BMitch was rolling solo on Friday, so he welcomed in old friend and Audacy NFL insider Ross Tucker for a little Commanders talk – and as an offensive lineman, of course Ross wanted to talk about that, and specifically: did they do enough this offseason to improve the line?
“Probably not,” Tucker said. “Let’s be honest: at best, they have the third best line in the division, but you can make an argument the Giants are better now, too, with the additions they made. Both the Giants and Commanders brought in young centers, so that’s probably a net-neutral, but I was surprised the Commanders gave Nick Gates the money they did, and made it a point to bring in Andrew Wylie; I guess he and Bieniemy know each other, but I’d have been surprised if anyone else gave Wylie that money.”
Gates, Wylie, Ricky Stromberg and the rest will be protecting Sam Howell, a quarterback Tucker believes should’ve played more last year in hindsight, even if he did (and still does) understand why Ron Rivera went to Taylor Heinicke when he benched Carson Wentz last year.
“When Wentz was paying poorly and got benched, they should have gone to Sam Howell then, but Ron wanted to win, so he put Heinicke in,” Tucker said. “They beat the Eagles on Monday night and he got them around .500, and maybe that’s what Ron needed to do to earn another year, but in hindsight, it seems like the second half last year would’ve been more productive for the Commanders going forward if they had put Howell in sooner.”
Hindsight is of course 20/20, but should Washington have traded uncertainty in an already down season for uncertainty in a new one?
“You would’ve gotten a better idea of exactly what he is, and whether or not he deserves this opportunity he’s been given,” Tucker said. “Unless Howell is really good, I’d imagine the Commanders finish last again, and this whole year will determine what Howell is and isn’t, when you could’ve done that last year. You could’ve been further down the line and operated this offseason with a bigger sample size, whereas 2023 is a fact-finding mission you could’ve started in 2022.”
One thing that can help is the presence of Eric Bieniemy, who Tucker says ‘has some stones’ to leave a highly-paid, cushier job in KC to come to DC and ‘prove that he is the man.’
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“If he gets Howell to play really well and gets this offense humming, he’ll get all of the credit, and rightly so,” Tucker said. “If the team has a bad year and new ownership comes in and cleans house…Bieniemy went from big-time job security to rolling the dice hot seat hear, because he only has one year to show what he can do. Kudos to him for making this decision.”
Oh, and when it comes to a potential rebrand? The two-time Redskin Tucker has a fun idea.
“Dude, I want the Washington Warthogs so bad!” Tucker said. “I heard that lady yelling ‘Take Command!’ at the Draft, and man, we gotta do better than that!”
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