Eagles vs. Commanders: 14 winners, 5 losers, 5 IDKs

The Philadelphia Eagles are 1-0 after beating the Washington Commanders to begin the 2026 season.

It was a narrow win, yes, but it was an important one to avoid dropping a division game right off the bat.

Time to hand out winners, losers, and I don’t knows.

For even more analysis, check out my appearance on the PHLY Eagles postgame show along with the legendary Brandon Graham and Bo Wulf!

My biggest takeaway from this game? Hurts looking good while carrying the offense.

The box score: 14/25 (56%), 203 passing yards, 3 TD, 0 INT, 122.2 passer rating … 7 carries, 46 rushing yards*.

Hurts converting 3rd-and-18 in the fourth quarter was a massive development. The offense ran 21 plays for just 67 yards and three points on their previous five drives. They needed a spark and he gave them one.

The offense as a collective sure didn’t play a stellar game. But Hurts made big plays that were the difference in this win. His first touchdown pass to Dallas Goedert, which came on 3rd-and-goal from the 17-yard line, was thrown into a tight window up the seam. His touchdown pass to Dontayvion Wicks was a nice anticipatory ball. He showed admirable aggression by hitting Wicks deep while the receiver was running a clear out route. His completion to DeVonta Smith deep along the right sideline was a beauty.

It’s always easier to feel better about your favorite NFL team’s outlook when the quarterback is playing well. This was an encouraging performance from QB1.

*Hurts logged at least 46 rushing yards in just two out of 17 games played last year.

With the Commanders in position to tie the game with a two-point conversion, Ojomo sniffed out Washington’s shovel pass to John Bates and sealed the deal by tackling the tight end short of the line of scrimmage.

Shame that he doesn’t get officially credited for a TFL on that play since the NFL doesn’t count stats from two-point conversions. Ojomo also missed out on being credited with the sack that he created for Jihaad Campbell.

No matter, though, because those numbers will come. Ojomo is very much poised for a big year ahead of being a free agent after this season.

I’m not convinced that Baun gets proper credit for just how good he is. Locally? Probably. Nationally? Don’t think so.

Baun finished fourth in offseason off-ball linebacker rankings based on league polling. He’s top two and I don’t think he’s very far behind Fred Warner at No. 1, if at all.

Baun was a monster in this game. He logged a team-high 12 tackles (including one TFL, which came on a 3rd-and-1 to force a Commanders punt) and two pass deflections.

The Commanders targeted Baun seven times in coverage. He allowed three catches … for negative two yards. He nearly made an impressive leaping interception along the sideline. The pick didn’t count, no, but it was still a high quality coverage rep to help prevent a reception.

After Week 1, Baun leads all NFL defenders in “stops,” which are defined as tackles that constitute a failure for the offense by Pro Football Focus charting.

Beast!

Not the flashiest box score but Carter, who played the second-most snaps of any Week 1 interior defender, did make meaningful contributions to the Eagles’ win.

First of all, his blocked extra point was huge. Washington would’ve been in a position to tie the game late with a relatively routine kick instead of a two-point conversion try otherwise.

He combined with Baun to stop a Commanders 3rd-and-1 run for no gain to force a punt in the first quarter.

Carter forced a fumble on the Commanders’ final drive. The Eagles didn’t manage to recover possession but that was just some bad luck. Had they received a more fortunate bounce, his punch out would’ve been viewed as a massive play.

Carter also generated some disruption on the Commanders’ attempt to tie the game with a two-point conversion. I don’t know how much it mattered since Ojomo was in good position to stuff Bates … but Carter did get a piece of the Commanders’ tight end that might’ve slowed him down at least a little bit prior to making the catch for a loss.

For two years in a row now, the Eagles flirted with moving on from Goedert in the offseason.

Thank Goedert they didn’t.

The Eagles’ top tight end led the team in receiving with four grabs for 77 yards and two touchdowns.

Barkley’s 15 carries resulted in 83 yards for a 5.5 average. His longest run of the day was a 42-yarder where he looked pretty explosive.

Making his production even impressive was that only FIVE of his yards came before contact. According to my math sources, that means he gained 78 yards after contact.

