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Washington Post (paywall)
Commanders fans thought the franchise turned a corner. Hold on.
The fuzzy feelings have faded fast following the remarkable run last winter. This season, Washington has reverted to one of the NFL’s worst teams.
There were still several minutes left in the third quarter Sunday night when fans in burgundy-and-gold jerseys began shuffling toward the exits at Northwest Stadium, trying to avoid the traffic, beat the rain or perhaps simply forget about the game they were watching. By the early part of the fourth quarter, Gate A had become downright
congested. A mustachioed man in a Terry McLaurin jersey grimaced as he walked through the first set of gates. “F—!” he yelled to no one in particular.
This has all led to a sense of emotional whiplash for Commanders fans. Some are still riding the high of last season and the hope of a new regime led by principal owner Josh Harris, General Manager Adam Peters and Coach Dan Quinn. But for others, the fuzzy feelings are gone. Criticism of Peters and Quinn is fair, in their eyes, if not warranted. And a familiar sense of resignation has returned.
That feeling cuts against the excitement Harris brought in 2023, when he purchased the team from Daniel Snyder. The sale was celebrated locally like a championship. Harris was treated like a conquering hero. And for parts of the fan base, the change in ownership and the success of last season were taken as proof that things were different.
Yet the scenes in Landover on Sunday night — of crowded aisles in the fourth quarter and a lower bowl with large swaths of the Lions’ Honolulu blue — were more of the same, reminiscent of so many other losing stretches in Washington.
The Athletic (paywall)
Commanders’ Dan Quinn to take over as defensive coordinator and play caller
“When something’s not working, we shift from the question of why isn’t it working to what do we need to get it right. And right now, that will call for some change,” Quinn said, a day after a 44-22 loss to the Detroit Lions. “I’ll take over the role as defensive coordinator and all that entails.
As the losses have piled up, Quinn has tried paring the play calls to simplify the defense. He has altered practices to focus on physicality and creating takeaways, changed some of the personnel on game days and, most recently, had Whitt move from the booth to the sideline with the hope of improving communication during games.
Yet the same problems surfaced week after week.
Whitt will be involved with the rest of the defensive staff in planning for games, starting with Sunday’s meeting with the Miami Dolphins in Madrid. Then on game days, he’ll be in the coaches booth monitoring coverages.
“I’m fortunate that we’ve been in that battle rhythm together during our time together in Dallas, so we’re going to try to slip into that spot, as quickly as we can,” Quinn said.
With Whitt essentially demoted, it paints a precarious picture for his future with the team — in both the near and long term. But after weeks making minor changes and seeing the same results, Quinn said he knew he had to try something else.
Commanders.com
5 takeaways from Washington’s loss to Detroit
Trouble containing Jahmyr Gibbs and Jameson Williams.
The Lions had no trouble moving up and down the field against the Commanders’ defense, amassing 546 yards — their best performance of the season so far — and averaging eight yards per play.
The biggest challenge was the duo of former first-round picks Gibbs and Williams, who combined for more than half of the Lions’ yardage for the evening with 291 combined yards and four total touchdowns.
Gibbs’ versatility was apparent throughout the night, as he opened the game accounting for 36 yards on the Lions’ first touchdown drive, which culminated with a 14-yard receiving score from Gibbs. Gibbs had an even better series in the second quarter, touching the ball on six plays of Detroit’s nine-play 87-yard touchdown drive that ended with another Gibbs score. Gibbs’ longest play of the night — a 43-yard touchdown run — wasn’t the Lions’ final score of the night, but it did end any hope the Commanders had of mounting a comeback.
Williams was just as efficient on Sunday, catching six of his seven targets for 119 yards. Williams often found soft spots in the Commanders’ coverage and turned moderate gains into even more explosive plays with his speed. He had a 22-yard catch to start the third quarter and later turned a short dump-off throw from Jared Goff into a 41-yard gain during the Lions’ next possession.
The Commanders have often struggled to contain explosive playmakers this season, and it’s clear they still have work to do to shore up that weakness.
Washington Post (paywall)
Hail or Fail: Lions’ offense goes off against Commanders
The good and bad from Washington’s fifth straight loss, its fourth in a row by at least 21 points.
