The Washington Commanders enter the 2025 season with grand expectations after what Dan Quinn and Jayden Daniels accomplished last year, making it to the NFC Championship game.
After general manager Adam Peters traded for Deebo Samuel and Laremy Tunsil to give Kliff Kingsbury's offense a serious boost of firepower, those expectations have only been reinforced.
It's Super Bowl or nothing, and the positive vibes are flowing out of the nation's capital (unless we are talking about Terry McLaurin's contract).
But what if things don't go the way many envision? For Pro Football Network, in a worst-case scenario, the publication has the Commanders finishing with a 9-8 record.
"The Washington Commanders were the breakout story of 2024, going from 4-13 to 12-5 and an NFC Championship in the span of a year," Pro Football Network writes. "They figure to be a Super Bowl contender again this season, but what if they fall back down to Earth?
"The Commanders have the oldest roster in the NFL heading into 2025. Key starters like Bobby Wagner, Zach Ertz, Deatrich Wise, and Laremy Tunsil are all over 30. Kliff Kingsbury’s offense got figured out quickly after a hot start with the Cardinals, too. Will the same thing happen in Washington?"
Now, a 9-8 record wouldn't be the end of the world, nor would it be ideal, but given the state of the NFC, that might be enough to sneak into a wildcard spot.
But that isn't what the franchise wants. It has eyes firmly on challenging for the Super Bowl, and considering Samuel is a one-year rental, all running backs on the roster don't have contracts after the 2025 season, there could be some significant changes coming next offseason.
So, it does feel like the time to push all the chips into the table as the organization has done, and to produce "just" a 9-8 record, well, that might not go down too well.
