The temperatures when considering what the Washington Commanders might accomplish this season run hot and cold depending on who you’re talking to and what the context of the conversation is.
Ask someone if receiver Terry McLaurin could have a bounce-back season and you’ll likely get some good vibes in return. Same goes when discussing Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels as an Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate.
Talk about Washington as a worst-to-first candidate and you’ll actually get some good feedback for the most part as well, but discuss the roster as a whole and things get a tad darker. Specifically when you ask CBS Sports about the top three offensive players on the team.
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“Daniels is ultra-talented. We know this. Everyone has been waiting a while to see McLaurin play with a real quarterback, and hopefully he has finally found one,” Jared Dubin of CBS Sports wrote in his ranking of NFL trios. “Ekeler is coming off a down season, but he’s still really reliable — especially in the passing game. But it’s hard to say the Commies should be any higher than this given the uncertainty about how this trio will work on the field.”
Look no further than the cute nickname Dubin gave the Commanders in his summary to see just how highly he thinks of what the team is doing this year.
If you need reassurance, Dubin ranks the Washington trio 25th in the NFL, not at the bottom, but quite nearly there.
Only the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tennessee Titans, Las Vegas Raiders, New York Giants, Carolina Panthers, New England Patriots, and Denver Broncos rank lower.
Of course, Ekeler alone is not going to represent the running game for the Commanders this season and Brian Robinson Jr. is actually penciled in as RB1 by most on the ground here in D.C. But that message hasn’t gotten accross to most outside of the area, which is fine until any sort of depth chart is solidified anyway.
Given a rookie quarterback, the doubt many have in Ekeler to return to form, and questions about whether McLaurin is really as big a career quarterback victim as we’ve painted him to be, it’s not surprising Washington is getting little love in these rankings.
If it bothers them, they’ll have the chance to change the hearts and minds of those who build these lists very soon.
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