The Washington Commanders ended their 2025 playoff hopes in disastrous fashion with an embarrassing primetime loss to the Seahawks on Sunday night. In addition to effectively being eliminated from playoff contention,
they are now facing a multi-game absence for Jayden Daniels and injured reserve for Luke McCaffery and Marshon Lattimore. More importantly, the Commanders demonstrated they are completely unprepared and rudderless on both sides of the ball.
There is no question that this is the current low point for Washington football since Adam Peters came on board in January of 2024. However, with 8 games remaining on the schedule, the question becomes how Peters and Dan Quinn approach the remainder of the season. In this article, we will explore a few philosophies they may adopt going forward.
Find a way to make the team competitive
This may seem counterintuitive, considering I just spent the first part of the article detailing how Washington is, for all intents and purposes, out of playoff contention, but the key here is for Dan Quinn and the coaching staff to find a way to get the players engaged and motivate them to put forth effort each week. It should be a given, as the players are professionals and put in significant amounts of work both before and during the season to play at a high level, but it is also reasonable for a player on a team out of contention to have thoughts of giving up when things go wrong early or to make business decisions on the field.
At this point, Quinn’s hold on the team and his new culture seems tenuous at best. However, there should be no mistake that the culture has changed significantly since the former owner’s departure; through substantial investment and buy-in from the ownership, front office, and coaching staff. It is up to Quinn to sustain it.
Frankly, moving Joe Whitt out of the box and onto the sideline is not going to be enough, but while the season-ending loss of Lattimore is unfortunate for the team, it does provide an opportunity to repurpose personnel while allowing Joe Whitt to save face. Mike Sainristil was ultimately drafted to man the slot, but in the interest of the greater good, it is time to move Mikey back to the outside while returning Noah Igbinoghene to the role he excelled in last season. Whitt needs to keep Jordan Magee on the field, while also continuing to utilize Johnny Newton in an Edge role in place of Luvu. Quan Martin may be moved down with the twos like he was briefly last season, and while Tyler Owens might be far from perfect, the big safety certainly adds an element that has been missing from the defense thus far. Overall, Quinn’s goal should be to return the team to the sound, disciplined play he preaches. Unfortunately, Dan has been unable to do so for multiple weeks, so he will need to take a different approach going forward.
Known as a player’s coach and strong motivator, Quinn would seem to be a good bet to succeed in this endeavor, but it is going to take more than a few words at the podium to get the job done. Ultimately, Dan is going to have to make some hard decisions between now and next season, and while I would like to say he will learn from his past mistakes, I have my doubts. In addition to his other traits, Quinn is also known for being loyal to a fault. The best-case scenario is Quinn finds a way to motivate his players and rally the locker room before the end of the season so the team is behind him in 2026. There should be little doubt in any fan’s mind that Dan Quinn will be the head coach next season.
Evaluate and develop young talent
While maintaining the team’s competitive level is essential for the franchise, evaluating their young developmental talent is as well. The latter must be balanced against the former, as removing all the team’s veterans from starting roles would make it almost impossible to keep the team competitive and to gather accurate player evaluations. It certainly would not be beneficial to trot out a player like Kain Medrano for all of Frankie Luvu’s snaps and let him “learn from his mistakes” for an entire game. However, the coaches should give him situational snaps to help get Medrano acclimated to the NFL. Likewise, Bill Merritt shouldn’t be made an every down back to teach him how to pass block and expose players to significant injury, but he should see more time in the role going forward.
When the idea of extending Zach Ertz and Bobby Wagner was brought up last season, I was opposed, as they would inevitably want more money and likely were in line for a regression from last year’s performance. Unfortunately, both assumptions proved true, and while Zach Ertz has some money tied to performance incentives, Wagner has very little. Either way, it should be possible for the coaching to tactfully scale back the snaps for both veterans and allow more playing time for Jordan Magee and Ben Sinnott. Ale Kaho should be worked in as situations and scores allow. McCaffery and Lane were already seeing significant snaps, and signing Treylon Burks to the active roster is a good start and should go along with elevating players like Robert McDaniel from the practice squad during the course of the season to see what they can provide for depth.
Evaluate the coaching staff
While injuries have played a significant role in the team’s performance, this is not the coaching staff’s inaugural season, and last year’s body of work is available to compare along with what has been shown on the field in 2025. Using that lens, everyone on the coaching staff, outside of Larry Izzo, should be under scrutiny.
