New York Giants Week 2: A Look at the Washington Commanders Offense

What will Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders do against the New York Giants' defense?

Sep 8, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) drops back to pass against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the third quarter at Raymond James Stadium. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

After an overall horrible showing by the New York Giants in Week 1, what can the defense expect to see in Week 2 against the Washington Commanders?

Personnel

The Commanders made Jayden Daniels the second overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Daniels was a player that Giants fans got familiar with throughout the pre-draft process and we even produced a scouting report for him here.

With elite athleticism and the arm to make any throw he needs to, he’s got the potential to be a franchise quarterback but still needs plenty of work.

In the backfield, the Commanders have the duo of Brian Robinson and Austin Ekeler. Ekeler was a free agent addition this past offseason from the Los Angeles Chargers.

In week one, both of the running backs got involved in the passing game, each seeing four targets, tied for the most on the team. Ekeler was used almost exclusively on passing downs with Robinson taking the vast majority of designed carries.

The receiver room still has Terry McLaurin but there’s very little proven talent behind him right now. Rookie Luke McCaffrey saw three targets but they were all at the line of scrimmage and he needs more polish.

Olamide Zaccheaus and Jamison Crowder are the veterans in the room but lack explosive playmaking ability.

Zach Ertz leads the tight end room and is one of the key leaders on the offense. Ertz may not be the dynamic threat he was when he was younger but he has experience playing in Kingsbury’s offense and is a reliable pass-catcher.

Scheme

I have a big problem with the Commanders organization, but it isn’t a problem I necessarily care about getting solved: Kliff Kingsbury.

Kingsbury was once thought of as an up-and-coming superstar coach with the way that he utilized the air raid at Texas Tech that eventually got a head coaching job with the Arizona Cardinals.

The problem here is that this isn’t college and that style of air raid is just not sustainable and that’s been shown repeatedly. 

For as big an arm as Daniels showed off at both Arizona State and LSU, he threw 80% of his passes shorter than 10 yards past the line of scrimmage in Week 1.

Daniels had an average depth of target of just 5.5 yards and 20.6% of his passes were screens. That will not win you football games in the NFL.

The offense is too simple and too conservative right now with a run game that isn’t creative enough.

The Commanders only used play-action on 23.5% of their dropbacks which is criminal when considering two things:

1. You have Jayden Daniels at quarterback and his rushing threat alone should make a defense think about that handoff being an option.
2. The run game does not need to be effective in order for the play-action passing game to be effective.

It’s simply a case of an offensive coordinator not putting their guys in position to succeed.

Overview

This Commanders offense has seemingly no intention of throwing the ball downfield right now. The plan is to throw the ball short with screens and hitches and hope that run after catch opportunities arise.

The Giants cornerbacks must come up and make stops to limit those after catch plays.

In week one, the Commanders averaged 10.8 yards per catch with 9.3 yards after the catch per catch. That means that 85.9% of their yards came after the catch.

The Giants defense was in zone coverage on 70% of their snaps in Week 1 against the Vikings and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that number climb in Week 2.

Sitting in zone coverage with eyes in the backfield could help limit Daniels’ impact as a runner while also allowing defenders to come crashing down once the ball is headed to receivers.

The edges containing while Dexter Lawrence II pushes the pocket from the interior could make this a rough day for Daniels.

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