What's The Best & Worst Moments Of The Commanders Season?

WJFK-FM / 106.7 The Fan

We go over the best, and worst moments of the Commanders special regular season.

Transcript

00:00But right now, as we look back at the Commanders 20-24 season, Danny, I want to know what's

00:07your best and your worst thing that happened this year was.

00:11And it could be very specific, could be a moment of play, a game, could just be a trend,

00:15something, you know, that went well, something that didn't, and we'll open up the MGM National

00:20Harbor listener lines on this as well at 800-636-1067.

00:25So the worst, I'll start there because it was mostly good and the worst part's easy.

00:29Losing to the Cowboys.

00:31You drop a couple of games to really good teams on short rest, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh,

00:36back and forth, the game you had the lead on that you, you know, probably should have

00:38won to be honest with you, that you gave away, whatever, that happens.

00:42That's a really good team that was playing well at the time, I know what Pittsburgh ended,

00:45but you drop that game Thursday night, then the Eagles, you're going, okay, we'll get

00:48back to normal here.

00:49The seven and two team that just dropped two.

00:51This is now a little bit extra rest.

00:53You got Dallas, you're going to go beat them, right, right, right?

00:58Worst game of the year.

00:59And now you're going, oh no, Cliff, Cliff, oh no.

01:04What's happening here?

01:05Is this free fall?

01:06Are they now, you know, headed to maybe the nine and 18 they probably should be in your

01:09mind.

01:10You're wondering about a lot of different stuff as they'd lost three straight and the

01:12bloom was off the rose.

01:13That to me was the lowest moment.

01:16I agree that if we're looking for a game that probably qualifies, I'm trying to think bigger

01:22picture to something that maybe was a bad process that didn't result, a bad was, you

01:28know, answer.

01:30And that maybe it kind of emboldens you to keep going that route, if that makes sense.

01:34So something like not going out and acquiring more weapons for Daniels, not really ever

01:43hurting them.

01:44The fact that they finished top 10 in total offense, which was a great thing and an amazing

01:49accomplishment, probably because this guy is again, a unique elite game changing presence

01:55at quarterback.

01:56But does that then empower you as a decision maker to go, well, last year, we really didn't

02:02miss not having a number two.

02:04Why would we spend on T Higgins?

02:06Why would we make a move for Garrett Wilson?

02:08Why would we go get an excellent running back and spend a bunch of money at that position

02:13when Robinson and Eckler and some Chris Rodriguez with a side of Jeremy McNichols sprinkled

02:20in got me to the NFC championship game.

02:23Why do I want to go get a really good number two receiver opposite Terry McLaurin?

02:30If Alameda is a key is with a side of Luke McCaffrey and some Diami Brown at the end

02:35of the year is going to be plenty to get me to 12 wins.

02:40I can win 14 games with Noah Brown starting as my number two and Diami Brown finishing

02:44is my number two.

02:47Does that then mean that this off season, they kind of go back to the well of last year.

02:51And if it works, then that's great.

02:53If sustainably every year, Daniels is just that good that you don't really need a ton

02:57of talent around him.

02:59So they go with, you know, a backup caliber interior offensive lineman to come in to start

03:04see Allegretti and, and their free agent moves at receiver are bringing in guys like Jamo

03:08Crowder for a year or Noah Brown on the scrap heap.

03:12If they, if they go back to that, well, this off season, it will feel a little disappointing

03:15to me, but maybe just because of how well the year went because you blew teams like

03:19Arizona out.

03:20Cause you went seven and two out of the gate because you finished on the heater that you

03:24did.

03:25Maybe they feel like this is actually the best way to go here.

03:28Let's do it a little cheaper and free agency.

03:31We don't need a lot of talent.

03:32Let's focus on camaraderie, brotherhood chemistry, and I don't know how much of that is replicable.

03:38I hope it is.

03:39I think Dan Quinn's going to go to the end of the earth trying to make it replicable,

03:44but I think in the end, talent's going to win.

03:45I think the Eagles are playing for the super bowl because of the most talented team in

03:48the car.

03:50You have a strong enough culture in a locker room to overcome some of those things, right?

03:53You can have a diva.

03:55You can have a guy read a book on the sideline and still beat people.

03:58You know what I mean?

03:59Like you can deal with a little bit of it.

04:00You know what?

04:01I just thought of something when you said that too, they made one really splashy move

04:05for like a star.

04:07And you can make the case that at least for this year, it backfired pretty extensively.

04:11Yeah.

04:12Right.

04:13Maybe that's the worst thing that happened.

04:15In real time, because Marshawn Lattimore came in for the picks that they gave up for him

04:20and played so poorly that they were worse off defensively a lot of the time when he

04:24was on the field.

04:25But also the figurative part of this, again, is what I'm saying, which is I like that you

04:29stick your neck out a little bit, that you try to get aggressive, that you throw money

04:33at a problem, so to speak, and that you brought in a real impact player who has a chance to

04:37be great.

04:38And an area of weakness too, by the way.

04:40So that's what made it all doubly exciting for everybody.

04:43So, I mean, to me, the expectation that he was going to solve everything and help really

04:47leads to our level of disappointment, but I think it's a smart point.

