Hogs Haven
There’s no doubt that, viewed through the constraints of just the 2025 season, the Commanders are headed in the wrong direction. The team is losing; injuries have piled up; the coaches don’t appear to have answers. The team appears to be flailing in its search for solutions to the many current problems.
But NFL teams are more than just beasts of the moment. They have lives that extend from one year to the next and across decades. That means that short term highs like the 2024 season, and short term lows like the 2025 season are woven into a greater pattern of success and failure that can influence how the franchise is perceived by a generation of fans.
That’s why fan confidence can be on the rise for a fan base like that of the NY Giants in a tough year like this one because they feel good about the future with rookies QB Jaxson Dart and RB Cam Skattebo, and 2nd year WR Malik Nabers — even though two of those players are lost to injury for the rest of the ‘25 season. Even as Giants fans feel good about their young core players, they have deep doubts about the coaching staff, and maybe even about the GM responsible for it all.
This week’s Hogs Haven Reacts survey stretched questions about this tangled skein of confidence out as widely as we could over three aspects of the Washington Commanders franchise, looking at confidence in individual coaches, the General Manager, and the direction of the team overall.
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Franchise direction
When it comes to team direction, the confidence of fans has fallen 10 points to 42%, with many questioning the roster construction, player selection and development, pointing at both the GM and the coaching staff. The season low of 27% was recorded after the loss to the Cowboys in Week 7.
Of course, the fact that more than 4 in 10 survey respondents still have confidence in the midst of a bad 4-game losing streak (which would destroy the confidence numbers of most other NFL fan bases — all of whom have polled weekly by SB Nation for years now) says a great deal about the credit built up by the franchise in the short time that Josh Harris and his partners have owned it.
GM Adam Peters
The confidence in Adam Peters has definitely slipped with Commanders fans since the end of his honeymoon period, with 68% of respondents in this week’s survey describing themselves as being ‘pretty sure’ about Peters or having ‘some doubts’ about him at this point. Only 13% expressed ‘total faith’.
This contrasts rather sharply with the view of Peters throughout most of his first year in the role. Many critics point to the performance of his first draft class, especially the perceived regression of Mikey Sainristil and Brandon Coleman combined with unspectacular production from DT Johnny Newton, TE Ben Sinnott and WR Luke McCaffrey, all...
