Improvements you want to see in 2025

[burgold]

Where does Washington need to get better or be stronger? I think there are obvious answers like we need to be better at setting the edge defensively against the run or we need better offensive line play especially in the run game. I won't argue any of those, but I thought I would start on how I would like Jayden Daniels to improve.

I'd like Jayden to improve in his RPO decision making. To be specific, I want him to trust his running back a little more and hand it off more than he did in 2024. Daniels took too many hits in exchange for a two or three yard gain. Now, running is part of what makes Daniels amazing, but I think he needs to run less often. I think he needs to hand it off a little more.

Agree? Disagree? Where do you think this team needs to improve to take the next step to go from a surprise Cinderella team to a consistent winner and Super Bowl threat?

 

[Command The Best]

In no particular order :

• Improvement in the Running game (tried of seeing JD5 be the leading rusher) in what 13-14 games this season. Need vast improvement here

• more of Luke McCaffery and Ben Sinnott in the offense, imho only getting 18/168 from McCaffery and then 5/28 1TD and a catch on 4th down on the fake punt in the NFC Championship game from Sinnott, for where they were drafted that productivity needs a huge improvement.

• running defense, still kinda of mind boggling that against better to upper RB talent they were gashed all season and for huge yardage too.

• a steady kicking game, whether or not that’s Gonzales or someone else, we need a guy who is at least 90-95% reliable

• get JD5 under center, need to implement him under old school schemes under center and not in the pistol or shotgun. I wonder on many cases of this could have been a hamper on the basic running game.

 

[Chris 44]

To kind of piggy back off what you said Burgold I would like to see us get stouter in short yardage. 3rd and 1 should not seem like such a hugely difficult "hold your breath endeavor" where you end up relying on JD. I think there were times where BRob certainly could get the short yardage in a cloud of dust especially early in the season, but there were plenty of times where the O line failed to move the D line and next thing you know its 4th and 3 and JD has to pull some magic out of his ass.
On a side note Logan Paulson was talking about Coleman how he would make a really good interior linemen. Coleman, Biadasz and Cosmi on the interior sounds pretty good.

 

[RedWolf]

Less bitching on the board? 🤣

 

[AngryChuckT]

Pressure on the opposing QB. Too many instances of opposing QB having all day on 3rd and long and then converting.

 

[burgold]

Less bitching on the board?

Bitching should be mostly reserved for the game chat

 

[burgold]

• get JD5 under center, need to implement him under old school schemes under center and not in the pistol or shotgun. I wonder on many cases of this could have been a hamper on the basic running game.

I second the under center concept. Didn't we see this at the beginning of the year. They really moved away from it hard.

 

[Command The Best]

I second the under center concept. Didn't we see this at the beginning of the year. They really moved away from it hard.

They got away from it very early and didn’t see it again…. If anything gives a different look imho

 

[Hogwallop]

only improvement there is after this year is get to the super bowl

 

[Anselmheifer]

A lot of good ones here.

I’d love to see Mikey Sainristil back in the slot. Sign or draft a starting caliber outside corner.

Looking at the Ravens and Eagles, I can’t help but think about how much better this team would be with an actual dangerous and reliable running game. We need some combination of upgrades in the trenches and a RB. Jayden may be able to cover up some OL failures in the passing game, but that was much less true in the running game.

We need more team speed on both sides of the ball. Wagner is great, but we don’t have a LB that’s really equipped for sideline to sideline pursuit of speedy running backs. Wagner is no longer that guy and that’s not Lucy’s forte either. And we need speed at RB, receiver, and TE.

 

[burgold]

I do agree we need at least one more homerun threat. Maybe that could be Dyami, but he has never been a guy to keep DC's up at night. To be honest, I think that home run threat could be a runner or a receiver.

The o line exceeded my expectations. I expect Coleman to get better. I fear Wylie regressing to the mean. I like Alegretti's steadiness. Biadazz was a bad ass, but he broke down at the end of the year. So, I'm not sure if improving the line means getting better depth or new starters. If I had my druthers, I think I'd get a new right tackle and use Wylie in the Lucas role. At the start of the season, I might bump him inside as Cosmi recovers. After that, I'd like to see better depth. Scott surprised me with how will he stepped up at guard, but I think we can do better at all our back up positions (though Lucas really is a very good fill in starter.)