Treylon Burks
After catching one pass for 14 yards in his Commanders debut last week, the former Tennessee Titans wide receiver and first-round pick had three catches for a team-high 58 yards against Detroit, including a 37-yard grab along the sideline to set up a touchdown in the third quarter. On Sunday, that was enough to qualify him for a Hail. Commanders backup quarterback Marcus Mariota also played well, finishing 16 for 22 for 213 yards and two touchdowns.
Frustration boils over
After being penalized for jumping offside early in the second quarter, Commanders defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw began clapping and jawing in Goff’s face.
“It makes no sense,” Vilma said on the Fox broadcast as Kinlaw tried to rattle Goff, who had led touchdown drives on Detroit’s first two possessions. “You’ve literally done nothing. This first half, they’ve scored every time, they’ve run it right down your throat. I have no idea why you’re talking trash.”
On the ensuing snap, Gibbs ran for a 13-yard touchdown, with teammates Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta shoving him the final few yards as three Commanders failed to bring him down. After the play, Payne was ejected for throwing a right hook at St. Brown. Kinlaw, who told reporters that St. Brown hit Payne first, was penalized after the Lions’ ensuing two-point conversion for making contact with an official.
“I get the frustration, but we’ve got to find a way to channel our frustration better or different than that,” Quinn said.
Riggo’s Rag
5 Commanders set to thrive as Dan Quinn reshapes Washington’s defense
Tyler Owens – Commanders S
Dan Quinn’s iconic defenses with the Seattle Seahawks always featured physical, hard-hitting safeties who set the tone with impactful plays, supreme organization, and a never-say-die attitude. The Commanders don’t have a Kam Chancellor or Earl Thomas, but the head coach might have an extra card or two to play yet.
From a pure athleticism standpoint, Tyler Owens fits the mold of what Quinn seeks in his defenders on the backend. His size, explosiveness, and quickness should be utilized more, especially considering the struggles that players such as Quan Martin and Jeremy Reaves are going through. And the Commanders need to adopt different methods, because whatever Joe Whitt Jr. has tried so far just hasn’t worked.
Much like Jordan Magee, Owens is raw. His production on the field has never matched his athletic attributes. This is about harnessing his gifts positively in a way that benefits the team, and the only way he is going to get better at this stage is by logging defensive reps in a competitive setting.
Owens has carved out an impressive niche for himself as a special-teams ace, but the Commanders need to find ways to get him on the defensive rotation with more frequency. Letting him become impactful at the defensive second level in a similar way to how Jeremy Chinn was deployed last season could be worth its weight in gold.
ESPN
Judging biggest overreactions for NFL Week 10 games
Jayden Daniels shouldn’t play again this season even if he’s cleared
The Commanders’ electrifying second-year quarterback dislocated his left elbow toward the end of the team’s Week 9 loss to Seattle and missed Sunday’s loss to the Lions as a result. He might have to miss more games with the injury, which is his third significant injury of the season. But the Commanders are 3-7 and their once-promising season seems like it won’t end with a second consecutive playoff berth.
There is a bit of a drumbeat around the idea that, by the time Daniels is cleared to return to play, Washington will be out of it and won’t be worth the risk of further injury to put him back into games, as he’s too important to the franchise’s long-term future. We don’t know for sure when or even if he will be cleared to return, but if it’s not until after the team’s Week 12 bye, you can kind of see the reasoning behind the argument.
Verdict: OVERREACTION
Well, I hate this argument. I understand the premise behind it, but I hate it.
Football is a dangerous game. Any player can get hurt on literally any play. Daniels is a football player and wants to play. Washington is still charging for the tickets and should feel a responsibility to put the best possible product on the field. And Daniels is a huge part of the Commanders’ best possible product. He’s also a second-year quarterback who could stand to play and continue to gain experience. The injury isn’t to his legs or his throwing arm. If the doctors say he can play and it’s safe, then he should play, period.
Plus … who’s to say the Commanders are out of it? If they beat Miami next week in Madrid, they go into the bye at 4-7. Seven teams make the playoffs in each conference. Bring Daniels back, run the table to get to 10-7 and maybe squeak in to make another run like the one they made last season. Don’t play scared.
Podcasts & videos
NFL Week 10 Recap: Commanders fall to Lions 44-22 | Booth Review | Washington Commanders | NFL
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All Phly
Nick Sirianni’s decision-making is baffling
Fans were treated to a defensive chess match or a whole lot of offensive ineptitude, depending on how you look at it. The Eagles and Packers played the first scoreless first half of the NFL season.
