It was easy to get caught up in the Commanders’ excitement about making so many moves in the offseason, because most of them were objectively good decisions for the team. The linebacker position was a problem in 2023, so they signed future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner; after realizing they needed a new quarterback, they drafted Jayden Daniels with the No. 2 pick; and while the secondary clearly needed time to improve, they at least signed and drafted new players who could help the defense.
There were some positive signs in training camp that Washington was on the right track, at least long-term, but Sunday’s game was the first real chance to show it had taken a new direction. And while Tampa Bay looked like a playoff contender, the Commander played like a group that was… well, in the first year of a rebuild.
“I can’t really speak for the whole team,” Daniels said. “I don’t want to speak for the defense, but as far as the offense goes, man, we can’t shoot ourselves in the foot. Once we get going, we get going.”
Daniels certainly had a hand in some of the self-inflicted errors, throwing his first pass of the game backwards and losing the ball, and also missing a free Terry McLaurin that could have scored a touchdown early in the second half. However, Daniels was largely fine in his rookie debut, completing 17 of 24 passes for 184 yards.
But Washington never managed to consistently hold its own against a Buccaneers defense that lost several key players throughout the afternoon. That was partly because they couldn’t finish their offenses with points, thanks to Cade York’s missed field goal attempts, but it was also because they simply didn’t get enough out of their talented players early in the game. When Washington went to the locker room at halftime, only one receiver had caught a ball.
McLaurin put it this way in the locker room: “We just didn’t quite execute it the way we wanted to.”
“But I’m not going to get discouraged,” McLaurin added. “I have a lot of confidence in him (Daniels) and I know I’m going to get more chances, so I’ve got to stay focused and be ready. Those are the plays that change games, so we want to try to score as many goals as possible this season.”
