To pay a QB, or to not pay a QB?

[Michael K.]

Well, they went from a QB who makes decisions at the speed of smell, to a very mobile Daniels. That didn't hurt.

[Donn Beach]

Realized its a worst to first deal, so I looked at that history. Seems to me if they make it to the SB it could be about the best worst to first turnaround ever. Just making the playoffs was pretty significant

[Sibelius Hindemith]

You mean 2nd to worst to first.

[Michael K.]

I watched Sam Howell enough to believe that any O Line would look better without him playing QB.

I am sure a new QB that makes quicker decisions and is more mobile, adding players on the O Line and a new play caller all contributed. But I didn’t watch enough Washington games in the past two seasons to really make an educated guess on it.

[Donn Beach]

You mean 2nd to worst to first.

Here's a ranking of worst to first, number one is the 1999 saint Louis Rams which like the commanders were a game off of the worst NFL record the previous season. That was pretty wild, the Commanders would be as well

A season that will soon play out in theaters (and/or on streaming services) saw the Rams shock the NFL world by riding a backup quarterback to Super Bowl glory. Neither Kurt Warner nor Trent Green factored into the Rams' 4-12 1998 season, the team's ninth straight losing slate, but Green's preseason injury introduced Warner to the masses. The Arena League alum teamed with newcomers Marshall Faulk and Torry Holt, along with Isaac Bruce, to form the "Greatest Show on Turf" and win the first of his two MVPs. The Rams did not beat a playoff team in the regular season but proved their legitimacy that January and added a chapter two years later.

https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles ... 5#slide_25

[Donn Beach]

I watched Sam Howell enough to believe that any O Line would look better without him playing QB.

I am sure a new QB that makes quicker decisions and is more mobile, adding players on the O Line and a new play caller all contributed. But I didn’t watch enough Washington games in the past two seasons to really make an educated guess on it.

Sure, it gets to how to value lines in the first place but the point is they didn't just slap a QB on the Commanders and suddenly come up with a SB contender, there's more to it. I'd think you would appreciate that in terms of having an effective GM

[Michael K.]

I think you are grossly down playing how good that kid is. And maybe not understanding just how terrible at making decisions Howell is.

[Michael K.]

Another email from CBS. Pretty solid case for why a lot of the credit for the Commander transformation needs to go to the new QB.

Why Jayden Daniels might be having the greatest rookie season in NFL history

The Commanders have pulled off one of the greatest turn arounds in NFL history and big reason they've been able to do that is because they hit a home run when they decided to take Jayden Daniels with the second overall pick in the 2024 draft. Daniels has totally transformed the organization: He took a team that went 4-13 last year and has them on the cusp of their first Super Bowl appearance since 1991.

With that in mind, here are a few numbers that show just how good Daniels has been this year (All stats include his regular-season and postseason numbers combined unless noted)

Daniels is tied with Ben Roethlisberger for the most wins (14) by a rookie QB ever and he could break the record with a win on Sunday against the Eagles.

He's tied for the second-most total touchdowns (35) by a rookie quarterback ever.

He has the most total yards (5,113) by a rookie quarterback ever.

With Washington's win over Detroit, he became the first rookie QB in NFL playoff history to beat a team with 14 wins or more.

He's just the sixth rookie QB to make it to a conference title game, joining Brock Purdy, Shaun King, Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco and Mark Sanchez. He's also just the third rookie QB to win two playoff games on the road, joining Flacco and Sanchez.

He broke the regular-season records for completion percentage (69.0%) and rushing yards (891) by a rookie QB.

He's tied with Russell Wilson for the most go-ahead touchdown passes (5) by a rookie in the fourth quarter or overtime.

He led the Commanders to 14 wins this season, making them just the second team in NFL history to follow up a 13-loss season with a 13 or more wins in their following season. The Commanders join Peyton Manning's 1998-99 Colts.

Daniels helped the Commanders end a 19-year drought without a playoff win and a 33-year drought without a conference title appearance snapped 18-season playoff win drought. If the Commanders win on Sunday, he'll become the first rookie quarterback in NFL history to make it to the Super Bowl as a starter.

Pretty impressive. Again...I imagine they made some changes up front. But if anyone watched Sam Howell, and then watched Jayden Daniels, and couldn't understand why all of a sudden the Commanders have a much better offense? They didn't watch very closely.

[Donn Beach]

Obviously he gets a ton of credit, he's a great QB, but he still needs a team around him, he needs an offense to run. There was a lot of work building a team. Yeah they have a great QB but they have also built a great organization. It's interesting to me how rapidly they did it. Kliff Kingsbury, Quinn they have the right guys in the right jobs. They could have screwed it up, it's been known to happen

That might be the understatement of the century in Washington, where the new regime has rapidly remade the entire organization. Since Peters was hired in January, after spending the last three years as the assistant general manager of the San Francisco 49ers, he has changed the attitude in the Commanders building, changed the "process" of how they do business, and overhauled the roster more extensively than anyone was expecting.

So far, Peters and new coach Dan Quinn have turned over almost half the team, leaving them with the fewest returning players in the entire league. They added nine players through the draft, another 11 after it was finished. And that came after they signed an astounding 22 players in free agency, eight of whom might be starters in Week 1.

"I think we were really aggressive addressing those (needs) in free agency," said Lance Newmark, the Commanders assistant GM. "(I've) really never been a part of anything like that in terms of numbers and commitments. But I thought we got really good, really fast."

https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/a ... washington

[Michael K.]

If they did everything else they did this offseason, and stuck with Sam Howell? Their ceiling would have been seven wins, maybe fewer.