The Washington Commanders are four games into the season, which doesn't give us enough time to decide what this team ultimately will be, but it's certainly enough to start figuring out where some of those preseason expectations were right and where they weren't.
Washington sits at 1-3 after its loss to the Indianapolis Colts
, and a month of actual football has given us more than just wins and losses to judge. Roles have changed, young players have been asked to grow up quickly, and some position groups that were supposed to help carry this team haven't done nearly enough.
With that in mind, here are six winners and five losers from the Commanders' first four games.
Sonny Styles
Washington clearly had high expectations for Styles when they used the No. 7 pick on him, but there is still a difference between drafting someone that high and immediately asking him to become a major part of an NFL defense.
Styles hasn't needed much time
.
Through four games, he has 20 tackles, a sack, an interception, and a forced fumble, with his best performance coming against Seattle
when he finished with five tackles, two passes defended, an interception, and a forced fumble. He has already played every defensive snap in multiple games, which may say more about how Washington views him than any individual statistic does.
The rookie treatment is basically over at this point. Styles
is being asked to play like someone Washington expects to be around for a long time, and so far he has looked ready for it.
Amik Robertson
Robertson was brought in to give Washington another experienced option in a secondary that had plenty of moving parts coming into the season. Four games later, he has done more than simply give the Commanders another option.
He has made it difficult to take him off the field.
Robertson has 26 tackles through four games and has consistently found himself around the football, including four passes defended and a forced fumble against Seattle
before following that with a team-high nine tackles against Indianapolis. The numbers are nice, but the biggest thing with Robertson continues to be how hard he plays regardless of what is happening around him.
Washington has had its share of problems in the secondary, but figuring out whether Robertson should be on the field hasn't been one of them.
Josh Conerly Jr.
Young offensive tackles are going to have rough moments, and Josh Conerly Jr.
has certainly had some of his own, but the fact that Washington's right tackle position hasn't become a weekly conversation is probably a pretty good sign.
Conerly was handed the job immediately, struggled as a rookie last season, and has taken a step forward in Year 2
, earning a 70.1 pass-blocking grade from PFF through four games while allowing nine pressures over 169 pass-blocking snaps. There is obviously plenty for him to clean up, and nobody should be declaring the position solved after a month, but that's not really the point.
Washington's offensive line has already dealt with injuries, different combinations, and plenty of problems elsewhere. Conerly has stepped into one of the hardest positions for a young player to handle and hasn't given the Commanders a reason to start looking for another answer.
That's a win.
Antonio Williams
Williams was one of the better stories coming out of training camp, but we've seen plenty of players have good summers and disappear once the regular season starts. Williams hasn't.
He has 12 catches for 124 yards and a touchdown through four games, while his role has grown as Washington has needed more from the receiver room. He played 37% of the offensive snaps in Week 1, 49% in Week 2, and then jumped to 69% against Indianapolis with Terry McLaurin unavailable.
That last part matters. Williams isn't just getting developmental snaps anymore
because Washington likes what it sees from a young receiver. Injuries have created a need for somebody else to become dependable, and Williams is starting to become one of those guys.
Odafe Oweh
Washington didn't add Odafe Oweh just to fill out the edge rotation
. It needed somebody capable of creating problems for opposing quarterbacks, and we're starting to see exactly what that looks like.
His pressure against Seattle helped create Kain Medrano's pick-six, and against Indianapolis he decided to handle everything himself. Oweh sacked Daniel Jones on the Colts' second offensive play
, knocked the ball loose, and recovered it at the Indianapolis 21.
It's hard to create a better defensive snap than that.
There have been stretches where Washington's pass rush hasn't gotten home enough, but Oweh has consistently looked like one of the players capable of changing a possession when he does. That's exactly what the Commanders needed when they rebuilt the position this offseason.
Marcus Mariota
Nobody wanted Washington to find out this early whether signing an experienced backup quarterback was worth it, but Jayden Daniels' elbow injury
made that question unavoidable. Mariota answered it pretty well.
His best performance came against Seattle
, when he completed 19 of 31 passes for 183 yards and three touchdowns without turning the ball over in Washington's only win of the season. He also showed the value of having someone with his experience at the line of scrimmage, helping Washington get into better looks when Seattle presented something the offense could take advantage of.
