The Washington Commanders' 2025 season will finally wrap up when they visit the Philadelphia Eagles in what's likely to be a battle of backups. It will be a merciful ending to a nightmare campaign.
A little bit of everything has gone wrong for Washington this year. Injuries have been the primary culprit, along with the collapse of a roster that was never built to be sustained. The Commanders have also struggled with many of the little things, and it's all added up.
One of those is pre-snap penalties. And it's made a massive difference.
Commanders have shot themselves in the foot way too many times in 2025
Washington has committed 30 false start penalties this season, leading the NFL. The Commanders are also tops in the league in drives that resulted in no points following such an infraction, with 17.
According to the league, this year the Commanders have committed 30 false start penalties, directly leading to 17 stalled drives, both of which are the most in the NFL. Factoring in 21 giveaways on offense as well, Washington has essentially handed over 3.5 games' worth of…
— David Harrison (@DHarrison82) December 31, 2025
It's not ideal, to say the least.
Individually, rookie right tackle Josh Conerly Jr. is the biggest offender with six of those penalties. At the same time, tight end Zach Ertz accounted for five before his season-ending ACL tear. The Commanders' 2025 first-round pick is tied with four others as the most penalized player in the NFL, with 13 flags called against him.
There's no telling how costly these infractions have been for Washington. A false start is only worth five yards, but the difference between a 1st-and-10 and a 1st-and-15 is massive. It forces coaches to adjust their play-calling and makes it much harder to run the ball. It can completely change a drive.
Not to mention, penalties like these are instant momentum-killers. Especially for an offense like Kliff Kingsbury's, which is predicated on going no-huddle and staying in rhythm, one negative play can knock everything out of sorts.
It's happened far too often to the Commanders this year. It also usually spiraled into even more mistakes as the offense finds itself backed into a corner.
You can blame coaching to some extent for the poor discipline, but ultimately, this is just a lack of execution by players.
Conerly is a rookie; we can cut him some slack. However, Ertz and left tackle Laremy Tunsil have both been culprits who should know better.
All in all, it's just a microcosm of the way Washington's season has gone. Where they were winning within the margins a season ago, they're now losing because of careless mistakes.
It's something that will need to be addressed significantly this summer.