Hogs Haven
The Commanders approached the 2025 season with high expectations, raised by the team’s unprecedented championship round playoff finish in the first year of a total franchise reset. It is fair to say that the team’s performance through Week 8 has been disappointing.
The team opened the season with a sloppy win over the New York Giants, marred by mistakes and penalties, with a lackluster performance by star QB Jayden Daniels. Things started to go seriously sideways with a rash of injuries in the Week 2 game against the Packers, including season-ending injuries to starting DE Deatrich Wise and RB Austin Ekeler, and a knee injury that kept Daniels sidelined for two weeks.
In the following weeks, the injury toll continued to mount with starting S Will Harris, WRs Terry McLaurin, Noah Brown, and Deebo Samuel, and promising second-year DE Javontae Jean-Baptiste all missing time or out for the season. Dorance Armstrong’s season-ending injury in last week’s loss to the Cowboys stretched the team’s depth at DE to the breaking point, with few viable replacements on the roster. The roster depth was stretched even further on Monday Night when LT Laremy Tunsil left the game with a hamstring injury.
The depletion of the starting roster by injuries has coincided with rising concerns about apparent lack of preparation, poor discipline and play calling. Fans are becoming increasingly concerned that the season could spiral out of control. Personally, I don’t think we are quite there yet. But the window to turn things around is rapidly narrowing.
I remain hopeful that Dan Quinn can right the ship when Jayden Daniels returns from his most recent hamstring injury. But I have to admit my confidence took a hit when what looked like successful adjustments in the first half on Monday Night gave way to more mistakes and missed opportunities when play resumed after the break. And if there are any more serious injuries to key players, we may soon reach a point where there’s not much the coaches can do.
The Commanders missing the playoffs would be a bitter pill to swallow, following last season’s overperformance. However, some good could come from it in the long term. The silver lining to the cloud of a disappointing regular season is, of course, improved draft position.
While I am not ready to throw in the towel on the 2025 season just yet, I thought this might be a good time to ask what it could mean for the long-term rebuilding project if the Commanders did fail to return to the playoffs this year.
According to Tankathon, if the season ended today, the Commanders would pick 11th in the draft order. There are six teams who only have three wins, but all the NFC teams have fewer losses. Washington has the same record as the Bengals and Ravens, but their higher strength of schedule gives them the 11th pick instead of the 9th or 10th.
An 11th place finish would represent an...
