The 2024 Washington Commanders made the NFC Championship game for the first time since 1991, which is also the last time the franchise won a Super Bowl. The 55-23 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2024 conference title game was a heartbreaker, but expecting that to happen in the first place for a franchise that hadn’t even had a winning season since 2015? Well, Commanders fans could be forgiven for being happy with what they had and severely excited for the future.
Unfortunately for the Commanders,
every season tells its own story and, for the 2025 team, it was back to a harsher reality. This team inverted its previous 12-5 record to 5-12. The defense fell apart, dropping from 23rd to 28th in DVOA. The offense experienced a more drastic downturn, from sixth to 23rd.
Jayden Daniels, who may have had the best rookie season any quarterback has ever had, missed 10 games with multiple injuries, and the coaching on both sides of the ball was more suspect than expected.
Offseason turnaround was as severe as one might imagine. Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury was replaced by former assistant quarterbacks coach David Blough and defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. (who was stripped of play-calling duties at midseason in favor of head coach Dan Quinn) was replaced by former Minnesota Vikings defensive backs coach & pass game coordinator Daronte Jones.
So now, the optimism is back!
“I feel like this is an elevated group with a lot of versatility,” Quinn said at the owners meetings in March. “I like the speed that we added to the team and for me, the thing I love the most is the competition that comes with putting a good group together. When you look at some of our positions… man, that is going to be a battle. And the thing that comes from that is where everyone lifts up and goes. So, having the new players in the building, we’ve had a lot of the current guys, so I get to see them on a pretty regular basis, but having the new guys in for their days when they signed, I enjoyed that. Because after a tough end of season into January and February, to get some of these guys in here to see their enthusiasm doing it all together, that was really cool.”
To take that cool into the new season, Quinn will need serious contributions from everyone on the roster — not just the obvious stars. So, here’s three Hidden Gems for the 2026 Commanders — one underrated veteran, one underrated free-agent signing, and one underrated draft pick.
Underrated veteran: Safety Jeremy Reaves
A primary reason the team replaced Whitt with Jones was the pass defense.
Which was… well, let’s be diplomatic.
It sucked.
The 2025 Commanders allowed 350 completions on 540 attempts (64.8%) for 4,400 yards (8.1 YPA), 33 touchdowns, eight interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 104.2, which was the NFL’s fifth-worst. Blown assignments were the norm as opposed to the exception, and the only guy in that secondary who seemed to be able to transcend it was safety Jeremy Reaves.
In 2025, Reaves allowed 22 catches on 34 targets for 211 yards, 134 yards after the catch, one touchdown, one interception, seven pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 79.4. He also had 58 solo tackles, 18 stops, five tackles for loss, and three pressures on just eight pass-rushing snaps.
The undrafted free agent out of South Alabama bounced around for a good long time. The Philadelphia Eagles signed him in 2018, but he didn’t make final cuts. Washington signed Reaves off the street, but bounced him off and on their practice squad over the next few years enough to give the guy whiplash. He didn’t make the final roster out of camp until 2022, and that was the year he made the Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro as a special teamer. The Commanders signed him to a two-year, $6 million deal in 2024, and bumped that up to a new one-year, $3.5 million deal in 2025.
Based on Reaves’ development and how things might go with better coaching, this may be the last time he’ll be talking about smaller contracts.
“I think the biggest thing for me is that the game has just slowed down so much, even in from last year to this year,” Reaves said in Aug. 2025. “I was coming off a knee injury, and everything was just kind of going really fast. I was trying to prove myself to a new staff and a new front office. And this year I just came in with the confidence that all I have to do is be me, and at the end of the day this is a game. I get to come out here and have fun every day and compete. And so, I’ve just been out here flying around, looking at the different things that offenses are showing formation-wise, split-wise — okay, who’s on the ball? Where are my deep threats when I’m at safety?
“Just going out there and just trusting what I see. I think that’s the big thing with guys, they might see something, but they don’t necessarily trust what they’re seeing. You got the instincts for a reason, so you gotta use them.”
Reaves has the instincts, and he’s learned how to use them. He’ll be a crucial part of the Commanders’ defensive turnaround, assuming everything clicks with the guys around him.
Underrated free agent: EDGE K’Lavon Chaisson
The 2025 Commanders did get to the quarterback at a pretty decent rate; their 42 regular-season quarterback takedowns were slightly above league average. But their pressure rate of 19.6% was the NFL’s seventh-lowest, and the front office went after that problem with gusto in the offseason. They signed former Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Chargers edge rusher Odafe Oweh to a four-year, $96 million contract with $68 million guaranteed. They also penned former New England Patriots edge defender K’Lavon Chaisson to a one-year, $11 million contract with $10.3 million guaranteed.
