The Eagles’ Week 1 bout against the Washington Commanders will be a test for new coordinators.
The long offseason is over, and Eagles fans get a divisional matchup against the Washington Commanders to start.
While the two teams are intimately familiar with one another, the game should feel refreshingly new. For Eagles fans, the game will be the first opportunity to watch new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion’s offense with Jalen Hurts at the helm. The preseason highlighted some areas of concern, but the Eagles have generally kept starters from playing during the preseason. Sunday will provide the first real look at Philadelphia’s new offense.
On the other sideline, the Commanders debut new offensive coordinator David Blough and new defensive coordinator Daronte Jones.
The 2025-2026 season was one to forget for Commanders fans. After a surprise trip to the NFC Championship Game in 2024-2025, the Commanders took a massive step back, going 5-12 in the campaign. Though they did suffer from poor injury luck, the disappointing season forced the Commanders to make some changes at the coordinator positions.
Enter David Blough and Daronte Jones.
Both coordinators present stark structural differences from the previous coordinators, though Blough was a member of former OC Kliff Kingsbury’s staff.
Jone’s defense should be an interesting watch. Most recently, Jones coached the defensive backs in Minnesota under Brian Flores. Flores’ defense is one of extremes, leading the NFL in blitz rate (48.0%), heavy box rate (36.9%) and rate of two-high defenders (64.2%) in 2025-2026. It is a defense that generally gets the most out of its players, regardless of talent, an approach that should benefit a Commanders defense lacking star power.
David Blough, though a member of Kingsbury’s staff, spent years under the tutelage of Ben Johnson in Detroit, and a formative year with Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota. In 2025-2026, the Commanders ran play action at the fifth fewest rate in the NFL. The Ben Johnson and Kevin O’Connell offenses ranked second and eleventh, respectively.
The units will not be exact copies. They will feature wrinkles learned from other stops along the coaches’ journeys, but the context provides at least a snapshot of what the units could look like.
Eagles Offense vs Commanders Defense
Previous iterations of the Eagles offense lacked answers to the blitz. Rather than integrate quick hot reads, an industry standard, the Eagles offense found, albeit streaky, success attacking the deep portions of the field.
This high-risk, high-reward style of countering blitzes worked very well against Brian Flores’ defense in Minnesota; recent matchups between the two teams can attest. AJ Brown was able to bully defensive backs downfield or at least command enough gravity from defenders to give DeVonta Smith an easy edge in his one-on-one matchups.
The Commanders defensive backs offer a similar level of challenge; Rasul Douglas, Mike Sainristil, Amik Robertson, Nick Cross and Jeremy Reaves are not the best position unit in football. However, the Eagles no longer employ AJ Brown, and his replacements do not offer the same size and speed combination that made him so effective in those downfield shots on blitzes.
Expect the Commanders to bring pressure early and often from all areas of the field, a strategy that should help cover up some of the personnel deficiencies inherent to the roster.
The matchup will provide an early look at if Sean Mannion’s offense finds new ways to address the blitz. The matchup will also stress the communication of a Jeff Stoutland-less offensive line.
One way to mitigate such a blitz-heavy defense that both the Eagles and Sean Mannion’s Packers utilized often in 2025-2026 is the run-pass option. The Eagles tied for sixth in RPO usage last season (112 plays), while Mannion’s Packers were just behind (111 plays). The familiarity from both parties could be the answer to a stronger offensive showing in Week 1.
Eagles Defense vs Commanders Offense
The Commanders brought in a large portion of their skill position players this past offseason. Terry McLaurin remains the WR1, but Stefon Diggs, Antonio Williams and Chig Okonkwo are new additions that will command a decent target-share.
In the backfield, the Commanders added Rachaad White, though Jacory Croskey-Merritt, who had 175 carries for the Commanders in 2025-2026, should receive the lion share of touches again this season.
The new additions certainly offer depth but generally lack star power. The Eagles defense should be in a position to prevent explosive plays. The addition of Riq Woolen from Seattle makes an already strong pass defense even more suffocating. Expect the Eagles secondary to limit Washington’s passing offense on structured plays in the short and intermediate areas of the field. If Washington’s offensive line can block long enough to extend routes deeper, or if Jayden Daniels can scramble and create breakdowns in Philadelphia’s coverage, they can expose the Eagles’ nickel safety combination of Marcus Epps and Drew Mukuba. Epps lacks the high-end athleticism to cover large distances and Mukuba has allowed multiple explosive plays by being caught out of position in limited action last season.
When the Eagles defense has struggled under Vic Fangio, it has been against mobile quarterbacks. If the Commanders can get Daniels moving on designed roll outs, especially in 11 personnel, there will be opportunities to scramble or create explosives taking advantage of subpar safety play.
Injury Report
As of September 10, the Eagles have listed two players as LIMITED: EDGE Jonathan Greenard (pectoral) and TE Eli Stowers (hamstring).
The Commanders’ injury report is a bit more extensive. They have listed EDGE K’Lavon Chaisson (knee), RB Jacory Croskey-Merritt (groin), EDGE Odafe Oweh (calf) and DT Daron Payne (knee) as LIMITED.
C Nick Allegretti, DT Javon Kinlaw, LB Jordan Magee, QB Marcus Mariota, EDGE Charles Omenihu, and TE Ben Sinnott were all full participants.
Prediction
The Eagles win this game 20-13. They have better talent on both sides of the football and a top-5 defense in 2025-2026 that added more than it lost in the offseason.
The Eagles offense will likely take some time to get going. We have not seen the starters in-game yet, and I expect there to be some frustrating early penalties that kill drives. I think they will run a heavy dose of RPOs and likely have a few ineligible men downfield that negate some big plays. Ultimately, even with a new offense without AJ Brown, the Eagles should be able to bully the Commanders on the ground. Saquon Barkley scores a touchdown on a 20+ yard run and Jalen Hurts punches one in on a Brotherly Shove.
The Commanders offense will primarily stick to 11 personnel. Doing so forces the Eagles to play some of their weaker personnel and gives them the opportunity to run play action to catch the Eagles safeties flat-footed. Stefon Diggs catches the Commanders’ lone touchdown on a designed roll out to Daniels’ right. Marcus Epps is slow to pick up Diggs on the far side of the field.
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