After only 8 weeks of an 18-week season, Commanders fans who answered our Reacts survey this week are almost totally checked out on the possibility of their favorite team making the playoffs or achieving any of the championship goals — division, conference, league — that they hoped for with varying levels of fervor at the start of September.
In fact, 92% of those responding to our survey believe that the Commanders will miss the playoffs. The 8% who still believe seem to pin their hopes on the kind
of ‘superhero’ play from a healthy Jayden Daniels that powered his team into the playoffs in his rookie season.
Of course, once fans give up on hope of the playoffs, their interest in the current season typically wanes. Instead, it shifts to the future. That means contemplation of draft position, but in recent years, it has increasingly meant that fans want the front office to be active at the trade deadline.
When asked if the Commanders should be trading away players by the deadline — which is 4pm on Tuesday, following the home game against Seattle — only that stubborn 8% said no. The other 92% were in favor of Washington being ‘sellers’ at the trade deadline, whether conditionally or unconditionally.
Nearly 4 out of 10 survey respondents said that GM Adam Peters should aggressively try to get some draft capital in return for certain players no matter what, while about 3 in 10 favored trading only for a Day 2 draft pick or better. One quarter of respondents only favor trading away players if the Commanders lose to the Seahawks on Sunday night to fall to 3-7.
Here’s a taste of comments from those who are ready to move forward with an eye on the 2026 season and beyond:
And other comments that likely come from some of those eight-percenters:
Week 9 Game predictions
The Commanders have already passed the level of playing an “important” game (the Bears, Week 6), a “critical” game (the Cowboys, Week 7), and a “must win” game (the Chiefs, Week 8). Having lost all those games, the Commanders are now at “code red” as they face the 5-2 Seahawks in Landover on Sunday night. If the losing streak reaches 4 games against the Seahawks, then the only level remaining for those with playoff hope still in their hearts will be “desperation Hail Mary” for the balance of the season.
National Poll
Each week, SB Nation polls fans of all 32 fan bases by email; in that survey, NFL fans from across the breadth of the league predict winners and losers.
That email fan poll, for the second week in a row, correctly predicted the outcome of the Thursday night game in which the Ravens beat up on the hapless Dolphins, who had curb-stomped the Falcons a week earlier.
There’s no good news in these game predictions for Commanders fans.
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- You won’t find a predicted Eagles win this week because Philly is on their bye in Week 9.
- You won’t see the Giants on the list either, because fans are predicting a win for the visiting 49ers.
- Likewise, the Seahawks, who are 3-point favorites according to FanDuel, are expected to get a road win over the Commanders.
The only NFC East team that fans in the SB Nation poll project to win this week is Dallas; the Cowboys — favored by 3.5 points — host the 2-5 Cardinals on Monday night.
Let’s see what the NFC East will look like at the end of the week if the survey predictions are right, and compare it to the difference in standings if Washington wins while Dallas loses:
This might illustrate what the eight-percenters are thinking about. A win this week would leave the Commanders just one game below .500 with 8 games to play. Basically, if you have the ‘Any given Sunday’ mentality, the season still holds lots of possibilities.
But the chart also shows what the majority of fans in our poll are fearing. A loss to the Seahawks would extend the Washington losing streak to 4 games, put the Commanders 3 games below .500 and 3.5 games behind Philly in the division standings with a tough 8-game schedule ahead of them and virtually no chance at salvaging the season.
Code Red, indeed!
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