Joe Whitt already has one season of subpar defensive play to his credit, so this season cements the idea he can’t put players in a position to succeed, even accounting for the numerous injuries and the rapid decline of Bobby Wagner. To Whitt’s credit, he has tried various scheme changes in the secondary and along the line, but the players’ poor performance has sabotaged all of them. The fact remains the two biggest problems on the defense have been clear since the first game: missed tackles and a lack of communication. Both are familiar to Washington fans and signal that yet another defensive coordinator is not up to the task. Putting injuries aside, would any fan be comfortable investing another full season in Joe Whitt Jr. next year?
Kliff Kingsbury’s offense has become stale and predictable, and while he was able to make a nice scheme change in the Raiders game, for the most part he seems unwilling, or unable, to change during games or across an entire season. His rushing attack is one-dimensional and leans too heavily on quarterback involvement and will continue to stall as teams continue to stack the box with defenders as Kingsbury runs inside zone into the heart of the line. He doesn’t have the horses at wide receiver to take advantage of the stacked alignment, so it is fair to question how much he may be held accountable, but Kliff also proved to be slow to adapt or modify his scheme last year as well. Ultimately, the problem may solve itself, as Washington’s early exit from the playoff race may allow Kingsbury to gracefully accept a job in the college ranks before the season is officially over.
Lastly, while I believe Dan Quinn’s job is safe for next season, so far it has been a disastrous display of poor decision-making for the second-time head coach, highlighted by Jayden Daniels’ injury in the 4th quarter of a blowout defeat. Quinn has to get a handle on himself and his staff and needs to do both in short order before he enters the last year of his contract.
Stay the course
I have read a lot of comments and articles this year about how last year’s success was a mirage that tricked Adam Peters into going “all-in” on this year’s season. I disagree.
While I do believe the rookie GM was surprised by the amount of success they had in year one and took some risks to try and maximize the momentum, they were very calculated. While the Marshon Lattimore trade will ultimately be considered a bust, the cornerback did play a part in advancing the Commanders to the playoffs in 2024 for the mere cap hit of $605k, when at the time of the trade, Benjamin St-Juste was a full time starter. Lattimore’s salary for 2026 in not guaranteed and the Commanders may exit with no dead cap hit. Although he did trade multiple picks, Peters had already acquired additional selections following the Dotson and Ridgeway trades earlier in the offseason.
The Tunsil trade also involved multiple picks, but so far his play has been in the top tier for the position, and prior to the trade, Washington’s depth chart listed Brandon Coleman as the LT and much maligned Andrew Wylie at RT. Tunsil will require an extension sooner rather than later, but he is a valuable addition to the long term rebuild and well worth the costs. While he is 31 years old, Washington fans are keenly aware that left tackles can play well into their thirties. Some may say the Deebo trade was not necessary, but given the current depth of the WR room, you may also argue it was a necessity. Ultimately, the loss of a 5th rounder will not impact the team’s long-term roster development.
The hottest topic during the first half of the season has been the age of the roster. While fans and experts like to attack the overall age of the roster, it is a byproduct of multiple roster holes and the early departure of most of Washington’s draft picks since 2020. The reality is very few of the older players are in starting roles with Ertz, Wagner, and Way being the exceptions. Setting aside Tress Way and Ott the team will most likely move on from the majority of these players during the offseason.
For the most part, Adam Peters ran a very budget-friendly free agency in 2025, possibly because he was not fooled by last year’s NFC Championship appearance and realized the team was unlikely to make another deep run. Per Over the Cap, the Washington Commanders are projected to have $84,145,261 in available cap space in 2026, with the ability to clear an additional $35 million with the release of Daron Payne and Marshon Lattimore. While Peters is missing his 2nd- and 4th-round selections in the 2026 draft, the Commanders GM has retained what will most likely be a very early first-round selection and has proven adept at generating additional draft capital when the opportunity arises. Peters will continue to add pieces and is poised to once again reshape the 2026 roster around the coaching staff Dan Quinn retains.
The biggest concern for the roster going forward is the regression of the 2024 draft class, but given their performances in year one, it seems reasonable those selections may still provide value going forward. The returns on the 2025 draft class are yet to be determined, but Trey Amos appears to be a building block going forward and most knew Josh Conerly was a developmental project when he was drafted. There will be a lot of questions going into Jayden Daniels third season, but Adam Peters and Dan Quinn have a chance to answer some of them this season and properly build the roster and coaching staff around their franchise quarterback based on the answers.
