Hogs Haven
On Sunday night, the embattled Commanders took the 9-2 Denver Broncos down to the final wire in overtime. Dan Quinn went down swinging, with a two-point conversion attempt to win it after the final touchdown, rather than settling for a tie.
It was a valiant effort by a ragtag band of scrappy underdogs, with a roster cobbled together from backup injury replacements, mid-season street FA signees and starters returning from injury and suspension, and Dan Quinn taking over for his demoted defensive coordinator to make the calls on defense. The Commanders fought for every yard, down to the final whistle. But in the end, it was just not enough to avoid the ninth loss of the season to guarantee a losing record.
If you take the view that the aim of every NFL season is to win the Super Bowl, then 2025 is now beyond any reasonable doubt a lost cause. While the Commanders are not yet mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, their chance of making it to the post-season is less than 1%. That doesn’t mean there is nothing to be gained from the remaining five games. The focus merely shifts to winning next season and, hopefully, for many seasons to come.
GM Adam Peters still has a lot of work to do to transform the Commanders into a perennial contender. Two positives that can come from the losing season are an extended opportunity to evaluate younger players with game experience and improved draft position
In that respect, the Commanders overtime loss to the Broncos could be thought of as a best case scenario. The team demonstrated the ability to fight back from the adversity they have faced this season, while also capitalizing on outside assistance to move one step closer to the top pick in April’s draft.
In last week’s official kickoff of the Tank Watch, we saw how the Commanders could not move any further up the draft order on their own. They would require assistance from the two-win teams ahead of them. As unlikely as that seemed at the time, they got their wish on Sunday, when the 2-9 Jets beat the Falcons. The win brought the Jets’ record to 3-9 and caused them to fall behind the Commanders by virtue of a slightly stronger Strength of Schedule (SOS).
As a result, the Commanders moved up one spot to sixth place in the draft order. Had the Commanders converted the two-point attempt for the win, they would have dropped to tenth place, between the Falcons (whose pick belongs to the Rams) and the Bengals. A lot can still change, and probably will, before the season ends. But the Commanders are currently on pace to have a shot at one of the elite prospects in the draft or a valuable top ten pick to attract strong trade offers, giving Adam Peters more draft picks to work with.
If the season ended today, this is how the draft order would shape up,...
