{"id":833762,"date":"2026-03-25T22:52:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T22:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/833762\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T22:52:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T22:52:26","slug":"does-commanders-free-agency-splurge-equal-playoffs-in-2026-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/833762\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Commanders’ free agency splurge equal playoffs in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Does Commanders’ free agency splurge equal playoffs in 2026?<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Washington Commanders<\/a> were expected to take the league by storm in 2025 after Jayden Daniels led the franchise to the NFC Championship game in his rookie season.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

But due to injuries, Washington didn’t even win six games.<\/p>\n

Now, with the injury bug hopefully kicked to the curb, Dan Quinn’s team, which has been really active in free agency on the defensive side of the ball, appears ready to begin the NFC climb in 2026.<\/p>\n

But how far can this Washington team go?<\/p>\n

For NFL.com’s Judy Battista, the Commanders should be eyeing the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir regression last season was startling,” Battista wrote<\/a>. “With a free agency blitz, they remade their defense, bringing on Odafe Oweh, K’Lavon Chaisson, Leo Chenal, Amik Robertson, Nick Cross and Tim Settle. On offense, they got Rachaad White and Chig Okonkwo.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was only a year ago when the Commanders made a surprising run to the NFC Championship Game. These additions should at least make them competitive for a playoff spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

More:Analyst offers embarrassingly low bar to signal Jets turnaround<\/a><\/p>\n

Commanders hopes hinge on Daniels<\/p>\n

In truth, that is the same for every other starting quarterback, right?<\/p>\n

But for the Commanders, so much is built around Jayden and what he does well, and the offense needs him to bring it all together. Marcus Mariota was fine last season, but there is a clear ceiling.<\/p>\n

If Daniels can get past his injury troubles of last season and can play 17 games, Washington should at the very least be in the playoff conversation.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Does it all hinge on Daniels for Washington? It sure does.<\/p>\n

So, entering Year 3, no pressure, Jayden.<\/p>\n

More NFL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Does Commanders’ free agency splurge equal playoffs in 2026? originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[9165,427,7291,7,734,8738,100555,2892,11695,112,6,4998,1822,9342,8345,11306,855,111,2480],"class_list":["post-833762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-commanders","tag-amik-robertson","tag-commanders","tag-dan-quinn","tag-football","tag-jayden-daniels","tag-judy-battista","tag-k39lavon-chaisson","tag-leo-chenal","tag-marcus-mariota","tag-nfc-championship","tag-nfl","tag-nick-cross","tag-odafe-oweh","tag-rachaad-white","tag-rookie-season","tag-tim-settle","tag-washington","tag-washington-commanders","tag-washingtoncommanders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116292272127348923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}