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Pro Football Focus
2025 NFL Preview: Washington Commanders
Biggest Strength: Offensive Skill Players
Armed with an elite young quarterback, multiple rushing threats and a potentially dynamic receiving corps, the Commanders should possess a high-flying offense once again in 2024. Jayden Daniels finished his rookie season ranked fifth among qualified quarterbacks in PFF overall grade. He and the team’s running back unit combined to rank sixth in the league in PFF rushing grade. Terry McLaurin and Deebo Samuel bring unique and dynamic skill
sets at wide receiver. Expect the Commanders to score plenty of points again this season.
Biggest Weakness: Defensive Line
Washington’s defense has some catching up to do relative to the team’s offense. The greatest concern is a defensive line that finished 31st in the NFL in PFF grade last season. Few major additions were made in the offseason. The hope is that a young player like defensive tackle Jer’Zhan Newton can step up in year two while veteran acquisitions Javon Kinlaw and Von Miller add some pass-rush production.
A to Z Sports
A look at the Commanders 2025 Safety room
The Commanders let strong safety Jeremy Chinn go to the Las Vegas Raiders in free agency, and they replaced him with Will Harris. Not a lot of people were familiar with Harris’ game, and questioned if the move was smart by Adam Peters. Chinn really set the tone on defense, but lacked some of the pass coverage that the Commanders needed.
Harris should provide a boost to the coverage side of the secondary, and he can still lay the hammer in the open field. Harris playing well will calm a lot of nerves and answer a lot of remaining unknowns.
Behind Martin and Harris, there are more questions and unknowns, but there’s one thing we can expect, and that’s more Jeremy Reaves on defense. Reaves hasn’t been much of a factor on defense, but he has been an All-Pro special teams player. The Commanders extended Reaves this offseason for another year, and Quinn has alluded many times that Reaves has earned more playing time on defense. He had a massive tackle in open space against the New England Patriots in the preseason that showed that he’s ready for a bigger role.
Bleacher Report
Introducing the NFL’s All-Overpaid Team Before Week 1 of 2025 Season
Offensive Tackle – Runner-up: Laremy Tunsil, Washington Commanders (three years, $75 million with $60 million guaranteed)
This is a little complicated because Tunsil can at times be dominant and has a strong resume that includes five Pro Bowls. And because the Houston Texans are still picking up much of the tab on a contract they handed to him in 2023, his deal isn’t too unfriendly to Washington.
Still, he’ll cost $21.35 million in 2025 and the same if they want to keep him around in 2026 (or more over time if they feel obligated to extend him). But at 31 he may have lost a step, and the ridiculous 19 penalties he took in 2024 may be evidence of that.
The Texans had major problems protecting quarterback C.J. Stroud in 2024. Their decision to trade Tunsil away may speak volumes about his actual value, and he remains one of the seven highest-paid offensive linemen in the league.
Interior Defensive Line – Runner-up: Daron Payne, Washington Commanders (four years, $90 million with $59 million guaranteed)
Payne delivered huge in a contract year in 2022, earning a Pro Bowl nod with a career-best 11.5 sacks while playing under the fifth-year option in his rookie contract.
He wasn’t the same before that and hasn’t been the same since.
The steady 28-year-old never misses action, but he has failed to surpass the five-sack mark in six of his seven pro campaigns and has just two forced fumbles the last four years. Now, he’s coming off the worst season of his career based on PFF grades, and he’s becoming super expensive.
If the Commanders give up on him next offseason, he’ll essentially cost them $37 million this year. If they keep him around and nothing changes with his current deal, he’ll cost more than $54 million over the course of the next two campaigns.
Edge Defender: Montez Sweat, Chicago Bears
Contract: Four years, $98 million ($62.9 million guaranteed)
We’ll preface this with the fact that Montez Sweat may have been better than his raw numbers in 2024, as he was used as a pure rusher less than in the past and he got a lot of pressure that didn’t register.
That said, if you’ve committed nearly $25 million per year to an edge, you need more than 5.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and 13 quarterback hits.
He ranked outside of the top five in sacks, QB hits and tackles for loss, despite the fact that he’s the seventh-highest-paid player in the NFL at that position.
