3 biggest positives from Commanders’ 2022 schedule

1. Incredibly Easy Start

There are a ton of unknowns and difficult stretches baked into Washington’s schedule, but schedule-makers did them a big favor with their opening two games. By hosting the Jaguars at home, who won three games last year, the Commanders start the year with a must-win matchup.

For all of the upgrades Jacksonville made this offseason — Brandon Scherff, Christian Kirk, Foyesade Oluokun, Darious Williams, Evan Engram and Travon Walker chief among them — they’re still a heavily flawed team that shouldn’t win more than six games, even with Doug Pederson replacing Urban Meyer.

After hopefully disposing of the Jaguars, the Commanders will hit the road for a date against Detroit, which won three games last year. This makes for a potential trap game, as the Lions pushed a number of elite teams to the brink in 2021, but those shouldn’t happen two games into the schedule.

From there, Washington will head home for a rivalry game against the Eagles, so they could very easily start the year 3-0. Yes, Philly is vastly improved, but they’re very much on a level playing field with the Commanders as far as talent.

The NFL season is long and arduous and full of peaks and valleys, but starting 3-0 would give the group a ton of confidence before the schedule beefs up from Weeks 4-10 before they play the Texans, Falcons and Giants in consecutive weeks.