The Washington Commanders are 1-4-1 at their bye week. Worse yet, they lost top wide receiver Terry McLaurin to a season-ending torn patellar tendon.
Yet as head coach Dan Quinn's squad heads into rest and reflection, two major reasons suggest a playoff push could still be on the horizon.
The Commanders' schedule is about to get a lot easier. And, more importantly, the NFC East is dreadful.
Commanders must pounce on winnable schedule after their bye
Even with the second-worst record in the conference, the Commanders are only two games out of first place in their division. And if the team makes the necessary adjustments over their week off, that deficit could shrink quickly.
When the Commanders return to the field, they'll play the Philadelphia Eagles at home without quarterback Jalen Hurts, who is done for the year with a scary blood clot situation.
After that, they'll play the biggest disappointment in the NFL — with the only possible exception of the team they share a stadium with — the Los Angeles Rams.
If the Commanders win both of those games, they're right back in business.
And it'll only get better from there.
They'll face the New York Giants on the road, who they should've beaten at home. They'll host the ever-inconsistent Cincinnati Bengals. They'll visit the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans, two teams they should beat regardless of the location. Then they'll host the Houston Texans and Atlanta Falcons, both currently sub-.500 operations.
Commanders must hope the wins come and the NFC East continues to implode
The Commanders should win at least five of those games. They can probably win all of them if they bring their best — admittedly, a big if.
But they might not even need to.
The Eagles, as mentioned, are reeling with injuries. The Giants are a paper tiger who only lead the division because of their last-place schedule. And the Dallas Cowboys are just an underachieving mess.
For two straight weeks, not one single NFC East team has won a game, even though two of them played each other in Week 5. This division is almost as bad as it was in 2020, when Washington started the season 2-7 and rallied to make the playoffs at 7-9.
This Commanders team is substantially more talented than that one was. That squad's regular-season quarterbacks were Dwayne Haskins, Kyle Allen, and a one-legged Alex Smith. Its second-leading receiver was Cam Sims.
This team has Jayden Daniels under center. Even without McLaurin, Stefon Diggs, third-round rookie Antonio Williams, and Treylon Burks are still here. And first-year linebacker Sonny Styles is putting together a Defensive Rookie of the Year-caliber campaign just as Chase Young did then.
All the Commanders need to do is stay relatively healthy the rest of the way and let the rest of the NFC East keep imploding. Once they pick up one or two wins, which they'd better be able to do with this stretch coming up, they'll have momentum and vibes on their side.
It looks bleak now. But that can change, and the bye week is the perfect time to refresh and map out the road ahead.
We'll see if the Commanders have what it takes to climb their way back.
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