Welcome To The Washington Commanders Jahan Dotson WR Penn State

[Conn]

Yeah the NFL seems to kind of resent and look down upon the media/amateur draftniks but there is no doubt at all that greater media and public interest and knowledge about the draft process has trickled up into improvement on the NFL side. Is it just more attention leading to greater resources being put into it? Or is there more accountability now that the NFL and the NFL Draft has become such a year-round sensation? Hard to say, but there’s no doubt that the NFL as a whole has gotten better at drafting. Part of this is adapting to college concepts as well, making life easier for their talented young prospects.  
 

And with analytics joining the fray now with most teams filling out fairly robust departments with qualified people…however you feel about analytics, it can add more info to the process and helps eliminate certain bad ideas. And that is obviously driven by forces outside the NFL as well. If you left it up to the league alone, they’d never change anything. The nepotism makes it hard enough to see change, so we’re lucky that NCAA football is such a driver of change for the game because it’s forced the NFL to innovate, too.  

[Warhead36]

Jeudy will break out now that he has a real QB throwing to him and Ridley and Brown are both good WRs(Ridley is actually very good, just gotta stay off of FanDuel lolol).

[philibusters]

21 minutes ago, Conn said:

Yeah the NFL seems to kind of resent and look down upon the media/amateur draftniks but there is no doubt at all that greater media and public interest and knowledge about the draft process has trickled up into improvement on the NFL side. Is it just more attention leading to greater resources being put into it? Or is there more accountability now that the NFL and the NFL Draft has become such a year-round sensation? Hard to say, but there’s no doubt that the NFL as a whole has gotten better at drafting. Part of this is adapting to college concepts as well, making life easier for their talented young prospects.  
 

And with analytics joining the fray now with most teams filling out fairly robust departments with qualified people…however you feel about analytics, it can add more info to the process and helps eliminate certain bad ideas. And that is obviously driven by forces outside the NFL as well. If you left it up to the league alone, they’d never change anything. The nepotism makes it hard enough to see change, so we’re lucky that NCAA football is such a driver of change for the game because it’s forced the NFL to innovate, too.  

 

For the most part if teams just drafted using the consensus board (which averages out like a dozen prominent mock draft sites), they would do just fine.  The consensus board doesn't factor in the psychological and behavioral stuff so assuming a team did their homework on those things, then if they used the consensus board drafting the highest player on the board at  positions where they would have a chance to get on field,  they would get middle of the pack to slightly better than middle of the pack results.  Most mistakes are made because teams reach to fill a  need or because they fall in love with a few traits of a player and then overdraft that player based on those traits.

[Stone Cold]

6 hours ago, Always A Commander Never A Captain said:

 

Marvin Harrison disappeared in every playoff game and couldn't handle it. Let's hope it's not him. Regular season dominance would be fun though.

Meh… they’re both HOFers…I’d be pleased with that type of production 🤷‍♂️ 

[Warhead36]

lolol if Dotson is half the player Harrison turned out to be we'd be thrilled. 

[Skinsinparadise]

 

 

 

[Skinsinparadise]

On 7/26/2022 at 1:07 AM, Going Commando said:

His hands are freakishly good and he's got that fearlessness and aggression to be a star.  Maybe they just mean he is special and it's based off those kinds of innate qualities that can't really be developed in the time frame of an NFL career.

 

But I cringe a little bit at the hype because I am pretty sure he is going to get big boyed in the NFL next season.  He is very thin and lacking in functional strength.  Terry and other guys who had immediate success like Chase and Jefferson and Metcalf and Samuel are tanks who came into the NFL with dominant stength.  Many of the skinny guys like Hollywood Brown and Jeudy and Ridley took time to adjust to the NFL.

 

I was big on Dotson during the college season, then lost interest in him but I regained it by watching the Hey Rookie show which made me rewatch him -- the thing about that show was the dude came off uber mature-professional.  Intangibles through the roof.  I do worry about his body type and can he handle big hits.  But otherwise, I think he can hit the ground running.  

 

I recall saying this back at the time after listening to some of the interviews of the rookies last year that there was nothing about Dyami that stood out to me as a dude.  He didn't come off to me bad but just run of the mill as far as how he explained himself, desire to be great, etc.   I didn't leave listening to him thinking this dude comes off special in any way. 

