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