The Washington Commanders were 3-5 four weeks ago when they decided to become sellers, defying even the most aggressive of predictions they traded Chase Young to the 49ers for a conditional 2024 third round pick. As PFF noted at the time:
“Young is playing the best football of his professional career in 2023. His 79.7 pass-rush grade is a career-high, as is his 18.2% pass-rush win percentage. It’s hard to believe a conditional third-round pick is all the Commanders could get for Young, who is on pace for a career year.“
Much to everyone’s surprise they had already moved Montez Sweat to the Chicago Bears for a second round pick. As the Athletic noted
“Sweat was leading the Commanders and is tied for eighth in the NFL with 6 1/2 sacks this season. Sweat, a first-round pick out of Mississippi State in 2019, is one of seven players with at least five sacks in each of the last five seasons: Montez Sweat, Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt, Khalil Mack, Maxx Crosby, Brian Burns, and Chris Jones”
The Commanders defense struggled mightily early in the year, but one area where they hadn’t struggled was in sacks, they were ranked sixth at the time of the trades and since then they have fallen off a cliff. Now we’re not football geniuses here at WFT4LIFE, but we tend to think that trading away the part of your defense that’s working isn’t the best way to improve.
This past week the Cowboys put a 45-10 beating on the Commanders, the win was entirely predictable. While fans and the local media have been quick to cast blame on everyone and everything, they have been noticeably quiet about discussing the trades and the impact the front office had by making them. It’s tough to start selling assets, a nice way of saying you quit on the season, and then chastise players for a lack of results. If the front office didn’t want to be embarrassed on national TV then maybe they should have been more judicious with their decision making.
Ironically a Cowboys reporter has talked about our team’s trade impact more than any of the local media, the trades that shall not be discussed. It’s really really bizarre.
Ed Werder has this to say:
“It seems worth noting that Washington was a poor defensive team made worse by the organization trading starting defensive ends Chase Young and Montez Sweat at the deadline.”
