The Commanders 2026 preseason opener against the Dolphins went pretty much as planned. Washington gave up an opening drive score, mainly with the second-team defense against Miami’s starters. They locked in after that and didn’t allow any more points for the rest of the game in a 20-7 victory at Northwest Stadium.
What really caught my attention was the lack of sloppy play — which is usually prevalent in the preseason opener. Although new coordinators David Blough and Daronte Jones kept things pretty vanilla, the execution was good and I didn’t see a lot of bad mistakes. To me, this was the biggest win of the evening.
Below are my Studs and Duds of the game, followed by some notes.
Fatman Allen/Robert Henry Jr.
The rookie running back duo turned out to be the highlight of the evening for Washington. Robert Henry Jr. showed vision and burst while Fatman Allen showed patience and wiggle. Both men found the end zone in the opener.
Martin, playing safety with the second-team defense, and looked the part of a starter against Miami. He had a beautiful tackle on Dolphins running back De’Von Achane on the first drive and got an interception on the sideline early in the second quarter. He was around the football quite a bit early in the game.
Shy Tuttle and Rickey Barber showed well throughout the evening. The duo combined for eight total tackles, a sack and a tackle for a loss to go along with multiple pressures.
Rookie sixth-r0under Matt Gulbin played a really nice game at center, albeit against the Dolphins second- and third-string defensive line. He did a nice job working to the second level to pick off Miami defenders and his anchor in pass protection looked really good.
Quarterback Sam Hartman doesn’t look like he belongs on an NFL field. He lacks accuracy and zip on his passes, and his pocket-presence is below-average. However, he does have a potential career as a hair model.
Playing with the starters, Newton looked anything but one! He was blown off the ball by Miami’s starting offensive line and looked slow and out of place.
Julian (Not-so-)Good Jones
Washington’s starting center (by default), looked overwhelmed against the Dolphins defense. He showed a poor anchor in pass-pro and didn’t do a good job moving bodies or getting to the second level.