 

Granted, we are extrapolating from a small amount of information.  But we've all watched a zillion interviews and can sometimes do some apples to apples guessing on that front.  Dotson as a dude came off special on that Hey Rookie show.  And I hate to say it and I said so at the time after watching the Hey Rookie show the 2 years before as much as we all challenged Micah Parson's personality based on reports -- I said after watching that show he was the standout personality compared to the others -- he became the leader of that group, just uber competitive and charismatic.   Micah and Dotson seem close.  You saw a snipped of that on that show.

 

But for whomever didn't watch this below, its an entertaining watch, a lot of Dotson in the mix, including the behind the schenes footage of them making the trade with the Saints. 

 

 

[Koolblue13]

19 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

I was big on Dotson during the college season, then lost interest in him but I regained it by watching the Hey Rookie show which made me rewatch him -- the thing about that show was the dude came off uber mature-professional.  Intangibles through the roof.  I do worry about his body type and can he handle big hits.  But otherwise, I think he can hit the ground running.  

 

I recall saying this back at the time after listening to some of the interviews of the rookies last year that there was nothing about Dyami that stood out to me as a dude.  He didn't come off to me bad but just run of the mill as far as how he explained himself, desire to be great, etc.   I didn't leave listening to him thinking this dude comes off special in any way. 

 

Granted, we are extrapolating from a small amount of information.  But we've all watched a zillion interviews and can sometimes do some apples to apples guessing on that front.  Dotson as a dude came off special on that Hey Rookie show.  And I hate to say it and I said so at the time after watching the Hey Rookie show the 2 years before as much as we all challenged Micah Parson's personality based on reports -- I said after watching that show he was the standout personality compared to the others -- he became the leader of that group, just uber competitive and charismatic.   Micah and Dotson seem close.  You saw a snipped of that on that show.

 

But for whomever didn't watch this below, its an entertaining watch, a lot of Dotson in the mix, including the behind the schenes footage of them making the trade with the Saints. 

 

 

That really is surprisingly well done.

[Skinsinparadise]

8 minutes ago, Koolblue13 said:

That really is surprisingly well done.

 

Yeah it might be the best video in my opinion they've done in that series 

[Always A Commander Never A Captain]

I know some wanted us to stay at 11 and draft Kyle Hamilton. Well it looks like his change of direction issues are coming up at Ravens camp. He's getting worked over by UDFA's in coverage.

[Warhead36]

2 hours ago, Always A Commander Never A Captain said:

I know some wanted us to stay at 11 and draft Kyle Hamilton. Well it looks like his change of direction issues are coming up at Ravens camp. He's getting worked over by UDFA's in coverage.

He was never a coverage guy, but in the Buffalo Nickel role he would have been a beast. 

 

In the end it's really not worth taking a Safety with a high draft pick unless you're getting Ed Reed 2.0.

[Koolblue13]

10 hours ago, Warhead36 said:

He was never a coverage guy, but in the Buffalo Nickel role he would have been a beast. 

 

In the end it's really not worth taking a Safety with a high draft pick unless you're getting Ed Reed 2.0.

My top safeties were Cine and Hill, so I was good missing on Hamilton. 

[philibusters]

I liked Kyle Hamilton a lot at 11.  I think he'll be a good player (maybe make a couple pro bowls) and safety was a position of need.  That said, with Dotson playing well, I am pretty happy with how things have turned out so far, but on draft night I was definitely disappointed.

[Warhead36]

2 hours ago, philibusters said:

I liked Kyle Hamilton a lot at 11.  I think he'll be a good player (maybe make a couple pro bowls) and safety was a position of need.  That said, with Dotson playing well, I am pretty happy with how things have turned out so far, but on draft night I was definitely disappointed.

I liked him too. Didn't like him as much as Olave at 11 but would have been okay taking him at 16. 

[FootballZombie]

I was pretty much sold on Olave and had accepted his arrival as some form of predetermined destiny, but I was happy as long as we pulled in a WR at round 1.

[Always A Commander Never A Captain]

Agreed with others, Olave was the most likely guy at #11 and someone I also wanted. Not my #1 WR, but Drake London wasn't going to (and didn't) fall that far.

 

Dotson's catch radius has clearly been beneficial with Wentz so far. It'll be fun tracking Olave compared to Dotson, Robinson, and Butler. If Olave and Dotson have similar production and are on similarly productive overall passing offenses, then it's a win already. #11 pick's contract comes out to $22 million over 4 years compared to $17 million for the #16 pick.

