3 Commanders who must silence their haters vs the Jaguars

1. Carson Wentz

Like Gibson and Samuel, Wentz’s season ultimately won’t be determined by this specific performance. However, football fans everywhere remember how he performed in the Colts’ regular-season finale vs Jacksonville last year.

Wentz’s offensive line did him zero favors — and the Colts’ defense was utterly shambolic — but he committed two awful turnovers, an interception and fumble, that were totally avoidable and put Indianapolis in a terrible position.

Fair or not, the Colts’ late-season collapse and Wentz’s tumultuous Eagles departure have defined his career. The 29-year-old is now five seasons removed from finishing third in MVP voting (he would’ve finished first if not for a season-ending knee injury) and three years removed from his last playoff appearance in 2019.

We maintain the idea that Wentz has performed just fine since then, but the maddening turnovers and failure to deliver in big games trump the fact that he’s been a borderline top-15 quarterback in the league throughout his career.

Throwing for 400 yards and four touchdowns would be great, but has long as Wentz plays a clean brand of football and leads Washington to a Week 1 victory over an “inferior” opponent, his haters will have no choice but to hit the mute button.