The Washington Commanders have Wednesday off as they travel to Miami for a joint practice with the Dolphins on Thursday before Saturday’s preseason game.
Before we turn our attention to Week 2 of the preseason game and the Dolphins, we look back at Washington’s Week 1 preseason contest against the New York Jets. New York defeated Washington 20-17 after a late field goal.
The results of preseason games are less important than the performances. The preseason gives coaches a chance to evaluate the depth of every position and which young players can force their way onto the team.
The most notable takeaway from the Commanders’ game against the Jets was the performance of rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. The No. 2 overall pick only played one series, but he was phenomenal.
As for the rest of the game, there was some good — and some bad.
In wrapping up Week 1 of the preseason, Garrett Podell of CBS Sports reviewed the “good, bad and ugly” from every preseason game. Here’s what Podell said about the Commanders:
The good: Second overall pick Jayden Daniels doing a little bit of everything on his only drive of the preseason, which ended with a three-yard rushing touchdown. On third-and-6 from his own 34, Daniels had no issue going deep down the right sideline to throw a pass into tight coverage to Dyami Brown. The diving Brown had the football land right in his arms for a 42-yard gain, and from there, Washington chewed up the Jets on the ground.
The bad: Allowing Jets rookie running back Braelon Allen to run through them for 54 yards on six carries. Washington had the worst defense in football a year ago by multiple metrics, so the little resistance on its end was tough to see.
The ugly: Ditto for the Commanders secondary allowing Adrian Martinez (104 yards on 6 of 10 passing) and Andrew Peasley (73 yards and a touchdowns on 8 of 11 passing) to carve up their secondary. Yes, this was just backups, but neither of those quarterbacks are likely even No. 2 quarterback material on the Jets with Tyrod Taylor also in the building. The Commanders should aim to be vastly improved in the secondary by the end of the preseason.
While much of New York’s damage came against Washington’s backup players and third-stringers, it’s a concern from the vantage point that the Commanders were so bad defensively last season.
Washington will be better defensively in 2024. Head coach Dan Quinn’s presence will ensure improvement. While there are still concerns, most notably at cornerback and edge rusher, don’t expect the Commanders to be dead-last defensively in any metric this season.