After quarreling with the head coach,star player is being suspended and may not play for 3weeks as…..
Owner Daniel Snyder’s scandal-plagued tenure, which ended in 2023 when he sold the team, is directly to blame for the Washington Commanders’ extended period of lack of positive press.
According to ESPN’s Bill Barnwell, the Commanders’ 2024 NFL offseason strategy appears to be working as the team is hitting a lot of “singles.” This approach appears to be working for a team that hasn’t had a winning season since finishing 8-7-1 in 2016 and hasn’t finished more than two games above.500 since finishing 10-6 in 2012.
The Commanders have genuine cause for optimism now that they have new leaders in place at every level and a potential franchise quarterback in Jayden Daniels, the No. 2 overall choice.
Barnwell began praising the Commanders’ offseason by referring to the squad as the “team least likely to make headlines,” which is a superlative for the franchise.
According to Barnwell: “A team selecting a quarterback in the top five is always a huge deal; Washington’s offseason will be determined by how Jayden Daniels plays out. However, what struck me as odd was how commonplace and logical so many of their decisions seemed.”
In addition to avoiding problems, Barnwell began his laudatory remarks about the Commanders by highlighting their astute choice of Dan Quinn as head coach and their new general manager.
After beginning his career in 2003 as a scout with the New England Patriots, Peters worked his way up to the Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers, where he spent the final three seasons as assistant general manager.
Quinn spent six seasons as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, made it to the Super Bowl in 2017, and won a Super Bowl while serving as the defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks in 2013. He has since spent the last three seasons with the Dallas Cowboys as their defensive coordinator.
According to Barnwell, the new administration first considered hiring Dan Quinn, a culture-builder who led the Falcons to Super Bowl LI and significantly enhanced the Cowboys’ defense in his first two years of joining those teams, before going with San Francisco’s Adam Peters, a well-liked but unproven general manager.
Massive free agent signings that defied football logic, such as the seven-year, $56 million contract that Deion “Prime Time” Sanders signed in 2000 and the seven-year, $100 million contract that defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth signed in 2009 (Hayesworth only played 20 games for Washington), were a defining feature of the Snyder era.
With their new look, the Commanders made wise investments: singles with the potential to become doubles and doubles with the potential to become triples.
“In terms of hiring, the Commanders invested in low-ball offers for a few veterans rather than making a major splash. Dorance Armstrong, a former Quinn charge who had 21 sacks in a situational role in Dallas over the previous three years, was their biggest addition, according to Barnwell. “They dug into the Panthers’ defense to get players who, at various points in the previous few seasons, appeared to have Pro Bowl potential: Frankie Luvu and Jeremy Chinn. As recently as 2022, cornerback Michael Davis and running back Austin Ekeler were important members of a Los Angeles playoff squad.
Bobby Wagner, a one-year contract that is as much about rebuilding the team’s culture as it is about acquiring a good middle linebacker, was their most high-profile addition.
