The Washington football team (not to be confused with the Washington Football Team) is on their fifth season of being named the Commanders. And it sounds as though fans of the team are no bigger fans of “Commanders” today than they were in 2022. In fact, the longer they go into the name change, the more they might want to change it again.
It’s hard for me to imagine or accept that there is a team in the NFL named the “Commanders”, which still feels like a made-up name for a fictional pro football
league in a Keanu Reeves or Kevin Costner movie.
Even so, this is the name that they’re stuck with today, and it is the team that the Los Angeles Rams will face on Sunday in a critical moment for both franchises:
If the Rams lose, all hell could break loose before the trade deadline Tuesday.
If the Commanders lose, head coach Dan Quinn may not be associated with the “football team” by Monday.
Washington is 2-4-1 and seeking their second win in a row since the return of quarterback Jayden Daniels. To get to know them — and their Football Team Fans — better, I sent five questions to Andrew Y at Hogs Haven. He sent me back five answers.
Go…Team.
Q: The Commanders don’t have a player in the top-30 for rushing yards or the top-60 for receiving yards. I feel like that would be very disappointing for fans, to not have one skill player so far this season who you can at least look forward to watching, win or lose. But those are stats, not necessarily reality. Who is the one healthy skill player on the team who Washington fans can look forward to watching each week?
A: I think the player most Commanders fans would point to is rookie WR and 3rd-round pick Antonio Williams. He’s shown tremendous route-running nuance and short-area quickness to get open in the middle field and has been a consistent target getter, with 23 catches for 259 yards so far this season. Those simple stats don’t rely do credit to his ability though, as he’s generated a 96.7 passer rating when targeted and is PFF’s second-highest graded rookie receiver. Dan Quinn made clear that with the loss of Terry McLaurin, he expects Antonio Williams’ role to increase the most and indeed Williams led all receivers in snaps and routes last week against the Eagles.
Q: Five years in, how is the name “Commanders” sitting with fans? Do you ever long for the days of Football Team again?
A: Honestly, I think most fans hate the name Commanders. It’s the last stinky gift given to us by former owner Dan Snyder that the new leadership hasn’t been able to reverse. The names that seemed most popular with fans (and with me) were Red Wolves (a nod to the old name, but with a cool animal attached) or Warthogs (which has alliteration with Washington and could be shortened to ‘Hogs to reference the famous Hogs offensive line of the glory days). There is a contingent of fans that actually liked the name Washington Football Team and many would probably still take it over Commanders, but I always suspected it was more driven by nostalgia for the old name and a feeling that if we can’t have that name, then no name is better. Washington Football Team feels to me more like having no name and certainly doesn’t lend itself to new branding. I’d rather have a new team name and branding, it just needs to be a good name and good branding.
Q: It’s the end of 2026 and the beginning of 2027. No changes have been made yet. Dan Quinn is the head coach, Adam Peters is the GM, the roster is intact. If you can make one change to the Commanders team/organization to set them on the right path, what do you do?
A: Unless the rest of the season plays out very differently than it has up until now, I would fire Dan Quinn and let Adam Peters lead a search to choose the next head coach. I think Adam Peters has actually done a pretty good job of rebuilding the roster and giving the team enough depth to withstand an avalanche of injuries this year. However, they often look poorly coached, with the most yards erased by penalty in the NFL, slow playcalls and players taking too much time to get into position, and regular mistakes in situational awareness and game management that lose games.
However, one other change needs to be made. The biggest reason the team was able to go on that 2024 playoff run and has been unable to repeat is that our 2024 season was one of our healthiest ever, with few major injuries to core players in the regular season. That’s a major outlier, as Washington has had the most Adjusted Games Lost (AGL) due to injury in the NFL since 2009 (!) and only the Giants have been in the same tier of AGL. This year is no different, with four of the team’s highest-paid players already done for the season. To be one of the NFL’s most-injured teams over that span of time is significant and unusual in that it covers multiple front office staffs, coaching staffs, and even medical staffs.
The one constant in that time has been the strength and conditioning staff, led by Chad Englehart. Englehart started as an assistant strength and conditioning coach in 2010 before being promoted to head of strength and conditioning in 2017. He’s stayed on so long because he’s extremely popular with players and rates highly in NFLPA surveys, but I’m convinced his staff are doing something that leads to Washington’s players being more injury prone, perhaps by over-training them. An outlier injury rate over 17 years can’t be simple bad luck. I would order a full external evaluation of the team’s strength & conditioning program and make major changes there.
Q: Who are you happier to see fail this season: The Cowboys or the Eagles?
A: It’s a delight to see both of them fail, but more so the Eagles. The Eagles have come to be seen by people around the NFL as the “class of the division” and their fans love to loudly reiterate that belief. It’s great seeing them get taken down a peg with a nightmare season most didn’t see coming. I’ve noticed there’s a bit of an age gap in how people respond to this question. Most fans over 50ish years of age hate the Cowboys more and still vividly remember “we want Dallas” chants and the heyday of the rivalry from the 80s and 90s, but I think younger fans would generally prefer to watch the Eagles flounder.
Q: What’s your happiest memory of the Washington team over the last 30 years? What’s been the pinnacle of being a fan of this team since the mid 90s?
A: Honestly, my happiest memory in that time period was when Dan Snyder finally sold the team. His rotten ownership had been the millstone around the team’s neck that prevented it from ever rising up and ensured it was always surrounded by negative drama. Most fans by that point knew we’d never be a serious football operation with Dan Snyder in charge, so the sale was the first real light after a long period of darkness that signalled things could finally change.
I wasn’t prepared for how quickly that would happen though, because then followed the Commanders 2024 season with a dynamic rookie QB. That season blew out anything that happened under the Dan Snyder era: first time the team won 12 regular-season games since the ’91 Super Bowl team, first time the team made the NFC Championship game since the ’91 team, etc. In addition, so many of those games ended in exciting, last-minute wins that the team got the nickname “Cardiac Commanders.” That season was the pinnacle of being a fan of the team since the mid-90s. The victory over the Lions in the playoffs was the single best game, because nobody expected us to boat race the Lions and advance to the conference championship like that.
