The Washington Commanders entered the 2026 season with high hopes of returning to playoff form. But four games in, it's looking less than ideal.
Injuries are to blame (again) for much of the unraveling. However, the team also isn't getting the production it hoped for from several healthy contributors.
And one of them is just a broken record at this point.
Not for the first time, everybody talked themselves into a Ben Sinnott breakout over the offseason. And through four games, he has fewer receiving yards than 2024 draft classmate Brandon Coleman.
Coleman, who plays left tackle, isn't supposed to receive passes.
Ben Sinnott's offseason talk rings hollow after nothing has changed with his Commanders role
This year was supposed to be different for Sinnott. Kliff Kingsbury was to blame for the 2024 second-round pick not getting involved, or so he said. Now, with the aging Zach Ertz gone and a "real offense" — his own words — under rookie play-caller David Blough, the tight end was going to show what he was truly made of.
About that.
Sinnott has caught one pass for six receiving yards this season. That's fewer than both John Bates and Colson Yankoff, Washington's additional backup tight ends behind free-agent signing Chig Okonkwo.
He's been semi-productive as a blocker. Still, that's not what anybody is focused on with someone like Sinnott, who was taken at No. 53 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft.
At this point, Sinnott has no more excuses.
If multiple coordinators aren't making Sinnott a priority option, it reflects on the player. Washington needs more from him, especially when tight-end production overall has been sorely lacking over the opening four games of 2026.
Ben Sinnott may never become the player Commanders hoped for
Okonkwo is shaping up to be one of Washington's most disappointing offseason signings so far, with only four receptions for 21 receiving yards through the two games he's played. He could still turn it around, but he was never supposed to be in such a critical position.
Sinnott was.
He was drafted as a player who would initially back up Ertz and later carry the torch from him as Washington's tight end of the future. Okonkwo was then signed after the Kansas State product didn't do enough to earn the staff's trust in such a role during his first two seasons.
It's a letdown across the board.
Blough has had impressive moments in his young play-calling career, but after his mentor Ben Johnson's success with tight end-heavy sets in Detroit and Chicago, fans expected Okonkwo and Sinnott to be big pieces of the puzzle for Washington.
It hasn't happened.
As for Sinnott, it may be safe to say it never will.
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