And it wasn’t as though that was a fluke. The 2019 first-round pick has just one double-digit-sack campaign and one Pro Bowl nod in his career.
Commanders.com
Deebo Samuel set to benefit from Terry McLaurin back in Commanders’ offense
Last season, Washington’s offense ranked fifth in scoring and seventh in total offense but 17th in passing offense. Having both McLaurin and Samuel as options for Daniels could help create more opportunities for creativity from offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury.
“This might be one of Deebo’s best years because of Terry,” Smoot said. “Terry gets the coverage pushed to him. It’s just attention. Deebo will benefit from that and blossom from that.”
Last season, Samuel put up 670 receiving yards and 3 receiving touchdowns for the San Francisco 49ers. His most valuable asset has been his ability to break tackles and create explosive plays by putting up 3,594 yards after contact throughout his career.
Podcasts & videos
The MEGA Commanders 2025 Season Preview! | Booth Review Podcast | Washington Commanders | NFL
Santana Moss Previews Giants vs. Commanders & Talks Ring of Fame | Get Loud | Commanders | NFL
NFC East links
Big Blue View
Can the Giants match the Commanders’ passing game?
The difference was [in 2024] on offense, where Washington scored 485 points to the Giants’ 273, second lowest in the NFL. That’s a large gap to close if the Giants are to have any chance of winning this Sunday.
The Commanders’ running game (third-highest yardage total in the league) exploited the Giants’ sixth-worst run defense twice, but especially in their first meeting. The big contrast, though, was in quarterback play. Jayden Daniels had a remarkable rookie season. Part of it was his running ability – his 891 rushing yards were second only to Lamar Jackson among NFL quarterbacks. He had a strong season passing as well, though. Not in raw numbers – his 3,568 passing yards were only 16th among NFL quarterbacks. His 25 TDs tied for 10th in the NFL, though, and he added six rushing TDs.
The Giants’ defense will have to deal with that in some way.
Still…the Giants’ best hope for victory is for their slumbering 2024 offense to be awakened by Russell Wilson and go toe-to-toe with Washington’s.
[Note from BiB: This is a lengthy article backed with a ton of data about receivers and QBs. If you’re looking for some in-depth pre-game analysis, you might enjoy it]
Washington Post (paywall)
There’s hope for the Giants, and it starts with a vicious defensive line
Dexter Lawrence II, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Brian Burns and rookie Abdul Carter should give opposing quarterbacks fits this season.
While much of the offseason attention surrounded the Giants’ three-headed quarterback situation (veteran free agent signings Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston and first-round pick Jaxson Dart), if this team is to make real strides this season, it will be because the defense puts the offense in positions to succeed. The defense ranked third a year ago in sacks per pass attempt, and there is reason to believe it can become an even more fundamental strength in 2025.
Lawrence is the closest thing to Aaron Donald since that future first-ballot Hall of Famer retired. The Giants selected Thibodeaux with their top pick in 2022 hoping for elite edge production, and while he has been a bit mercurial, a further breakout seems possible. They resisted opportunities to deal him in the past, believing a breakthrough was inevitable. They acquired Burns from Carolina a year ago, and with 38 sacks the past four years, he’s still very much in his prime. There is potential for Carter (Penn State) to compile more sacks than any of them this season.
The Giants have shuffled the personnel deck in a manner in which they should be able to rush only four, leave bodies back in coverage and still make quarterbacks struggle. A year ago New York allowed a staggering quarterback rating of 103.1 (third worst in the NFL) with a 69.4 completion percentage (31st). Improvement is imperative if gains are to be made.
New York has just two playoff appearances since its last Lombardi Trophy, and it’s no secret that Coach Brian Daboll’s job is on the line if the Giants do not make some substantial gains in 2025. They are 9-25 since a surprising playoff run in 2022, Daboll’s first on the job, and the offensive guru will be tested to maximize the quarterback position, putting this defense under even more pressure to lead the way.
Blogging the Boys
Cowboys point/counterpoint: Did Micah Parsons trade kill season before it even began?
