WFT4Life

Category: Commanders

  • The R Word and Why the Sports Media Needs More Diversity

    One of the reasons we started blogging on the Commanders is because we heard a lot of nonsense when reading articles about the Commanders. We honestly feel like a lot of this nonsense wouldn’t exist if there were a more diverse group of writers, editors, sports personalities, etc… working at some of these media outlets.

    The USA Today’s Bryan Manning recently wrote this disaster of an article, where he was discussing Jonathan Allen’s comments on the team name, Allen stated they will always be the R word to him. This was disappointing in many ways, but what’s even more comical about the situation is that Manning claimed that using the derogatory slur would endear Allen to Washington fans. While there is a part of the fanbase that longs for the old name, and maybe even a majority, there’s certainly a large constituency that’s glad to be done with it. Manning writes “That should further endear Allen to Washington’s fans.”

    Well Bryan, WFT4Life has some bad news for you, some of us fans hate the old name and are glad it’s gone, we’re not cool with racial slurs. Some of us didn’t always hate the old name, but as we were educated on its meaning and history, we evolved. We threw out our old gear and paraphernalia, we chose to not participate in something that was hurtful and or disparaging of others. We’re not alone in that evolution, you can look up former players, Washington all time greats like John Riggins, Darrell Green, etc… and read their well thought out opinions on the name change etc…

    Manning wasn’t alone though, some of the local sports radio personalities, Cody Shook and Grant Paulsen from 106.7 the fan, chimed in quoting Allen, with Paulsen calling Allen’s love for the slur the “Highlight of the night.” That sounds like an awful night, but if racial slurs are the highlight of your evenings, we don’t want to know where you spend your free time.

  • Washington Commander’s Next Head Coach Eric Bieniemy

    So the media successfully sold Adam Peters, he’s the new general manager for the Commanders. Peters comes from a successful organization and despite some fairly average drafts these past several years, his reputation and interview earned him the Commanders top spot. Peters next big hurdle will be finding a coach. The Commanders have already submitted requests to interview the following candidates:

    • Lions OC Ben Johnson
    • Lions DC Aaron Glenn
    • Rams DC Raheem Morris
    • Ravens AHC/DL coach Anthony Weaver
    • Ravens DC Mike MacDonald
    • Cowboys DC Dan Quinn
    • Texans OC Bobby Slowik

    One candidate in particular has received significant praise in the media and has been rumored to the be team’s favorite candidate, Lion’s OC Ben Johnson. I’m not sold on Johnson, I’m not down on him either, but I do believe the Commanders might already have the best candidate for the job in the building. While Johnson has been praised by the media, Bieniemy has been praised by Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, Brian Mitchell, … I’m guessing you can see where this is going. I’m comfortable saying when Bieniemy gets his opportunity, he’s going to be successful, hopefully he doesn’t become the latest Commanders meme.

  • Comparing the Draft Classes of Adam Peters and Ron Rivera

    Adam Peters is the hot GM this year, everyone is talking about him, he’s the best GM on the planet. The 49ers are one of the best teams in football right now, so it’s a bit difficult to argue otherwise, but we’re going to look at the numbers anyway.

    CategoryPeters GradePeters RegradeRivera GradeRivera Regrade
    2020 (PFF) B+BBA-
    2021 (PFF)BC+A-B
    2022 (PFF) (NFL)BBC+C
    GPAB (3.1)B- (2.7)B (3.0)B- (2.9)
    Draft Analysis Rivera and Peters Initial Grades and Regrades

    Looking at the data it appears Peters had the better initial grades and Rivera had the better regrades. Depending upon how you look at it, either grade could be more relevant. I’m actually of the camp that the initial grade, biases excluded, is the more important grade, that said the initial grades won’t recognize unconventional wisdom.

  • How the Criticism of Ron Rivera Has Distanced Itself from Reality

    Ron Rivera is under fire, some of it is deserved, the critiques of how his team started the year are justified. I don’t hold him accountable for the team’s performance after the Sweat and Young trades, but he’s certainly responsible for the poor performance to that point. That said when you have a bad season as a coach the narratives around you get dumb, frustrated fans fed and led by media outlets looking for clicks and attention arrive at some profoundly crazy conclusions.

