A year after selling off players on time, Commanders have quickly come a long way

ASHBURN, Va. – Again, where are we? When are we?

You may remember that a year ago, when they weren't getting anywhere that quickly, the Commanders traded away their star players at the trade deadline, sending Chase Young to the 49ers for a 2024 third-round pick and Montez Sweat to the Bears to get Chicago's second-round pick. At the time, Ron Rivera was in charge and certainly hoped he would be the one to use that extra capital to rebuild his struggling team the following spring. Of course, it didn't happen that way, as Josh Harris ended the “coach-centric” approach that gave Rivera influence over personnel changes and coaching and brought in Adam Peters from San Francisco to run the show.

A year later, Peters is general manager of a 7-2 team, one of the NFL's true surprises, with a seemingly decade-long franchise quarterback in Jayden Daniels to build around and a coach in Dan Quinn to take the pulse has his locker room and a team full of like-minded players. And that gave Peters the leeway to make a big move at this year's deadline and acquire four-time Pro Bowl cornerback Marshon Lattimore from the Saints.

It was a big change for a team that believes in its coaches and players, and not just this season. And when he beat the Chiefs and Ravens for Lattimore, Peters made a statement: He can swim with the big boys and land a big fish.

“It’s a little nerve-wracking,” Peters said Wednesday. “But if you really want someone and think they have the right value, then you do it.”

It's another indication of how incredibly different things have become in this franchise. This wasn't Dan Snyder fueling up his private jet and pulling out his checkbook to buy the nicest, shiniest ornaments, regardless of whether they made sense on his tree. (Albert Haynesworth, with Mike Shanahan? What could go wrong?) That was a calculated risk – and there is a risk – as Washington sent three picks to New Orleans for the 28-year-old Lattimore, who is dealing with injuries, mostly hamstring injuries has to fight. the last few years. But Lattimore was by far the best corner available for a team desperate to improve on its second corner.

Bringing in someone of Lattimore's caliber also signals to the locker room that their work around Daniels and the support he has in moving the franchise forward has been taken into consideration. In year one, the front office is willing to mortgage some of the future to further strengthen the present.

However, I made the mistake of sharing this theory with Bobby Wagner – that he came to DC to join a rebuilding team that has been doing more than expected for seven weeks.

“I did?” Wagner asked with a grin on his face.

But he played along.

“First of all, (getting Lattimore) means we want to win now, but second of all, we have such a great culture here,” Wagner said. “I think it's grown faster than expected, but we have an amazing culture. Time will tell whether someone comes in or not, and we can take them into this culture. We are the right place for it and he is a great player who fits into this culture.”

Twelve months ago, Washington was 3-5 and on the verge of losing its last eight games. Rivera continued to insist that Sam Howell was the long-term answer at quarterback. Jack Del Rio led the defense. There were still high hopes that Jahan Dotson would become a consistent No. 2 receiver alongside Terry McLaurin. Emmanuel Forbes was supposed to be the CB1 of the future. Rookie safety Quan Martin, Washington's second-round pick in 2023, was still struggling through the slump. (To be fair, Martin, now a starter at safety, was one of Rivera's draft successes.)

Commanders head coach Dan Quinn with quarterback Jayden Daniels. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

A year later…

“I think it just shows that they want the best for the team. And we trust what they’re doing,” Daniels said Wednesday.

“Of course they do their job, they get hired and they expect me to do their job to a high level, just like they expect us to go out and do our best. So we trust everything Adam and his employees do, no matter what. It's about how can we get Marshon to commit to our brotherhood and how can we take him so he can go out there and when Sundays come, go out and make plays and be confident.”

Lattimore is still elite when healthy. He plays with speed, intelligence and toughness. And with his ability to travel – following the opposing team's top receiver all over the field – he gives a defense plenty of freedom. A shutdown corner allows defensive gurus to move even more people to create more pass rush, which should allow corners of Lattimore's caliber to jump routes. That was Quinn and defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr.'s MO in Dallas.

“You’re definitely on the right track,” Quinn said with a smile on Wednesday.

Quinn has often talked about his defense needing to create more turnovers. Lattimore has 15 career interceptions in 97 games played. Since most teams use three- or four-receiver sets in the base offense, the cornerbacks aren't on the move as much as they used to be. But Lattimore will certainly focus on the best opposing receivers still on Washington's roster – AJ Brown of the Eagles, CeeDee Lamb of the Cowboys and his now-former Saints teammate Chris Olave. Whether Lattimore subs out his opponents or not, he should help further stabilize Washington's defense, just as Wagner and Frankie Luvu give the Commanders' linebackers a game they haven't had in years.

“We can do whatever we want because he’s going to take care of a whole person,” Jeremy Chinn said of Lattimore for safety reasons. “There are a lot of players in this league that you have to identify on the offensive side of the ball and you really have to work around them and tailor your defense to them. But when you have a cornerback that can just shut someone down, the playbook opens up.”

The tough part of the Commanders' schedule is ahead – Pittsburgh on Sunday, Philadelphia on Thursday and the Dak Prescott-less Cowboys on November 24th. If Washington wins two of its next three, it will have nine wins. The franchise hasn't won nine games in a season since 2015. A year after the near-sellout, when the future of the franchise seemed so bleak, the Commanders can put a lot of chips in the middle of the table, and that seems to be working on the mark.

(Top photo of Marshon Lattimore with New Orleans earlier this season: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)