On their way to hoisting the second Lombardi Trophy in franchise history, the 2025 Seattle Seahawks steamrolled the Washington Commanders 38-14 in a primetime beating. This Sunday, the two teams will face off in Week 3 with the Seahawks looking to remain undefeated, while keeping the Commanders winless.
To preview the game Field Gulls teamed up with Hogs Haven, with contributor eboracum providing the answers to the five questions posed this week. Since readers are here to read the answers to the questions,
there’s no point in wasting time and it’s right to the questions asked and the answers given.
1. The Commanders had an unexpected playoff run in Dan Quinn’s first season before injuries derailed the 2025 campaign. What is the feeling in terms of whether Quinn may be on the hot seat if 2026 doesn’t go well, or does the former Seahawks defensive coordinator have job security regardless of how the season plays out?
I think Quinn will definitely be on the hot seat if the season goes poorly again. The biggest strike against him is that he’s supposed to be a defensive head coach, but the defense has looked terrible in his first two years coaching here. It may have improved this year with DC Daronte Jones bringing in the Flores-style defense from Minnesota, but even the new defense has given up too many explosive plays, largely from players seeming to execute poorly or making mistakes in coverage assignments. The team under Dan Quinn has also seemed to start the season a bit slow and sloppy and even in 2024 needed a few weeks before things seemed to come together. I worry that although he’s a great motivator, he might not be great at ensuring attention to detail.
2. The Jayden Daniels injury is obviously not great for either the team or the young signal caller. Where does fan sentiment stand in terms of Daniels durability after he missed nine games during the 2025 season? Are fans still excited, or is there worry this is a redux of the RG3 career arc?
Jayden is different from RG3 in some important ways. RG3 was a limited QB who couldn’t play from the pocket and relied on his athleticism in a college-style read-option offense to make plays on the field. Injuries robbed him of some of that special athleticism and NFL defenses adapted to the read option, both of which forced him to play more from the pocket, which he simply couldn’t do at a high level.
Jayden is the opposite in that he’s a very proficient pocket passer in addition to being a great scrambler; the running plays are just a bonus to his game, but he can still win from the pocket. However, he has had a lot of trouble staying on the field since last year and fans are certainly worried about it. In particular, he seems to keep re-injuring his left elbow, which has some wondering if the left elbow injury from last year never fully healed. Fans are a spectrum and some may already be willing to write Jayden off as too much of an injury risk, but I personally think the team needs to keep building around him. This team has been in the QB wilderness too long and franchise QBs are too hard to come by. Jayden seems to have all the requisite traits of a franchise QB, I think we’re more likely to have success figuring out how to keep Jayden healthy (and making sure he’s fully recovered from his previous injury) than going back into the QB wilderness.
3. Who is a player on offense and on defense for the Commanders whose name Seattle fans may not recognize, but who could have an outsized influence on the outcome of the game?
On offense, rookie WR Antonio Williams was taken in the 3rd round of this year’s draft. He’s a great route runner and seems to already understand a lot of the nuance of the WR position. As a result, he’s been getting more and more time on the field and it’s clear the staff trust him. Williams caught 4-of-4 targets for 64 yards and a TD in week 1. He only caught 3-of-3 passes for 24 yards in week 2, but his route share jumped from 28.9% to 54.8% and they even designed a trick play for him in week 2, so I think it’s clear the coaching staff want to increase his role in the offense.
On defense, I will go with CB Mike Sainristil, though not in a good way. Last week, it seemed like the Cowboys gameplanned to target Sainristil in coverage, sometimes preferring to throw into his coverage even when they had open WRs further down the field. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Seahawks find ways to match JSN up on Sainristil and direct the ball that way.
4. The Commanders have new coordinators on both sides of the ball this season. How much different do things look for the groups, or did the new coordinators bring some level of continuity within the system?
The intent was to overhaul both systems. On offense, new OC David Blough actually brings some continuity in that he was the team’s assistant QB coach last year, so the players are familiar with him, but the offense he designed is supposed to be more of a Ben Johnson-style offense built around an outside zone run game and heavy use of under center formation and play-action passes (as opposed to the Kliff Kingsbury-style up tempo spread offense that was almost entirely out of shotgun). In addition to the Ben Johnson offense just being good, I think a big reason for this shift was to protect Jayden Daniels by keeping him in the pocket and using play action fakes to freeze opposing pass rush.
On defense, new DC Daronte Jones was brought in to implement a Brian Flores-style attacking defense like he oversaw in Minnesota. This is an aggressive defense that relies on a high blitz rate, simulated pressures, disguised coverages, and lots of pre-snap defensive motion to confuse and pressure the QB. Through two weeks, it has seemed to be very effective at limiting the opposing run game, but has struggled with giving up explosive passing plays. I think the problems in coverage are partly due to players still learning their responsibilities, but also because this style of defense relies on pressure and confusion making the QB’s job difficult, so if that doesn’t happen, the coverage on the backend doesn’t have a lot of support.
5. What’s your prediction for the outcome of the game and why?
Well, the Seahawks are currently 7-point favorites and I rarely go against Vegas for score predictions, so if I had to make a score prediction it would be something like 24-17 in favor of the Seahawks. The thing I am most worried about is the Commanders’ injury situation. As of Wednesday practice, the Commanders have 6 DNPs and 8 limited players due to injuries. It seems like last year’s crazy injury mess is rearing its head again and I have no idea why or what can be done about it. The biggest difference between Washington’s magical 2024 season and dismal 2025 season was injury luck, and if that’s already going against us, this is likely to be a repeat of last year. I actually have a lot of confidence in Marcus Mariota as our backup QB, but the OL was already down its best player LT Laremy Tunsil and now may be without its second-best player RG Sam Cosmi (concussion), which could hold back the entire offense. On the other side of the ball, if the secondary can’t get their communication and assignment issues sorted out, they could allow a lot of explosive passing plays.
And now it’s on to the inactives on Sunday morning at 8:30 am Pacific Time.
