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Five preposterously positive Commanders predictions for the 2025 season
Before last season we picked Jayden Daniels to win offensive rookie of the year. Now, how about Super Bowl MVP?
1. Washington will break the franchise record for points scored.
Why it’s preposterous: Washington scored 485 points last season, matching the 1991 Super Bowl-winning squad for the second most in franchise history. The 541 points Washington scored during the 1983 regular season still rank as the ninth-highest total in NFL history. The Commanders face a more difficult
schedule this season than they did in 2024, including eight games against the teams that finished with the seven best scoring defenses a year ago. The NFL added a 17th game to its regular season in 2021, but last year’s Detroit Lions (564 points) were the first team since the 2018 Kansas City Chiefs (565 points) to eclipse Washington’s 1983 mark.
Why it could happen: The Commanders upgraded their offensive line, using their first-round draft pick to select tackle Josh Conerly Jr. out of Oregon and trading for five-time Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil. In addition to having more time to operate — only six teams allowed sacks at a higher rate than Washington in 2024 — Daniels should be more comfortable in Kliff Kingsbury’s offense, and he has a new weapon in former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (more on him later). With the exception of Washington’s 1983 campaign, the NFL’s 20 highest-scoring seasons have come since 1998.
ESPN
2025 NFL season X factors: Key players for all 32 teams
Washington Commanders: WR Deebo Samuel
Samuel was already an intriguing player when the Commanders traded for him: a wide receiver barely ever used down the field, best creating after the catch and beyond his athletic prime, but perhaps with some seasons left in the tank. As things have developed further — the recently resolved training camp holdout from Terry McLaurin and the lack of wide receiver depth — Samuel has become even more important.
The Commanders expect to spread and shred the field again, so Samuel figures to consistently get six or seven touches a game as a backfield option or receiver on quick run-pass options (RPOs). They need him to be dynamic, and while he wasn’t the same player last season as he was prior to that, he still is above average. Samuel was 12th among all skill-position players in yards after catch (YAC) over expectation, per NFL Next Gen Stats. (New teammate Austin Ekeler was eighth.) If Samuel doesn’t bring the juice, the Commanders’ options to replace his unique role are understandably thin.
Commanders.com
Terry McLaurin wants legacy based on details, reliability, rather than individual success
McLaurin has always been more focused on the team’s success, rather than individual accomplishments. While the team usually fared better when McLaurin got the ball last year — the Commanders were 8-2 when McLaurin got at least 60 receiving yards — there have been moments when the franchise won games that McLaurin wasn’t as impactful, such as the team’s overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons that earned the Commanders a playoff berth last season.
Of course, McLaurin wants the ball, but he cares more about when his team winning rather than putting up yards and touchdowns in a loss. Despite not getting as many targets in the Falcons game or the seven other games where he got fewer than 60 receiving yards, he still showed support for his teammates and cheered them on from the sidelines.
That’s the legacy McLaurin hopes he leaves whenever his career ends.
“I hope people say I was a great person on and off the field; I was a great teammate,” McLaurin said. “I really cared about the community. I really cared about the fans and the people that I met. I tried to make every interaction personal, and I was very present in those interactions.”
Riggo’s Rag
Commanders have scheduled a visit with Kendrick Bourne, but it’s not a done deal
Peters knows Bourne well. He was part of the San Francisco 49ers’ brain trust that picked him up in undrafted free agency. The wideout repaid this faith, and he could potentially end up on the Commanders in the not-too-distant future.
According to Ian Rapoport from the NFL Network, Bourne is scheduled to meet with the Commanders on Tuesday. He’s going to visit with his old employers in San Francisco on Monday. The respected insider also stated that a framework for a possible contract had been agreed upon with both organizations beforehand.
Bourne could welcome a return to the place where it all started at this stage of his playing career. However, the Commanders are an attractive destination with a superstar quarterback and lofty ambitions to reach the Super Bowl in 2025.
