Only a couple weeks ago, the Washington Commanders traded a conditional seventh-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft to the Cleveland Browns for kicker Cade York. Following a pair of missed field goals in Washington's loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1, York was waived. The NFL giveth, and the NFL taketh away. However, the decision to waive York returned the Commanders' seventh-round pick because the condition was that York would be on the Commanders' roster for two games, according to NFL insider Mike Garafolo.
This one's a bit of a headscratcher. York came into the league as a fourth-round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns in 2022. That year, he wasn't that great, converting just 24-of-32 field goals, a 75% conversion average. The former LSU bootsman had a celebrated collegiate career, making 56-of-66 kicks, good for an 81.8% average with a long of 57 yards.
But the Browns waived him ahead of the 2023 season. York was then added to the Tennessee Titans practice squad. The New York Giants moved him to their practice squad before Cleveland added him again in March 2024. All this before the aforementioned trade brought him to Washington.
The Commanders are signing veteran kicker Austin Seibert, who only took one kick last season while with the New York Jets, a Week 2 34-yard conversion during a 30-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
Evaluating Dan Quinn, Jayden Daniels in Commanders' loss
While the six points lost from Cade York's two missed field goals didn't help, most of the blame on the Commanders' loss has to go to their pass defense. Baker Mayfield has come a long way over his career, but Washington made him look like an All-Pro. He completed 24-of-30 passes (80%) for 289 yards and four touchdowns. That performance earned an 86.1 adjusted QBR.
Chris Godwin collected all eight targets for 83 yards. Mike Evans snagged five of his six targets for 61 yards and two touchdowns. Rashaad White ran roughshod all over the Commanders, totaling 106 combined yards.
Meanwhile, Washington couldn't muster a push and relied too heavily on Jayden Daniels. The rookie rushed 16 times for 88 yards and two touchdowns. Fantasy football managers are pleased, but 16 carries per game projects to 272 in a season. That's a number more appropriate for Jonathan Taylor or Christian McCaffrey.
Dan Quinn must protect his quarterback and make the most of what he said of him when speaking on the SiriusXM show Movin The Chains.
“The things that stand out to me about Jayden, I think, is from the neck up, his ability to process things quickly, to get to the right play, to get to the right receiver,” Quinn said. “And that's what I was probably most impressed with the arm talent and the evaluation of those things, that was a pretty easy evaluation. Looking at it, what you found was he was playing the position well, the deep one up to Terry [McLaurin] was covered, he was able to go to the second or the third read. He could get out of a bad play and, you know, check to something that was there. So those were the things that jumped out to me.”
Quinn and the Commanders must diversify their offense and allow Daniels to be a facilitator of the playmakers around him.
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