Hogs Haven
The 5 o’clock club is published from time to time during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.
2026 opponent preview series: Wk 1 Eagles | Wk 2 Cowboys | Wk 3 Seahawks | Wk 4 Colts | Wk 5 Giants | Wk 6 49ers | Wk 9 Rams | Wk 11 Bengals | Wk 12 Cardinals | Wk 13 Titans | Wk 14 Texans
In 2026, the Commanders will, like every other team in the NFL, play 17 games against 14 opponents. With the amount of roster change that NFL teams undergo annually along with the unusually large number of head coach and coordinator changes in 2026, it seems useful to spend some time to review each of Washington’s regular season opponents.
FALCONS
This Week 15 game pits two teams that have close ties, starting with the fact that Dan Quinn’s first head coaching job was with the Falcons, and that he has a long history with the Falcons defensive coordinator, Jeff Ulbrich, who — if he’d been released by the Falcons when Raheem Morris was fired earlier this calendar year — might well have been hired as Washington’s 2026 DC. Quinn coached Ulbrich when the latter was a linebacker for the 49ers in the 2000s. Quinn then helped Ulbrich land his first NFL coaching gig in Seattle (2010) and later hired him onto his Falcons coaching staff in 2015. Now, the student and his former teacher will face off in a late-season NFC battle.
Date: December 20, 2026, 1:00 p.m. ET
Location: Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland
First-year head coaches have a notoriously poor track record, as they tend to be in charge of a team with a transitioning roster in an organization that is trying to change the culture.
Kevin Stefanski, however, is nobody’s NFL rookie coach. After 14 years with the Vikings, he was hired as head coach of the Browns in 2020, where he coached for 6 seasons before being sacked in January. His tenure was a bit of everything — a pair of 11-win seasons; a pair of seasons with 8 & 7 wins; and just 8 wins in his final two seasons combined (‘24 & ‘25).
Despite his overall record of 45-56 as a head coach (1-2 in the playoffs), Stefanski’s lack of on-field success is attributed by many observers to the fact that he was coaching in Cleveland, where things were stacked against him. The Browns franchise went 13 years without a winning season before Stefanski delivered an 11-5 record as a rookie head coach in 2020....
