A look back in Commanders history: The 2019 season

Today we will be taking a look back at the worst Washington Commanders season, on paper, in the last 15 years. The only reason I rank this season *marginally* higher than 2013 is because some good at least came out of it. However, in terms of raw numbers, 2019 was the worst. Here is a look at the Commanders’ score margin (amount they won by in any given game subtracted by the amount they lost by in any given game) by season since 2007:

A look back at the Commanders 2019 season

Two things should stand out to you from this graph: the Commanders have been very bad for a very long time, and 2019 was the worst of the worst.

After losing Kirk Cousins in 2017, Washington traded for Alex Smith from the Kansas City Chiefs and he was playing very well in 2018 before his horrific injury occurred sidelining him for the remainder of that season and all of 2019 as well. This left the Commanders with a serious hole at QB, one that they are essentially still looking to fill today. In the offseason leading up to the 2019 season, they acquired both Case Keenum (via trade) and Dwayne Haskins (via the draft) to compete for the starting QB role.

With Haskins’ lack of experience at Ohio State. it was not surprising that Case Keenum, a year removed from a conference championship appearance with the Vikings, won the job for Week 1. The schedule makers did Washington no favors early on, as four of their first five games were against playoff teams from the 2018 season, including the Super Bowl-winning Pats. However, with NFC East games sprinkled in you never know what’s going to happen, especially in Week 1.

The Commanders kicked off their season in Philly and to everybody’s surprise, including myself, came out of the gates sprinting. They went up 17-0 before the Eagles knew what had hit them, and the best part was that Terry McLaurin, a third-round rookie out of Ohio St. showed flashes of being a great weapon.

It’s worth noting that there was very high expectations for Washington’s defense as they had, what should’ve been, a top defensive line in the NFL behind Ryan Kerrigan, Daron Payne, Jonathan Allen, Montez Sweat and Matt Ioannidis. They also signed Landon Collins to bolster the secondary (oops), so the defense had a chance to be seriously special. So when they went up 17-0, I thought the team had a chance to be a surprise in the NFC East.

That notion did not last very long, and by the middle of the third quarter the Commanders blew their lead thanks, in part, to a vintage revenge game from old friend DeSean Jackson, and found themselves 0-1. Things would not get better any time soon and after back-to-back home losses Washington found themselves 0-3 in the standings for the first time since that horrible 2013 season.

In Week 4, things went from bad to worse as the Commanders went down early to a Giants team without Saquon Barkley, and decided to put an ill-prepared Dwayne Haskins into his first NFL action. It went about as bad as expected as he had only nine completions compared to three interceptions. Case Keenum had a concussion, so Jay Gruden gave the ball to Colt McCoy, who would be the Commanders third QB in the last two games, in Week 5. Following another loss to the Patriots, Washington found themselves 0-5, and said a not-so clean goodbye to head coach Jay Gruden. The Gruden firing was a long time coming, and offensive line coach Bill Callahan was given the duties of interim HC.

Weeks 6-11 were fairly uneventful other than the fact that Dwayne Haskins was officially given the starting quarterback role, after it was clear this was a lost season. Then, in Weeks 12 and 13, Haskins got his first home and road wins. Throughout all of this, Terry McLaurin and Derrius Guice (who would suffer a major injury and have legal trouble, and therefore never play for the team post-2019) showed why the Commanders could have a very scary offense in the future.

The Commanders would lose the rest of their games and finish with a record of 3-13. After the season, Bruce Allen was finally fired as their GM, and a new regime was put in place. Dan Snyder made a very competent decision by hiring Ron Rivera, and seemed to give him all the control which is something he had not done in the past. This, combined with the fact that Washington actually had their second overall pick, is why this season is rated above 2013.