'We Let Stuff Slip’: What Commanders players say must change in 2026
At the NFL Combine, Adam Peters and Dan Quinn emphasized structure and availability. Inside Washington's home locker room, players pointed to execution, rhythm and reclaiming their edge.
During the final stretch of the 2025 season, Last Man Standig surveyed 29 Commanders players with six open-ended questions. Players answered candidly, in their own words. This is the fourth installment.
INDIANAPOLIS — Neither Adam Peters nor Dan Quinn used the word overhaul. They didn’t talk about tearing anything down.
Instead, following an injury-ravaged season, the Washington Commanders’ general manager and head coach spoke Tuesday at the annual NFL Scouting Combine about availability being a “premium.” About how quickly players can learn the new systems under new coordinators. About surrounding Jayden Daniels so he doesn’t have to carry everything himself.
“It’s not just on Jayden,” Peters said of protecting the young quarterback. “It’s on all of us — scouting staff, coaches, scheme. It’s a team effort. But certainly it is a premium to keep him healthy.”
Peters discussed adaptability — how quickly installs translate to execution, for example — and the versatility sought under new defensive coordinator Daronte Jones. Quinn emphasized run-pass balance under first-time offensive coordinator David Blough.
At the NFL Combine, Peters and Quinn emphasized structure and availability. Inside the locker room, players pointed to execution, rhythm and reclaiming their edge.
When asked in the waning days of a frustrating 5-12 season what needed to change to get back on track in 2026, players, with minor exceptions, did not call for a philosophical shift before the coordinator changes.
No one demanded sweeping roster churn (though that’s coming naturally with half the roster entering free agency and the front office striving to get the league’s oldest roster younger). They pointed to the small stuff — the swings inside games, the rhythm that injuries disrupted, the identity that dulled.
And one veteran admitted, plainly:
“We let stuff slip a little.”
