The Patriots and the Commanders had been in fairly comparable spots after the mud settled on the 2023 NFL season.
Each New England and Washington fired their head coaches after a string of unsuccessful campaigns. And immense struggles final yr led to each franchises touchdown top-three draft picks, which figured for use on quarterbacks.
These expectations grew to become actuality, because the Commanders drafted Jayden Daniels at No. 2 general and the Patriots took Drake Maye one decide later this previous April. Whereas New England began to indicate some promise after beginning the Maye period in Week 6, the scenario within the nation’s capital is much extra favorable.
Washington entered Week 9 tied for the third-best successful share in all of soccer and Daniels was among the many betting favorites for the MVP Award. There’s rather a lot to love about these Commanders — a lot that gamers have “privately acknowledged or advised their brokers that they need to be traded” to Washington, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The importance of Schefter’s report can’t be understated. Washington has been a laughing inventory within the NFL for the majority of this century, though that billing largely was as a result of prior nightmarish possession underneath Dan Snyder. And the exceptional turnaround of the group’s outlook can largely be credited to Daniels, an electrifying signal-caller who seems like he’ll be a perennial Professional Bowler.
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However let’s not overlook concerning the different nice choices Washington not too long ago made. New proprietor Josh Harris made the correct name changing Ron Rivera with Dan Quinn, an excellent defensive thoughts who beforehand led an offensively gifted workforce to a Tremendous Bowl. And Harris additionally seems to have additionally knocked it out of the park by giving the soccer operations to Adam Peters, who realized about constructing a winner from seven seasons in San Francisco’s entrance workplace.
The Patriots, in the meantime, are nonetheless distant from finishing a rebuild. Maye has proven franchise QB potential, however there already is chatter about Jerod Mayo lasting just one season on the helm in New England. Eliot Wolf additionally must be criticized for his underwhelming first offseason main soccer ops, because the Patriots failed to deal with urgent wants and weren’t in a position to sway stars to Foxboro, Mass., regardless of a wealth of obtainable wage cap area.
To be truthful, Washington’s roster was in higher form than New England’s popping out of final season. However the Commanders arguably weren’t only a nice quarterback away from changing into a really aggressive workforce. Daniels has exceeded expectations, however his unimaginable rookie season most likely wouldn’t have occurred with out different nice decisions made by Washington’s brass.
As such, Patriots followers ought to really feel a bit uneasy about what’s occurring with the Commanders. It doesn’t appear to be any gamers are itching to take their abilities to New England, and it stays to be seen when that can change.
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