Hogs Haven
Which new face on offense can help the Commanders get beyond the NFC Championship game this season?
Washington Commanders keys for 2025 is a short series — likely three articles — in which John Portis and Bill Horgan will, together, explore newcomers to Washington’s roster that need to punch above their weight for the Commanders to progress to the next level of competition.
Since last year’s roster went to the NFC Championship, in essence we are discussing which offseason additions could propel the franchise to the Super Bowl in 2025.
The qualifications are simple: any Commander that was not with the franchise at the start of last season is eligible for consideration. This includes players acquired from in-season trades, free agent additions, and the draft. We even plan to address the coaching staff in this series (though the coaching candidates may not meet the ‘newcomers’ qualification).
Of course, Dan Quinn needs a high level of performance from all his players to reach the ultimate goal, but in these articles, we are trying to distill things down to a single player each (one for John & one for Bill) that we expect to have the most impact in 2025.
Obviously, this is opinion — not an exact measurement or evaluation. Rather, the intent is to “prime the pump” a little bit and encourage discussion about which player(s) might make the biggest impact in the coming season.
To make this a little different, and hopefully more fun, newcomer John Portis and long-time veteran Bill Horgan have agreed to provide their thoughts on one candidate in each article.
We encourage you to not only comment on the players we have chosen to highlight, but to add your own thoughts or candidates for consideration. To keep things tidy, we ask you to focus your thoughts on the group under discussion for the day.
We are continuing with the offensive side of the ball this morning, and we’ll feature a different aspect of the team in each article of the series, which will run every Wednesday until the start of training camp.
Part 1 - Washington Commanders key additions for 2025: Defense
Washington fielded their best offense in more than a decade last season.
Per Pro Football Reference, the Commanders ranked 5th in Team Offense, a welcome improvement over last year’s 25th position. The Passing Offense ranked slightly better than last year’s 18th ranking, with a little over half the passing attempts of Eric Bienemy’s squad. Washington ranked 3rd in Rushing Offense mostly due to the legs of the team’s leading rusher, Jayden Daniels, and the 6th most rushing attempts in the league. Several other aspects contributed to the improvement, including Jayden’s ability to perform under duress and the team’s remarkable fourth-down conversion rate.
Despite last year’s success, the offense must take another step forward in 2025, especially given the projected strength of schedule. In the coming season, the Commanders will play eight games against defenses that finished in the top seven in scoring...
