{"id":911142,"date":"2026-06-06T01:57:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T01:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/911142\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T01:57:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T01:57:34","slug":"where-did-commanders-land-in-espns-football-power-index","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/911142\/","title":{"rendered":"Where did Commanders land in ESPN’s Football Power Index?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was a big week for the NFL. While June 1 is often a date for teams to cut veteran players in order to spread salary cap hits over two years, we saw two massive trades this week. The Los Angeles Rams<\/a> acquired superstar pass rusher Myles Garrett<\/a> from the Cleveland Browns<\/a>. That one was a surprise.<\/p>\n

The other big trade, not so much. The Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> traded disgruntled star wide receiver A.J. Brown<\/a> to the New England Patriots<\/a>. This move was in the works for what felt like a long time. Brown wanted out; he wanted to play for the Patriots, and the Eagles were happy to move him.<\/p>\n

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The Rams were already considered a top Super Bowl contender before acquiring Garrett. Now, almost every analyst has Los Angeles<\/a> as the Super Bowl favorite. Seth Walder, an NFL analytics analyst for ESPN, recently revealed the latest Football Power Index<\/a>, which ranks all 32 NFL teams. The Garrett move put the Rams firmly at No. 1. Last year’s Super Bowl champion, the Seattle Seahawks<\/a>, came in at No. 4.<\/p>\n

Where were the Washington Commanders<\/a>?<\/p>\n

ESPN’s FPI has Washington ranked at No. 21<\/p>\n

These ratings change weekly once the NFL season begins, based on how each team performs in all three phases.<\/p>\n

Washington finished 5-12 last season. The Commanders completely overhauled their defense this offseason, adding edge rushers Odafe Oweh<\/a> and K’Lavon Chaisson<\/a>, and revamping the linebacker corps with first-round pick Sonny Styles<\/a> and Leo Chenal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Offensively, the Commanders haven’t made huge moves. The biggest move was signing former Titans tight end Chig Okonkwo in free agency. Washington tried to make a play for free-agent receivers Alec Pierce<\/a> and Romeo Doubs<\/a> before bringing back Dyami Brown<\/a> and signing Van Jefferson<\/a>. It did use a third-round pick on receiver Antonio Williams<\/a>, who is expected to play a significant role as a rookie.<\/p>\n

Washington is counting on a bounce-back season from quarterback Jayden Daniels<\/a>. The Commanders also have new coordinators on offense (David Blough<\/a>) and defense (Daronte Jones). So, for now, they are a team of mystery, which could explain their lower ranking.<\/p>\n

As for how the NFC East ranked in ESPN’s FPI:<\/p>\n

ESPN explained how the Football Power Index is calculated<\/p>\n

FPI’s preseason predictive ratings are primarily based on win totals from the betting market in conjunction with each team’s schedule — along with factors such as the difference between a team’s starting and backup quarterback and a special teams rating that incorporates specific kickers. We use these ratings to simulate the season thousands of times, with the results forming our projections.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Washington Commanders: Where are they in ESPN’s Football Power Index?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This was a big week for the NFL. While June 1 is often a date for teams to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[8694,4994,6959,54,427,257,22531,4894,12,7,23970,24291,734,100555,2892,1014,58,1304,249,56,6,1822,109,3995,261,2239,5431,855,111,2480],"class_list":["post-911142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-commanders","tag-a-j-brown","tag-alec-pierce","tag-antonio-williams","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-commanders","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-david-blough","tag-dyami-brown","tag-espn","tag-football","tag-football-power-index","tag-fpi","tag-jayden-daniels","tag-k39lavon-chaisson","tag-leo-chenal","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-myles-garrett","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl","tag-odafe-oweh","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-romeo-doubs","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-sonny-styles","tag-van-jefferson","tag-washington","tag-washington-commanders","tag-washingtoncommanders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911142","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=911142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}