Just two weeks ago, the Commanders were 1-4, Twitter was flooded with calls for Ron Rivera to be fired, for Carson Wentz to be benched, for Brian Robinson to be playing more than Antonio Gibson.
Was even reading how the defense was still not getting it done, giving up too many big plays and the secondary in particular was committing too many penalties and out of position, Jamin Davis was a bust according to many and Jack Del Rio had to go along with Ron Rivera.
It was such an emotional loss for fans, such a letdown after Carson Wentz had driven the team down the field to the two yard-line only to not complete one of his three pass attempts, resulting in the Commanders falling to the Titans 21-17.
Being 1-4, some began tweeting and writing about the 2023 Commanders draft and who they would take with the fifth overall selection. One Commanders fan site writer boldly had Washington using that fifth overall selection, taking 6-foot-3, 232-pound Kentucky quarterback Will Levis.
Well, two weeks later and the internet chatter for the firing of Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio has drastically fallen off (until the next loss, of course). Carson Wentz broke a finger on his passing hand, required surgery and is now on IR for at least four weeks.
Taylor Heinicke was absolutely horrible in his first quarter and into the second quarter of his first start. Yet, he turned himself around, making much better throws. Washington came from behind by 11 points to defeat Green Bay. Brian Robinson is getting plenty of carries, but it might be Antonio Gibson who is actually running with the most conviction, looking quite able to take on more of the load.
Fans are now praising Jamin Davis as having arrived. Indeed, he has played better, making nice plays. And the Commanders having won two consecutive games have moved from the fifth overall draft position to 11th following the win over the Bears and to 14th after defeating the Packers.
Even more, Jim Irsay became the first owner to speak out that the NFL has the authority to vote out Daniel Snyder and there is merit to consider it.
If Heinicke continues to play even moderately well, Commanders coaches and management could choose to continue to play him instead of Wentz, permitting Washington to keep their second-round choice in next year’s draft.
Wonder how much will change over the next two weeks?
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbykgy681k112p8 player_id=none image=https://commanderswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]