The Washington Commanders were an elite rushing team in 2024. Washington finished in the top five of every major rushing category last season with rookie Jayden Daniels under center. Daniels led the Commanders with 891 rushing yards.

While Daniels helped set Washington’s rushing offense apart from anyone else, offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury’s scheme made it a lethal combination. This year, the Commanders kept four running backs on their 53-man roster, trading former starter Brian Robinson Jr. to the 49ers ahead of cutdown day. The presence of the seventh-round rookie Jacory Croskey-Merritt had Washington excited that its running game could take another leap forward in 2025.

During Sunday’s season opener against the New York Giants, the Commanders rushed for 220 yards in the dominant 21-6 win. Croskey-Merritt led Washington with 82 yards on 10 carries and a touchdown. Daniels chipped in with 68 rushing yards, while wide receiver Deebo Samuel had a 19-yard touchdown run. You also had terrific runs from Austin Ekeler and Jeremy McNichols.

When you consider that the Commanders also made serious upgrades to their offensive line, it’s fair to assume there will be more of these 200-yard days in Washington’s future.

Bill Barnwell of ESPN played a game of real or mirage from Week 1, with the Commanders’ running game as one of his topics. He believes that Washington’s running game is real and “really good.”

Here’s part of Barnwell’s analysis on Washington’s running game:

At different points Sunday, the Commanders faced second-and-16, second-and-19, second-and-21, second-and-14, second-and-17 and second-and-15. Daniels converted all of those series into first downs in two plays or less, and frankly, he didn’t seem particularly stressed while doing so.

The Commanders aren’t going to do that every week, but they also aren’t going to be backed up in second-and-forever as often. One way to avoid that is to lean more into their run game, which was excellent Sunday. Even leaving Daniels’ impact as a scrambler aside, Washington generated 0.2 EPA per designed run, the second-best rate for any offense during the afternoon slate. (The Dolphins generated 0.33 EPA per designed run, but they ran the ball only 10 times after quickly falling behind.) Doing this against a Giants team with a stacked defensive line and without their best interior lineman in Sam Cosmi is another good sign for the Commanders continuing on this track throughout the season.

While Daniels made an impact and Deebo Samuel took a pin/pull sweep 19 yards to the house for a touchdown, the most exciting runner of the day was rookie Jacory Croskey-Merritt, who turned his 10 carries into 82 yards and a touchdown. Croskey-Merritt’s touchdown and his four runs of 10-plus yards came on five different run concepts, which speaks to how diverse and difficult the Commanders’ run game can be to stop. He was clearly comfortable working out of the pistol and shotgun run game, which wasn’t always the case for Brian Robinson Jr., who was more efficient under center over his three years with Washington. Installed in Robinson’s role as part of a timeshare with Austin Ekeler, Croskey-Merritt looked entirely comfortable and capable of immediately stepping in as an above-average back.

There are several reasons to believe this is sustainable. One, did you watch them last year? And, if healthy, they should be better this year. Adding Laremy Tunsil to the offensive line was huge, and Washington doesn’t even have right guard Sam Cosmi back yet. Additionally, as long as Daniels is healthy and playing, the Commanders’ ground game will remain dangerous. Then, when you add in other aspects, such as Kingsbury’s creativity, Ekeler’s skill set, Deebo Samuel’s game-changing ability, or Croskey-Merritt’s burst, this could be an elite unit in 2025.