With the New York Giants facing the Washington Commanders on Sunday, teams with a combined 15 straight losses between them, we turn to Hogs Haven’s ‘Eboracum’ for this week’s ‘5 questions.’ Jayden Daniels’ future and Kliff Kingsbury’s potential fit as Giants head coach are among the topics discussed.
Ed: Aside from the injury to Jayden Daniels, what has gone wrong for the Commanders this year? Were expectations too high?
Eboracum: The biggest problem has been injuries, and not just to Jayden Daniels. On offense, the Commanders have been without their starting QB, WR1, WR3, and RB1 for most of the season. On defense, they have been without their top three defensive ends, best safety, and have lost their top two cornerbacks to season-ending injuries. What’s more, the injuries have been perfectly placed to expose weaknesses on the rest of the roster. The duo of Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin were really the tent poles that held up the offense, so losing them has caused the entire offense to regress. The injuries at DE have exposed the poor tackling of the secondary and inability of the LBs to contain runs to the edge.
The second-biggest problem has been a much harder schedule. The Commanders played a relatively easy schedule last year, but this year’s schedule has been an absolute gauntlet and we always seem to be playing teams right when they have something to prove or are getting a bunch of important players back from injury. In that sense, maybe expectations were too high considering the difference in schedule difficulty was known even in the offseason.
The third-biggest problem seems to be poor coaching by Commanders DC Joe Whitt Jr. The defense has looked out of place and befuddled for most of the season, something that was true last season, but was hidden by the offense carrying the team. Dan Quinn finally demoted Whitt and took over as DC himself in Week 11 against the Dolphins and it was like a completely different defense stepped on the field. However, the defense by now has been gutted by injury and still isn’t especially good, it relies on the offense keeping time of possession to help it out. If the offense stutters, the defense seems to collapse as well.
Eboracum: It’s been a flukey season with injuries all over the roster, not just to Jayden Daniels, so we don’t want to draw too many conclusions from just this year. However, I’d say fans have to be a little concerned about Jayden’s ability to hold up in the NFL given that he sustained a rib injury that hampered him last year and has sustained three different soft-tissue injuries (knee, hamstring, elbow) this year. He hasn’t even been able to string together three consecutive games this year without getting injured. However, I disagree with the RG3 comparisons. RG3 was a limited pocket passer who essentially had to run a read-option offense and run in order to be productive, yet was too fragile to put that much strain on his body. RG3 also suffered far more devastating injuries earlier in his career. Jayden is instead a good pocket passer who happens to also be good at scrambling, he just needs to scramble less and take fewer hits trying to make a play. I have more confidence Jayden will get better at making his plays from the pocket and exposing himself to fewer hits.
Eboracum: He’s probably worth considering and interviewing, though I wouldn’t say he’s a top candidate. At the same time, I don’t really find myself overly impressed with any of the HC candidates right now. Kliff has shown he’s a smart play-caller and adapts both to his players and the looks the defense gives him. He’s also very detail-oriented and will find ways to get matchups he likes later in a game based on defensive tendencies early in a game. Just watch how the Commanders played the Broncos to see what he can do to one of the NFL’s best defenses with a backup QB. He also gets unfairly maligned as a college spread guy, whereas both with the Cardinals and the Commanders he has run a very pro-style offense that leans on a gap scheme run game.
However, even as an OC, he has his weaknesses. He hasn’t been able to scheme open our WRs without Terry McLaurin being active, though a lot of that may simply be due to the talent of the WRs. Although he often has the offense prepared for run blocking, he doesn’t always have them prepared for picking up blitzes and stunts, which has been our biggest issue in pass protection this year. He also primarily likes to run the offense out of shotgun and pistol, whereas teams that run under center with heavy play-action seem to be the most productive in the NFL (though Kliff has incorporated more under-center plays since the bye).
Most importantly though, he’s already failed once as a head coach in the NFL, so the real question is what has he learned and what would be different? I think you’d have to gauge that with an interview, but he strikes me as the kind of Xs and Os football technician who is more suited to be an OC and play-caller than the kind of charismatic, high EQ person who you’d want more as a head coach.
Ed: Tell me if there have been a few bright spots player-wise for the Commanders in a dismal season?
Eboracum: Yes, there absolutely have been some bright spots. I will focus especially on the Commanders offensive line, which now seems to be playing as a very good unit and I’m hoping can remain the starting OL for the Commanders for years to come. Trading for LT Laremy Tunsil has absolutely been worth it. He’s been one of the best players on the team every single week and it has to be the best trade as GM that Adam Peters has made given that he didn’t even surrender a 1st-round pick for a premium LT. LG Chris Paul emerged midway through the season, beating out Brandon Coleman to become the starter and has looked very competent, particularly in pass protection. Center Tyler Biadasz is a veteran and has looked very good both last year and this year. RG Sam Cosmi started the season on PUP (coming back from an ACL), but has returned to excellent form midway through the season. Rookie RT Josh Conerly Jr had a rough start to the season (and got abused by Brian Burns in week 1), but has been getting better every single week and now looks like the long-term answer at RT. Overall, both guard spots have been shuffled and the RT had a learning curve, but now this unit is playing at a high level.
I’ll also give a shout out to WR Luke McCaffrey (younger brother of Christian McCaffrey), who looked like one of the NFL’s best kick returners until his season was ended by a broken collarbone in Week 9.
Ed: What do you expect on Sunday? The Commanders have lost eight straight. Do you expect to see them play hard, or do you think they will look like a team that has packed it in?
Eboracum: I think they will play hard, but nothing would surprise me. Reports indicate that Dan Quinn hasn’t lost the locker room and the players are still hungry to play and prove themselves, particularly players coming back from injury like Terry McLaurin. However, I would have said that last week, yet the Commanders laid a stinky egg against the Vikings. I think there’s a big psychological factor to this game. Last year, the Commanders had a lot of success and played with a confidence that helped them win games. This year, they’ve been stuck in the mud for various reasons and I think it’s broken that confidence and made them more susceptible to mistakes and problems that cost them close games. I’ve noticed the same thing watching Giants games – they play really well for most of a game and seem like they might win, then make critical mistakes or have things go against them when the game is on the line and end up losing. I think this game will be all about which team can break their “loser mindset” and actually stay mistake-free to the end.
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