Washington Commanders key additions for 2025: Offense

Which new face on offense can help the Commanders get beyond the NFC Championship game this season?

Washington Commanders keys for 2025 is a short series — likely three articles — in which John Portis and Bill Horgan will, together, explore newcomers to Washington’s roster that need to punch above their weight for the Commanders to progress to the next level of competition.

Since last year’s roster went to the NFC Championship, in essence we are discussing which offseason additions could propel the franchise to the Super Bowl in 2025.

The qualifications are simple: any Commander that was not with the franchise at the start of last season is eligible for consideration. This includes players acquired from in-season trades, free agent additions, and the draft. We even plan to address the coaching staff in this series (though the coaching candidates may not meet the ‘newcomers’ qualification).

Of course, Dan Quinn needs a high level of performance from all his players to reach the ultimate goal, but in these articles, we are trying to distill things down to a single player each (one for John & one for Bill) that we expect to have the most impact in 2025.

Obviously, this is opinion — not an exact measurement or evaluation. Rather, the intent is to “prime the pump” a little bit and encourage discussion about which player(s) might make the biggest impact in the coming season.

To make this a little different, and hopefully more fun, newcomer John Portis and long-time veteran Bill Horgan have agreed to provide their thoughts on one candidate in each article.

We encourage you to not only comment on the players we have chosen to highlight, but to add your own thoughts or candidates for consideration. To keep things tidy, we ask you to focus your thoughts on the group under discussion for the day.

We are continuing with the offensive side of the ball this morning, and we’ll feature a different aspect of the team in each article of the series, which will run every Wednesday until the start of training camp.

Part 1 – Washington Commanders key additions for 2025: Defense

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Washington fielded their best offense in more than a decade last season.

Per Pro Football Reference, the Commanders ranked 5^th in Team Offense, a welcome improvement over last year’s 25^th position. The Passing Offense ranked slightly better than last year’s 18th ranking, with a little over half the passing attempts of Eric Bienemy’s squad. Washington ranked 3^rd in Rushing Offense mostly due to the legs of the team’s leading rusher, Jayden Daniels, and the 6th most rushing attempts in the league. Several other aspects contributed to the improvement, including Jayden’s ability to perform under duress and the team’s remarkable fourth-down conversion rate.

Despite last year’s success, the offense must take another step forward in 2025, especially given the projected strength of schedule. In the coming season, the Commanders will play eight games against defenses that finished in the top seven in scoring in 2024.

So, which areas of the offense need improvement for 2025?

Although the offensive line was not exemplary last year, they did a fair job protecting Jayden Daniels, who was pressured on 32.6% of his throws, and ranked 22^nd in the league. Daniels’ average time in the pocket was 2.48 seconds — 18th in the NFL — and he was sacked 47 times, fifth most in the NFL, although many were the result of stepping out of bounds at or just behind the line of scrimmage. As already mentioned, Jayden’s ability to thrive under pressure buoyed the offense, as demonstrated by his third-best QBR of 70.3 when considered under pressure.

If there were any questions about the urgency of an offensive line upgrade, Washington’s NFC East rivals answered it. In a division that already features top defensive linemen Micah Parsons, Jalen Carter, and Dexter Lawrence, each team selected additional defensive support. The Giants used the number four overall pick on Abdul Carter, the Cowboys a second rounder on Donovan Ezeiruaku, and the Eagles stopped Jihaad Campbell’s slide at the end of the first round. Kliff Kingsbury talked about the competition in his OTAs presser:

Adam Peters also recognized the urgency early in the off-season and traded multiple picks for Laremy Tunsil in March and doubled down on the position by using his first-round selection on Oregon’s Josh Conerly. Beyond inherent value, hopefully the two new additions will have a ripple effect on this season’s starting lineup. Peters also addressed the depth with the addition of Nate Herbig and high upside UDFA, Tim McKay.

In an article on the offense in late May, John Keim quoted Jay Gruden’s opinion of the additions:

“That’s your franchise,” former Washington coach Jay Gruden said of Daniels. “This is a guy that can take you to places you haven’t been to in a long time. For that to happen, you have to have good protection; it also helps the run game which will help protect Jayden as well.”

