Hogs Haven
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, and a sprinkling of other stuff
Commanders links
“For me, it was one of those things hard to pass up, and you want to go somewhere where you’re wanted,” Mariota said. “And they were very adamant that they wanted me back for another year. I love coach, DQ (Dan Quinn) and just Kliff (coordinator Kingsbury) and the offense, and for me, it was like a no brainer.
“To stand here 11 years in — very, very few people get an opportunity to do that,” Mariota added. “So I’m thankful for every day and the ability to go into work and have fun, cut it loose, and have such a great (quarterback) room that makes it so much better, too. I’m just kind of having fun with it, rolling with the punches. Whatever comes, if they need me, I’m ready to play. Otherwise, I’m here for Jay, and just making sure he’s playing to the best of his ability.”
“I was very surprised at how big the fan base is,” he said. “People had mentioned to me when I was going to sign there last year. It was kind of a sleeping giant of a fan base … they had such a great run in the ‘70s and ‘80s where teams or people across the country had really followed the Washington Commanders.
“Then you kind of went through this run that we did, and toward the end of the year, you start to see kind of how that fan base loves the team. And being in that area, the DMV (D.C.-Maryland-Virginia) area, like it’s, it’s cool, it’s got, like what people talk about, it’s, it’s football, and they love it up there, and I’m excited to see kind of what that turnout looks like, especially with our new owner, and kind of what they’re doing with the franchise in the organization.”
I took “best” to mean some combination of “most talented” and “most successful.” As is always the challenge in debating the bestness of football players, any argument that exclusively looks at Super Bowl wins and All-Pro nods is insufficient and lacks context. Similarly, any argument that leans solely on individual player stats and film impressions is lacking as well. I generally tried to use historical accolades to contextualize career-long production. Peak season performance and single-season record-setting also mattered to me; this isn’t just a measure of who played the longest but also who played ... well, the best. And of course, rings matter because rings always matter. But there’s no formula here. There’s my read on each pick, levied as fairly as I could...
