Arrowhead Pride
On Monday night, the Kansas City Chiefs face the Washingtgon Commanders . We welcome Andre York of Hogs Haven — our sister SB Nation site covering the Commanders— for Five Questions with the Enemy*.*
If I had to put odds to it, I’d say it’s a 10% chance to win the division. This is a very flawed team at the moment, with a somewhat weak roster to begin with due to four years of terrible drafts under Ron Rivera. Now that roster is now getting hollowed out with injuries. Last year, Jayden Daniels hid a lot of those flaws, but this year even he’s been injured and unable to work the same magic. In addition, the defense has looked out of sorts and poorly coached.
In addition to the problems the Commanders are working through, the rest of the division looks fiesty. The Eagles are diminished from last year’s Super Bowl team, having lost important players (and their offensive coordinator) in the offseason and suffering injuries across their offensive line — but they are still the most talented team in the division. The Cowboys have the best offense in the NFL right now and could be contenders if they could just fix their defense. (This may not be as difficult as it seems, since a lot of their problems are caused by Eberflus trying to force a scheme that doesn’t match his personnel). Even the last-place Giants look frisky with the emergence of Jaxson Dart.
I’d say the Commanders have a 20% or so chance to get a wild card berth, so maybe a 30% overall chance to make the playoffs. Again, the biggest problem right now is that general manager Adam Peters has only had two offseasons to fix many years of poor personnel decisions. Remember: this team is only 2 years away from being the second-worst team in the NFL.
One of the underappreciated secrets to the Commanders making the playoffs last year was that they had very good injury luck. They basically lost one important starter to IR (Jonathan Allen) over the course of the season. The opposite has been true this season. The team doesn’t have enough talent to stay competitive with this many injuries — though at least WRs Terry McLaurin and Deebo Samuel should be returning this week. Also, the Commanders’ defense has looked worse than the sum of its parts, but that could get turned around with some combination of better coaching and personnel moves.
The offense won’t...
