Not all schedules are created equally. While the Washington Commanders navigated their fourth-place schedule a year ago to reach the NFC Championship Game in shocking fashion, it will not be as easy of a road next fall. Washington will not only play a second-place schedule, but will have to be ready for an onslaught of one NFC East rival after another down the stretch. How bad is it for them?
Well, Washington will have to play the division rival Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys back-to-back in Weeks 16 and 17 over a five-day span. The Philadelphia game will be on Saturday, Dec. 20 with the Dallas game being on Christmas Day, Thursday, Dec. 25. Even more concerning, one would expect for the Commanders to play a third NFC East game in a row to finish up their season schedule.
It remains to be seen if the Week 18 date will be vs. Philadelphia again or the New York Giants. I would be stunned if the NFL did them dirty and had them play Dallas back-to-back, home-and-away to finish the season. My best estimation, based on what we know about Washington's Week 16 and 17 games, is that it will be a road date at either the Giants or potentially at the Eagles. It might be the latter...
All the while, Jayden Daniels will need to be playing his best football when it matters most next year.
Washington Commanders must survive NFC East onslaught in December
While it is not a complete rarity to see teams play the bulk of their division rivals late into the season, outside of the customary final week of the campaign, of course, there are three things working against the Commanders in this scenario. That would be each division rivals' familiarity with one another, the speed of which those games are played at, and the fact all will be played in bad weather.
You are asking for Daniels and the rest of the Commanders to essentially play three outdoor games in a row at high speed vs. the two-to-three teams who hate them the very most. Washington's turf is not kind to sinew. The same principle can be applied to what the Giants have to navigate over at MetLife. The sheer workload and pressure facing Daniels and his team may have dire consequences.
Nobody wants to wish injury on anyone, but these are the type of situations where the unrelenting schedule is just begging for it to happen. Washington is now in a place as a franchise where many of its former fans can return with a big ole smile on their face. Daniels is a boatload of fun as one of my favorite emerging star quarterbacks in this league. The NFL is asking a ton of him in this big spot.
The cream usually does rise to the top in the NFL, but we do not need to hurt our young stars like this.