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Brandon Coleman + Doug Williams on Jayden Daniels, Brotherhood & Culture | Next Man Up | Commanders
Commanders’ BIGGEST Problem Being Solved? Starting O-Line FINALLY Gets Healthy
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Bleeding Green Nation
Eagles News: Long live Jerry Jones
NFL.com: Micah Parsons trade: Biggest winners/losers from blockbuster Cowboys-Packers deal
NFC East offenses: You can almost hear the din from chuckling Commanders, Eagles and Giants fans across the country. Their division rival just sold the best defensive player in the conference for a couple of lotto tickets and a defensive tackle entering his age-30 season in Clark. Even with an offensive line as good as Philly’s, Parsons still gave the Eagles fits. The edge rusher’s 10.5 career sacks versus Washington represent his highest total against any club, by five. The regularly rebuilding Giants offensive line finally gets a reprieve. Parsons is the type of defender whom offensive coaches spend an entire week game-planning for. Not having to face him twice a year? That’s a massive win, even before you consider that Dallas got unquestionably weaker.
Packers earn high marks for Micah Parsons trade while the Cowboys earn something else
Now that the door is busted open. And it comes when the Cowboys were already looking up at both the Commanders and the Eagles in the division. It is difficult to see how this move helps Dallas close those gaps here in 2025. Ultimately, the Cowboys may make the most of this deal next year and beyond. They could turn those two first-round selections into premier players. But they traded an All-Pro and burned bridges with the fan bases for that potential. And traded him to a team that bounced them out of the playoffs in a blowout following the 2023 regular season, when the Packers were the No. 7 seed and the Cowboys were playing at home as the No. 2 seed. This all sounds like a mystery box situation … Looking at the process Dallas followed to get here, it is hard to feel good about this trade from the Cowboys’ perspective. And when you are drawing comparisons to Peter Griffin, that is not a good thing.
Jerry Jones Lost the Micah Parsons Trade and His Reputation
I’m not sure Jerry would be patient enough for a rebuild if this season goes badly, but even if he were, truly tearing the team down and starting over might not be possible. Prescott will still have $130 million of dead money left on his deal in 2026. Lamb will have nearly $70 million left on his. Trading either of them for draft capital would be difficult—if not impossible—due to cap logistics. The future draft picks Dallas nabbed from Green Bay will help the team add some young talent to the roster, but if those picks are coming at the end of the round, assuming the Packers are a very good team with Parsons, it’s unlikely Dallas will be finding franchise-changing players with them. Any way you look at it, it feels like the Cowboys are a few years away from being a few years away. With Jones in his early 80s, the likelihood of him leading his beloved franchise to another Super Bowl before he steps away from the front office is diminishing every day. When Jerry traded his best player back in 1989, it marked the beginning of a new era in Cowboys football. This time around, it feels like the end of one.
Micah Parsons Traded to the Packers
For Dallas the opposite is true. This minimizes their chances to compete now and requires some great draft picks to come out from this. Sure they saved a bunch of money but it is not like they are going to spend it on free agents in the future as Dallas generally avoids free agency like the plague. I don’t know if Dallas is a real competitor this year or not but if these two picks do not lead to Dallas drafting a good young QB next year or the year after I am not sure what the point will be. Dallas had leverages here and let it all vanish basically getting talked into a trading away a player they probably should have not traded in 2025.
Blogging the Boys
Dallas Cowboys traded Micah Parsons in the most inefficient manner possible
By waiting until the literal final week before the regular season begins the Cowboys put all would-be trade candidates in a bind. The Packers wound up being the team to do the deal, but it is hard for the Packers to objectively trust a player that hasn’t been in their building since March. What’s more (and the main point here) is that the Packers had to give Parsons the massive deal that he was seeking.
If the Cowboys wanted to trade Micah Parsons then they should have made the determination that such a move was necessary long ago. The Cowboys could have dealt him at the beginning of this offseason and if they had then they would have had a larger leg to stand on from a negotiation standpoint. What’s more is the Cowboys could have actually utilized the draft compensation they would have received immediately instead of having to wait. And on top of that they would have gotten compensation that Parsons couldn’t have impacted by making Green Bay a better team and worsening their draft position.
Nothing was gained from Dallas by waiting this trade out. All they did was compromise their position against the Packers and paid the price by not getting more compensation as a result of it all.
The Athletic (paywall)
Jerry Jones’ stubborn missteps led the Cowboys into this Micah Parsons trainwreck
It’s a reasonably impressive haul for the Cowboys, but it hardly screams “all in” for 2025. With an untested rookie coach in Brian Schottenheimer and a big “L” in a messy standoff with a star player and his powerful agent, Jones can’t even pretend to flex. He might be a master at generating hype, but this is reality: His franchise appears even further from ending a three-decade run without a conference title game appearance than it did a day ago.