Tom: I’m not exactly brimming with optimism. After the gut punch of the Micah Parsons trade, there are obviously questions about how you replace one of the elite pass rushers in the NFL. I know you are not happy, David. But if you remember, I saw that this was more possible than most wanted to say. Personally, I chalk this up to how Jerry Jones is probably the most inept GM in the league. It certainly appears that he poisoned things with his one-on-one “negotiation” with Parsons, which never should have happened.
David: As you said, I’m livid about the Micah Parsons ordeal, simply because this outcome was so easily avoidable.
Having said that, I’m not sure this is a complete and total loss from a football perspective. Obviously Parsons is an elite talent, and losing someone like that is never a positive, but I had previously voiced concerns about Matt Eberflus being able to maximize his unique talents in the way that Dan Quinn and even Mike Zimmer did.
Besides, this defensive scheme is built around the defensive tackles anyway. It requires one freaky athletic 3-technique (Osa Odighizuwa) and one bona fide run stuffer, which they sorely lacked until Kenny Clark got here. Eberflus has a track record of producing pass rush off the edge, regardless of talent, as a byproduct of the interior success.
I’m not saying the defense will be better without Parsons, but I’m not convinced they’re going to fall apart now either.
NFL league links
Articles
The Athletic (paywall)
The bust files: How NFL teams break young quarterbacks
In no other American enterprise is the face of an organization routinely a 21- or 22- or 23-year-old fresh out of school, thrust into a new city with new bosses and new colleagues and tasked with flipping their fortunes in a little under two years.
“Take all that, then pour some gasoline on it,” says Andrew Luck, the 2012 top pick. “That’s the day-to-day, moment-to-moment intensity of what it actually feels like.”
And that’s coming from a prospect who entered the league as polished as any. Luck’s rookie season in Indianapolis was ridiculous: he led a two-win Colts team from the year before to 11 victories and a playoff berth while head coach Chuck Pagano spent most of the season in the hospital fighting leukemia. Behind closed doors, Luck says, he could barely keep his head above water.
“Andrew Luck admitting that,” says Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, “validates everything I’ve ever thought about the quarterback position.”
What’s grown to irritate O’Connell, a failed pro QB himself, is how short-sighted some NFL teams have become. Too many organizations are in a hurry, he believes, to decide if their young quarterback is the answer or not. They abandon their plan — or worse yet, don’t have one to begin with. They move off one player to chase another, intoxicated by hope, the cycle restarting itself all over again.
“I hate it,” Manning says. “Teams draft these guys without a plan. They all say they have one, then the kid ends up playing for three coordinators his first two seasons … It’s like a young couple thinking about bringing a baby into the world. If you’re not sure you’re ready, just don’t do it.”
Take the last two drafts, Manning says. Chicago’s Caleb Williams and Carolina’s Bryce Young, the No. 1 picks in 2024 and 2023, respectively, enter this season on their second head coach — third if you count interims — and third play caller. So far, all they know in the NFL is turnover.
“I just wish a team would admit, ‘OK, we need a quarterback this year, but we’re not 100 percent sure our coach is the right guy, so we’re not gonna bring him into this,’” Manning continues. “Of course, they always draft the quarterback.
Discussion topics
NFL.com
NFL’s Top 100 Players of 2025: Five things voters got wrong
1) Too many Eagles? Too many Eagles.
In the months after Philadelphia won its second Super Bowl title, Saquon Barkley said the 2024 Eagles were a top-five team in NFL history. The reigning Offensive Player of the Year makes a similar statement in the upcoming “America’s Game” documentary.
Based on the “Top 100” voting, it appears players around the league wouldn’t dispute that the ’24 Birds had the best collection of players in at least the last 15 years.
Case in point: Ten members of the Super Bowl champion Eagles made the “Top 100” this year. Do the rudimentary math — that’s 10 percent of the list. Since the ranking debuted after the 2010 season, no team has seen its players represented in the double digits. The Tom Brady Buccaneers had eight in 2021. Kansas City has seen excellence in large numbers, as well, but at the top of the ranking (Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Chris Jones each finished among the top 10 in 2023 and ’24). What Philly has accomplished, in the eyes of today’s players, is unheard of in recent NFL history.
But are there too many Eagles here? I’d argue yes.