04:49So that'll be my worst thing that happened, that the one time they really got aggressive

04:55and rolled the dice on a major move, it backfired.

04:59And I hope it does not make them gun shy going into an off season where I'd love for them

05:04to try to go bring in a real stud at wide receiver or edge rusher.

05:08I hope they don't feel like they touched a hot bot and burned them and they're not going

05:12to win.

05:13Yeah, we can get away with it.

05:14I don't want you to think you can get away with it.

05:15I think that's a smart one.

05:16Mine's a little, again, a little smaller for best thing, beat the Eagles.

05:20And you're going to go, well, okay, that was a fun game, but why?

05:23What was the narrative?

05:24Remember the stories?

05:25Yeah.

05:26But yeah, they, okay, they beat Carolina.

05:29Okay.

05:30They beat Cleveland.

05:31They beat Arizona when they weren't playing real well.

05:33The only team they beat with a winning record was blah, blah, blah.

05:35They're Owen, blah, blah, blah.

05:37They beat the Eagles and they didn't just, oh, it was back and forth.

05:41It was unbelievable.

05:44They were left for dead in that first half.

05:46Jay Daniels didn't play great for a huge part of that game, but then he did for another

05:51huge part of that game.

05:53Those five touchdowns, just backbreaker after backbreaker, fourth down and 11 converted

05:58finding Jamison Crowder over the middle, settling that narrative that he can't throw over the

06:02middle or wherever the hell that was to bed as well.

06:05Everything that happened in that second half, basically really that fourth quarter, but

06:08they scored 22 points to win the damn game.

06:11Absolutely incredible.

06:12I'll take that over a hail Mary.

06:15They got tipped.

06:16I know that's going to be a lot of people's answer.

06:17Yeah, that was a great moment.

06:18That was fun.

06:19I screamed and jumped and whooped and hollered and that's all well and good.

06:21I'm not belittling that, but to me, that's a lucky fluke thing.

06:25Jane Daniels being excellent and Philly having no answer for it was a harbinger for future

06:31times where he's going to be a problem for them in this division, beating that winning

06:35team.

06:36Who's excellent in the super bowl.

06:37We had a pretty good case that Philly is the best, second best, third best, whatever

06:40team in the sport.

06:41You beat them and dispelled a bunch of narratives while doing it on your way to winning a whole

06:45bunch in a row and going to the NFC title game.

06:47We didn't know that at the time, but that to me was the highest moment I got during

06:50the regular season.

06:51The best thing that happened in the regular season pretty easily for me is you found your

06:57quarterback the whole year and this one is, is low hanging fruit.

07:01I'd say this is the easiest answer I'll steal from people, but going into the year you got

07:06to figure out, did you get it right?

07:09Is Jaden Daniels going to be the franchise QB here?

07:13The gift of the star quarterback on a rookie contract who then gets a second contract.

07:19Is he going to be a 10 or 12 year staple in this organization, which they have not drafted

07:24and developed that guy in 30 plus years of searching and a while I don't really write

07:30in Sharpie after one year I'm writing in pen that they got him.

07:35How could they not after how he played this past year, what kind of regression short of

07:40major injury could possibly take place when he played as well as he did in his first year

07:45ever in the league with the experience now and the growth that should come with him getting

07:49back to the drawing board physically with his mechanics and mentally on the board trying

07:54to now go back with all the things that he learned and improve himself.

07:58So the best thing that happened is easily just solving the riddle at quarterback.

08:04I would say a close second to me is they hit on enough moves that I think we no longer

08:12have to just go on reputation to suggest that Adam Peters is great as an evaluator and as

08:19a GM and that he was the right hire and he could be a long term solution here as well

08:24in the front office.

08:25The to the GM role, what Daniels is to the quarterback role as an example.

08:31You look at some of the things that they did, the moves that they made that worked

08:35out so well, whether it's Frankie Lou Vu's contract or the one year flyer on Dante Fowler

08:42or Jeremy Chin or Noah Ibnaghani or the draft class with Mikey Sandra still just getting

08:48Daniels right the way that they did.

08:51There's no way you don't feel really confident in Peters as the guy running this operation

08:57now.

08:58That came from not just the wind count this year, but the individual successes and free

09:03agency in the draft, the batting average that he hit at that, frankly, no decision maker

09:08has here.

09:09Probably post Casserly in a long, long, long, long time.

09:14That is maybe the best thing that happened on Daniels division this season.

09:17I think that's a sharp point because it's not just, as you said, the draft picks because

09:21there's there's some ones that are TBD or that didn't have an immediate impact.

09:25That's not the point.

09:26Nobody bats a thousand.

09:27It's the you signed Dante Fowler Jr. for less money than Tressway makes.

09:32And I love me some Tressway, but he's a punter.

09:34And Dante Fowler turned in one of the best values in the sport this year.

09:38You had a Bobby Wagner, a transformational person like Austin Eckler, maybe your second

09:42best offensive weapon over the course of much of the season for nothing to turn around this

09:48giant oil tanker that's stuck in a ravine.

09:50You know, instead of a K turn, you did it really quick and made the NFC title game.

09:54No more playoff games here in two years than you had combined the previous 30 some.

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