at a press conference with University of Washington President Robert Jones on Tuesday.
That means hiring more UW graduates as interns at Microsoft, he said.
And he said all students, faculty, and researchers should have access to free, or at least deeply-discounted, AI.
“ Some of it is compute that Microsoft is donating, and some of it is pursuant to an agreement where, believe me, we give the University of Washington probably the best pricing that anybody’s gonna find anywhere,” Smith said. He assured the small group of reporters present that it would be “many millions of dollars of additional computational resources.”
The announcement today didn’t include any specific numbers.
But Smith said Microsoft has already invested $165 million in the UW over several decades.
He pointed to Jones’ vision to spur “radical collaborations with businesses and communities to advance positive change,” and eliminate “any artificial barriers between the university and the communities it serves.”
Microsoft’s goal is for AI to help UW researchers solve some of the world’s biggest problems without introducing new ones.
At Tuesday’s announcement, several research students were present to demonstrate how AI supports their work.
Amelia Keyser-Gibson is an environmental scientist at the UW. She’s using AI to analyze photographs of vines, to find which adapt best to climate change.
It’s a paradox: AI produces carbon emissions. At the same time, it’s also a new tool to help reduce them.
So how do those things square for Keyser-Gibson?
“ That’s a great question, and honestly, I don’t know the answer to that,” she said. “I’m highly aware that there’s a lot of environmental impact of using AI, but what I can say is that this has allowed us to make research innovations that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”
“If we had had to manually annotate every single image that would’ve been an undergrad doing that for hours,” Keyser-Gibson continued. “And we didn’t have the budget. We didn’t have the manpower to do that.”
“AI exists. If we don’t use it as researchers, we’re gonna fall behind.”
Microsoft reports on its own carbon emissions. But like most AI companies, it doesn’t reveal everything.
That’s one reason another UW student named Zhihan Zhang is using AI to estimate how much energy AI is using.
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