Mariota wasn't brought to Washington to be Daniels. They brought him here so the offense wouldn't completely fall apart if Daniels couldn't play
. Until Mariota injured his own knee against Indianapolis, that's pretty much what he gave them.
Mike Sainristil's Role
This isn't about declaring Sainristil a bad player after four games
. It's about where his role was expected to be when the season started
compared to where it is now.
That change has been pretty dramatic.
Sainristil played 98% of Washington's defensive snaps
in Week 1 and 82% in Week 2. That dropped to 39% against Seattle, and then just five defensive snaps against Indianapolis.
Meanwhile, Robertson and Rasul Douglas have become major parts of Washington's secondary, while Fabian Moreau has also gotten work. Whatever the long-term plan is for Sainristil, his first month went the opposite direction from what almost anyone would've expected when the season started.
Running Backs
Washington's overall rushing numbers don't look terrible until you start separating the quarterbacks from the running backs. That's where the problem shows up.
The Commanders' backs have combined for 331 yards on 96 carries through four games, or about 3.4 yards per attempt. Jacory Croskey-Merritt has 157 yards on 56 carries and hasn't broken a run longer than 11 yards, while against Indianapolis the entire running back room combined for 49 yards
on 18 carries.
Washington's quarterbacks account
for 165 of the team's 496 rushing yards. That isn't exactly the formula the Commanders were looking for, especially during a stretch when Daniels wasn't available and the running game should've been helping whoever was playing quarterback.
Instead, Washington has too often needed the quarterback to create rushing production.
Tight Ends
Washington has enough tight ends to throw a small party, but so far there's been little reason to celebrate what they've done in the passing game. Through four games, the group has combined for 10 catches, 65 yards, and no touchdowns.
Chig Okonkwo missing time hasn't helped, but the Commanders still have Ben Sinnott, John Bates, and Colson Yankoff, and none of them have become much of a factor when Washington throws the football. Sinnott has one catch for six yards despite playing 124 offensive snaps.
Not every tight end needs to put up big receiving numbers to be valuable, but Washington kept several different options at the position because each was supposed to bring something different
. A month into the season, very little of that has shown up in the passing game.
Offensive Continuity
David Blough probably couldn't have drawn up a worse way to start his first season as an offensive coordinator if the goal was to actually establish some rhythm. Daniels injured his elbow against Dallas and hasn't returned yet. Mariota stepped in, helped Washington beat Seattle, and then injured his knee against Indianapolis. That suddenly left Athan Kaliakmanis taking his first regular-season NFL snaps in London.
Then add Terry McLaurin, Sam Cosmi, Rachaad White, and the other injuries that have forced Washington to keep adjusting personnel around whoever is playing quarterback that week. Injuries are part of football, but Washington spent an entire offseason building an offense around certain players and has barely had a chance to see them all function together. At some point the offense still has to produce regardless of who's available, but it's hard to establish an identity when it keeps changing.
Dan Quinn
There are plenty of things from Washington's 1-3 start that Quinn can't control. Thirty accepted penalties for 224 yards through four games isn't one of them. Washington had six accepted penalties in Week 1, five in Week 2, nine against Seattle, and then 10 for 84 yards against Indianapolis. Instead of getting cleaner as the season has moved along, the Commanders have gone in the other direction.
The Colts game was probably the worst example yet
. An illegal shift wiped out what would've been an 87-yard touchdown to Antonio Williams, and several other penalties either erased good plays or made already difficult situations even harder. Quinn doesn't commit the penalties himself, and some calls will always be questionable. But when the same problem keeps showing up every week, and the number continues getting worse, eventually that falls on the head coach
.
Four games aren't enough to decide what Washington's season will become, but they are enough to start changing some opinions. Styles already looks like much more than a rookie Washington needs to protect. Robertson has earned a major role. Conerly and Williams are giving the Commanders reasons to feel good about two young offensive pieces; Oweh is creating the disruption they wanted, and Mariota proved why having an experienced backup matters.
The other side isn't quite as encouraging. Some expected roles have disappeared, some parts of the offense haven't produced enough, and Washington is still making far too many mistakes. Now comes the next four games, starting with the New York Giants.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/commanders/onsi as 6 Winners, 5 Losers From the Commanders' First Four Games .