    Narrative: Ron is a terrible coach because he didn’t know what he had in Sam Howell. The logic is that he’s a terrible talent evaluator for not recognizing the genius of Sam Howell sooner. This situation is eerily similar to Bill Belichick having Tom Brady on the bench until a Drew Bledsoe injury, Anthony Lynn having Justin Herbert sitting behind Tyrod Taylor until he punctured his lung, Dick Vermeil having Kurt Warner on the bench until Trent Green was injured, Kyle Shanahan having Brock Purdy on the bench until Jimmy Garoppolo got injured. The only difference being that all of those quarterbacks had extended streaks of success, while Howell appears to have fizzled out some, so the criticism appears to be even more misguided.

    Narrative: Ron is a terrible evaluator of talent, probably one of the worst to ever pick players. Here’s a draft analysis done by PFF two years after the 2020 draft and the Commanders got an A-. Here’s a 2021 draft class regrade from PFF, their initial grade was an A-, their grade a year later was a B, not spectacular but hardly terrible. Here’s a regrade of the 2022 NFL draft after the 2022 season and the Commanders were ranked 25th, not good, but certainly not the worst draft and there’s reason to believe Jahan Dotson will flourish with a more consistent quarterback improving this grade. Finally the 2023 draft class, which it’s really too early to grade, particularly with the Commanders in full tank mode, was graded average by PFF (B), ESPN (B), and the NFL Network (C). So no, Ron isn’t the worst talent evaluator in league history, in fact he’s not even close.

  • Riggo’s Rag Calls Commander’s Players Losers

    In typical fashion when a sports team is down, the vultures show up with their fake outrage and tired propaganda. Riggo’s Rag published this hit piece where they accused some players on the team of having a losing mentality, because allegedly some of the players asked Ron to take back some power given to Bienemy this offseason. The allegations are basically accusing players of not wanting to work hard and rejecting Bienemy because he’s too tough on them. While it’s easy to jump on players and accuse them of being soft, lazy, and entitled, that’s also a pretty lazy and ignorant analysis of the situation.

    The truth is Riggo’s Rag doesn’t know what’s going on at practice, and yes you can legitimately push a team too hard, to the point where it negatively impacts performance. The Dallas Cowboys and their Super Bowl winning coach have had several light practices these past couple weeks and they looked pretty good this past week. Meanwhile the Patriots and Bill Belichick have had an awful season in spite of his reputation for tough practices and no-nonsense organization. The media used to call it the Patriot’s Way and constantly glorify the results of having no fun, but as it turns out the secret to their success appears to be more closely correlated with Tom Brady than the no fun practices.

    Anyway we would suggest the guys at Riggo’s Rag worry about their own work ethic as they’re significantly trailing their rivals at hogshaven.com in site traffic. Maybe they just need to get rid of their losing mentality and work harder.

  • The Deafening Silence Around the Montez Sweat and Chase Young Trades

    It’s been four weeks since the Commanders traded away their two star defensive ends. Since those trades the Commanders pass rush has fallen off a cliff and along with it any hopes of turning around the defense’s performance for the year. We’ve taken keen notice how little the trades have been discussed by the local media, Commander’s fan blogs (Hogs Haven, Riggos Rag, 106.7 the Fan, NBC Sports Washington), etc… Apparently the guys who have opinions on everything related to the team, including the effect of ping pong tables in the locker room, have nothing to say about two major moves that have dramatically changed the outcome of the current season and future seasons to come.

    Since the local media refuses to discuss the monumental trades, we did some digging to find some national perspective. Here’s what we found.

    With Jack Del Rio gone, is Ron Rivera next?

    At this point, we don’t know what will happen. We do know that owner Josh Harris is “disappointed and frustrated” by the team’s record. We also know that the Commanders traded away two key defensive players, Chase Young and Montez Sweat, which naturally will contribute to a more disappointing and frustrating record.

    I keep hearing a lot of talk about accountability, well maybe someone should look at the guy who traded away two young stars, who are significantly improving their new teams, got very little in return, and has caused our defense to fall off a cliff.

  • Checking in on the Montez Sweat Trade

    Checking in on how the Montez Sweat trade is going for the Bears.

    How Montez Sweat Has Changed the Bears’ Pass Rush

    “Montez Sweat arrived in the Windy City at the trade deadline and instantly made an impact on the Chicago Bears’ defense. In four games, Sweat has generated 2.5 sacks and 18 pressures. But his impact goes well beyond the individual stats. Sweat’s presence forces opponents to send help his way, creating one-on-one opportunities for other Bears defenders.“

    The Bears sure do appear to have found a gem in Sweat. I wish the Commanders could acquire some talent like that, maybe one day.

