NFL Win Totals: Commanders Better Than .500?
In an NFC East that produced three playoff teams a season ago, the Washington Commanders will face an uphill battle as they attempt to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
CBS Sports believes that the Commanders will even struggle to top their over/under of 6.5 wins in 2023, although he does acknowledge that quarterback Sam Darnold remains an unknown:
"Beating a very sad commodore here but there are some wild-card teams this year," CBS Sports writes. "What if Sam Howell is good??? I've been propping him up and will keep doing so and it's still hard to see a great path moving forward for Washington with how poorly the schedule flips for them."
To be fair, the article projected the Commanders to finish 6-11 in 2023, so it's not as though they are drastically under the 6.5 total.
While Howell had some nice moments in a Week 18 win over the Dallas Cowboys, it is fair to wonder why he didn't play until the final week of his rookie season if the organization was so bullish on him. Some rookies aren't ready to start Week 1. But as the Commanders played musical chairs with Carson Wentz and Taylor Heinicke at quarterback in 2022, it is a bit strange that Howell didn't get a chance to play a few weeks earlier if he had impressed in practice.
But with a new ownership group, head coach Ron Rivera, general manager Martin Mayhew and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy's best bet to make things work in Washington is for Howell to click. If they bottom out in 2023 and end up in position to draft a quarterback in 2024, Joshua Harris and company may very well bring in their own regime.
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