[F]or the life of me, I do not understand why Nick Sirianni (and Kevin Patullo, maybe) love giving up on drives so much. Just quitting on them. This Eagles offense, which is on pace to have the most three-and-outs by any NFL offense in a decade, had three three-and-outs on their first six real drives. They dialed up Will Shipley coward’s draws on 3rd and long the entire game. It’s pathetic.
The offense was, well, weird. There were a handful of conservative play calls on third down, A.J. Brown went almost three full quarters without a target, and the run game was once again unable to help kill off the game for a potential four-minute drill just before the two-minute warning. That’s not even mentioning Nick Sirianni leaving the door open for the Packers in the final minute of the game with a deep shot to Brown on fourth-and-6 from the plus-35-yard line. Even though Brandon McManus missed the 64-yard field goal the Packers offense conjured up for him as time expired, it was an oddly aggressive choice for a coach that spent most of the evening being overly cautious.
So, when you see Saquon Barkley hit the circle button like it’s Madden and DeVonta Smith Moss a guy in the end zone, it’s great. But I find myself thinking, “Hey, these guys are on the field the entire game. It should not be this way!” But it is, and that is the story of the 2025 Philadelphia Eagles offense.
But the Eagles defense was great tonight. Jaelan Phillips, welcome to Philadelphia.
Also, Nick Sirianni, what are you doing at the end of the game my man?
NFL.com
Eagles’ Nick Sirianni explains decision to call deep pass to A.J. Brown on late fourth down in win
Philly had multiple chances to put the game away, but the offense came up shy. Sirianni made his most controversial decision of the night on a 4th-and-6 from the Green Bay 35-yard line with 33 seconds remaining.
The Eagles had three choices: 1) Go for it. 2) Try a long field goal. 3) Punt.
Philly not only went for it, but they did so with a low-percentage deep shot from Jalen Hurts to A.J. Brown that fell incomplete. The miss gave Green Bay the ball with a shot to get into field-goal range with 27 seconds remaining.
Luckily for Sirianni, his defense stood tall and forced a 64-yard Brandon McManus field goal attempt that had no shot at connecting.
“So the end of the game, we are up three and I would have liked to be in a little closer to kick a field goal,” Sirianni said when asked about the decision. “Again, you play every situation a little bit differently, but it was into the wind on that one. I knew the kick would have to be a little bit lower trajectory of a kick on that particular one. I’ve got a lot of faith in our offense. It didn’t work out on this one. We just didn’t get it, but I stand put on that decision, especially being up three because you go up six, they are still going to need a touchdown. So we would have ended the game if we would have got that and I’ve got a lot of faith in our guys to be able to do that. But the reason I didn’t kick the field goal, again, being up three it was just the trajectory into the wind there on that particular one.”
The 50-plus-yard field goal was one option, but a miss would have given the Packers even better field position. There is also the dreaded 6-point lead situation that Sirianni likely wanted to avoid, but with so little time, that’s not as big a danger.
While Sirianni focused on the field goal option, the real question was why he didn’t punt? For all the hand-wringing that analytics constantly suggests teams go for it on fourth downs, in this case, punt was the recommendation of some.
A punt could have pinned the Packers deeper into their own end, and with no timeouts, would have made it more difficult for Green Bay to get into any sort of prayer field goal situation. Not to mention that a punt generally takes a few more ticks off the clock than a normal play.
Regardless of the analytics of it all, Sirianni is comfortable trusting his guys to make a play, pointing to a similar decision in which Hurts connected last year against Cleveland — that 40-yard bomb to Brown came on a 2nd-and-11 in a four-point game, so it isn’t exactly apples-to-apples.
Blogging the Boys
New York Giants fire Brian Daboll who never beat Dallas Cowboys
The Brian Daboll era will be one that Giants fans try to forget, but it was one that we as Cowboys fans enjoyed quite a bit. Consider that Daboll led the Giants into seven games against the Cowboys and lost them all. For real.
- 2022: Loss, 23-16
- 2022: Loss, 28-20
- 2023: Loss, 40-0
- 2023: Loss, 49-17
- 2024: Loss, 20-15
- 2024: Loss, 27-20
- 2025: Loss, 40-37
There were certainly instances in which the Giants came close to beating the Cowboys under Daboll, most recently the first meeting between the teams this season. The record says 0-7 though and we are grateful to him for his service.