That’s a very flattering stat for Barkley. Speaks to his ability to create much out of nothing.

Unfortunately, a much less flattering stat for the Eagles’ blockers.

If there was any doubt that Wicks is WR2, that should be over.

His four targets resulted in 73 yards and a touchdown. His 64-yard reception marked the longest of his career, eclipsing his previous record of just 36 yards.

Wicks deserves recognition for his effort on that big play because he was running a clear out route to create space for Goedert underneath. Not all receivers (I think we can think of one) put their best foot forward on that kind on play. Wicks also did a really nice job of tracking the ball in the air … while the Commanders’ defensive backs certainly did not.

Wicks’ savvy route-running was on display when he got open for his touchdown reception. He cooked Mike Sainristil (or, as Hogs Haven referred to him, Mike StandRealStill … gottem).

We’ll see how Wicks fares moving forward but, early on, the decision to trade for him is looking like a win. The Eagles only had to give up a 2026 fifth-round pick and a 2027 sixth-round pick in the deal with the Green Bay Packers. That’s value.

Smitty’s six targets only resulted in three catches for 57 yards but that over-the-shoulder toe-tapping grab along the rights sideline was pretty sweet.

The Commanders’ running backs gained 101 yards on 27 carries for a 3.7 average. Davis contributed to their lack of success on the ground, logging four “stops,” which was third-most on the Eagles.

Terry was not so scary on Sunday:

In total, Mitchell was targeted three times, allowing two receptions for 15 yards. Woolen was targeted five times but allowed just one catch for one yard, which did happen to be a touchdown. Looked like Woolen and Marcus Epps had a miscommunication on that snap.

It’s not difficult to feel pretty good about the Eagles’ outside cornerbacks right now.

Cooper, a wide receiver, finished sixth on the Eagles in tackles on Sunday. He logged four while playing special teams. That’s an impressive number! Consider that special teams coordinator Michael Clay recently noted that Jeremiah Trotter Jr. led the Eagles in this category last season with 18. Cooper certainly won’t keep this pace up but pretty good to generate 22.22% of last year’s high mark in just one game.

Between shining in offseason practices and playing hard on special teams, Cooper is earning the right to play on offense. Would be nice to see the Eagles reward him a bit more in that regard.

Mann averaged 51.6 yards on seven total punts and three of them pinned the Commanders within their own 11-yard line. Flipping the field was important with the Eagles’ offense unable to get much going for extended portions of the game.

This isn’t usually a space where I give credit to the Eagles’ opponents but, man, this was an eye-opening special teams rep.

Has to be the most impressive ST coverage rep I’ve ever seen. Respect!

Dickerson admitted he was a “complete liability” in the Eagles’ Week 1 win. Really rough to watch a once-great player look so incapable of functioning out there.

With the Eagles placing him on IR, he’ll miss at least the next four games. Dickerson sounds optimistic the time off will help get him right … but I think it’s hard to truly believe that until we see it. I think there’s a chance we saw the last of him as a starter for the Eagles. The team might be hoping that Drew Kendall (assuming he’s the replacement at left guard) really runs with the job and never looks back.

It’s really sad and unfortunate to think that Dickerson might just be done. Whether that’s the case or not, the three-time Pro Bowler is a legend for sacrificing his body to help the Eagles win Super Bowl LIX.

Was that the worst regular season game of DeJean’s career? The third-year nickel cornerback was targeted nine times and allowed seven receptions for 83 yards and one touchdown. Weird to see another team have so much success going after him time and time again.

The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane noted that he saw DeJean get up slow and wince after a play earlier in the game, so, perhaps he got banged up and wasn’t his normal self. His track record is way too strong to not give him the benefit of the doubt. Guessing it’s just one bad game. We’ll see if that’s the case.

Between his preseason debut and Week 1, Lemon has been targeted nine times … for negative two yards. That’s insane.

The lack of production isn’t all his fault. The Eagles aren’t exactly setting him up for success. And I mean that in multiple ways.

