Hogs Haven
A collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders
Yes, Jayden Daniels is the biggest reason Washington tops this ranking, but he isn’t the only reason. In his first draft as a general manager, Adam Peters selected impact starters on both sides of the football, helping the Commanders go from 4-13 cellar-dwellers to 12-5 NFC Championship Game participants.
That said, Peters’ first pick did provide an outsized benefit, giving Washington the league’s most valuable commodity: a true franchise quarterback. Posting the highest completion percentage (69.0) and the most rushing yards (891) by a rookie quarterback in NFL history, Daniels tormented foes via arm and legs.
Frankly, though, his most remarkable trait might be his eternally calm demeanor. No moment was too big, no task too daunting — and that’s a quality reflected by courageous cover man Mike Sainristil. The 5-foot-9, 182-pounder was drafted to play nickel, but the Commanders’ perimeter cornerbacks couldn’t hold their own in the first two weeks of the season, so Washington sent Sainristil outside. The rookie answered the bell with aplomb, finishing the season with four interceptions, including two in Washington’s playoff upset of Detroit.
Add in 15 starts (including playoffs) at left tackle from Brandon Coleman as well as under-the-radar disruption from DT Jer’Zhan Newton, and one overriding sentiment becomes even more pronounced: It’s a brand new day for football in the nation’s capital.
Everything that was Commanders-Bucs: For the regular-season list, we vowed the world would be a better place if it had more Bengals-Ravens games. Similarly, Washington and Tampa Bay yielded spiritual affirmation and rich entertainment. Mike Evans beat longtime rival Marshon Lattimore for a 10-10 tie right before halftime. The Bucs led 17-13 after three quarters. Then, the delirium — two fourth-and-goal tries from Daniels in the first five minutes of the fourth; a grinding, old-school, game-tying march from Baker Mayfield; a tense final drive that really, for real ended like this:
A surreal second quarter: For a moment, Commanders-Lions was football apotheosis. All of this happened within eight minutes of regulation:
The mayor’s vision is likely to face intense scrutiny from a divided D.C. Council and their constituents, who are not all convinced that it would be good for city taxpayers.
Bowser called a football stadium “the fastest and surest route to developing the site,” a 177-acre swath of land on the banks of the Anacostia River that the city recently secured control of after years of negotiations in Congress.
“Until we have a modern stadium, we will not...
