Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Washington Commanders Week 2 NFL Power Rankings Roundup

Throughout the 2023 NFL season, we will compile a consensus NFL Power Rankings that averages the rankings of all 32 NFL teams.

Below you will find a Week 2 roundup for the Washington Commanders in our consensus 2023 NFL Power Rankings.

ESPN -- Rank: 21

Best debut performance: CB Emmanuel Forbes
Week 1 stats: 3 tackles, tackle for loss, 1 pass defensed

None of Washington's newcomers made a tremendous impact, but Forbes, their first-round pick (16th overall), played a solid game. He handled his assignments well, didn't bite on some double moves, kept his eyes in the right place in zone coverage and drove well on the few passes thrown to his man. On his TFL, he showed good recognition and quickly sped past a lineman headed his way and made the tackle on a run. -- John Keim

NFL.com -- Rank: 21

It wasn't the start Sam Howell and the offense wanted, especially in terms of pass protection. Turnovers, penalties and sacks were huge bugaboos in Week 1 against a rebuilding Cardinals team, yet Washington escaped with a four-point edge. That's worrisome, but not yet a travesty. The offensive line, Howell and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy all can share some blame for the pass-pro mistakes. The Commanders' defense showed it can take over games, but asking for that every week likely won't fly for very long.

CBS Sports -- Rank: 14

Sam Howell had some rough moments against the Cardinals, but he did enough to pull out a close victory. That offensive line had some major issues.

USA Today -- Rank: 26

Sam Howell became Washingtons's seventh different Week 1 QB1 in the past seven seasons ... and did little to dispel doubts there might be an eighth new face in 2024.

The Athletic -- Rank: 16

The curse is lifted. In the first game this century not under Dan Snyder's ownership, the Commanders turned two Cardinals fumbles in the fourth quarter into 10 points, and Ron Rivera gave new owner Josh Harris a game ball in the locker room. (Even though we're overreacting, we don't think that's going to be enough for Rivera to stick around into next year.)

FOX -- Rank: 27

Probably a bit closer than they'd have preferred against likely the NFL's worst team, but 1-0 feels especially important when you're making an ownership change. It feels noteworthy that Sam Howell committed two turnovers that led to 10 Arizona points — but also led his team on two fourth-quarter scoring drives to win the game. You take the good with the bad, I guess.

Yahoo! -- Rank: 21

It's hard to have a more underwhelming Week 1 win than Washington had. There were no standouts and nothing that looked great. The Commanders were in serious danger of losing to a bad Arizona team at home deep into the second half. It was a win, and you don't turn those down, but Washington is going to have to be much better to keep winning.

PFT -- Rank: 20

Good news, they won. Bad news, they might not be much better than the Cardinals.

Previous updates:

More Washington Commanders pages:

Check out more of our content:

Keep track of our site's updates: (1) follow us on Twitter, (2) like us on Facebook and/or (3) subscribe to our newsletter.

Posted by at
Labels: ,