Coach Gruden provided a nice segue into a discussion of the run game. As previously noted, Jayden Daniels led the team in rushing, but he also led the league in scrambles last season with 70. Both statistics must change to protect Jayden’s longevity. The hope is a retooled line will not only provide better protection for Daniels, but also room in the running game. The running backs, especially Brian Robinson, should benefit. Keim noted the same in his article on Washington players with contract implications for 2026:

He should have a stronger offensive line to open holes; in the last nine games last season, including the postseason, Robinson had six games when he averaged 1.48 yards or less before first contact. The league average was 2.67 yards.

Nagging injury issues have hindered his play the past two years.

Besides illustrating Robinson’s lack of space to operate, the quote also references Robinson’s in-season injuries which clearly limited his play last year. Ekeler was the more effective of the two backs, but he was also sidelined with multiple concussion issues. The longest run by either running back the last season was 50 yards. Still there is optimism that the running back room can be revitalized by the 7^th round selection of Bill Croskey-Merritt, and enhanced blocking up front.

Kliff Kingsbury’s offense was not particularly explosive last year, but it was efficient, especially on 4^th down. The Commanders’ 87.0% conversion rank was the highest in the league, with the Buffalo Bills coming in second with 72.7%. Their 45.6% third-down rate was also above average and came in sixth in the league. Washington was one of only two teams to score on over 50% of their drives last season.

While the statistics are impressive, to ascend to the next level, additional playmaking receivers were required. During the off-season, Adam Peters made a concerted effort to get more dynamic in the passing game. Besides re-signing Zach Ertz and Noah Brown, he added Deebo Samuel in an off-season trade and drafted speedy Jaylin Lane in the 4^th round. Both should provide yards after the catch and help ignite the screen game. Hopefully, McLaurin will ink his extension by training camp.

There should be a lot of mouths to feed in Washington’s 2025 offense.

For a team with a defense-oriented head coach in Dan Quinn, the Commanders spent a significant amount of cap and draft picks to upgrade the offense in 2025 and support Jayden Daniels in his sophomore year including: Deebo Samuel, Laremy Tunsil, Jaylin Lane, Bill Croskey-Merritt, Josh Conerly, Nate Herbig, and others.

Which new player will be the key to unlocking Washington’s offense in 2025?

The John Portis Take:

Since I believe protecting Jayden Daniels is the most important priority for the offense this season, my first preference would be to select one of the offensive tackles. However, I will take a page from Bill’s playbook last week and say that protecting their franchise quarterback will be a group affair involving multiple personnel. Laremy Tunsil might be cause for an exception, but I expect a top tier performance, especially in pass blocking, so the potential to outperform expectations is limited by close proximity to his ceiling.

With the additions to the offensive line ruled out, the clear choice is Deebo Samuel.

In 2024, Terry McLaurin had the best regular season of his career. After that, Zach Ertz was the defacto WR2 with 66 receptions, 654 receiving yards and 7 TDs. Without a true second wide receiver, Terry Mclaurin was one of the most double teamed receivers in the league:

While Ertz was a reliable target for Daniels, he was not able to do much after the completion. In the 2024 season, his ranking for yards after catch per reception was 37th among qualifying tight ends according to PFF.

Dyami Brown added some juice to the passing game, his average of 7.6 yards after the catch per reception ranked 8^th among 110 qualifying receivers. During the playoffs, 91 of Dyami’s 229 yards came after the catch, with an average depth of target of 10.7 yds. Dyami was a free agent this off-season, but comments made by both parties after the season made a reunion seem unlikely, and the wide receiver ultimately joined the Jaguars on a one-year agreement. Peters, realizing that more help was needed, brought Deebo in via a fifth-round trade with the Niners.

More than 75% of Samuel’s career yards have been from passes thrown within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage and his yards after the catch numbers are some of the best in the league. He is elusive and physical, with 92 forced missed tackles after the catch since 2021, 19 more than any other wider receiver over the same period. All this adds up to excellence in the screen game. Per a CBS Sports article last week by Jared Dubin:

As we noted, Samuel’s proficiency in this area should be of at least some help. According to TruMedia, no receiver in the NFL has gained more yards on screens than Samuel (1,049) since he entered the league in 2019. And it’s not particularly close. The gap between Samuel and the next-closest receiver (Chris Godwin) is over 250 yards. And his yards-after-catch-per-reception average (13.0) is first among all receivers during that time as well.

