{"id":894809,"date":"2026-05-18T18:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/894809\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T18:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:27:16","slug":"poll-results-why-commanders-fans-expect-improvement-in-washington-2026-nfl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/894809\/","title":{"rendered":"Poll Results: Why Commanders fans expect improvement in Washington 2026 NFL season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">The\u00a0results are in.\u00a0<a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nfl\/teams\/washington\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Commanders;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Commanders&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Commanders<\/a>\u00a0fans are optimtistic about a return to\u00a0prominence\u00a0after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/was\/2025.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:a disappointing 5-12 campaign;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;a disappointing 5-12 campaign&quot;}\" class=\"link \">a disappointing 5-12 campaign<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Does that mean we all expect a return to the NFC championship game? Probably not.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Our poll results\u00a0indicate\u00a0that\u00a0Commanders\u00a0optimism is appropriately measured, with a belief <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nfl\/teams\/washington\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Washington;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Washington&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Washington<\/a> will be better than last season\u2019s\u00a05-12 disaster without assuming\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0headed for a division crown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">That\u2019s\u00a0appropriate, even with all the work general manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/48092511\/commanders-2026-free-agency-tracker-offseason-moves-signings-contract\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Adam Peters did this offseason through free agency;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Adam Peters did this offseason through free agency&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Adam Peters did this offseason through free agency<\/a> and the NFL draft. Front office personnel rarely get <a href=\"https:\/\/overthecap.com\/salary-cap\/washington-commanders\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:the kind of petty cash Peters had this offseason;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;the kind of petty cash Peters had this offseason&quot;}\" class=\"link \">the kind of petty cash Peters had this offseason<\/a>, so his actions say a bunch. He went younger and faster, mostly with players on the ascent (Hi, Odafe!\u00a0Hi,\u00a0Leo!)\u00a0who\u00a0will be around for some\u00a0time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Then Peters backed those moves up with a strong NFL draft highlighted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hogshaven.com\/washington-commanders-draft\/411049\/the-washington-commanders-select-sonny-styles-lb-ohio-state-in-the-first-round-of-the-2026-nfl-draft\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:the Sonny Styles pick at No. 7 overall;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;the Sonny Styles pick at No. 7 overall&quot;}\" class=\"link \">the Sonny Styles pick at No. 7 overall<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">That\u2019s\u00a0why optimism pervades right now, though it should increase\u00a0into\u00a0the future.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">As of this story\u2019s\u00a0publication\u00a0we got 210 votes on how much better the Commanders would be. A total of 56% believed Washington would battle for the\u00a0division. A smaller group (32%) believe the Commanders would improve by a few wins, putting them into the\u00a07-9 win\u00a0range. And a small number believe Washington will flip the script and win the NFC East.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Where do you stand?\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0not too late to\u00a0make your voice heard. Say it loud in the poll or article comments below:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0results are in.\u00a0Commanders\u00a0fans are optimtistic about a return to\u00a0prominence\u00a0after a disappointing 5-12 campaign in 2025. Does that mean&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[4141,120381,427,7,6,120382,2239,8563,855,111,2480],"class_list":["post-894809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-commanders","tag-adam-peters","tag-cash-peters","tag-commanders","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-poll-results","tag-sonny-styles","tag-the-commanders","tag-washington","tag-washington-commanders","tag-washingtoncommanders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116596994419617300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894809","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=894809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}