Commanders
Commanders GM Adam Peters has come a long way from being listed three times as a “future GM to watch” in The Athletic’s annual agent survey, including receiving votes in The 2024 poll for best talent evaluator.
“(Adam) is fantastic,” one league source told Ben Standig of The Athletic. “He’s experienced, thoughtful, intelligent, intellectually curious and empathetic. He has been through different successful buildings. He knows many different ways of, ‘What it should look like.’ In a few years, we will discuss him as one of the top-tier GMs in the NFL.”
Peters being paired with HC Dan Quinn seems to be a perfect match, with Peters commenting the following after the team traded for Saints CB Marshon Lattimore: “I’m so thankful that I’m with a head coach with zero ego and a ton of trust and just fun to be around all the time. I can learn a ton from him, and I already have.”
Previously, Peters was putting his talents to use in San Francisco, including helping the team build talent through mid-to-late-round picks in the draft.
“Some guys know if a player can help them and how,” said an anonymous former colleague of Peters. “Some guys must work harder, but Adam is natural and quickly sees it.”
“(Adam) grinds it, man,” 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan told The Athletic. “He’s very deliberate. He works on it all year round. By the time I get into the draft situation, Adam has been working on it all year. And you can tell he knows all the players, knows their history, and leaves no stone unturned.”
His strong scouting background stems from when he entered the league in 2003 as a scout with the Patriots under Scott Pioli and Bill Belichick after the team’s first Super Bowl win.
“We weren’t just building a roster in New England. We were building a roster for our head coach,” Pioli said during an interview. “Adam is building (Washington’s) roster with a clear understanding…We paid attention to the makeup part of the evaluation: who the person was. I think (Adam) knows that when we failed, we leaned too much into tools — height, weight, speed, just physical tools. Yes, a person has to have physical tools. Still, I think he learned early the importance of the guy who is a bit of a ham-and-egger fighting to be on the roster.”
In the present, Peters being paired with Quinn has finally helped Washington reach the playoffs again.
“What’s clear,” Pioli added, “is (Adam) paid attention to who Dan is. The head coach can’t run all the player acquisitions. And DQ knows that. They’re teammates and partners in this.”
“You don’t want to get feedback where somebody says, ‘He does some things good, not so many other things good.’ That doesn’t do s— for somebody,” Quinn said of Peters. “No fences. When you’re giving evaluations and information on somebody, make it specific.”
“He’s good at giving a voice to the scouts on the road,” another league source said of Peters. “No GM is the sole evaluator of a team.”
- Quinn on Lattimore (hamstring) playing in the first round of the playoffs: “He hit all the markers up to this point and I anticipate that trending through the week.” (Nicki Jhabvala)
Eagles
Eagles RB Saquon Barkley said that his father took it the hardest when he found out that he would not be playing in Week 18, taking away his chance to break the NFL’s single-season rushing record.
“[My dad] definitely wanted me to play. Selfishly for him, you’ve got to think about it. However long, if it took a year if I broke it for someone to break it or another 40 to 50 years, our last name would have been attached to it,” Barkley said, via Tim McManus of ESPN. “I see it from that side, too. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is winning football games, and he’s the one that raised me to be all about the team. So, he can have his little selfish moment, but he’ll get over it.”
“That’s what I tell my family,” Barkley added. “We didn’t come here and I didn’t sign here to break Eric Dickerson’s record. We came to win a Super Bowl.”
Eric Dickerson himself has been active in the media during this time, as Barkley approached breaking his record and praised Barkley for his hard work. He also joked with Barkley about how many photos he had been given for reaching certain milestones.
“The guy does great things,” Dickerson said. “His work ethic. How he is as a person. I mainly did it as a joke because he had so many of those pictures of great moments in the games and they were just kind of getting thrown everywhere.”
Barkley’s team-first mentality doesn’t go unnoticed in the locker room, as OT Jordan Mailata notes that it has been special to take part in Barkley’s 2,000-yard season.
“The guy just felt like he was a part of our team the whole time,” Mailata said. “He’s not the first [we’ve blocked for], he’s not going to be the last, but I think it’s pretty cool that someone of his caliber, he’s the first of his caliber that we’ve had the honor of blocking for. I think it’s pretty humbling on both sides that we can recognize each other’s strengths and how special of a player he is. We’re a part of his success and we take pride in that.”
Eagles
Eagles HC Nick Sirianni isn’t concerned about the possibility of Jalen Hurts being rusty when he returns from the league’s concussion protocol and thinks their high-intensity practices will help get him reacclimated.
“We’ve got so much faith in him and the things he can do,” Sirianni said, via Tim McManus of ESPN. “This is why you practice the way we practice. Practice is high-intensity. We feel like we have a great practice plan and our guys go about their business in practice very game-like. That’s where you work out your kinks or anything that you have, just being locked in and focused all week. We’ve got a lot of faith in Jalen as he gets ready to play the football game.”
When asked if uncertainty around Hurts’ status makes it difficult to prepare for the playoffs, OC Kellen Moore responded injuries at other offensive positions helps them put together their plans.
“There’s always circumstances each and every week of different players [dealing with injuries],” Moore said. “Certainly quarterback is a very big focus and certainly should be, but there’s other positions we’ve dealt with this, where you’re aware of those different variables.”
- Sirianni announced that Hurts would practice on Wednesday. (Mike Garafolo)
Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?
Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors on X.com and FACEBOOK for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!