 

[HTTR]

 

[HTTR]

Myles Garrett Dreams aside, my answer is the trenches. Even in today’s NFL, it still matters. Look no further than the two teams in the Super Bowl. So if I can only have two things this off-season, give me a stud edge rusher or DT and a solid O-lineman.

 

[Boone]

Everyone wants to name Saquon Barkley as the reason the Eagles are in the Super Bowl. But Saquon Barkley played for 6 seasons in New York where they had just ONE season above .500.

He's a great player and he had a great season, but Saquon Barkley isn't the reason the Eagles are in the playoffs.

Philly is great in the trenches. I hate Philly. But they have built maybe the best combination of offensive and defensive lines in the league. They dominate line play on both offense and defense with rare exceptions. Their OL makes a pretty good Jalen Hurts look outstanding. They make a very very good Saquon Barkley look all world. And their DL makes rushing attacks all over the NFL look anemic.

It's tempting to say Washington needs a top 10 CB, an elite RB like Saquon, a marquee WR to bookend with Terry McLaurin. And maybe we do need those things.

But more than any of that, we need to build dominating interior offensive and defensive lines. That's the way you win year after year in the NFL.

 

[SkinsFTW]

Defense needs to improve big time in order for us to ever have a chance at winning games without JD having to be superman. Run defense, pass defense. Pass rush without sending a blitz, etc

Mahomes is great but his defense made it so easy for him this year that he could play average for 3 quarters and not need to do too much in the 4th in order to pull out a win.

The 1 time his D gave up 30 he lost.

 

[heisenberg]

a steady kicking game, whether or not that’s Gonzales or someone else, we need a guy who is at least 90-95% reliable

At least the most accurate kicker in nfl history.

Setting the bar high i like it. 🤣

 

[burgold]

At least the most accurate kicker in nfl history.
Setting the bar high i like it.

Hey, if our kicker isn't giving it 115% that's not good enough.

 

[TakeCommandRollTide]

Fix the trenches on both sides.

If we can improve our OL that would improve our run game and give us more chances to get explosives in the passing game.

If we fix the DL that fixes the Run D a good bit.

Then we just need to get lucky and have Lattimore get back to being a good CB doesn't even need to get back to his peak.

Plus maybe draft a speedy WR or something and I think that would put us in shape to get back to the NFC Championship Game

 

[Commander Wraith]

Yeah, it’s about improving the trenches first and foremost for me.

My impression is the RO/RPO stuff is too easy to defend, perhaps in part because we use it so much. Crash the unblocked edge and a linebacker scrapes over the top to fill the void. On RPOs, our lineman don’t know if they’re run or pass blocking and can’t get downfield. Ertz and our receivers outside of Terry mostly weren’t going to get open quickly, and with safety help vs Terry, that corner can focus on playing tighter (including closer to the LOS, providing run support). Essentially, it felt like teams could stop the RO with 5 or 6. But that’s just my impression, I’d be curious what more knowledgeable posters think.

Would like to add a G and T, as well as trying to land a quality G/C to backup Biadasz. I expect a G should be an easier get than T, maybe even with our 1st rounder?

One of the easier/cheaper improvements would be adding a quality starting corner (FA) and depth (via mid-round draft pick, re-sign Igbinoghene or similar?).

Our pass rush was actually fairly decent by the numbers. You could (fairly) argue the blitz % vs pressure/sack/QBKD % was a problem though. Of course, then there’s our run game issues, which is likely due to a combo of dline talent and scheme (having to blitz/issues at corner/lighter boxes).
Overall, feels like we could improve here via FA, the draft (possibly good options in Rds 1 and 2), or both (my preference being the latter).

Quality weapons matter obviously, and I think we’ll use resources there, but in my view, I think that sorta becomes the cherry on top and probably requires some luck/development in conjunction with FAs at the Zaccheus/Brown level…

 

[Faithful Fan]

I could see bringing in a kicker. Kicking has been a perennial problem here, and we went through how many kickers last year?

Austin Seibert was kicking 90% for us and broke a team record so maybe he’s the answer. Not sure what happened with his injury though, and he had some bad moments.

I like Zane Gonzalez the way I like Nick Novak for his heroics, but I don’t think he’s the one.