Washington Commanders: Most unpredictable team of 2022?

Why the Washington Commanders are the most unpredictable team for the 2022 NFL season

Every NFL season comes with surprises. We’ll see teams that were supposed to be good, flounder. Meanwhile expected bad teams might make a run for the playoffs.

There might be a surprise MVP candidate, while an expected one gets hurt or just flat out stinks it up. However, for the most part, people can usually get a good idea of how a team will perform in the upcoming season. The Washington Commanders might be the toughest team to predict in 2022 though.

Carson Wentz tends to put up decent numbers. But have you ever seen a quarterback that can look so good on a deep ball one play, placing it between two defenders for a perfect dime – just to overthrow a screen pass on the next? Because that’s the excitement he brings to an offense.

It’s fascinating to watch. And how long will he even be the starting QB? Could rookie Sam Howell take over at some point? Then you have a whole new field of “what ifs” going on.

Antonio Gibson had several games last season where he looked like one of the very best running backs in the entire NFL. He also had serious fumbling problems and plenty of games where he couldn’t get anything going on the ground.

The receivers should be great on paper. But Jahan Dotson is a rookie so nothing is guaranteed. You also have Terry McLaurin potentially playing with the contract situation over his head. Curtis Samuel barely played last season and when he did, didn’t look great.

After that, it’s sort of a crapshoot with Dyami Brown (who struggled with route running and drops his rookie year) and Cam Sims (who always seems to be on the verge of breaking out but has yet to do so) as the depth.

Logan Thomas was a great tight end in 2020. But the was his breakout year. 2021 saw him looking good, but injuries severely limited him. Will he be able to play like the star he was in 2020? Or will the 30-year-old with one good season and coming off an ACL injury take a step backwards?

Cole Turner is intriguing but as of right now he’s a fifth-round rookie tight end with at least Thomas (and possibly John Bates) ahead of him on the depth chart.

The offensive line for the Commanders has a few shakeups this year. Can Sam Cosmi build off a strong rookie year that saw him only play nine games due to injury? They lost star Brandon Scherff in free agency and cut Ereck Flowers.

Can additions Andrew Norwell and Trai Turner step up? What about incumbent Wes Schweitzer? Charles Leno had a great first year with the team and was rewarded with a nice contract.

He had a big year with the Chicago Bears a few seasons ago but struggled after they locked him up, so hopefully, history doesn’t repeat itself.

Chase Young is coming off a disappointing second season that ended with an ACL injury. Smart money is for a motivated Young to put up monster numbers. But there are a lot of variables that come with it.

And what about the rest of that defensive line for the Commanders? Can Jonathan Allen build off his career year? Will Montez Sweat finally, truly breakout? How will Da’Ron Payne play with everything going on around his contract? Speaking of that, what about his potential replacement rookie Phidarian Mathis?

The linebacker play is very much a major question mark. And the secondary isn’t miserable, but it could certainly use a few upgrades. Potentially bringing in cornerback James Bradberry would give them a nice boost.

This all equals a seriously interesting team. A quarterback who has played like an MVP in the past but that nobody wanted a couple of months ago. Is he even going to start for long or will a rookie take over?

What version of Antonio Gibson is going to show up every week for the Commanders? Can Dotson live up to his first-round selection? And is anyone else going to help in the passing game outside of McLaurin?

What is Logan Thomas exactly? Can the offensive line be stable? Can this insanely elite potential defensive line put it all together and lift up the rest of the defense? Meanwhile can the secondary find a groove?

There are so many questions on this team. It makes it impossible to predict how the 2022 season would go. I think if someone put out predictions and had the Washington Commanders winning 4-5 games there would be quite a few people that might agree with that.

On the other hand, if someone put out predictions that had Washington winning 11-12 games, quite a few people might agree with that as well.

We might be dealing with a very hot-and-cold team in 2022. One week, the Commanders might look like Super Bowl contenders against a good team. The next, we could see them flounder and lose to a team staring down a top-five pick. What will the final outcome of the season be though?

It should be fun seeing analysts try to answer that question for the next few months before the season starts.