  • Commander’s Defensive Coordinator Jack Del Rio Fired

    Jack Del Rio was fired along with his defensive back coach Brent Vieselmeyer. We took a look back at his numbers over the years. Del Rio’s first season with the Commanders was 2020, the defense finished top five in yards per game and points allowed, it regressed in 2021 to 22nd in yards per game and 25th in points per game, then rebounded to 3rd and 7th in 2022. 2023 has been an absolute dumpster fire, with the exception of being 6th in sacks prior to the Sweat and Young trades, there hasn’t been much to appreciate.

    Despite the insistence of some of the local media and fans, Jack wasn’t a dinosaur running an out of date defense that didn’t work in the modern NFL. He actually ran a base package that included the Buffalo Nickel, a hybrid position that is explained well here. While Del Rio was up and down, he obviously was a capable coach, and his firing appears to be more about holding someone accountable than his ability to get the job done. It’s also worth noting that whenever the local media covers the defense they’re eerily quiet about the organization trading away its two best pass rushers. Perhaps that would be a good question for the next press conference, who decided to trade them, and do they still think it was a good decision? I can’t imagine Pittsburgh trading away TJ Watt, Cleveland trading Myles Garrett, SF trading Bosa and expecting the defense to improve, and while neither Sweat or Young may have been on that level, certainly the two of them combined would be comparable if not more impactful.

  • The Commanders Fall to the Giants

    The Washington Commanders fell to the Giants 31-19 this past Sunday. It marks a two game slide for the Commanders who are 1-2 since they traded away their star defensive ends Sweat and Young. In a move reminiscent of the Daniel Snyder era, ownership interfered with football operations and traded away the star defenders. The local media and fanbase seem to be giving the Harris group quite the pass on this move, whether it’s because they’re jubilant to have anyone but Snyder or afraid to call a spade a spade isn’t clear, but it hasn’t worked out well. Despite being a top 10 team in pressures and sacks with Young and Sweat, the team had one sack in two games going into Sunday. You can read more about that here, SI did a pretty good job explaining it.

    The Giants meanwhile were 1-5 and there were rumors they would offload their star running back, Saquon Barkley, however they didn’t do that and it paid off handsomely this past week. Saquon was brilliant with 140 total yards, 14 rushes for 83 yards, 4 receptions for 57 yards and two touchdown receptions. Despite having their third string quarterback starting, the Giants were able to take advantage of wild blitz schemes designed to create pressure and generate enough points to win.

    The Commanders played awful, they had 6 turnovers on the day and simply looked defeated. One has to wonder how much of that can be attributed to the psyche of the team. While the media and fanbase haven’t talked about it much, when you trade away great players, you’re basically giving up on the season and apparently that message from the top has come down to the players. Losing is a disease and it’s contagious, that’s another storyline that we’ll write about soon.

  • Don’t Fire Ron, Fire Ron’s Haters Out of a Cannon.

    Look, I’m not 100% in love with Ron either, but the delusion is running strong with Commanders fans. We’ve seen this before fire Bill Callahan, fire Jay Gruden, fire Mike Shanahan, fire Jim Zorn, fire Joe Gibbs, fire, fire, fire…

    You see what we need to do to win is fire our coach, that will fix it. We’re going to hire a GM, this mythical savant, who knows football, they’re going to come here, hire a great head coach, another mythical savant, and then life will be good again. Especially when this mythical savant hires a defensive coordinator, another mythical savant, and we will dominate the competition. Don’t forget an analytics guy, because everyone knows that nobody is better at coaching football than nerds. I mean Ron’s been here for four seasons now, and he hasn’t fixed anything, well except for having the highest winning percentage of any football coach since Joe Gibbs 16 years ago.

    I can see the job listing now. Wanted awesome head coach to come to a franchise that fires coaches every four years, must love analytics and nerds, and be willing to put up with ownership scorching you on Twitter after every loss.

    I’ve got a different idea, maybe we could admit that although we’re not happy with their current performance, Ron knows how to coach football, Jack Del Rio certainly knows how to coach defenses, and EB has been one of the premier offensive coordinators in the league. We have a good coaching staff, certainly more proven than any staff that’s going to be available this off-season and let’s give them some space to keep working.