{"id":21571,"date":"2022-03-04T00:27:04","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T05:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=21571"},"modified":"2022-03-04T00:27:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T05:27:19","slug":"taking-stock-2022-washington-commanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/nfl\/taking-stock-2022-washington-commanders\/","title":{"rendered":"TAKING STOCK: 2022 WASHINGTON COMMANDERS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheFirstMan\">BY ADAM GREENE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After sneaking into the NFL playoffs with a losing record in 2020, the Washington Nameless Ones couldn\u2019t repeat in 2021. A lot of that was thanks to the retirement of Alex Smith and the injury to his replacement, Ryan Fitzpatrick. While former AAF quarterback Taylor Heinicke played fine, and certainly proved he deserves a job in the NFL, the lack of a starting caliber signal caller, more than any other hole in the team\u2019s roster, kept the WFT from truly competing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Value Taking The Milwaukee Bucks as 6.5-pts Favorites Against Suns? | BetOnline All Access\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1zxs7qY8TN0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The offseason has come with a new nickname, the Commanders, and plenty of off the field controversy. Washington has survived that part for years, as Dan Synder is the cancerous owner that just keeps on giving. Ron Rivera, at least, is the right man to run the football side of things and, if you have a head coach, you have half of what you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WASHINGTON<\/strong><strong> COMMANDERS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2021-22 Record: <\/strong>7-10, third place NFC East<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Playoffs: <\/strong>N\/A<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NOW WHAT?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the Commanders, it\u2019s all about what they can do at quarterback and lucky for them they have options. Even luckier, they\u2019re in the NFC which could make dealing for a Deshaun Watson and the Houston Texans significantly easier. Not that they\u2019re particularly tough to deal with when it comes to trades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>FREE AGENCY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Commanders are sitting on $30.354 million in available cap space, so if they don\u2019t pull the trigger on a Watson trade, and considering their specific scandals, they might not want the heat associated with the former Clemson quarterback\u2019s alleged proclivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Outside of Watson, there are plenty of options. Washington might be one of the few NFC teams the San Francisco 49ers might be willing to deal with in a Jimmy Garoppolo trade. This is also the best QB free agent class in years, with Marcus Mariota, Mitchell Trubisky, Cam Newton, Jameis Winston, Teddy Bridgewater and Ryan Fitzpatrick (again) are all guys that can win games in the NFL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of their own potentially exiting free agents, right guard Brandon Scherff is the only one that should be a high priority to keep. They need to add at least one WR2 in free agency and a guy like Sammy Watkins, Chris Conley or Byron Pringle could fit that spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DRAFT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/nfl\/2022-nfl-mock-draft-1-0\/\">In my mock draft<\/a>, I had Washington selecting Kenyon Green, offensive lineman out of Texas A&amp;M with the No. 11 overall pick. There\u2019s a chance the Commanders might be the first team to turn in a quarterback card, but with this class, and a team that could be a winner this season, it would be smarter to wait until Round Two and nab a guy like Sam Howell out of North Carolina or Desmond Ridder from Cincinnati.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NFC EAST<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two teams from the NFC East made the playoffs last season for the good it did either of them. Both the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles made a quick exit in the postseason. Neither have a firm grasp on either spot and Washington, with Rivera calling the shots, has the coaching edge. If they can get manageable quarterback play, they too can be soundly defeated in the opening round of the playoffs in the 2022-23 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Follow Adam Greene on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheFirstMan\">@TheFirstMan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Connect with us our socials on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/betonline_ag\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/betonline_ag\/\">Instagram<\/a> for the latest sports news, viral moments, betting odds and the occasional memes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY ADAM GREENE After sneaking into the NFL playoffs with a losing record in 2020, the Washington Nameless Ones couldn\u2019t&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":15787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21578,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21571\/revisions\/21578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}