Big Blue View
Brian Daboll fired by New York Giants
Mike Kafka is interim head coach
Daboll had been scheduled to hold his weekly day after game press conference on Monday afternoon. News of his firing broke about an hour before that was to take place. That event has been cancelled, of course, and the team has said a full statement will be forthcoming.
Daboll was a driving force behind the Giants trading up to select quarterback Jaxson Dart in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Dart has played well since taking over from Russell Wilson as the starter in Week 4, but has been taking heavy punishment as the Giants have relied on him as a runner.
The combination of the team’s fourth straight loss and the concussion Dart suffered on a designed quarterback run on Sunday appears to have been the final straw for Daboll with the Giants.
Kafka is the giants’ sixth head coach since they removed Tom Coughlin after the 2015 season. They have gone through Ben McAdoo, Steve Spagnuolo (interim), Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge and now Daboll.
Kafka, 38, has interviewed for NFL head-coaching jobs each offseason since joining the Giants. Last offseason, he was a finalist for the New Orleans Saints job that went to Kellen Moore.
ESPN
Second Take: Hire Brian Daboll as an offensive coordinator
In the 2023 free agent period, safety Julian Love wanted to get paid. A rotational player with the Giants who didn’t become a permanent starter until 2022, Love had interest in returning to New York after its surprise appearance in the 2022 NFC divisional round. “I think I had a huge impact on this team this year, not just with [my] play but with who I am as a person,” he said. “I was the level-headed person this locker room needed at times. … I love this place. The staff has been the best. That’s the stuff you want to come back to.”
New Giants general manager Joe Schoen appeared open to getting a deal done with Love. “Julian knows how we feel about him. If we can get something done, it would be good.”
But the Giants moved on from Love, who signed a two-year, $12 million deal with the Seahawks. He was a Pro Bowler in 2023, improved even more in 2024 and is currently a key cog in Mike Macdonald’s league-leading Seahawks defense.
There’s no reason to pillory then-Giants coach Brian Daboll and Schoen for the Love situation. It was their first offseason, they tried to negotiate with Love in the regular season and had the depth to backfill his role. The money they saved on Love, they spent on QB Daniel Jones (four years, $160 million), RB Saquon Barkley (franchise tag) and WR Darius Slayton (two years, $12 million, just like Love).
But Love was the first in what has become a recognizable pattern over the past 3½ years with the Giants. The players who left the organization steadily improved at their new landing spots. At the 2023 trade deadline, the Giants sent Leonard Williams to the Seahawks for second- and fifth-round selections. Williams was a Pro Bowler last season and should have made an All-Pro list; like Love, he’s a lynchpin of that elite Seahawks defense.
In 2024 free agency, Barkley and safety Xavier McKinney left. Barkley immediately had the best season of his career in Philadelphia and won Offensive Player of the Year. McKinney immediately had the best season of his career in Green Bay and made his first All-Pro team.
During the 2024 season, Jones was benched and then released. He cleared waivers, signed with the Vikings, spent half a season on the bench in Minnesota, then joined the Colts on a one-year deal. He is currently having the best season of his career.
This is as much a failure of the personnel office as it is of Daboll and the coaching staff. A big part of any general manager’s job is seeing players’ talent through the fog of their schematic responsibilities, poor teammates or miscast roles. The fact that so many good players escaped New York to prosper elsewhere proves that Schoen failed in that regard.
But it’s also proof that Daboll failed. Barkley, McKinney and Williams showed obvious talent then, and it’s painfully more obvious now.
There was enough good on the Giants’ offensive film for teams to hire Daboll as an offensive coordinator next offseason. I’m not sold Daboll has the situational chops for a head-coaching gig, but we’ve seen too many people perform better once they escape New York for me to discount the possibility of a strong bounce-back as an offensive coordinator.
Upcoming opponent
The Phinsider
The Good, Bad & Ugly from the Miami Dolphins Week 10 win over the Buffalo Bills
Tua Tagovailoa leads NFL in interceptions following two more thrown on Sunday
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has thrown an unlucky 13 interceptions through 10 games of the 2025 NFL season after tossing two against the Bills on Sunday — both on deep heaves downfield. Head coach Mike McDaniel said after the game that he was “pumped” that Tagovailoa’s giveaways effectively served as punts for Miami, yet still, that doesn’t take away from the fact that the Dolphins quarterback now leads the league in interceptions thrown.