The one Philly player to make the list but not return to the team, Cardinals OLB Josh Sweat, snuck in at No. 95 — and he doesn’t need to be here. He played just 59 percent of the defensive snaps during the regular season, per Next Gen Stats. He didn’t have a career year by basic statistical standards. Not that such takes are anything Sweat needs to worry about. He cashed in on his big postseason performance, collecting $41 million guaranteed from Arizona in the offseason.
It’s a joy to see Jordan Mailata finally recognized in this ranking. A former rugby player from Australia, Mailata earned a major extension, second-team All-Pro honors and a Lombardi lift in the span of 12 months, which is something special. But the star left tackle was topped in this year’s countdown by not one but two rookie defensive backs from Philly in Quinyon Mitchell (No. 49) and Cooper DeJean (No. 60). Howie Roseman hit two home runs by taking the CB duo in the 2024 draft, significantly fortifying an already-stout defense. But as much as Mitchell and DeJean were critical to Philly’s unit as first-year players, they benefited much more from the pieces surrounding them — an all-time DC in Vic Fangio, entrenched leadership in Brandon Graham and Darius Slay, and a deep bench in the front seven.
This is not to discredit Sweat, DeJean and Mitchell, but the ’24 Eagles, apparently a top-five team of all time, more resembled a perfect sum of parts than a collection of individual standouts worthy of “Top 100” shine. The voters could have done better than to make their 2025 list so reliant on the champions, and the aforementioned three players would have been worthy casualties to make room for some forgotten players. Speaking of …
3) Jared Goff over Jalen Hurts? Jayden Daniels as QB7?
A fun viral query has dug into the heart of the American psyche recently: What are the four “major” cities in the United States? Sure, there are the obvious ones: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, economic and cultural capitals of the nation. And then … Miami? San Francisco? Philadelphia?! (No, no more Eagles.)
The football version of this is on full display in this year’s “Top 100” countdown. There seems to be a consensus that the top four quarterbacks in the NFL are, in alphabetical order, Josh Allen (No. 3 in this ranking in ’25), Joe Burrow (No. 6), Lamar Jackson (No. 2) and Patrick Mahomes (No. 5). The four signal-callers have five league MVPs, six Super Bowl appearances, three Super Bowl MVPs and three titles between them. (Mahomes is doing the heavy lifting there.)
But behind these AFC heavyweights, who is next in line?
The “Top 100” voters say that that man is Jared Goff. The stats and story are in his favor. He’s helped turn around a woebegone franchise over the last three years, leading the Lions to a No. 1 seed in 2024 with a career year (72.4 completion rate, 4,629 yards, 37 TDs, 111.8 passer rating).
Unfortunately for Goff, his storybook season ended in the Lions’ first game of the playoffs, while the two quarterbacks right behind him, Jalen Hurts and Jayden Daniels, had deeper runs. Goff threw three picks in an upset loss to Daniels’ Commanders in the Divisional Round, while Hurts won the title with Philly and was named Super Bowl MVP, capping off one of the great postseason runs.
Taking a season in its totality, Hurts probably deserves to be ahead of Goff, and by next offseason, Daniels could outpace both of them.
The Athletic (paywall)
NFL QB stock report, Week 1: Is Patrick Mahomes still in a class of his own?
Here today, gone tomorrow?
Seven quarterbacks from the 2024 Week 1 Stock Report no longer appear: Kirk Cousins, Anthony Richardson, Derek Carr, Will Levis, Deshaun Watson, Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew.
Carr retired. Cousins and Richardson were benched. Levis and Watson suffered season-ending injuries, though Levis would have been a long shot to beat out Ward, anyway. Brissett and Minshew have returned to more suitable backup roles.
So who might face a similar fate in 2026?
Daniel Jones already came back from a benching, a release and a camp competition against a more promising QB (Richardson), but he’s still on the short list. Rodgers, Wilson and Flacco have hit the musical-chairs portion of their careers, so they’ve got to hope the sound system still works. Rattler looks like a placeholder for Shough. And until the Jets tip their hand on a long-term plan, Justin Fields will perpetually be in the audition chair.
That doesn’t mean the entire group should be sharpening its golf game. Sam Darnold would have been a candidate for this category a year ago, but he instead improved his stock in a dramatic way. He followed the likes of Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield before him.
It’s time for others to prove they can do the same.
