*(same intro every day) Right before the new preseason starts, I like to go back and re-read our Week 1 reports from the prior season...just for fun and for seeing what our first reactions to the new season were--what did we see that we would soon regret, what was revealed that we were wrong about all preseason (last preseason), and where we were on the money for the season about to unfold...were we more right than wrong about the first reactions to 2025 going into it.
So, I'm going to post one a day for 16 days leading right up to the 2026 HOF game that kicks off the preseason. I'm not adding any notes or trying to explain or make excuses or let you know we figured it out the next week. It's just here to read...open source, not behind the paywall. Judge it how you like to judge it if you're a nonsubscriber--I'm not going to try to whitewash anything or give extra explanations. This just some reading material from what is the single most important thing we do each year--watch and scout the games each week and report out our findings and make FF reactions to them. Every week, it's a new week to make adjustments to. This is just every team's Week 1 as we wrote it. Enjoy...or don't.
What I like is some of the memories of Week 1 that comes rushing back when I'm reading these a year later...on top of seeing what we were seeing right off the bat.
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Yes, the Giants looked pretty bad here...but this game was only 14-6 Washington midway through the 4th-quarter with the Giants driving. But then the Giants did the ‘Giants thing’ and shot themselves in the foot on the drive (repeatedly this game) and Washington ultimately crept away with an unimpressive victory.
The Giants defense was keeping NYG in it. The Giants offense is an utter disaster because Brian Daboll may be the worst play caller in all of football AND the G-Men have no O-Line to protect the QB even if Daboll is an offensive genius, so Russ was under pressure most of the game and thus everything sucked on offense.
Washington may have half-assed it here because NYG was so pathetic, that they knew they were gonna win this game no matter what...but this was not a crisp, impressive win by the Commanders in any way.
Player Notes...
-- Austin Ekeler (6-26-0, 3-31-0/3) started the first couple of series, unfettered by anyone else rotating in. And then Jacory Croskey-Merritt (10-82-1, 0-0-0/1) came in after a few series and got a shot to work, and was so impressive for a rookie. He played like he’d been in the NFL for years...so, he ‘won’ the job on the spot. I don’t think the coaches 100% knew JCM would go out and not have rookie jitters, etc., but he did not look nervous or over his head at all...he looked great and is now the lead back with Ekeler as a 3rd-down back.
I’d be very wary of running either of them against the GB defense that squashed Gibbs-Montgomery.
-- If you only watched this one game tape, you have to assess that the #1 look/target for Jayden Daniels (19-30 for 233 yards, 1 TD/0 INT, 11-68-0) is Deebo Samuel (7-77-0/10, 1-19-1). I mean that beyond the obviousness of just looking at the target counts where Deebo had a 10-4 advantage over Terry McLaurin (2-27-0/4). It just looked like there's a connection there with Deebo...a connection even greater then I suspected it would be before the season started of which I was pretty high on Deebo as it was.
As a heavy Deebo owner I'm uber-excited about what I saw here. But if I were a Terry McLaurin owner, after watching this game tape, I'd be scared to death of what my expectations are for him and what the reality might be now that Deebo is there. McLaurin should be fine but maybe not gonna battle to become a WR1 this season. He did spring loose for a deep ball touchdown where he beat coverage by a couple of yards and Daniels threw him a 60+ yard bomb but overthrew him by two yards costing him 13+ PPR points on one play.
I like Deebo OK enough for Week 2 against that Green Bay defense because you can use him in so many different ‘short game’ ways versus having the throw deeper with McLaurin...and that medium and deep passing game did not work out so well for Detroit against the Packers last week.
-- I guess we can call it a day/year on Luke McCaffrey (0-0-0/0) With Washington? He didn't Even see a target in this game and only played five snaps. But rookie Jaylin Lane (1-11-0/2) saw a couple of targets. Chris Moore (1-39-0/1) somehow still exists in the NFL and had a big catch on his one target. I don't know why the 49ers don't trade for Christian’s brother since they need wide receivers so desperately.
-- Malik Nabers (5-71-0/12) had a rough game because Russell Wilson had no time to really connect with Nabers. Russ was reduced to just flinging balloon balls out to Nabers hoping he'd make the play, but he didn't make the play more often than he did.
I don't like what I see with Malik Nabers right now. He's not really getting open. He doesn't look like he's trying on a lot of the snaps. He was already jawing and squabbling with Brian Daboll in the first quarter of the first game of the season. It just looks like Nabers is gonna be a discontent talent on a really bad team, so he's never going to be satisfied unless every pass is flung his way, which he has a point that they should do that but realistically Nabers is never going to be satisfied and this passing game may be one of the worst in the league because they have no blocking.
Which is why I wonder if Wan’Dale Robinson (6-55-0/8) is more FF-valuable than we give credit and may be outscoring Nabers for PPR in many games where Russell Wilson doesn't have the time to throw good passes to Nabers. Russell throwing to Wan’Dale looked a heck of a lot better than it did to Malik Nabers in this game.
And one other side note about the NYG receivers here...Theo Johnson (1-5-0/3) looked dreadful in this game. He looked like he was playing with a piano strapped to his back. He dropped multiple passes and just did not look that good at all here.
-- Giants RB report...
Tyrone Tracy (10-24-0, 2-11-0//5) got the majority of the work and snaps in this game, and he looked fine. He's not a bad running back at all but he also has to work behind this terrible offensive line.
Cam Skattebo (2 carries, -3 yards, 2-12-0/2) was sprinkled into the game and had a couple cool looking moments where he rammed into tacklers and knocked them backwards, but as cool looking as it was Skattebo never gained any extra yardage really from the event. It's super cool that he's ramming into things and making them bounce off of him but he does it in a way where he really slows down grips into the earth and rams into whatever is headed his way...he's not really steamrolling over tacklers he's just taking their best shots and not going down easily but then he does end up going down easily when other tacklers arrive because he is stopping all momentum to brace for impact. To me, Skattebo still looks like a glorified fullback not an NFL lead running back. But we need to see some more of this work to really make that call.
-- IDP Notes...
NYG starting ILB Micah McFadden went down and out early in this game and we'll probably miss half the season. Darisu Muasau (2 tackles) took his place and will take his place until the Giants come up with another plan. I like Muasau but Washington was attacking him in the passing game right away as he's quite inexperienced, so I don't know how patient the Giants are going to be for him to do on the job training. But if they let him start and play all the snaps he's gonna put up some numbers for IDP.
With McFadden gone, Bobby Okereke (16 tackles) made 16 tackles as the veteran ILB. But note that only seven of them were solo tackles, nine of them were assisted tackles. Okereke isn't the greatest ILB but he's in a good spot to get numbers because teams are gonna try to run all over the Giants. In this game Washington ran for 220 yards at a 6.9 yard per carry clip
Snap Counts of Interest:
55 = McLaurin
54 = Deebo
33 = Noah Brown
21 = Jaylin Lance
19 = C Moore
05 = McCaffrey
33 = Ekeler
23 = JCM
13 = McNichols
66 = Slayton
64 = Nabers
52 = Wan’Dale
50 = Tracy
10 = Singletary
08 = Skattebo
38 = Abdul Carter (54%)
