Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Game Preview – WAS at PHI

Posted September 9th, 2026 | No Comments »

he 2026 season kicks off Sunday at 4pm when the Commanders take on the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles are favored by 5.5 points and all the pressure will be on them. They should be a Super Bowl contender. Washington is expected to be a bad team that will end up with a Top 10 pick.

The lack of pressure on the Commanders might allow them to play freely and be at their best. If they can pull off the upset it would be huge for any success they hope to have. Jayden Daniels is coming off a down year and will be very driven to show the world he’s back to being the star QB and playmaker from 2024. While the Commanders may have an edge with some intangibles, the Eagles clearly have tangible advantages. Better roster. Better coaching staff. Healthier team. Advantage Eagles.

The focus will be on the Eagles offense. Can new coordinator Sean Mannion unlock the passing game and get it to be more consistent? Going against Washington’s secondary probably isn’t a bad way to break in a new offense.

Washington allowed a passer rating of 104.0  last season. It doesn’t look like they were able to make serious upgrades to the back end of their defense so coverage could be problematic this season as well. The safeties are Jeremy Reaves and Nick Cross. Reaves is underrated, but still not a difference maker. LB Sonny Styles has the potential to be very good in coverage, but he’s a rookie and will have some growing pains.

A good pass rush would be a big help to the back end of the defense. Edge rushers Odafe Oweh and K’Lavon Chaisson have been banged up. They practiced on Wednesday and should play. We’ll have to see if their performance is limited at all. Dorrance Armstrong will miss the game due to suspension so they will be a little thin up front.

The Eagles will focus on running the ball. Saquon Barkley had a great summer and the offensive line is as healthy as it will be all season. Expect the Birds to pund the rock on Sunday. Barkley usually has good success vs WAS.

A big day from Barkley will be the key to the game. It would allow the Eagles to pass when they want to and from a position of strength rather than need. If the OL is back to 2024 form, the offense will be worlds better than last year.

The Eagles defense will be the best unit in the game. They were #1 in 2024 and Top 10 last season. They added talent in the offseason and could end up being the best defense in the league. They should have a significant advantage over the Washington OL.

That wasn’t a great group a month ago. Since then they lost Tunsil to a major injury and that means they will have mediocre to bad players at 4 of 5 OL spots. That’s not ideal when facing an Eagles front that is loaded with talent. The only real question for Philly is the status of Jonathan Greenard. He practiced on Wednesday and it feels like he’s trending to play in the opener.

Washington does have a key X-factor in the person of Jayden Daniels. He is a mobile QB with dynamic ability when he’s at his best. The Eagles can win up front only to see him use his legs to make plays. They got that lesson when Daniels beat them 36-33 back in December of 2024. Vic Fangio has probably studied the heck out of that tape and will hopefully have more answers this time around.

The Commanders aren’t afraid of this matchup. They think the line will have improved with practice time and that having a gameplan will make a substantial difference in the overall offense. They also really believe in Daniels and his ability to be a special player. This matchup will be a good test for both teams. Washington has better weapons than people realize. If the line can just be okay, the offense has a chance. The Eagles defense has talented playmakers at every level. They just need to get on the field in a game and show what they can do.

This is a game the Eagles should win. They are the better team. Nick Sirianni is 5-0 in season openers. The Commanders are breaking in two new coordinators and using new schemes on offense and defense. This will be a tough matchup for them. Crazy things do happen in the NFL, especially early in the season, so there are no guarantees. That’s why they play the games, as the old saying goes.

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It will be interesting to see who is active on Sunday and how they are used. Lots of options for Sirianni and his staff.

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Know Your Enemy – Jayden Daniels

Posted September 8th, 2026 | No Comments »

Washington QB Jayden Daniels had an amazing rookie season. He threw for 25 TDs and finished with a passer rating of 100.1. He ran for 891 yards and 6 TDs. Daniels led the Commanders to a 12-5 record and they made it all the way to the NFC Championship. Then they ran into the buzz saw known as the 2024 Eagles.

Daniels got a ton of praise for his instant success. He was a Top 10 QB on all the lists. Some had him as Top 5. He was the guy that looked like the future of the league. And then 2025 happened.

Oops.

Daniels led Washington to a win in the opener and played pretty well. They lost to the Packers in Week 2 and Daniels got hurt. He came back in Week 5 and led the team to a win over the Chargers. That was the last game Daniels won. He finished the season 2-5 as a starter. He suffered multiple injuries and missed most of the season. When he was “healthy”, his play wasn’t the same. He only threw 8 TDs. His completion percentage fell to 60.6. He only ran for 278 yards and 2 TDs. Daniels went from dynamic to meh.

One of the key concerns when Daniels came out was if he could handle the physicality of the NFL. He’s got a tall, thin build. He is a mobile QB and likes to run aggressively. That play style leads to some big hits and tough moments. Last year it led to injuries. He had knee issues, hamstring problems and finally an elbow injury that ended his season.

What do we expect heading int 2026?

Daniels will be playing in a new offensive system. Washington promoted David Blough to be their OC. He’s installing an offense that he learned from Ben Johnson while they were together in Detroit. That means Daniels will be going from the offenses he ran in college to the college-like offense Kliff Kingsbury used in 2024/2025 to a true NFL offense that uses huddles and under center looks. That won’t be the easiest transition.

Daniels also might be changing the way he plays. He wants to use his legs because he understands they are such a special weapon, but he also wants to be more judicious because he doesn’t want to get hurt. That is a challenging balance. It will be interesting to see how he plays. Complicating matterts is the fac that the offensive line really stuggled this summer. If they can’t protect him very well, Daniels will have to run.

There is no question that Daniels is still a very talented player. But QBs can be erratic, good and bad. CJ Stroud was great as a rookie and then struggled in the ensuing seasons. Sam Darnold struggled early in his career and then led Seattle to a Super Bowl win last year. QBs need the right situation around the to be at their best. They need the right coach/system. They need the right combination of protection and weapons.

Is Blough the right coach? Does Daniels have a good enough OL? Does he have the right weapons? We can only speculate right now because there are so many unknown factors. Washington made a lot of changes this offseason. Having LT Laremy Tunsil out for the season really hurts. Outsiders think Washington will be bad. Coach Dan Quinn is optimistic. That might be blind optimism based on the lack of top talent.

This will be an interesting and important season for the Commanders. They aren’t likely to win a lot of games, but they would love to see Daniels play well so that they can know he’s the guy to build around going forward. I think Daniels will be more good than bad, but he’s a young QB coming off an injury and learning a new system. There are going to be ups and downs. Will that affect his confidence? Will that change his style of play at times? We will learn a lot about Daniels this season.

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Daniels having to open the season against a loaded Eagles defense isn’t ideal for Washington, especially behind a questionable OL. The one advantage is that the Eagles won’t have good game tape to study. Washington limited their playbook in the preseason. The Eagles faced the Lions offense last year so they know the basic system, but they don’t know about Blough as a play-caller or how the offense will look with Daniels running it. I think it is fair to say he’s just a tad different from Jared Goff.

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