Washington

ESPN NFL Insider Names Washington Commanders Winners Of Second Day Of 2024 NFL Draft

Published

2 years ago

April 27, 2024

ESPN NFL Insider Names Washington Commanders Winners Of Second Day Of 2024 NFL Draft

The Washington Commanders entered the 2024 NFL Draft in a position to alter the trajectory of the franchise in a positive way. Under the leadership of General Manager Adam Peters and Head Coach Dan Quinn, the Commanders made five more selections on Friday evening after electing to use the No. 2 overall pick on former LSU star Jayden Daniels.

Washington drafted Illinois defensive tackle Jer’Zhan Newton (No. 36), Michigan cornerback Mike Sainristil (No. 50), and Kansas State tight end Ben Sinnott (No. 53) in the second round before securing TCU offensive lineman Brandon Coleman (No. 67) and Rice wide receiver Luke McCaffery (No. 100) in the third round. The selections are earning the Commanders national attention.

ESPN analyst and NFL Insider Field Yates didn’t waste any time naming Washington as the winner of the second day of the draft while breaking down the festivities on SportsCenter. Yates believes that the franchise potentially found “three or four starters” over the second and third rounds. The one who’s earning the most buzz is Sainristil after former Alabama head coach Nick Saban heaped praise on him following his selection.

“I’ll go with the Washington Commanders, a little bit of an assist here from I don’t know the greatest college football coach of all time in Nick Saban,” Yates said. “The Commanders had a bunch of picks on day two specifically and that included Mike Sainristil, a slot corner from Michigan who this past season had six interceptions, he’s a forced turnover waiting to happen as well as Johnny Newton, their first pick of the day. Ben Sinnott, h-back, full back, tight end from Kansas State but Sainristil was according to Nick Saban ‘pound-for-pound the best player’ in the entire draft. If you have that kind of endorsement from the GOAT of college football you certainly have my attention. I think this Washington Football team may have had three or four starters from start to finish on day two with more ammo to work with on day three.”

The future looks bright in Washington with the way that the franchise has operated throughout this draft. The best part is that the fun isn’t over just yet. There’s still another day remaining for the Commanders to finalize a strong draft haul.

As of now, the Commanders are slated to pick twice in the fifth round (No. 139, No. 152) before wrapping things up in the seventh round (No. 222).

*Article courtesy of Dustin Lewis

Stick with CommanderGameday for more coverage of the Washington Commanders throughout the 2024 NFL Draft.

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Washington

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

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.

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Washington state board awards Yakima $985,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

Published

2 days ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington state board awards Yakima 5,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

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.

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Washington

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Published

2 days ago

February 25, 2026

Press Room

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

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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