I can almost promise this will not hold true. I'd almost be willing to put money on the fact that we will not end with the 31st ranked rushing attack in the NFL at the end of the year.
Agree. I was just listening to a prominent fantasy football guy on Sheehan who basically said Croskey-Merritt just isn't very good. OK, I'm not as high on him as you are, although he was one of my favorite late-round guys in that draft. I don't see a burgeoning superstar, but I do see a guy who can be an average NFL back. And an average back should look above average with Jayden in the backfield. As that PFF article pointed out, Jayden's presence makes the entire running game more lethal. And if you're not sold on Croskey-Merritt, Rachaad White is a pretty good fallback. I also like everything I've heard about Henry's camp, and I thought he looked good in preseason game one.
I don't love hearing that the running game hasn't looked great in camp, but I wonder how much of that is Allegretti not being there. I've also been looking at the position-group rankings from ESPN, NFL.com, Sharp, PFF, etc., and collectively they seem to view this roster as one of the worst in the NFL — in some cases, damn close to dead last. I think they're wrong. I don't think the opposite is true either; this isn't some secretly stacked roster. To me, it's probably a slightly below-average roster overall. But with a healthy Jayden, I think that's good enough to make a run.
I don't love the RB room, but IMO it's good enough. I don't love the TE room, but IMO it's good enough. I didn't think the WR room was good enough before Diggs; now I do. The offensive line is probably the group that concerns me the most. But that's really the larger point: I don't think most of these groups need to be great. They just need to be competent because Jayden can elevate everything around him. I am ok with the idea of Jayden elevating -- I just thought it was too much of it on the WR corp.
Defensively, I think the pass rush is going to be good. And it's sort of the defensive version of having a good QB: when you've got a dude at quarterback, it's pretty hard for your offense to completely suck. Same thing on defense — if you can consistently wreck the quarterback, it's pretty hard for the defense to completely suck. And I think this team is going to be able to get after the quarterback.
If the national types are right and this really does end up being a garbage, bottom-of-the-NFL roster, then Peters absolutely should be on the hot seat IMO. Three years is enough time to expect something better than one of the league's worst rosters especially with all the draft picks and cap room he inherited. In that scenario, I'd give him 2027 to fix it, but that's it.
If the roster is what I think it is — slightly below average — then that fits my overall view of Peters so far:
he's been a below-average GM. As a dude, in terms of leadership, aura, likability, culture, etc., he rocks. But as a personnel evaluator and roster builder? So far, below average.
I can live with three below-average years if I believe the GM is learning from his mistakes and the arrow is pointing up. And I do think that's happening with Peters. I think this offseason showed some recognition of where he screwed up previously and a greater willingness to attack weaknesses instead of hoping everything breaks right.
But if I'm wrong and the national guys are right — if after three offseasons Peters has actually constructed one of the worst rosters in football — that's a completely different conversation. At that point, the pedigree, personality and good vibes don't matter much. You can't be three years into a rebuild with a franchise QB and still have a bottom-five roster. If that's where Washington is at the end of this season, Peters should enter 2027 with his job very much on the line.
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