Conveniently enough, Kliff Kingsbury likes to utilize the screen game in his offense. Unfortunately, the Commanders weren’t all that great at it during last year’s regular season. From the same article:

The Commanders’ screen game wasn’t very effective in 2024. Daniels checked in 29th in EPA per dropback and 26th in yards per pass, and he threw two interceptable passes on screens, according to TruMedia. This is an area where the acquisition of Deebo Samuel should hopefully help quite a bit.Samuel has been one of the league’s most effective wideouts on screens thanks to his nearly unmatched ability to create yards after the catch. An improved offensive line should also be able to make a difference here.

Samuel should be an immediate upgrade to the screen game and offense in 2025. Here’s Deebo running the tunnel screen concept discussed last month.

While there are many other elements to Deebo’s game, one of his most specialized is the ability to line up in the backfield. During the season, Kingsbury often utilized two RBs in the backfield with Ekeler sometimes running routes from the backfield or moving out to the slot. When he was sidelined, McNichols or even Zaccheus would fill this role, one that the Niners used with Deebo regularly. Samuel’s ability to work out of the backfield will allow Kingsbury to create mismatches and get players in space. If defenses end up going light in the box in response, Deebo has the rushing ability to capitalize. Samuel averages 5.7 yards/rushing attempt over the course of his career.

Despite Jayden’s rating under pressure, he was still impacted by quick pressure. The matchup flexibility Deebo provides will create issues for coordinators and keep defenses on their heels instead of bringing blitz packages, which is another area CBS Sports identified for improvement for Daniels in 2025:

This is typically one of the last things to come along for young quarterbacks. It’s so difficult to beat quick pressure if you don’t know exactly where it’s coming from and when, and that’s the type of thing that takes experience to learn. Daniels checked in 26th in EPA per dropback when under pressure within 2 seconds of the snap, per TruMedia, completing 40% of his passes for just 3.0 yards per attempt while taking sacks on 25% of those dropbacks — far higher than the league average of 15.9% in those situations.

Given all of this, Deebo would appear to be a lock to upgrade Jayden Daniels and the 2025 Commanders offense.

However, much like last week’s key addition this is not as automatic as it might sound. This time, there are concerns due injury, but also because of increasing age and a decline in production last season. Outside of an injury-plagued 2020 season, Samuel posted his lowest production last year with only 806 yards from scrimmage and four total touchdowns. There were multiple reports that he was out of shape which impacted his ability to generate yards after the catch and break tackles. As established earlier, this is a key aspect of his game. Contract implications clearly played a role in the year’s off-season trade, but the John Lynch and company felt comfortable moving Deebo for a 5th-round pick despite his past play. Commanders fans are left with the question of just how much Samuel has left in the tank in 2025.

Again, this is a gamble by the coaching staff. Peters and Lynn are very familiar with Samuel and feel like the player is worth a roll of the dice. It is also worth noting that newly hired Personnel Analyst, Wes Welker, worked with Samuel as a wide receivers coach from 2019 to 2021 and is credited for some of the second rounder’s success.

In 2021, Deebo was a first team All-Pro and led the league with 18.2 yards per reception and 1,770 all-purpose yards from scrimmage. While those type of numbers are no longer in the cards, even a return to his 2023 production would give Kingsbury a significant upgrade. If the offense can avoid a regression from 2024, the addition of Deebo could vault the offense into the one of the top scoring units in 2025, which would give the Commanders a strong chance to compete for a Super Bowl even without a large corresponding leap from the defense.

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The Bill Horgan Take:

Wow, stepping in here after 2,500 words, it feels like there’s not a lot left to say, but I’ll try to add something of value.

The question I ask myself in choosing a player to highlight in this article is, “Which individual will generate the biggest team improvement versus 2024?”

The offensive issues that the Commanders had to deal with in 2024 weren’t really due to roster weakness at the skill positions. Those offensive issues were rooted in the offensive line play.

