Commanders Open 2026 With Questions to Answer Up Front

Pre-game Thoughts

The 2026 campaign kicks off on the road for our burgundy and gold against an NFC East rival that has been sitting on top of the division for a second. It would be fair to say that the home team will be feeling more pressure out of the starting gates, as they are favored to win, and worse—they expect to win handily. The Commanders travel north on I-95 with more questions than answers, but Dan Quinn and his staff will have one of their healthiest rosters (because it's Week One) to try and get some of those questions answered.

Both inside and outside the Beltway, folks are lining up to see if the Washington offensive line is ready for prime time. We all feel comfortable with Sam Cosmi and Josh Conerly on the right side, but the other spots remain...unsettled. Given that injuries along the offensive line are inevitable, it is imperative that we get everything we can get out of our starting unit early this season. Getting Brandon Coleman and Chris Paul in sync on the left side as quickly as possible will ease up how much we lean on that right side and will also help with our most baffling offseason drama, which was, of course, at center. It's the Nick Allegretti show there, and after a preseason with limited snaps, we will be finding out about the middle of our offensive line on the fly.

Adding to the importance of having a successful transition to Allegretti at center is the fact that new offensive coordinator David Blough will be moving franchise quarterback Jayden Daniels under center more often...a lot more often. A high-producing signal-caller covers up a lot of deficiencies around him, but this offensive line is going to need to gel quickly to give Daniels the chance to carry his team.

The biggest questions on the defensive side of the ball have been addressed through offseason moves in both free agency and the draft, but again, we won't know until we're facing live fire. Odafe Oweh fits the bill as a stud pass rusher, and both Sonny Styles and Leo Chenal upgrade our linebacking corps. Nick Cross (DeMatha alum) on the back end of the defense provides us with both physicality and smarts, as the veteran safety looks to shore up both the passing and rushing defense.

It would be hard to give up more yards than we did last season, but we have 17 games to work on limboing under that bar.

In this space on Monday, we will look at team stats, player snap counts, and key performance indicators for team defense and offensive efficiency.

Players to Watch

Jacory Croskey-Merritt

‍After a very quiet preseason, Bill will tote the rock behind the aforementioned offensive line. The sophomore running back looks to build on his 800-yard rookie performance, and there are plenty of league experts out there who are using one of their "breakout candidate" cards on Bill.

Tim Settle

‍In his second tour of duty with the Commanders, the run-stuffing specialist will be asked to help put opposing offenses in passing situations by limiting early-down rushing yards. Again, this was a—problem—for us last year, and Tim Settle (along with Daron Payne and Javon Kinlaw) is being tapped as the solution.

Antonio Williams

‍The addition of Stefon Diggs certainly impacts the amount of targets we can expect will go toward our rookie wide receiver, but it could also be said that the duo of Terry McLaurin and Diggs could occupy enough defensive resources to allow Antonio to win his one-on-one matchups. The success of our passing game will almost certainly depend on Williams making weekly contributions in both deep and intermediate patterns.

I predicted a win on this week's show, so I can't/won't back away from that here. Rookie kicker Drew Stevens could end up being the difference for us.