One of the biggest and most important things in professional sports is handling success, especially for teams, such as the Washington Commanders, who have been starved of it for years.
With a new-look front office, a new head coach, offensive and defensive coordinator, a talented Jayden Daniels, and a host of decent free agents, the Commanders have exploded out of the gate .
Scoring 29.2 points per game on offense (ranks third), and going from the worst offense in football last year (30.5/g) to the 11th in 2024 (21.0/g), that is a quick turnaround to where the franchise, which has only had one playoff appearance since 2015, is almost assured of a postseason berth nine weeks in thanks to a 7-2 record.
That kind of success can easily go to player’s heads, particularly those who haven’t experienced winning like this before.
But head coach Dan Quinn says his team isn’t looking through rose-colored glasses.
“I’m looking to find ways to grow, and a lot of that honestly comes back to tell the truth Monday, learning our lessons, how they apply to us,” Quinn said . “No question about it, we’re grateful for the wins, but we’re not ever blinded by them, making sure there’s plenty of stuff to get better at and dig in and go for it again, and we’ll certainly do that each and every time.”