New Commanders

The NFC East proved to be one of the NFL’s divisional powerhouses in 2022, taking up three of the conference’s playoff spots and not a single team with a losing record.

Now, each squad enters the ’23 season with improvements to their rosters on both sides of the ball.

On the latest episode of “Inside The Birds, Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher are joined by Greg Cosell to break down each team in the NFC East. Up first is the Washington Commanders.

Washington Commanders QB Sam Howell is expected to make a leap in first season as a starter

Running Backs

Greg Cosell: “They drafted Brian Robinson a year ago, they have Antonio Gibson, they drafted Chris Rodriguez from Kentucky. All of these backs are inside, power backs. My sense is that they are going to want to be a physical running football team that works off of that with the pass game.”

Charles Leno

Cosell: “He is not a power player because he is not that big as left tackles go in this league. Every once in a while, he struggles on pass protection. Leno is a key piece here, because he has played in the league and had some success. They probably would like him to be more of a physical player.”

Sam Howell

Cosell: “I think Sam Howell has attributes to be a starting quarterback. He throws a very deep ball, we know he’s mobile…He played one game last year where he actually looked like he belonged. He threw one bad pick, but that is to be expected. I feel pretty good about his growth within the context of this offense. Clearly with the structure of this offense, they are not expecting him to throw the ball 40 times a game.”

Chase Young

Cosell: “If Chase Young can become what everyone knows he can be based on his traits, then they are in a situation where they have a four man pass rush that can be really good and therefore they don’t have to create and scheme pressure. Then you can speed up quarterbacks and have more players in coverage.”

Emmanuel Forbes

Cosell: “When you draft a corner where they drafted him, you expect him to start. His tape was really good. The only question is he is an outlier because he weighed only 166 pounds at the combine. But he’s a really good player and in college he played a lot of press man coverage and a lot of off coverage zone. He comes to the Commanders with a ton of experience in playing all kinds of coverage concepts.”