Washington Commanders make the boldest bet of the NFC East this offseason

AtoZ Sports

Kyle Crabbs discusses the competitiveness of the NFC East for the 2025 season where the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, and Washington Commanders all have placed big bets on themselves, but the offseason move that stands out the most is the Commanders signing Laremy Tunsil

Transcript

00:00The NFC East is looking like a dogfight in 2025, and in a division with bold bets across

00:06the board, one team's bold bet stands head and shoulders over the rest.

00:14I'm Kyle Krabs with A to Z Sports, and the NFC East in 2025 is a division that's going

00:19to be loaded with pressure.

00:22Now, different kinds of pressure.

00:23You have defending your crown pressure like we have in Philadelphia.

00:27You have maximizing a rookie quarterback contract pressure like you do in Washington.

00:33You have the pressure to get back on the horse as America's team like you do in Dallas, and

00:38you have hot seat pressure in New York with the Giants.

00:42Accordingly, each one of these teams has placed a number of bold bets this offseason.

00:47Dallas, for their part, trading for George Pickens, although choosing not to give him

00:52a contract extension after sending a third and fifth round draft choice for his services

00:56is a bold bet, just like the Giants trading up to draft Jackson Dart.

01:01But there was some level of necessity there with the job status of both Joe Shane and

01:06Brian Dable.

01:07Washington is swinging for the fences.

01:11And as a team that entered into last year, it's kind of a foundational year in drafting a

01:15rookie quarterback in Jaden Daniels.

01:17Seeing this team push their chips in the way that they have is surprising, especially when

01:23you consider Laramie Tunsil being the splash move in this division.

01:28There's a number of significant draft picks that were sent to Houston as a part of this

01:32deal, including a third round pick this year and a second round pick next year for an offensive

01:38tackle that's going to be 31 years old this season and owed it to over $21 million in each

01:45of the next two seasons as the last two years on his current contract.

01:48It's a little bit of a different departure than what you see some teams with athletic

01:52quarterbacks do, where they let that athleticism of the quarterback serve as a force multiplier for

01:58the offense and mitigate some of the pressure issues that you might get from opposing teams.

02:03But the presence of the Philadelphia Eagles defensive line in this division and Dallas

02:08potentially getting healthy and presumably getting ready at some point to pay Micah Parsons

02:13puts the pressure back on Washington to make sure those divisional games do not disrupt the

02:18forecast for what is a very promising future for Jaden Daniels.

02:23So I get it, but it's still a bold bet for a team that looked like they were just entering

02:29into the prime of their team building window to accelerate this build like they did with also

02:36acquiring Debo Samuel.

02:37So Washington's going to need to see early and often dividends for both Debo Samuel and

02:43Laramie Tunsil to justify the aggressive moves that they've made in trying to chase down the

02:49Philadelphia Eagles.

02:51And they've got a pretty good chance to do so, especially when you consider Philadelphia

02:55lost names like Milton Williams and Josh Sweat on the defensive line.

02:59So adding Tunsil plus those losses should in theory close the gap.

03:04But what else did Washington do across the board with the rest of their team, in particular

03:08trying to match up with Philadelphia's offensive line with their defensive line?

03:12That's a big question that I have for this team going into the 2025 season.

03:17And that puts that much more pressure back on Tunsil to live up to the crown that Washington

03:23expects him to wear as the face of their offseason change to help spur the change needed to chase

03:29down the Eagles.

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