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 | Wk 15 Falcons – Wk 16 Vikings
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.
JAGUARS
The Week 17 road game in Jacksonville features the matchup of two relatively young NFL QBs, Trevor Lawrence and Jayden Daniels, each trying to enhance the trajectory of his career. Lawrence enters the late-season contest following a season in which he became an MVP finalist under coordinator Liam Coen. For the Commanders, Daniels will be hoping to be finishing a healthy season reminiscent of his rookie year, and leading a re-tooled and re-energized Washington offense under David Blough. This game could serve as a late-season benchmark for both quarterbacks as their teams will hopefully be fighting for playoff positioning.
Date: Date & Time TBD
Location: EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida
The official NFL Commanders 2026 Season Preview ends with this projection of what the Commanders season could look like if Jayden Daniels stays healthy and returns to his 2024 ROTY form:
While this projected start to the season (0-3; 2-4; 3-5) would lead to a lot of people having to be talked down from a lot of ledges in the months of September and October, given the team’s two new coordinators and the distribution of expected tougher/easier opponents, this 12-win projection doesn’t look very dissimilar to my own recent 10-win projection; in fact, I had the same W/L projections for all the games except for the Texans and this one against the Jaguars.
My point here, if I have one, is that the Week 17 game in Jacksonville, if the season is unfolding along the lines of an optimistic preseason projection, could take place amidst a lot of winning and optimism for a Commanders team that could be living by the mantra that “it ain’t how you start; it’s how you finish” in this first weekend of NFL football in the 2027...
