The Washington Commanders have gotten off to a rough start to the 2025 NFL season, currently sitting at 1-1 following last week's demolition at the hands of the Green Bay Packers. Even Washington's Week 1 win over the New York Giants wasn't particularly inspiring, and now the team is facing questions about the health of franchise quarterback Jayden Daniels moving forward.
All of these concerns were reflected in sports media personality Rich Eisen's latest edition of his NFL power rankings, in which the Commanders fell all the way out of the top ten despite being two games removed from an NFC Championship Game appearance and bringing back essentially the same roster.
Ahead of them in the rankings were teams like the Atlanta Falcons (number ten), Indianapolis Colts (number nine), and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, whom the Commanders defeated in last year's Wild Card round en route to the NFC Championship Game.
Are the Commanders headed for a down year?
Over the offseason, one of the main questions about the Washington Commanders was whether their run to the NFC Championship Game was indicative of things to come, or whether it was simply a case of a team getting hot at the right time and playing above their means.
Thus far in 2025, the answer would seem to be the latter, although it is of course far too early to make any major conclusions about a team just two weeks into the season.
The main area of concern for the Commanders right now is the health of Jayden Daniels, who suffered a knee injury in the loss to the Packers and was held out of practice on Wednesday, per ESPN.
If he's out, Marcus Mariota would be his replacement. Mariota is a solid option as far as backup NFL quarterbacks go, but the Commanders would love to have Daniels back out there and healthy as soon as possible, especially considering the pedestrian start that the team's offense has gotten off to so far this year.
In any case, the Commanders will take the field for Week 3 on Sunday afternoon at home against the Las Vegas Raiders at 1:00 PM ET.