1. They’ve really gotta scrap the designed touches for him near the line of scrimmage. They just aren’t working. One might argue those plays are setting things up for him and the offense later on … but I find it hard to believe wasting so many plays like this is actually a net positive. These touches were not effective in practice. They were not effective in the preseason game. They were not effective in Week 1. Stop forcing the issue.
2. It doesn’t always look like Lemon knows what he’s supposed to be doing out there. This makes sense from the perspective that he missed a lot of time in training camp. The Eagles should know this and not have him play the full allotment of WR3 snaps. I understand wanting to get him those reps with the hope that the experience will serve him well in the long run. But the Eagles have to do a better job of balancing his development with … actually maximizing their chances of winning the game! I don’t understand why some combination of Darius Cooper and/or Hollywood Brown and/or Elijah Moore can’t rotate in as WR3. I know my Cooper appreciation might seem like a bit but don’t even take it from me; Jalen Hurts was the one who praised him unprompted back in training camp. Based on what we saw in practice settings, Hurts clearly has a comfort level with throwing to Cooper and Moore. And we all know that Hurts especially leans into the pass-catching options he trusts most … while avoiding the ones he doesn’t. It really feels like the WR3 situation isn’t about merit and is instead about trying to justify the team trading up to select Lemon with a first-round pick. Hoping to see an adjustment with this situation moving forward.

Prior to the game, we learned that McKee is QB3. Andy Dalton was active as Hurts’ backup.

It would be hilariously on brand for the Eagles to keep the QB2 battle going by having McKee active and Dalton as QB3 in Week 2. But guessing that won’t be the case.

Brown was active for this game but played zero snaps on offense or special teams.

Brown didn’t have a great summer, so, I can’t say I’m shocked they didn’t want to get him involved. And it’s not easy for the Eagles to cut him after giving him a significant money guarantee.

But, like, what’s he doing here?

On one hand, the Eagles scored 24 points and produced 318 yards on offense. They only produced more than 24 points in six out of 18 games last year. They only produced more than 318 yards in seven out of 18 games last year.

On the other hand, this was not a very good offensive performance. Only one team produced fewer first downs in Week 1. The Eagles did not look good on a down-to-down consistency as much as they were carried by explosive plays. This isn’t to suggest that those big plays don’t matter; just the opposite! But counting on those plays to carry the offense doesn’t seem like a sustainable way to go about having success. Especially when it’s not even like those explosives were a big function of schematic genius as much as they were Hurts seemingly putting the team on his back and making plays.

To be clear, I’m not trying to crush Mannion. It was his first game as an NFL play-caller. Bumps in the road are to be expected. And it’s hard to judge his play-calling or the offense as a whole when the starting left guard was a total liability out there.

But we need to see more from this unit moving forward. It’ll be pretty troubling if they don’t show signs of improvement.

Vic Fangio was not very happy with the Eagles’ pass rush in Week 1:

Q. Did you get the pressure, especially from the EDGE guys, that you wanted to see?

Vic Fangio: I thought our pass rush overall, when our guys that mainly rushed the passer, was inconsistent and really wasn’t good enough.

Q. Any theories why?

Vic Fangio: There’s a lot of reasons here and there. Mobile quarterback plays into that. We just didn’t win enough of our one-on-ones across the board.

Of course, Fangio will tell you that he has a high bar. As he should.

While I don’t think the pass rush was stellar (just one sack and two QB hits), I also don’t think it’s fair to suggest it was flat out bad:

I expect the pass rush to be more effective moving forward. Especially when Jonathan Greenard is able to get back on the field.

The book on Campbell has been that he’s better in coverage than he is as a run defender. The inverse was true in this game. He logged five total “stops,” second only to Baun. He struggled as a pass defender, however, allowing two catches for 48 yards (second-most on the team behind DeJean). One of those lapses came on 3rd-and-14 to give the Commanders a 33-yard gain into the red zone on the drive where they cut the Eagles’ lead to one point (and might’ve tied the game had Stefon Diggs not jumped on the goal post to get flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct). Campbell doesn’t lack the physical tools to be good in coverage but it seems like the second-year linebacker can be slow to recognize how the offense is attacking him. Campbell could improve in this regard with more experience, as Fangio has noted.

I don’t think we need to see Shipley getting more offensive snaps and touches than Tank Bigsby, who is clearly the superior talent.

Why did the Eagles keep him on the roster if he’s just going to be a healthy scratch?