Based on last season’s production, those contracts should have been closer together. And Chaisson had a legitimate case to take the lead.
In 2025 with the Ravens and Chargers, Oweh had 7.5 sacks and 51 total pressures, while Chaisson had 7.5 sacks and 52 pressures with the AFC champions during the regular season and was a menace in the playoffs. Now, this was Chaisson’s latest turn after an underwhelming four seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars, the team that took him with the 20th overall pick out of LSU in the 2020 draft. The Carolina Panthers signed him in March 2024, but he didn’t make final cuts. The Las Vegas Raiders took their shot by signing Chaisson to their practice squad on Sept. 10, promoted him to the active roster on Oct. 5, and were rewarded with Chaisson’s six sacks and 29 pressures — his best NFL season to date.
This prompted the Patriots to sign Chaisson to a one-year, $3 million contract, which he more than maxed out. Chaisson was a Secret Superstar at the start and at the end of the 2025 season, because the tape did not lie.
Putting Chaisson and Oweh on the same defensive line should increase Washington’s pass-rush possibilities to an extreme degree.
“Man, just continue to believe,” Chaisson said in his first Commanders press conference, when asked about his specific NFL path. “That’s it. Continue to believe. Everybody’s story is not the same. Everybody’s journey is not the same.
“Comparison is the biggest thief of joy. So the best thing I loved about all this is the journey. Everything that I learned, the lessons that I gained, the adversity that I’ve been through, everything that it’s taught me.
“It’s everything and more, and I wouldn’t be here today without it. So once again, man, I’m just excited for everything that’s to come individually and as a team. And man, I just think to keep building on the opportunity and let the confidence roll.“
It’s another contract year for K’Lavon Chaisson, and we should expect similar results to the last two we’ve seen from him.
Underrated draft pick: WR Antonio Williams
If you’re reading this fine website, you do not need to be told that the Commanders have some serious receiver issues. There’s “Scary Terry” McLaurin, and there are the Pips behind him. But in 2025, McLaurin missed the last seven games with injuries and Deebo Samuel led the Commanders in targets (99), receptions (72), receiving yards (727), and receiving touchdowns (five). But Samuel isn’t your traditional receiver, and he’s not even on the roster right now. Tight end Zach Ertz finished second in targets, receptions, and receiving touchdowns, and he’s not on the roster, either.
So, it’s up to the new blood. Receivers Dyami Brown and Van Jefferson, as well as tight end Chig Okonkwo, can help a bit, but there isn’t an obvious WR2 on the roster behind a healthy McLaurin.
Which is where Antonio Williams comes in. The 2026 third-round pick out of Clemson totaled 55 catches on 72 targets for 611 yards and four touchdowns, despite a hamstring injury that cost him two games. The 6-foot, 187-pound Williams is primarily a slot receiver — he lined up outside on just 7% of his snaps last season — but he’s proven the ability to beat coverage from just about anywhere on the field.
General manager Adam Peters could barely contain his excitement when he had Williams in the fold.
“Really, really, really impressed by Antonio,” Peters said after the pick. “We had him in on a 30 visit and really liked him. You know, [Assistant General Manager] Lance Newmark and I went out there during the season and got a chance to talk to [Clemson head coach] Dabo [Swinney] and [Clemson wide receivers coach] Tyler Grisham out there. They spoke extremely highly of him. Dustin Regan, our area scout, really swears by him. [We] had a great talk with him before we made the pick. And so, really a top-notch young man, super hard worker, consistent, the same guy every day. High, high FBI [football intelligence/instincts], can multi-align, understands the game, understands zone, understands man, understands how to win, and he’s super-competitive.
“He’s an NFL route-runner. He can win versus press. He can beat man coverage, and so we really like the versatility as well. He can play inside. He played a lot inside this year. He played outside last year, and that’s really the thing that differentiated him from a lot of guys is winning outside and winning against really good players outside, especially in 2024 (44% snaps on the outside in 2024). So, there’s just a lot of really, really good things about him, and just an all-around great package. So thrilled to add him to the wide receiver room.”
If Williams lives up to all that — and the tape suggests that he can — the Commanders may have themselves quite a steal in the receiver room. And when’s the last time you could say that?
Do you agree with these Hidden Gems? Would any other Commanders fit into these three categories (undertated vet, free agent and draft pick? Let us know in the comments below:
