Hogs Haven
It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…
The 5 o’clock club is published from time to time during the season and offseason, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.
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With Marson Lattimore and Mike Sainristil, the Commanders have two big answers on a roster full of question marks. The questions that remain at this position revolve around Sainristil’s role (slot or wide), the third starter, and building depth.
Mikey Sainristil had an outstanding rookie season, and was probably snubbed by not being named as one of five finalists for the Defensive Rookie of the Year award, especially when taking into account the circumstances under which he played. A natural slot corner, Sainristil was asked to play wide for most of the season when last year’s first-round pick Emmanuel Forbes proved not to be capable of doing the job.
Marshon Lattimore was acquired in a mid-season trade from the Saints, and didn’t really appear to be ‘as advertised’. Lattimore was injured more than he was healthy; when he was on the field, he drew more than his share of interference penalties, and during the NFC championship game, he seemed to lose his composure, getting flagged for a key personal foul. Quinn and Peters will need to figure out if an offseason with the team will turn things around for Lattimore or if his non-guaranteed contract offers an opportunity to save cap space by cutting bait.
Noah Igbinoghene was signed last year as kind of a ‘last chance’ free agent. He stepped into Sainristil’s role as the top slot defender and played pretty well. He is a free agent in ‘25. It will be interesting to see if the powers that be re-arrange the Commanders secondary with Sainristil returning to the slot, or if they might want to run it back with Igbinoghene returning for another year.
My personal feeling is that the team has an opportunity to upgrade this unit, but that they could ‘get by’ with the same 3-man crew and some upgraded backups if cap space and draft picks don’t stretch far enough to upgrade the entire roster.
The NFL announced this week that the league-wide salary cap will end up between $277.5m and $281.5m. This is a nice bump over the projected number OTC was previously using of $272.5 million, and they have now updated all of the numbers to reflect a $279.5 million salary cap. This will increase rookie contracts, restricted free agent tenders, and franchise/transition tenders for the year as well. This increased OTC’s estimated salary cap space for every team in the NFL, including, of course, the Commanders.
After OTC split the difference between the high & low estimates from the NFL and adjusted its expected league-wide...
