OT: 2024 Washington Commanders thread: change we can believe in!

[CapitalsCupReality]

As a Drake guy I'd like to point out that I am not in that party lol

I did say “Mostly”….. appreciate you not losing your shit!

 

[Roric]

I get that we most likely will pick top 5, maybe top 10 again this year but with the glaring hole we have at receiver I have to wonder if it would have just been better to trade that 1st for aiyuk in the end. At least he's a proven commodity, young and has rapport with our new hopefully franchise QB. Using that top 10 pick doesn't guarantee a stud. It's not the same as trading it for some older vet, like if they had went after davante adams

He would fill a hole we're trying to fill through the draft anyway, but instead of a dart throw it's much more of a sure thing. It's a moot point regardless, aiyuk is staying in SF. But sometimes I think draft picks are so highly valued they become a little overvalued in the grand scheme of things

 

[EroCaps]

JDs talent matches KK scheme
JD has a good feel for game/pocket/pressure
JD has some elite wheels

Pick top 10 = pick a franchise LT
Ton of $$ in Cap and FA

--------------

We got ourselves a QB fellas

Hard parts over

KKs scheme is hack and got him fired.

He was a major question mark heading into this season.

I was expecting to see motion. Didn’t. Unless something changes they’ll be hiring David Blough by Year 3.

 

[Kazer]

It's too soon to freak out. Even when preseason used to be more substantial, the conventional wisdom was not to read too much into week 1.

With a new QB, substantially turned over roster, and new coaches across the board? This might as well have been week -1. Meanwhile, Tampa, despite having a new OC, had a ton of continuity year over year.

That's not to say that criticism isn't warranted. This was a dreadful performance. But, I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet.

 

[Beef Invictus]

Motion helps, but a lot of NFL defenses have gotten so good at running situational coverage switches that you might not reveal anything with it. Still...do it! If a defense is trying to be that sneaky, see if you can force a miscommunication. Especially at this stage of the season.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

As a Drake guy I'd like to point out that I am not in that party lol

Also was a Drake guy but I am a full-on Jayden stan now. He’s special. Watching a ridiculously athletic tall frail black QB who is the best athlete on the field for either team run around is giving me PTSD and I hold my breath every time he leaves the pocket but it feels like the QB question has been solved.

This roster was ass last year and despite a bunch of turnover, continues to be ass. I think they’ll certainly get better as people settle in but yesterday was a not so gentle reminder that Rome wasn’t built in a day.

 

[Beef Invictus]

Also was a Drake guy but I am a full-on Jayden stan now. He’s special. Watching a ridiculously athletic tall frail black QB who is the best athlete on the field for either team run around is giving me PTSD and I hold my breath every time he leaves the pocket but it feels like the QB question has been solved.

This roster was ass last year and despite a bunch of turnover, continues to be ass. I think they’ll certainly get better as people settle in but yesterday was a not so gentle reminder that Rome wasn’t built in a day.

I'm expecting him to blow out a shoulder with those rolls, but he's generally doing them early enough. Unlike a certain prior disaster who, if he slid, only did it so late that he only succeeded in lowering his skull into the impact.

 

[Roric]

Good point @AlexBrovechkin8

The biggest takeaway here should be that we've got ourselves a dynamic QB that looks to be something really special with some refinement. So as of this moment, the QB situation has been solved and that has been the biggest/most important dilemma plaguing this team forever. It's the biggest dilemma in all of sports really. The rest will come together in time.

 

[qc14]

I agree a bit on the Aiyuk sentiment but I also understand why the FO didn't pull the trigger. Feels like it would've been a no-brainer if it happened next offseason ...

 

[Neil Racki]

All 22 of eveyr JD snap is on reddit .. man, hes good at feeling and escaping pressure

 

[Chokingdogs]

It's almost as if not playing the starters for any meaningful time in the preseason left them being out of sync, poor timing, making silly mistakes, etc. That would have been a better idea of this was a veteran team that has been together in the same system for years. But since this was an almost entirely new roster and all new system, they played like no one knew each other at all. The first play from scrimmage highlights that perfectly. Poor timing on a simple screen pass, leads to an 18 yard loss.

Give them time. This team is in compete rebuild. Maybe by the end of the season we'll see some progress. Not week one.

Exactly….there was no preseason. In days of yore, third PS game starters played pretty much an entire half? How much time did the starters get in a “meaningful” game this preseason?

If by the 4th or 5th game they play/call the offense like yesterday, I’ll start to get angry and unleash that anger with cyber snark.

If the D doesn’t learn how to tackle by 1:15 PM this Sunday, snark will be quicker.

 

[g00n]

On the mark I guess. In the past anyway. It's not learning from the early going that's idiotic, it's not having a sense of who they are or what they're good at that seems questionable. Maybe they are just super limited on both sides and not knowing is a cover for 'We may be pretty bad.' New regimes are at a disadvantage, esp. early on. There's no carryover momentum established. They don't 100% know who is reliable and who will flake out. It's going to be a long process sorting that out and seeing who responds to coaching and elevates and who isn't going to work out. We'll see if they figure some things out but it was yet another pretty dysfunctional outing.