Jones can comfort himself by lauding the short-term importance of acquiring Clark, who turns 30 in October (while playing a less-marquee position than Parsons), and the long-term potential garnered via the draft capital.
Good luck with that.
The hard, cold truth is that, unless and until the Cowboys win another Super Bowl, this deal will be framed as a resounding defeat.
In this case, Jones earned the enmity coming his way from the team’s fans. To review: The owner/GM tried to bamboozle Parsons, and circumvent NFL Players Association protocol, by discussing contract terms without the involvement of agent David Mulugheta. When Parsons subsequently balked at the alleged “deal,” Jones essentially pitched a fit, refusing for months to engage with the agent.
Three weeks ago, when my colleague Dianna Russini reported on how badly the situation had degenerated — after which Parsons, who never believed a deal had been struck, publicly requested a trade — Jones pooh-poohed it, telling fans (via the media), “Don’t lose any sleep over it.”
ither the owner didn’t understand who had the leverage, or he was committed to self-sabotage — but he definitely made some unforced errors.
Last week, for example, Jones further inflamed the situation by telling ex-Cowboys great Michael Irvin, on the Hall of Fame receiver’s podcast, that after he and Parsons had discussed numbers in March, “When we wanted to send the details to the agent, the agent told us to stick it up our ass.”
Yes, it was hyperbole and should have been regarded as such.
No, it wasn’t helpful.
The bottom line is this: The Gambler just got rid of one of the league’s best players, a young man seemingly entering the prime of his career, because of the owner’s own flaws: stubbornness, a lack of urgency, and miscalculations of his adversaries and of the market.
As a result, Green Bay just got glitzier — and America’s Team appears pretty damn far from Super.
ESPN
Why in the world would Dallas do this?
I’d tread carefully in attempting to occupy the same headspace as Jerry Jones, who has handled this process with all the deftness and precision of the final offensive snap in any recent Cowboys playoff loss. Jones will surely be happy to come out and tell us why he traded Parsons in the weeks to come, either directly or through other members of the media. He might even be telling the truth.
1. Jones believed he had been betrayed and decided to take a stand against a player (and an agent) on principle.
2. The Cowboys decided they couldn’t win with their existing roster construction if they paid Parsons.
3. Jones believed the Cowboys could be disappointing on defense, even with Parsons in the lineup.
[T]he Cowboys have plugged one hole and opened another. Their top edge rusher is Dante Fowler Jr., whose 10.5-sack campaign with the Commanders a year ago was more than he totaled in 2022-23 in his prior stint with the Cowboys. Marshawn Kneeland had zero sacks in 11 games as a rookie, and Sam Williams is coming off of a season lost to a torn ACL. Jones used a second-round pick on edge defender Donovan Ezeiruaku this year, and though Dallas probably would have liked to work the rookie in as a situational pass rusher, there’s now more on the 21-year-old’s plate than he could have imagined.
Big Blue View
Giants’ Andrew Thomas doesn’t sound like he believes he will play Week 1
Thomas admits having a “tough recovery” from Lisfranc surgery
New York Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas, entrenched in a lengthy rehab process from Lisfranc surgery in the middle of the 2024 season, remains uncertain whether or not he will be able to play in the Sept. 7 season-opening game against the Washington Commanders.
“I’m not sure yet,” Thomas said while seated in the Giants’ locker room on Thursday. “I haven’t really done a ton of reps. I’ve done some indy (individual drills), took some one-on-one reps. I’m just trying to progress slowly, so we’ll see. But like I said, I’m not making any projections right now.
“I’m just trying not to give myself a deadline. Obviously, I want to be back, but if I don’t feel comfortable to be able to perform at the level I think I can, I don’t think it makes sense for me to be out there.”
Thomas’s medical issues this past offseason went beyond what had been previously reported:
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2025 NFL predictions: Picks for MVP & seven other top awards
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Rank 1 – Lamar Jackson – Baltimore Ravens · QB · +550
(11 votes: Band, Bhanpuri, Carr, Cersosimo, Chadiha, Filice, Okada, Parr, Reuter, Ross, Shook.)
