It was hard to scout this game because the offensive line play was so poor that it was just a battle of attrition between the two offenses. The key to fantasy and NFL betting scouting... It's 50% offensive line scouting and awareness...and health of the O-line.
The Lions had an excuse for their choppy play as they put out an entire offense to start that I'm not sure any one of them is gonna make the 53-man roster. The Lions did give up 5 sacks in this game...a lot for a preseason game. Hard to scout anything when the QBs are under assault.
However, the Commanders had no such excuse. In fact, this game was a giant emergency tornado warning siren on just how bad the Commanders might be. They rolled their first-team offense onto the field to start the game, and they got totally brutalized by the Lions backup defenders. We'll talk about the Commanders first-team offensive players specifically in the next section. Just note this performance was really really really really bad.
Player Notes...
-- The first series, led by Jayden Daniels (0-1 for 0 yards, 0 TD/0 INT, 0-0-0) and most of the first-team offensive starters, was so bad that Dan Quinn just pulled them after a quick three-and-out... after Daniels got hit/sacked to end the drive miserably.
It was a smart decision to pull Daniels, but they all better get used to that. I'm striking down all Jayden Daniels FF projections. And I have to debate how much I want to take down the other related offensive player projections. There might be a window where everything is so bad that there's a lot of garbage time to go around. I wish I could bet on the prediction markets whether or not Daniels was gonna miss at least one game this season due to injury... I will take the over on that.
-- It was not all first-team players for the Commanders with Daniels, because the two starting running backs were out, so rookie Kaytron Allen (10-30-0, 1-0-0/1) got the start, but of course he couldn't do anything either because of the Commanders' offensive line.
Allen doesn't look like anything worth remembering to me so far in the preseason, but I'm not gonna judge him too harshly here because it's hard to scout a running back when he has no blocking.
Jacory Croskey-Merritt is going to be the starter, and he missed this game due to a mild injury--but he's already back practicing. He will be the Week 1 starter. But he will work and split with Rachaad White, who was also hurt, but should be coming back soon.
-- Chigoziem Okonkwo (0-0-0, 1-10-0/1) played a couple series and eventually got a pass target over the middle in traffic and he made a nice, smooth catch. He wasn't on the field enough to get excited about one way or the other. But from what I saw, he looked very smooth, very good.
I just don't know how much time he's gonna be on the field because Washington is definitely going to need to have a blocking tight end almost in on every down, and that's non-receiving threat John Bates.
-- There are 2 positive things to talk about from the Commanders' side of things from this game...
1) Commanders rookie WR Antonio Williams (0-0-0, 3-41-0/3) looked night and day better in this game than he did in the preseason opener. Good routes and effort, and catching the ball by him here. We have to give these guys grace—these rookies in their first NFL appearances. Some of them might take a couple weeks to get their feet wet.
Now, the bad news for Williams...besides the fact that he's really not that great, he was working here with what would essentially be like the third team or the 2.5 team. Many WRs were in the game ahead of him. But maybe he's just starting to find himself now and will move back up the depth chart. Still, he's not likely to start or be much of an impact this year, especially with Stefon Diggs holding down the fort at the slot.
2) Athan Kaliakmanis (11-14 for 162 yards, 0 TD/0 INT, 0-0-0) had another very competent, calm performance. No rookie jumpiness here for a second week in a row. He's working like—he looks like a little bit of older Kirk Cousins with some Aidan O'Connell mixed in. Just professional, competent QB play. May never be a starter, but he can hold down the position if injuries hit and he's forced into play... And with this offensive line, he's probably gonna get a chance to play due to injuries to others.
I'm guessing the Commanders will try to put Kaliakmanis on the practice squad, but I hope if they try to, some NFL team is paying attention to the preseason and swoops in and takes him to sit on. Maybe it will be the Lions, who got to see him up close this game...
...not only did the Lions get to see him up close, but they also got to see their rookie QB Luke Altmyer (9-13 for 86 yards, 0 TD/0 INT, 3-3-0) in action by comparison... And to my eyes, it was no comparison at all. Kaliakmanis is way better.
That's the only Detroit Lions-based note that I have because, again, the Lions literally played an entire offense where none of them is likely to make the 53-man roster.
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