I didn't expect Daniels to have league-low yards per completion. That's the main shocker for me. Everything else looked just about as you'd expect given their limitations. It's just disappointing to have new decision-makers and then...give up 37, not be all that competitive and not have some pretty basic components in place. Maybe they figure some of it out but hard to believe they're not set up for another long year without quick substantial improvement.

Thanks for the reply. Was out all day.

Where do you see JD as league-low yds/completion? I see him at 7.7 which is T-11 with Trevor Lawrence.

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And of course, small sample size. It's one game. The FIRST game. Ever.

They turned over a shitload of the roster and ALL personnel, really. I think it's way too much to expect them to walk into week 1 with any kind of "established identity". They're still figuring out who some of these guys ARE. nevermind what they all form as a whole.

On the plus side (some will find a contrarian reason to call it a negative, I'm sure) JD is also 9th in the league rushing yds. Not just among QBs, but everyone. We knew he could do that.

The weird sliding is the problem. I have to believe they're trying to work on that. If someone didn't play baseball, that kind of slide might not come as naturally. It's a weird thing if you think about it outside of baseball, and NFL QBs.

Regarding the defense, yes I don't like that they gave up a full TD more than their average last year. We knew the secondary sucked but expected more anyway.

 

[hotpaws]

If you look closely, it’s mostly the pre-draft Drake May guys freaking out….it was so easy to predict lol….

not really , it looks like the people most pissed are the one's who talked themselves into believing we would be this years Texans

I wanted Maye and still do but that doesn't mean i'm not pulling for JD to succeed , all he showed yesterday was he can run which we already knew he could . It was his first game so i'm not going to be too critical but it looked like he was gun shy to go downfield , it looked like he was waiting for his receivers to be wide open like they were in college before throwing , that isn't going to happened often in the NFL .

 

[g00n]

All 22 of eveyr JD snap is on reddit .. man, hes good at feeling and escaping pressure

He has poise and the "intangibles" already. That's something that's hard to teach, if not impossible.

Did anyone see Kirk Cousins gagging all over himself in crunch time yesterday? Imagine paying a zillion dollars for that shit every other week.

I'd rather have the potential and confidence and general vibe from JD, even if it takes some time for him to learn via experience just how to pick apart these NFL schemes.

That's what it boils down to, imo. Not just talent, but reps. They weren't going to risk injury throwing him out there a lot in the preseason, so he's going to have to get his reps under live fire.

We just have to accept this is a rebuild year.

Plus, isn't TB only a few years removed from winning the SB with basically the same skill players, minus Brady? They're the only team in the NFC I think (league?) who have made the playoffs the last 4 years. They don't suck.

Regarding the shotgun/spread...you see BAL doing the same thing with Lamar. Only now they have to figure out how to work Henry into the mix so LJ ends up under center a little more. The reason you throw bubble screens and whatnot in a spread offense with a running QB is (obviously?) to "spread" the defense out as well, which opens up more lanes for the running QB.

In theory this should also open up more chances for our RBs on regular delayed screen plays, but only if you have some sort of downfield threat going first. This is why another top WR could've opened up the entire offense.

 

[robertmac43]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1833223850777317563

 

[Langway]

Where do you see JD as league-low yds/completion? I see him at 7.7 which is T-11 with Trevor Lawrence.

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Yards per target so no YAC added on. So many dink plays...

Also a league-low Time to Throw so getting the ball out quickly was the priority for sure. If receivers can't win early he's going to tuck it more often than not if he's got a lane. Hard to believe he can play 17 games with that build playing that way, even if he's fresh and super nimble. They've got to rifle through options and find someone that can get open or else they're risking their investment resorting to hero ball all year.

 

[g00n]

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Yards per target so no YAC added on. So many dink plays...

Also a league-low Time to Throw so getting the ball out quickly was the priority for sure. If receivers can't win early he's going to tuck it more often than not if he's got a lane. Hard to believe he can play 17 games with that build playing that way, even if he's fresh and super nimble. They've got to rifle through options and find someone that can get open or else they're risking their investment resorting to hero ball all year.

Or they could get the run game going whether or not the first few attempts fail.

It's too soon to tell if the short throws without YAC are a failure or success. It could indicate individual talent or good play design.

 

[kicksavedave]

Some stats. Bowles threw everything at JD. He responded... ok.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1833223850777317563

One game too late.

 

[g00n]

Some stats. Bowles threw everything at JD. He responded... ok.

I think that's more than "ok"? He's getting the ball out under pressure. This is what we saw in the preseason. Decisive and quick.

 

[Bananas]

Takeaways:

- Daniels looks good but it’s all for naught if he’s not going to protect himself

- There are precisely zero difference makers on offense. BRob and Ekeler and McLaurin are helpful pieces but there’s absolutely nothing game-breaking there. That’s why I would have exclusively concentrated on the offense last offseason in terms of player acquisition, but alas, defensive coaches are people too.