After tossing two more interceptions on Sunday, Tagovailoa has surged past Las Vegas Raiders passer Geno Smith who has 12 so far this season.
In 2023, Tagovailoa threw the ball 560 times, yet only had 14 interceptions all season. That number is his current high mark for interceptions thrown in a single season since he was drafted by the Dolphins in the 2020 NFL Draft. In 2025, he has only attempted 292 passes, yet is just one behind his career high in passes picked off by opponents. This season, Tagovailoa has thrown an interception on 4.5% of his pass attempts, smashing his previous high mark of 2.6% which took place in 2021 — just his second year in the NFL.
In a down year for Tagovailoa, his high propensity for turnovers is something that is cause for great alarm regarding his prospective future with Miami.
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ESPN
Teams are scoring faster early in games
Doesn’t it seem like teams are sprinting out to opening-drive touchdowns more than ever before? Well, they are. Offenses are scoring touchdowns on 26.5% of their first two drives this season, which is another historic number.
Field position has an effect here. Drives are starting at the 29.1-yard line on average, which is 4 yards above the average spot in the mid-2010s. In the 2000s, drives had a similar starting field position (or better), but offenses were a little worse. Take 2001, when drives started at the 30 on average — but with only 4.9 yards per play to 2025’s 5.5, the 2001 offenses quickly lost ground.
A second factor isn’t offensive efficiency — 5.5 yards per play is pretty consistently average over the past 15 seasons — but fourth-down willingness. There have been 76 fourth-down attempts on 592 scripted drives this season, or 0.13 attempts per drive. That number has been climbing in recent seasons, but it reached a new peak this year. Teams are also converting 71.1% of these fourth downs so far in 2025 — the best rate since 2009.
Last, but certainly not least: There’s some K-ball juice here. Just as touchdown rates are at an all-time high, so are field goal rates — not what you’d expect. Typically, if touchdown rates jump, field goal rates suffer, as field goals are the product of touchdown-less trips across the 50. But as the range of modern kickers has expanded, those extra few yards of field position really start to matter. Now field goal opportunities bite into what were once punt positions.
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ESPN
The Big Thing: The 2024 quarterback class is what we thought it was
Despite the fact that Penix and Nix were largely considered Day 2 picks until draft day, Falcons and Broncos fans had no trouble manufacturing belief in their new passers. National draft coverage certainly fanned those flames, as did team-authored spin cycles. And all the while, Vikings fans could sit in the middle and marvel at the steal of the draft, getting McCarthy at QB5 while barely trading up.
This is what the draft is for, of course: rampant, unchecked belief. The shining promise of a new day.
But outlooks don’t stay sunny forever. The Tuesday after Week 10 a year and a half later? That’s for cold reality and difficult truths.
Penix, Nix and McCarthy are all struggling in their sophomore seasons. For McCarthy, the difficulties are more excusable. In only his fourth career start, McCarthy once again looked comfortable on script but quickly spiraled out of control as the training wheels left the offense. On the season, McCarthy averages 0.18 EPA per dropback on the first two drives of games — drives that we can confidently say are scripted — and minus-0.03 on all other drives. His success rate drops from 47% to 35%.
I have no interest in writing anything concrete about McCarthy, as I wrote last week after the Vikings’ win over the Lions. He simply has not played enough football. The product so far is worrisome — high sack rate, high interception rate and a lengthy time to throw are all indicators of a young passer overwhelmed by NFL speed. Of the six quarterbacks taken in the first round of the 2024 class, none has had a stretch as statistically poor or as visibly concerning as McCarthy’s 2025 season. But we will tread water on McCarthy for now.
We have a larger body of work on Penix. He started his 11th game Sunday morning in Berlin, and it was one of the worst of his career. Penix had a 3.49-second time to throw and completed only 42.9% of his passes — both career-worst marks. Typically, a quarterback holding the ball for that long rips off a few scrambles, but Penix never crossed the line of scrimmage against Indianapolis and remains one of the least-impactful scramblers in a league increasingly embracing the quarterback run.
