{"id":116301,"date":"2024-05-03T07:46:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T07:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/?p=116301"},"modified":"2024-05-03T07:47:00","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T07:47:00","slug":"pair-of-commanders-rookies-singled-out-as-draft-steals-nguyensa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/pair-of-commanders-rookies-singled-out-as-draft-steals-nguyensa\/","title":{"rendered":"Pair of Commanders Rookies Singled Out as \u2018Draft Steals\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/GettyImages-1813489530-e1714660741485.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" alt=\"Mike Sainristil\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-img-load-time=\"102\" data-dom-ready-time=\"118\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Getty\u00a0University of Michigan cornerback Mike Sainristil.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>This is going to be a new experience for\u00a0Washington Commanders\u00a0fans \u2014 receiving praise for decisions made regarding the ongoing management of your favorite football franchise.<\/p>\n<p>The Athletic\u2019s Bruce Feldman singled out a pair of Commanders\u2019 picks from the 2024 NFL Draft as \u201cDraft Steals\u201d on the This Is Football podcast with host Kevin Clark on May 1 \u2014 pointing to second-round picks\u00a0Jer\u2019Zhan \u201cJohnny\u201d Newton\u00a0and\u00a0Mike Sainristil.<\/p>\n<p>Newton, a defensive tackle, was taken with the No. 36 overall pick out of Illinois. Sainristil, a cornerback, was taken with the No. 50 overall pick out of Michigan, where he was one of the star players on a team that went 15-0 and won the College Football Playoff national championship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was stunned (Newton) went down as far as he did,\u201d Feldman said. \u201cHe was a dominant, disruptive defensive lineman \u2026 I ran into Bret Bielema, who coached him and also coached him in the NFL and he was like \u2018Guards are going to have a real hard time with (Newton).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s just a very explosive, heavy-handed inside guy. I\u2019m not saying he\u2019s Aaron Donald \u2026 he\u2019s bigger than Aaron Donald. Not much, but bigger. He is going to be a big force.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Sainristil: \u2018My Favorite College Player\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Feldman got a first-hand look at Sainristril multiple times in 2023 through his work on the Fox Sports College Football broadcast team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hesitate to ever call anyone my favorite college football player,\u201d Feldman said. \u201cBut he was my favorite college football player.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sainristil was a slot wide receiver for his first three seasons of college football before he moved to the defensive side of the ball and was a two-time All-Big Ten selection. Sainristil started 26 games at cornerback over his final two seasons and led Michigan with 6 interceptions in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Sainristil is just 5-foot-9 and 182 pounds but tested through the roof at the\u00a0NFL combine\u00a0in February, running the 40-yard dash in 4.47 seconds and registering a 40-inch vertical leap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Sainristil) was the best leader on that team,\u201d Feldman said. \u201cI can argue that he did more to change Michigan football over the last two years than any player on that team \u2026 he\u2019s 182 pounds and if you see him walking around and he\u2019s wearing his glasses, he looks like a law school student.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBright kid. He\u2019s super instinctive, he\u2019s really tough and he\u2019s a dynamic athletic \u2026 really good tackler, great blizter \u2026 he was a ball hawk. He made huge plays.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Newton Could Replace Allen on Defensive Line<\/h2>\n<p>The Commanders may have lost faith in two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle\u00a0Jonathan Allen\u00a0in 2023, as Allen turned on the franchise with an expletive-filled rant following a 14-7 loss to the New York Giants in October.<\/p>\n<p>Newton, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 2023, seems like the natural replacement for Allen, who signed a 4-year, $72 million contract extension in March 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The Commanders\u2019 2024 draft class received an \u201cA\u201d grade from\u00a0Pro Football Focus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a tremendous value selection at the top of the second round,\u201d Newton is the 11th-ranked player overall on the PFF big board and was extremely productive over his college career,\u201d wrote PFF\u2019s Trevor Sikkema. \u201cJust three Power Five interior defensive linemen have recorded 100 or more pressures over a two-year stretch since PFF began charting college in 2014: Newton, his new teammate Jonathan Allen and DeForest Buckner.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty\u00a0University of Michigan cornerback Mike Sainristil. This is going to be a new experience for\u00a0Washington Commanders\u00a0fans \u2014 receiving praise for decisions made regarding the ongoing management of&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":116303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116304,"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116301\/revisions\/116304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}