3 things we learned from Commanders Week 2 preseason loss to Chiefs

The Washington Commanders‘ Week 2 preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs was the definition of a snooze fest. Well, the first half had some highlights, but they largely featured Patrick Mahomes buying himself time in the pocket before eventually locating a wide open receiver in the secondary.

Nobody cares that Washington lost the game. The big bummer is the performance was so lackluster that there wasn’t much to feel good about. The starting offense only got a couple drives and didn’t make any big plays. The starting defense, meanwhile, gave up big play after big play while Mahomes was in.

There wasn’t much to learn from the Saturday afternoon game at Arrowhead, but these lessons stood out and feel pertinent moving forward.

3 things we learned from Commanders loss to the Chiefs

3. Taylor Heinicke Is Still QB2

Most Commanders fans are enamored with Sam Howell, who single-handedly brought Washington back from the dead against Carolina with 145 passing yards and two rushing touchdowns.That led to some buzz that Howell took reps with the first-team offense in practice this week, but ESPN’s John Keim threw cold water on those rumors.

As much as we love the idea of Howell leapfrogging Heinicke on the depth chart, the fifth-round pick has a lot of developing to do. There’s no reason to expedite that process and Heinicke reminded the Howell Hive (is that a thing?) he’s still the backup by slicing up the Chiefs’ second-team defense.

That doesn’t mean Howell doesn’t have the higher ceiling or superior arm talent, but Heinicke is one of the league’s top backups and one week of preseason was never going to see him supplanted by a fifth-round rookie.

Let’s put this conversation on ice for the time being.