The mobility of Jayden Daniels, however, masked most of the blocking issues. In the passing game, for example, Daniels extended plays and made great decisions with the ball. In the run game, below-average blocking was the reason JD5 led the league in scrambles and the team in rushing.

The key offseason addition is not a skill player. Draft picks Jaylin Lane and Bill Croskey-Merritt add some explosiveness, but each is likely to end up deep in the depth chart of his respective position group in his rookie year. Deebo certainly adds run-after-catch ability, but, as John pointed out above, so did Dyami Brown — and Austin Ekeler is a YAC machine. Deebo adds some versatility and depth, but doesn’t really give the ‘25 offense anything it didn’t have in ‘24.

The key change from Washington’s highly productive ‘24 offense to another high-octane offense — but one that won’t require Jayden Daniels to put on his Superman cape all the time — is the OL upgrades.

The two roster additions that matter here are Laremy Tunsil and Josh Conerly Jr.

Initially, I told John Portis that I would write about Conerly, similar to the way in which I focused on the rookie Trey Amos in the “Defense” installment a week ago, but on reflection, I decided to go with Laremy Tunsil instead.

In the introduction above, John focused on a Warren Sharp tweet that details how Tunsil ranked 2nd in pressure rate allowed by left tackles over the past three seasons combined. In that intro, John focused on the idea of Tunsil already being elite, with little room for improvement.

I see it differently. There’s an old joke about two men running from a tiger; to get away, you don’t have to be faster than the tiger, just faster than the other guy that’s running. Tunsil doesn’t have to be better than he was in Houston — he needs to be better than Washington’s left tackles were in 2024. And he is exactly that.

Consider this from an article published last week in The Lead:

Tunsil is easily the most accomplished player on the line and instantly becomes one of Washington’s headliners on offense.

The Ole Miss product earned an 88.6 pass-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus, fourth-best among 140 tackles. He also played the 10th-most snaps among left tackles, allowed two sacks, and graded as an above-average run blocker.

Washington should expect the 6-foot-5, 313-pounder to keep up this level of play next year. Tunsil has received at least an 85.0 pass-blocking grade in five of the last six seasons, according to PFF.

The Commanders’ left tackles struggled in 2024, allowing 10 sacks and 57 pressures, while Tunsil has allowed similar figures in the past three seasons combined.

One reason why I changed my mind and picked Tunsil over Conerly for this article is that the trade for Tunsil looks like it will improve 2 of the 5 OL positions, with last year’s starting LT, Brandon Colemen, sliding in to the left guard position, which should provide a significant and long-term upgrade over last year’s LG starter, Nick Allegretti.

Also, while Conerly is expected to have a strong NFL career based on his physical traits and college production, the biggest concern about him entering the draft was his play strength. That’s an issue that can be resolved in an NFL training program, but not with instant results.

There’s no guarantee that Conerly will start at right tackle to open the ‘25 season (though it seems likely). The team is, however, well-positioned, with last year’s starting right tackle Andrew Wylie still on the roster, to give Conerly whatever amount of time and support he needs to get ready to be the right-side anchor.

A lot has been made of the fact that Tunsil led all NFL linemen in penalties in 2024. Last season, he was penalized 19 times. According to NBC Sports, he had 12 false starts, 3 illegal formation penalties, 2 holding calls, an ineligible man downfield penalty, and an unnecessary roughness penalty.

Twelve of those penalties occurred in the first four weeks of the season, with 6 flags being thrown in Week 3 (all 3 of the season’s illegal formation penalties and 3 false starts) vs the Vikings. That points to: (1) a crew of officials out to prove a point in Wk 3 when he was hit with 32% of his season-long penalties, and (2) a player who adjusted pretty successfully from October onwards, getting flagged a total of 7 times in the final 13 games.

Despite these mitigating factors, Tunsil made no excuses and took responsibility for doing better in 2025. In a video interview, Tunsil characterized the penalties he racked up last year “unacceptable” and committed to improvement in 2025.

For all these reasons, my pick for the most significant offensive addition of the 2025 offseason is Laremy Tunsil, the guy who is gonna make Jayden Daniels’ Superman cape stay a lot cleaner in the coming season.