Jan. 17, 2026, 7:03 a.m. ET
“When you don’t have players, it’s hard to run an offense.”
That was how Joe Theismann summed up the 2025 Washington Commanders‘ offensive performance. Theismann the former Washington Redskins quarterback with the team from 1974-1985, was guest with Ben Standig on Standig’s Last Man Standig podcast episode.
“You don’t have continuity, you don’t have consistency, it’s hard building forward,” continued Theismann. The former Super Bowl winner (SB XVII) said he thought it was best to go with David Blough as offensive coordinator, rather than hire outside the organization, because it would provide Washington’s starting quarterback with continuity. That is, whatever changes there are, you can bank on them. Blough is going to keep many things the same for Daniels to make the transition as easy as possible in that first season next year.
“I think the hiring of David is exciting and interesting. It brings a new perspective. But look, I think Dan Quinn did an incredible job having this football team fight at the end of the season. Every game, they weren’t quitting; they didn’t mail it in. They fought their rear ends off, we just didn’t have the people able to do the things we needed to win football games in a consistent manner.”
Theismann of course was referring to how the team played once Quinn took over the defense and how in those last games the offense was going with backup Marcus Mariota and then the third quarterback Josh Johnson was taking all of the snaps the last two and one half games of the season.
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Theismann did provide some of his NFL experience that he can certainly provide, and he was as always when it comes to the Redskins, now Commanders, the eternal optimist. But hey, who likes to listen to a pessimist?