[Skinsinparadise]

Standig

 

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

On 8/1/2022 at 7:41 AM, philibusters said:

I liked Kyle Hamilton a lot at 11.  I think he'll be a good player (maybe make a couple pro bowls) and safety was a position of need.  That said, with Dotson playing well, I am pretty happy with how things have turned out so far, but on draft night I was definitely disappointed.

I didn't have anything against Hamilton specifically, or even taking a safety.  

 

However, in the new NFL, offense is king.  And we have gone 

2017 Jon Allen

2018 Daron Payne

2019 Montez Sweat (and Haskins (RIP))

2020 Chase Young

2021 Jamin Davis

 

That's just too many picks in a row on the defense.  I get that you go "BPA" and all that draft jazz (I'm not quite as BPA as others, but I get the concept) but at some point you need to consider general roster construction, and if you're spending all of your high-end draft capital on defense, it's a mistake, since offense is actually more important.

 

The defense didn't need to be upgraded, it just needed to play better. 

 

The offense needed to be upgraded, because it lacked talent.  They needed help on offense.  They used 2 of their first 3 picks on offensive players, and I appreciated that. 

[Skinsinparadise]

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34352424/inside-washington-commanders-rookie-jahan-dotson-knack-making-acrobatic-catches

 

It's why Dotson wasn't easily impressed while watching and discussing some of his college highlights in the spring at Washington's practice facility. The Commanders loved Dotson for many reasons, including savvy route running and a mature approach, but some of those catches at Penn State revealed another reason he stood out. He played bigger than his listed height of 5-foot-11.

 

"Not to sound ****y, but I do it so often and I practice that all the time because you never know when it comes up," Dotson said.

The New Orleans Saints traded up with Washington to select receiver Chris Olave at No. 11 overall, and Dotson, at No. 16, was the fifth of six wideouts picked in the first round. Though he is the shortest of the six, his hands (9.5 inches) are bigger than two of the receivers selected above him and his 36-inch vertical leap was matched only by Garrett Wilson (No. 10, New York Jets) among first-round receivers at the scouting combine -- measurements that help explain why Dotson plays bigger than his size.

Five plays from his Penn State career help explain why the Commanders are excited about him.

The highlights

Sept. 18 vs. Auburn, first-and-10 from the Penn State 23: Dotson, aligned inside the numbers to the right, ran a deep crosser to break free 20 yards downfield. A safety eight yards behind him prepared to grab an interception on a pass that appeared too high. Instead, Dotson jumped high and twisted back to his left for the 22-yard catch.

"The ball was a little over my head, so I had to make an acrobatic catch and pluck it," Dotson said. "Interceptions are hard to come by, so knowing I'm taking one away from the defense and moving the sticks is definitely cool."

Said Commanders quarterback Carson Wentz: "He catches the football as natural as anybody I've been around."

Jahan Dotson makes catch for 8-yard touchdown

Jahan Dotson makes catch for 8-yard touchdown

Oct. 2 vs. Indiana, second-and-goal from the 8: Dotson lined up on the numbers and sold a crossing route, only to turn up to the back of the end zone. Another high pass resulted in another twisting catch and a touchdown.

"It's my attention to detail and my focus," Dotson said. "When the ball is in the air, I'm fully locked in on the ball and nothing else. I get tunnel vision and feel I can come down with those plays. I love catching the ball. I keep a football with me anywhere. I get on the Jugs machine as much as possible."

Dotson still must prove himself in the NFL. While Washington felt he was one of the most pro-ready players in the draft, others wondered if the Commanders picked him too high (ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. had Dotson ranked as the No. 22 overall prospect and Scout's Inc. ranked him No. 25).

But, in practice, he's shown the work with his hands has paid off.

"He has hands like [former Indianapolis Colts receiver] Reggie Wayne," said former NFL receiver Santana Moss, who provides analysis on the Commanders' website. "Reggie would catch a BB in the dark, it was that effortless. That's how I see Jahan. The stuff he's doing is very polished. ... I credit that to his catch radius and having mitts. Look at his hands, it's like a suction cup. Carson is out there slinging the ball, but you don't hear it hit [Dotson's] mitts."

