In roughly nine months, the Commanders have gone from being the most surprising team to the most disappointing in the NFL.
That’s how quickly life changes in the NFL. Either teams become perennial winners or get washed back into the cycle of being one of the four or five surprise teams that made the playoffs after missing it the year before.
To Washington’s credit, the team went for it with a pair of blockbuster trades for versatile receiver Deebo Samuel and left tackle Laremy Tunsil after being convinced Jayden Daniels is capable enough to guide this franchise to back-to-back playoff appearances for the first time since the George H. W. Bush administration in the early ’90s. But the star quarterback wasn’t on the field for the Commanders’ ugly 28–7 loss in Kansas City on Monday night.
Daniels, who was ruled out with a hamstring injury, might have made a difference while Patrick Mahomes and his offense used two-plus quarters to wake up. Washington became the first team to pick off Mahomes on each of his first two drives in any game of his career, but all the Commanders had to show for it were two turnovers on downs because backup Marcus Mariota no longer has the physical gifts that the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year possesses.
Maybe if Mariota had two Terry McLaurins on the field, he could have saved the Commanders from dropping to 3–5. They now have their season on life support, with two daunting home games ahead against the Seahawks and Lions.
However, Mariota did have Samuel, who didn’t provide much help in Kansas City, with only three catches for 11 yards. As for the other prized offseason acquisition, Tunsil missed the bulk of the game after sustaining a hamstring injury.
After benefiting from injury luck and a last-place schedule, it’s been the opposite this season for the Commanders, whose best moment so far might be having a healthy Daniels in their impressive Week 5 road victory against the Chargers. The Commanders’ bad injury luck also includes defensive ends Deatrich Wise Jr., Dorance Armstrong and running back Austin Ekeler all being lost for the season. By this point last year, Daniels had the Commanders at 6–2 with an epic walk-off Hail Mary win against the Bears and outshined Joe Burrow during a victory over the Bengals.
The Bengals have also been pretty disappointing, but they didn’t lose draft picks in acquiring veterans that were supposed to help win games this season. Maybe it’s unfair to criticize the Commanders for hindering their 2025 and ’26 draft classes (they lost next year’s second- and fourth-round picks in the Tunsil trade) because injuries are unpredictable. Still, going the veteran route didn’t make much sense for this team, especially at wide receiver, knowing that there’s a giant need at edge rusher and McLaurin was due for an extension, which got worked out after some summer drama.
There’s now a trend of teams making aggressive moves in an attempt to make the most of out rookie deals for quarterbacks. It happened last year when the Texans landed Stefon Diggs and Danielle Hunter hoping to maximize C.J. Stroud’s rookie deal, but the Texans’ season ended in the divisional round, just like the year before. Also, the Chiefs and Eagles have won the past three Super Bowls with their star quarterbacks on their second contracts. Maybe Washington would have been better off not pressing and just seeing what Daniels could do with a young roster, paving the way for new stars to emerge.
It stinks for Washington that Daniels has missed three games, but it’s not a given that this team would have a winning record right now with him healthy for every game. Monday night’s loss showed how much of an issue depth is for this team. The Commanders aren’t capable of surviving like the 49ers and Buccaneers, two of the deepest teams in the league that have made it work amid massive injury waves.
With or without Daniels, the Commanders need to find a way to win the next three games, including at Miami before a much needed bye in Week 12. Maybe the Commanders don’t have enough talent, which shouldn’t be the case after the trades they made, but they’re well coached on both sides of the ball with coach Dan Quinn and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who had his productive moments in the loss against the Chiefs.
This coaching staff needs to provide stellar game plans from here on out or this will quickly be a lost season with minimal draft picks next year to find pass rushers, defensive backs and more weapons for Daniels. It’s also not a given that this team can quickly bounce back after one lost season. Just ask the Bengals and Jaguars, or even the Vikings, who were just as surprising as the Commanders last season. But even Minnesota is doing better than Washington because it only has four losses.
Right now, the Commanders are near the bottom of the NFC standings with the likes of the two-win Cardinals and Giants. If that’s not disappointing, then who knows what is.