- Our vaunted DTs don’t impact the game nearly enough and never have. They’re solid players but it doesn’t move the needle enough to cover for the various other deficiencies on that side of the ball. Trade one soon if the season goes off the rails.

 

[kicksavedave]

Watched the All 22. There was a lot of JD having no open WRs to throw to, there were a few misses when he had someone open, clearly a conservative game plan. I'm reminded that in college, JD was very interception averse, and his coach asked him to just let it rip in the summer before his Heisman season, and the numbers exploded. I expect JD to be cautious in his first game ever, under an intense blitz package, with barely any talent in the receiver corps. I think we'll see a lot of good thinks from JD this year, but this team is just a long way from being "good". Adjusting my win expectation back down to 4-6.

I think that's more than "ok"? He's getting the ball out under pressure. This is what we saw in the preseason. Decisive and quick.

Agreed, "OK" was being safe on my part. He looked pretty good considering the circumstances, but the circumstances were, ahem, shit.

 

[Neil Racki]

Watching the film, every snap is

shot gun spread formation = snap = one of our OL guys loses immediately 1 v1 = JD avoids pressure and runs for a gain

I thought Id see a lot of JD leaving clean pockets early but he wasnt. Pressure was immediate but fortunately it was iso pressure, easy to see, easy for a guy like JD to avoid

---------------

Whole new style and system that I am not familiar with but Im a dinosaur. I love the process oriented pocket passer like Kirk Cousins

I nut for on-time 12 yard out routes

this is exciting to have this kind of QB prospect

modern football

 

[Bananas]

Watched the All 22. There was a lot of JD having no open WRs to throw to, there were a few misses when he had someone open, clearly a conservative game plan. I'm reminded that in college, JD was very interception averse, and his coach asked him to just let it rip in the summer before his Heisman season, and the numbers exploded. I expect JD to be cautious in his first game ever, under an intense blitz package, with barely any talent in the receiver corps. I think we'll see a lot of good thinks from JD this year, but this team is just a long way from being "good". Adjusting my win expectation back down to 4-6.


Agreed, "OK" was being safe on my part. He looked pretty good considering the circumstances, but the circumstances were, ahem, shit.

This . Was going to mention that in the beginning of his college career he was risk averse and didn’t like throwing picks. He needed the team around him to improve and some prodding by coaches to reach his Heisman ceiling.

I have no problem starting him off leaning on the quick game and he’s excelling at getting the ball out fast. Our OL and WR do not lend themselves to slow developing plays. He’ll have no problem getting there once the team has a few genuine weapons to throw to and can pass protect.

This is a fine starting point for his development as long as he doesn’t play RB in his rookie year. His post game remarks tell me that he’s got a blind spot here and it must be coached out of him immediately. That includes buckling chin strap and sliding properly. He had mentioned in training camp that he had never practiced sliding. It’s on coaching to correct that without further ado.

 

[ynotcaps]

This . Was going to mention that in the beginning of his college career he was risk averse and didn’t like throwing picks. He needed the team around him to improve and some prodding by coaches to reach his Heisman ceiling.

I have no problem starting him off leaning on the quick game and he’s excelling at getting the ball out fast. Our OL and WR do not lend themselves to slow developing plays. He’ll have no problem getting there once the team has a few genuine weapons to throw to and can pass protect.

This is a fine starting point for his development as long as he doesn’t play RB in his rookie year. His post game remarks tell me that he’s got a blind spot here and it must be coached out of him immediately. That includes buckling chin strap and sliding properly. He had mentioned in training camp that he had never practiced sliding. It’s on coaching to correct that without further ado.

Yup, both posts spot on. Can't remember if it was studio halftime show or D. Johnson in the booth before the start of the second referencing that he is very risk-averse as a thrower and they'd like to see him press the "F*** It" key and take some chances. It's not like INTs are going to cost this team a playoff berth.

Obviously nobody wants to see Peyton-esque year 1 INT numbers, but I think his development will be better served by taking some shots through the air than tucking and running every time he sees a clear 3-5 yards if he pulls it down.

(Related note -- ESPN evals were predicting JD5 to have the highest # of INTs among all rookies. Starting game 1 has some to do with it, but they clearly weren't paying attention to his college history.)

https://x.com/i/web/status/1833223850777317563

Our '25 7th rounder is back in our wallet -- YES!

 

[Neil Racki]

I like the dive forward slide for athletic qbs. Traditional slides are for walking stiff statues like Joe Flacco.

I’m guessing this will be the new way to teach WB slides for athletic QBs … founding father is Lamar Jackson. Safer for them. They get to pick the contact, no fear of catching a toe in turf or jamming a knee …

The guy needs the inate feel for game and being a runner like Lamar and Jayden had that. RG3 didn’t. Eye test.

Jayden to Lamar comps .. visually …it’s right f***ing there. But Jayden might have better arm/bigger hands and Lamar may be more quick twitchy

This is wild … I’m enamored