Washington
Commanders’ returning running back excited to ‘build upon’ 2024’s success
The Washington Commanders knew at the end of last season that things wouldn’t be the same this season.
With all of the success the Commanders generated in their first year under head coach Dan Quinn, there was going to be a new feel to the way other NFL teams approached them in the coming year.
However, on top of that, the roster in Washington would also look different, because they always do when the seasons change.
For those who are returning, like running back Jeremy McNichols, coming back to the Commanders means enveloping those new teammates and enabling them to help this roster climb even higher than the last.
“I think it brings a lot of confidence,” McNichols said about returning along with the several free agents Washington brought back so far this offseason. “We have something to build upon. We started to build a solid foundation last year, and I think with the guys coming in, the expectations that you have when you come to the Commanders now and the expectations that we have when we go play on Sunday–nobody holds a higher expectation than we hold in this building. So I just think just having something to build on and knowing the playbook and just having familiar faces around throughout the building is a great advantage for us.”
Of course, speaking literally the only way to improve upon last year is to make it to the Super Bowl.
Realistically, there’s a larger chance the team regresses in that sense, because even a loss in the Divisional Round of the playoffs would be deemed a step backward.
Just because the odds say the Commanders won’t be able to do that, however, doesn’t mean they can’t. And McNichols knows he and his teammates are going to take the right approach to reaching whatever level of competitiveness they do this season.
“Anything’s possible, but it just starts with just starting all over again and taking one day at a time, and we know the ultimate goal. We know the process that’s going to take us to get to where we want to go, so we need to just enjoy it every single day and keep laying those bricks every single day, continue to strive to be better and I think at the end of the day we will get what we want.”
READ MORE: Cowboys sign Commanders star pass rusher to $8 million deal in free agency
Stick with CommanderGameday and the Locked On Commanders podcast for more FREE coverage of the Washington Commanders throughout the offseason.
• Commanders re-sign OL who made history with Jayden Daniels
• Commanders sign former Eagles, Steelers offensive lineman in free agency
• Feeling the ‘love’ brought RB Jeremy McNichols back to the Commanders
• Former Chicago Bears edge rusher signs $3 million deal with Commanders
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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