Washington Commanders' Roster: Worst in NFL?
Despite the excitement and optimism provided by new owner Josh Harris, new coach Dan Quinn and rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, most NFL experts are predicting an ugly season for the Washington Commanders.
At this point, we're just putting subjectivity on "ugly."
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After Yahoo! earlier this week placed the Commanders 29th in its training camp power rankings, now comes ESPN with its rank of all 32 NFL rosters. Where does Washington come in? 30th.
The "good" news: The Commanders' NFC East brethren New York Giants are projected to live in the same crappy neighborhood, ranked 28 by Yahoo! and 32 by ESPN.
With NFL training camps still a month away, ESPN is ramping up the hype by ranking every teams' roster. Taking into key categories such as account talent, age and production, they analyzed every team's strengths, weaknesses, starting lineup and depth and ranked them 1-32.
Not surprisingly, last year's Super Bowl teams are ranked No. 1-2 with the San Francisco 49ers slightly edging the Kansas City Chiefs. Rounding out the Top 5: Baltimore Ravens, New York Jets, Detroit Lions.
While acknowledging that the additions of every-down players Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu make linebacker Washington's best position, that "strength" can't overcomes the deficiencies along both lines.
"At least Washington threw some darts at offensive line during the draft," ESPN writes. "Edge rusher, however, is in transition after the team traded away Montez Sweat and Chase Young last season."
Quinn is expecting production from two of his former Dallas Cowboys players in Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler Jr.
Another blind spot for Washington's defense: Cornerback Benjamin St-Juste surrendered the most yards to opposing receivers in the league.