2) Joe Burrow (+650) | 9 votes: Andrade, Baca, Battista, Blair, Gonzales, Jones-Drew, Kownack, Patra, Zierlein.
3) Patrick Mahomes (+700) | 4 votes: Abdoo, Gordon, Holzman-Escareno, Rosenthal.
4) Jalen Hurts (+1700) | 2 votes: Bergman, Koplowitz-Fleming.
T-5) Jayden Daniels (+750) | 1 vote: Florio.
T-5) Baker Mayfield (+2500) | 1 vote: Edholm.
T-5) Bo Nix (+3500) | 1 vote: Rank.
Jayden Daniels could become just the second player ever to win MVP the year after earning OROY honors. Hall of Famer Earl Campbell accomplished the feat in the 1978 and ’79 seasons.
Discussion topics
The Worst Head Coach for Every NFL Team
Arizona Cardinals:
Bud Wilkinson
Tough call here. The Cardinals have had 48 head coaches in franchise history … 48! And 19 of those coaches lasted one season or less. Oddly enough, the “honor” goes to a legendary college coach. Bud Wilkinson won three national championships at Oklahoma. He retired in 1963 — and was out of coaching for 15 years when the Cardinals inexplicably hired him in 1978. Wilkinson went 9-20 and was fired before the 1979 season ended.
Cleveland Browns:
Hue Jackson
Hue Jackson went 1-15 in 2016, his first season as Cleveland Browns head coach, and he probably figured it couldn’t get any worse. And then the 2017 Browns went 0-16. Jackson was mercifully released midway through 2018, amassing a 3-36-1 record in two-plus seasons.
Houston Texans:
Bill O’Brien
Bill O’Brien is the only coach on this list with a winning record. Heck, aside from DeMeco Ryans, he’s the only head coach in Texans history that doesn’t have a losing record. O’Brien was 54-52 in six-plus seasons, but fans will never forgive him for two egregious moves. In the 2019 postseason, Houston had a 24-7 lead vs. the Chiefs when O’Brien called for a fake punt. The failed fake allowed Kansas City to get back into the game, and the Texans were outscored 44-7 the rest of the way. Two months later, O’Brien shockingly traded Pro Bowl receiver DeAndre Hopkins to the Cardinals for a bag of chips. It took Houston four years to recover from that stretch.
New Orleans Saints:
Mike Ditka
Mike Ditka is one of two former Saints head coaches who won Super Bowls elsewhere before coming to New Orleans. Hall of Famer Hank Stram went 7-21 with the Saints in 1976-77. There are plenty of worthy candidates for worst coach in Saints history, but Ditka takes the honor based not on his coaching acumen but rather because he was the architect of one of the dumbest trades in NFL history. Ditka, who went 15-33 in three seasons (1997-99), traded away all six of his team’s draft picks in 1999, plus the Saints’ first- and third-round picks in 2000, for the right to draft running back Ricky Williams. As the Saints stumbled through a 3-13 campaign in 1999, Ditka often appeared broken and at one point told the media that the team would be better off with a new coach. Ditka was fired after the season.
New York Jets:
Adam Gase
Recency bias would suggest Robert Saleh, who seemed clearly overmatched in his three-plus seasons at the helm. Then there’s Lou Holtz, who was already a successful college coach in 1976 when he went 1-13 with the Jets and quit with one game left in the season. But the nod here goes to Gase, who got so much mileage out of being the offensive coordinator when Peyton Manning had his record-breaking season with the Broncos. Gase was expected to develop Sam Darnold into a franchise QB, but it never happened — and Darnold’s success last season in Minnesota just shows what might have been. Gase went 9-23 in two seasons with the Jets, including an 0-13 start in 2020.
Washington Commanders:
Steve Spurrier
Washington has had 12 head coaches since Joe Gibbs won three Super Bowls between 1981-92. That includes Gibbs, who came out of retirement in 2004 to bail out the team after Spurrier’s disastrous two-year run. Spurrier was 12-20 in 2002-03; his tenure was much worse than the overall record, based on high expectations. A legendary college coach, Spurrier became the highest-paid coach in NFL history when Washington hired him. Spurrier brought in University of Florida players and coaches, which was a bad idea. Spurrier thought the job would be easy, and it was anything but.