 

Oct. 23 vs. Illinois, first-and-10 from the Penn State 22: On a pass down the right side for Dotson, three defenders converged. One reached up for the ball, but Dotson jumped as he ran and stole it. After he and Jartavius Martin landed, they stared at one another, and Dotson shook his head.

"He was like, 'I thought I had that one' and I was like, 'No, sir,'" Dotson said.

Does he understand how frustrating that situation is for a defender?

"I don't care to be honest," he said.

In Washington's first week of training camp, Dotson caught a 40-yard contested pass over the shoulder from Wentz. It impressed fellow receiver Terry McLaurin, who liked that Dotson maintained the same path on the route. That allowed Wentz to hit him on his outside shoulder. Dotson also didn't raise his arms until the last minute, preventing the defender from reacting fast enough.

"I'm still working on that skill a little bit as well," McLaurin said. "You have to use little subtle things like that to keep [defenders] from getting their hands in on the ball. So that was really good to see from a young guy."

---

 

Nov. 27 vs. Michigan State, first-and-10 from the Spartans' 27: With snow covering the field, Dotson sprinted down the right sideline, making a leaping catch a foot from the boundary. As he catches the ball just inside the 3-yard line, he starts to fall out of bounds, but stretches the ball over the pylon for the score.

"That was the craziest weather game I've ever played in," Dotson said. "It's hard to get your footing down, your hands are freezing and it's hard to catch the ball. Those are all distractions; you just have to keep the main thing the main thing."

The main thing, for Dotson, involves the details and having a plan at receiver. It's why veteran Commanders cornerback Kendall Fuller called him a "pro ever since Day 1."

In the spring, Dotson faced Fuller on consecutive days out of the same formation and against the same coverage. He beat him to the outside on the first day. On the second, Fuller anticipated another outside cut. Dotson knew it, so he broke inside for a wide-open grab.

"To get the same look and have a counter off it, that's big," Fuller said. "That's a vet move."

---

 

Oct. 31, 2020, first-and-10, Ohio State 20-yard line: Dotson was jammed at the line, but the pass was lofted to him at the 10-yard line. As the defensive back, Shaun Wade, leaned backward Dotson, reaching high, grabbed the ball with his outstretched right hand and never stumbled as he ran into the end zone.

"The play before, I had a go route, and I made a pretty cool catch for about 40 yards," Dotson said. "I was dead tired and trying to come out of the game to get water, but we were going hurry-up. I got a horrible release and the DB jammed me to the sideline, but I fought at the end and gave my quarterback a chance."

Dotson trained with NFL receivers this offseason, including Chris Godwin and Jarvis Landry, and his close friend KJ Hamler. But he also learned from former teammate and tight end Pat Freiermuth, a second-round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2021.

 

"Pat does a great job of boxing people out and playing big," Dotson said. "Watching him every day and how he maneuvers and attacks the ball in the air ... We have the same mindset when the ball is in the air, that it's ours. People call it 50-50 balls, but we think it's 100 to zero."

Those who know Dotson nod their head in agreement.

"In that 2020 season, he had some drops early on, whether it was in camp or whatever," said Penn State receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield, a former college wideout. "He just gradually continued to improve to a 'wow' factor. 'Oh, he caught that.' That goes to his competitiveness."

During Washington's rookie minicamp in May, receivers coach Drew Terrell pulled him aside and told him he needed to run faster.

"He didn't look like he was trying or running, but he is. He's just that smooth," Terrell said. "He's not a guy you have to game plan for -- 'how are we going to get this guy the ball?' He can go out and produce naturally. That's what he put on his college tape."

[Going Commando]

On 7/26/2022 at 1:01 PM, Conn said:

Yeah the NFL seems to kind of resent and look down upon the media/amateur draftniks but there is no doubt at all that greater media and public interest and knowledge about the draft process has trickled up into improvement on the NFL side. Is it just more attention leading to greater resources being put into it? Or is there more accountability now that the NFL and the NFL Draft has become such a year-round sensation? Hard to say, but there’s no doubt that the NFL as a whole has gotten better at drafting. Part of this is adapting to college concepts as well, making life easier for their talented young prospects.  
 

