NFL Offseason Rankings: Where Do Commanders Land?
ESPN has recently released its full list of offseason rankings. In relatively little surprise, the Washington Commanders come in at No. 26 -- meaning they had the seventh worst offseason in the league.
Despite quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick's season-ending injury in the 2021 season opener, the team has made an aggressive push forward for who it believes could be a franchise quarterback: Carson Wentz.
At his best, Wentz was a legitimately MVP contender, nearly winning the award in 2017 if not for an untimely ACL tear against the Los Angeles Rams.
In his six years in the NFL, Wentz has passed for 20,374 yards, 140 touchdowns, and 57 interceptions at a completion percentage of 62.6 percent.
In his career-best 2017 season, Wentz was showed off electric playmaking ability, passing for 3296 yards with a fantastic 33-to-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Another positive move for the club was replacing guards Brandon Scherff and Ereck Flowers with new signees Andrew Norwell and Trai Turner, which will allow them to build on an already above-average running game behind Antonio Gibson.
Consequently, the most significant negative of this offseason for the Commanders may be the amount of capital they gave up for Wentz.
The team swapped second round picks with the Indianapolis Colts (equivalent to the 36th pick in the draft) while also giving up a 2022 third-round pick and conditional 2023 third-round pick. On the surface, it does look like Washington overpaid for the aging quarterback.
As a whole, the perceived success of this offseason depends mainly on Wentz's production; if Wentz can come even remotely close to his 2017 production, the narrative on this offseason for the Commanders will quickly shift and be looked at in a much more favorable light.
