Let’s get into the Commanders, because the drop-off from where this team was in 2024 to where they ended up last year is honestly one of the wildest single-season swings I can remember.

The recap. After making it all the way to the NFC Championship Game in 2024 with a 12-5 record, Washington completely fell apart last year, finishing 5-12, and it really all comes back to health. Jayden Daniels missed 10 games dealing with a knee sprain, a hamstring strain, and then a dislocated elbow that he tried to play through twice before finally getting shut down for the final three games of the season. Terry McLaurin missed half the season too with a quad injury, and the defense got absolutely gutted by injuries as well, with guys like Marshon Lattimore, Trey Amos, Dorance Armstrong, and Deatrich Wise Jr. all landing on injured reserve at various points. That left Washington with statistically the second-worst defense in the entire NFL. When your franchise quarterback, your top receiver, and half your defensive starters are all hurt at the same time, you’re not winning many football games, and that’s basically the whole story of last season in a nutshell.

Dan Quinn kept his job despite all of that, but both of his coordinators did not survive the fallout. Kliff Kingsbury and Joe Whitt Jr. are both out, and Washington went with a couple of interesting, somewhat unproven replacements. David Blough, a 30-year-old former backup quarterback who was just the assistant quarterbacks coach last year, got the surprise promotion to offensive coordinator. He’s expected to bring a scheme influenced by guys like Ben Johnson and Kevin O’Connell, leaning into heavier two and three tight end sets, a real wide-zone run identity, and a lot of pre-snap motion to create matchup advantages, which sounds like exactly the kind of system that could unlock more of what Daniels does well. On defense, they brought in Daronte Jones from the Vikings to be the new coordinator. Both of these guys are first-time NFL coordinators, so there’s real uncertainty in how quickly either scheme comes together, but the early buzz out of camp on both hires has actually been pretty positive.

Health is genuinely the whole story for this team though, more than any scheme change. If Daniels can just stay on the field for a full season, this offense looks completely different than it did last year, because we already saw what he’s capable of in his rookie year when he was healthy for basically the whole thing. That’s the single biggest variable for Washington this season, full stop.

Now let’s get into what they actually did to fix things around him, because they went out and addressed his protection in a big way, trading for left tackle Laremy Tunsil this offseason to lock down the blindside. That’s a legitimate difference-maker up front, and it should help keep Daniels a lot cleaner and healthier than he was last year, which matters more than almost anything else on this roster. They also added guard Andrew Wylie and brought in some receiver depth in Dyami Brown and Van Jefferson, plus re-signed Treylon Burks, though none of those are exactly a true number two receiver to line up next to McLaurin.

That’s actually where the draft came in, because with the third-round pick they used on receiver Antonio Williams out of Clemson, they landed a player evaluators think could grow into that number two role, someone who wins with quickness and run-after-catch ability even if he’s more of a slot possession guy than a true field-stretcher. Before that though, their headline pick was linebacker Sonny Styles at number seven overall out of Ohio State, a converted safety who a lot of draft analysts considered one of the best overall players in the entire class. That’s a massive get for a defense that desperately needed another difference-maker in the middle of the field.

And they didn’t stop there on defense. Washington completely retooled that unit this offseason, signing edge rushers Odafe Oweh and K’Lavon Chaisson, linebacker Leo Chenal to pair with Styles and Frankie Luvu, cornerback Amik Robertson on a two-year deal, safety Nick Cross, and cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon, while also extending Deatrich Wise. They did lose Marshon Lattimore, who was released, but when you add up everyone they brought in, this is a defense that got real, substantial talent upgrades at basically every level, not just a patch job here and there. Given how banged up and bad that unit was last season, that kind of overhaul should show up in a real way this year.

So here’s where I land on the Commanders. If Daniels stays healthy, and I think he’s got a real shot at that with better protection up front and presumably some smarter usage from a new coaching staff that’s aware of how much he took last year, this offense has all the pieces to look like the version we saw during his rookie season. The defense got a legitimate makeover with real difference-makers added at linebacker, corner, and up front, plus a genuine building block in Styles. There’s coordinator risk on both sides given how new both hires are, but the talent infusion alone should be enough to get this team back to competing at a high level.

It also helps that this comes in a division where I don’t think the usual roadblock is what it used to be. I think the Eagles finally take a step back this year, which opens the door a lot wider than it’s been the last couple of seasons, and I think the Cowboys, even with a genuinely improved defense of their own, still have to prove it on the field before I trust them over a fully healthy Commanders team with this much added talent.

My prediction is the Commanders bounce back in a big way this year, finishing 12-5 and taking the NFC East back, this time rightfully over the Cowboys. Health is always the swing factor with this roster, but I think a genuinely retooled defense and a much healthier version of Jayden Daniels get Washington all the way back to where they were in 2024.

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