And with analytics joining the fray now with most teams filling out fairly robust departments with qualified people…however you feel about analytics, it can add more info to the process and helps eliminate certain bad ideas. And that is obviously driven by forces outside the NFL as well. If you left it up to the league alone, they’d never change anything. The nepotism makes it hard enough to see change, so we’re lucky that NCAA football is such a driver of change for the game because it’s forced the NFL to innovate, too.  

 

There is definitely increased scrutiny of the decisions teams make, and that scrutiny is become better informed and more accurate.  That can't be fun when you're used to a very secretive and insular process.

 

But I honestly think the boring explanation of technological improvement is the biggest reason drafting has improved.  NFL teams used to have to check out and share tapes of college players like library books.  Can you imagine?  They would all use the same tapes and have to mail them to each other after they were done.  Bill Walsh once talked about how they tried to goose the process of drafting Jerry Rice by hanging on to his tapes longer to try and keep him hidden.  Thus Rice fell to sixteen and some teams probably didn't even get to see him play before the draft.  That's crazy.  I also think teams have way more tape on players and can probably watch all of their games of their college career now if need be, as even the Northern Iowas of CFB have quality videographers making All 22 of their games.  I know this is true because I've seen All 22 get cut and released to promote UNI prospects on YouTube and the quality of the video was good.  College prospects are on camera a lot now and it creates a far better record for drafters to review.

[Koolblue13]

14 minutes ago, Going Commando said:

 

There is definitely increased scrutiny of the decisions teams make, and that scrutiny is become better informed and more accurate.  That can't be fun when you're used to a very secretive and insular process.

 

But I honestly think the boring explanation of technological improvement is the biggest reason drafting has improved.  NFL teams used to have to check out and share tapes of college players like library books.  Can you imagine?  They would all use the same tapes and have to mail them to each other after they were done.  Bill Walsh once talked about how they tried to goose the process of drafting Jerry Rice by hanging on to his tapes longer to try and keep him hidden.  Thus Rice fell to sixteen and some teams probably didn't even get to see him play before the draft.  That's crazy.  I also think teams have way more tape on players and can probably watch all of their games of their college career now if need be, as even the Northern Iowas of CFB have quality videographers making All 22 of their games.  I know this is true because I've seen All 22 get cut and released to promote UNI prospects on YouTube and the quality of the video was good.  College prospects are on camera a lot now and it creates a far better record for drafters to review.

Off topic, but your boy is looking great in camp.

https://fb.watch/eMR9xRrTuJ/

[Going Commando]

3 minutes ago, Koolblue13 said:

Off topic, but your boy is looking great in camp.

https://fb.watch/eMR9xRrTuJ/

 

Those safety helmets are wild looking.  Makes their bodies look small.

[Koolblue13]

2 minutes ago, Going Commando said:

 

Those safety helmets are wild looking.  Makes their bodies look small.

Looks right on Davis 

[Going Commando]

7 minutes ago, Koolblue13 said:

Looks right on Davis 

 

It's given me a revelation.  Maybe I don't need to lose weight.  Maybe I just need to get a bigger hat.

[sebestian]

On 7/29/2022 at 8:50 AM, Skinsinparadise said:

 

I was big on Dotson during the college season, then lost interest in him but I regained it by watching the Hey Rookie show which made me rewatch him -- the thing about that show was the dude came off uber mature-professional.  Intangibles through the roof.  I do worry about his body type and can he handle big hits.  But otherwise, I think he can hit the ground running.  

 

I recall saying this back at the time after listening to some of the interviews of the rookies last year that there was nothing about Dyami that stood out to me as a dude.  He didn't come off to me bad but just run of the mill as far as how he explained himself, desire to be great, etc.   I didn't leave listening to him thinking this dude comes off special in any way. 

 

Granted, we are extrapolating from a small amount of information.  But we've all watched a zillion interviews and can sometimes do some apples to apples guessing on that front.  Dotson as a dude came off special on that Hey Rookie show.  And I hate to say it and I said so at the time after watching the Hey Rookie show the 2 years before as much as we all challenged Micah Parson's personality based on reports -- I said after watching that show he was the standout personality compared to the others -- he became the leader of that group, just uber competitive and charismatic.   Micah and Dotson seem close.  You saw a snipped of that on that show.

 

But for whomever didn't watch this below, its an entertaining watch, a lot of Dotson in the mix, including the behind the schenes footage of them making the trade with the Saints. 

 

 

 

 

Ok.  I am officially ready for this season.  I think we are going to be deadly on offence.