The Commanders took all the good will of unexpected 2024 success and threw it away last year. Now they have Jayden Daniels at a crossroads, not a lot of young talent, and the stink of last years failed acquisitions still dragging the team down.
NFC West
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NFC North
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NFC East: Giants
NFC East: Commanders
NFC East: Cowboys
NFC East: Eagles
In
- Odafe Oweh, K’Lavon Chaisson, Chig Okonkwo, Leo Chenal, Amik Robertson, Stefon Diggs, Tim Settle, Rasul Douglas, Nick Cross, Sonny Styles
The Commanders needed to fill a ton of holes, specifically to protect and help Daniels. For the second year in a row, mission not accomplished. The offensive line is still a mess and their top 2 WRs are 31 and 32 years old. They did bring in Okonkwo to help, but even with a new offensive coordinator, they are going to struggle to move the ball. So far, Washington seems to have done everything it can to not build a future for Daniels.
The Commanders revamped most of their defense through free agency this offseason bringing in 7 new starters. Even with Oweh getting nearly $100m, it looks like more roster churn than locking in long term talent. They are counting on a lot of things going right across the board here. Without that, this is probably not a league average unit.
Out
- Bobby Wagner, Von Miller, Zach Ertz, Laremy Tunsil (injured for season)
The big loss is Tunsil rather than the guys on the wrong side of 35. Washington traded real assets to protect their QB, Daniels got hurt anyway, then they gave out a big money extension only for Tunsil to be lost for the season. The Tunsil trade has been a total disaster for a team in need of real infrastructure.
The worst thing that could have happened to Washington these last two years was making the Conference Final. This made them think they were better than they were. Instead of building youth around Daniels, they spent money and assets on much older veterans. While these players were good for them, now they are gone and there is nothing to show for it.
Prediction
I know Daniels is a legitimate talent, but Washington is doing him no favors. His protection is spotty and his weapons are old. They are banking his bounce back year on better luck and a new offensive system, but that seems misguided considering the pass rushes of the Eagles and Giants plus an improved Cowboys defense. They are going to get him killed.
Daniels is going to win just enough games to keep Washington out of a great draft pick, but they will not be in the playoff picture all year. If the season starts off badly, it wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world to gut the team for picks at the deadline and then build around Daniels properly. 6-11 seems right.
Photo: All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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