OPINION:
I’m not ready to bury the Washington Commanders this season.
Jayden Daniels has two years of experience behind him — including a painful sophomore year when he should have learned a lot about himself and the NFL — and the reports out of training camp are that he’s at the top of his game.
He has better weapons than ever at his disposal — Stefon Diggs, a healthy Terry McLaurin, a pass-catching tight end under 30 years old in Chig Okonkwo and seemingly better depth behind them.
The defense, with the addition of seven free agents, should be the best there has been to support the young quarterback by keeping the offense from performing in perennial come-from-behind mode.
No, I believe there could be life after the torn triceps of Laremy Tunsil.
That’s when it all changed — Aug. 8, when Tunsil, the team’s best offensive lineman and one of the best left tackles in football, suffered the muscle tear blocking pass rusher Odafe Oweh during a one-on-one drill.
Pro Football Focus dropped the ranking of Washington’s offensive line from the high teens to the bottom of the rankings — 32nd in a 32-team league. If there were NFL teams in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Bismarck, North Dakota, the Commanders would have been ranked 34th.
Suddenly Josh Conerly Jr., who had a solid rookie season in 2025, seemed shaky. Center Nick Allegretti, their plan B/C after letting Tyler Biadasz go and striking out on free agent center Tyler Linderbaum, was getting more attention for not being on the field with a calf injury — not that anyone other than general manager Adam Peters and head coach Dan Quinn was particularly excited to see him on the field as their new starting center.
Then there was the image of Daniels running for his life in the only three plays he appeared in during the preseason in Washington’s 17-13 loss to the Detroit Lions.
Peters, though, told fans not to pay attention to what they’ve been seeing and hearing. He said he’s seen the secret Commanders — the ones hidden from view in closed practices — and he was confident in that mystery team.
“Obviously our fans are passionate, and you love to have passionate fans,” he told reporters. “But there is a lot of stuff we’re doing here that maybe they don’t see and a lot of things I’m excited to see in a couple of weeks.”
It didn’t seem like Quinn was comforted by all that secret stuff when he was using words such as “disarray” and not “up to their standards” to describe his team’s play at times this preseason.
This falls under the category of not believing what you see, which is totally rational when it comes to preseason football. No team shows their hand. For the most part, it’s a frustrating illusion and requires a leap of faith in the decision-makers in charge of your team — in this case, Peters and Quinn.
How much faith do you have in them?
That’s a little shaky. Peters has hit on some personnel decisions, missed on others, but in year three still hasn’t appeared to have assembled a roster to withstand the loss of one key player such as Tunsil.
Quinn seemingly created a culture of winning in his first season here in 2024 but whiffed badly on bringing in defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. He must have also struck out on his other key hire, offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who created one of the most potent offenses in the league in 2024. Quinn fired both coordinators this offseason and brought in coaches who have never done the job before — David Blough on offense and Daronte Jones on defense.
If we are to believe Peters, they have been working on some secret special stuff that I presume we will see Sunday against the Eagles in Philadelphia.
My faith is in Jayden Daniels.
He turned in perhaps the greatest rookie season of any quarterback in NFL history in 2024, leading the Commanders to a 12-5 season and the NFC Championship Game. He did so with Allegretti on the line (at guard), no Tunsil and a receiving corps that consisted of McLaurin, Olamide Zaccheaus, Noah Brown and others who scared no one — unless Daniels was throwing the ball.
I think he’s a better quarterback now. That keeps me from tossing dirt on their grave.
• You can hear Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
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