Poll questions!!
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NFL. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Washington Commanders fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in regular email surveys.
In this week’s Reacts survey, we’re asking two questions.
Question 1
I saw someone write some rather gushing praise of the Commanders performance against the Jets in the first preseason game, followed by a statement of renewed optimism and hope for the coming season based on the preseason showing. The rather dry response was, “Imagine if they had won”.
People see what they want to see, I’ve heard. After a reportedly rough outing in last week’s joint practice in Florham Park, some Commanders fans saw Jayden Daniels’ first NFL drive in a competitive game at Met Life Stadium — comprising 11 plays, 70 yards, a 42-yard pinpoint completion to a tightly-covered Dyami Brown, and a trot-in touchdown for No. 5 — as evidence that Adam Peters and Dan Quinn are building a winner. Others pointed out that the Jets played only a single starter on Saturday (on offense) and that the Jets actually won the game, seeing this as evidence that the roster Adams and Quinn have constructed is still a paper tiger in need of a great deal more development before it is ready to contend for anything meaningful.
In today’s first question, we ask you whether you, personally, feel better, worse, or about the same as you did before the Commanders left for their road trip to New Jersey.
Question 2
Surprises can be good or bad.
After months of speculation about most of the 91 players comprising the Commanders roster, we finally got to see them in a competitive game against players in different colored jerseys. We all know that some players may look good in shorts while being less impressive in pads — or vice versa. In modern training camps, where tackling of teammates simply isn’t part of the training, it’s hard to know how the defense tackles or which players on offense will break tackles. Who will win the battles between receivers and defensive backs at the line of scrimmage and at the catch point? How will a quarterback deal with a live rush from 300-pound defensive linemen filled with bad intent?
Preseason games offer the first chance to answer many of these questions.
In Dan Quinn’s press conference on Monday, he highlighted a few rookies whom he thought had acquitted themselves positively in Saturday’s game.
Players highlighted by Dan Quinn for their performance against the Jets:
TE Ben Sinnott
S Tyler Owens
RB Michael Wiley— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) August 12, 2024
In today’s second question, we ask you to choose from among seven players the one whose performance was the biggest surprise. I’ve gone beyond the three players highlighted by the head coach, and I haven’t included an “other” option. If you don’t like my list, you can skip the question or make your case for a different player in the comments section.
Comments & Results
Of course, we invite you to answer the survey questions below, but also feel free to expand on your answers and provide nuance in the comments section. I rely on those comments when discussing the results of the survey when they are posted in a separate article the next few days.