Commanders star reveals exact moment 'everything' fell apart

Deebo Samuel pointed to the win over the Los Angeles Chargers as the unexpected turning point before an 8-game losing streak defined the 2025 collapse.

Dec 7, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Washington Commanders wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (1) takes the field to practice before the game at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images | Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

ASHBURN, Va. – The Washington Commanders suffered injuries and struggled with uninspired coaching decisions throughout 2025, ultimately leading to a literal reversal of their 2024 12-5 regular-season record and a deep playoff run.

Following a season that was filled with winning moments and amazing experiences like the Commanders’ Hail Mary win over the Chicago Bears, and following an impressive win over the Los Angeles Chargers early in the season, the team went on an equally stunning losing streak that nobody saw coming.

“Nah, not at all,” Washington receiver Deebo Samuel said via WUSA9 in his end of year conversation with local media when asked about how much he could have seen the collapse coming at the time.

“Everything…just kind of falls,” after that win, Samuel recalled. In fact, the Commanders would go on to lose eight in a row following their decisive 27-10 win over the playoff-bound Chargers squad. 

Oct 5, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) celebrates with wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (1) after a touchdown against the Los Angeles Chargers in the second half at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

A stunning 8-game losing streak

With that win being their third of the year by early October, Samuel and his teammates won just two more in the final three months of the season.

Daniels' injury compounds the slide

It was hard to watch, as a fumbled snap against the Bears led to an almost equally unlikely defeat to the same team the Hail Mary had conquered the year before. That was then followed by a 22-point loss at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys that would cost quarterback Jayden Daniels two more games, leading straight into a 38-14 beatdown at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks; the game where the young star dislocated his elbow.

If 2024 was the gift that kept on giving until NFC Championship weekend, 2025 was the leftover coal we didn’t know we deserved.

Through it all, however, the ‘brotherhood’ in Washington never wavered, and all the way down to the final day, while watching the players clean out their lockers for the long offseason ahead, you’d have never thought you were surrounded by a defeated team. Because you weren’t. 

Sep 21, 2025; Landover, Maryland, USA; Washington Commanders outside linebacker Von Miller (24) and Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Geno Smith (7) pose for a picture after their game at Northwest Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Von Miller wants to return

Veteran outside linebacker Von Miller believes as much, telling us that players are so much more than their wins and losses, even if that’s what the media and public judge them by. And because of that, he wants to spend perhaps his final year in the NFL right back with his Commanders teammates. The same ones who only won four games all year.

Things happened this year. "A lot of our core guys went down, and with those things happening, it's kind of hard to fight back," Samuel said at the end of the year. But they did that as much as they could, fought back. 

We don’t know if Samuel will be back in 2026, but we know that he, like Miller and all the rest of the Commanders, never stopped fighting. Sure, it’s what they get paid to do, but that fight comes in many different forms.

What we saw out of Washington, even in a season like this, was the brand of fight-back that a future Hall of Famer would be proud to be associated with, and as much as it can at this stage of the offseason, that provides the beginnings of a path toward reversing course again; finding its way back to more of what we saw in 2024, than we did in 2025.

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