As the Commanders head into Week 3, let’s look at which players have been on the rise and which have been on the fall in this week’s ‘Stock Up Stock Down’ report.
This week the Commanders will play host to their first NFC East opponent of the 2022 season, the Philadelphia Eagles. But before we talk about the game, let’s take a minute and see which players have been trending up and which have been trending down over the last couple of weeks since we last did this report.
Stock Up
Offensively the Commanders have been trending upwards over the last few weeks. Washington is currently second in the league in passing yards trailing only the Dolphins with 650 passing yards. Of course, they’re near the bottom in rushing yards as well with only 173. That could be a direct result of not having starting runningback Brian Robinson while he continues to recover from being shot in an attempted carjacking.
Carson Wentz
Coming into the season most people had no clue what to expect from Carson Wentz starting a season with his third different team in as many years. The “experts” wanted us to believe he was the reason for the Indianapolis Colts’ issues in 2021 and tried to ready us for what they saw as a failure on the horizon. With the Colts 0-2 and unable to put points on the board consistently, those “experts” are now looking like talking heads with non-stop narratives.
After two games Wentz is 57 of 87 (65.5%) with 675 yards passing (2nd in the league), seven touchdowns (tied for most), and three interceptions. He also currently leads the league in successful plays of 20+ yards with 10.
While the Commanders are 1-1 so far on the season and looked rough in the first half of this past weekend’s game against Detroit, Wentz has been one of the most successful players across the entire league in the first two weeks, and certainly a perfect match for Week 3’s ‘Stock Up’.
Jahan Dotson
Rookie receiver Jahan Dotson won the Pepsi Rookie of the Week award in Week 1 after catching three passes for 40 yards and two touchdowns against Jacksonville. Dotson followed up on that performance with four catches for 59-yards and a touchdown this past weekend against the Lions.
Dotson now has seven catches for 99 yards (14.1 per reception) and three touchdowns so far this season. His play has him currently knee-deep in conversation about offensive rookie of the year.
Curtis Samuel
Commanders receiver Curtis Samuel is another member of the offensive unit that has been lighting it up in the stat column for the past two weeks. Samuel has 15 catches for 133 yards and two touchdowns to go along with five carries and 38 yards rushing. In short, he’s been a problem for opposing defenses thus far this year.
Stock Down
Even with the mistakes the special teams unit has had over the last two weeks, only one name needs to be mentioned in ‘Stock Down’ this week.
The Defense
The entire defensive unit seems off for one reason or the other through two weeks. While the film shows several things, including issues with the scheme in some situations, individual players have also had issues including (but not limited to) Kendall Fuller, William Jackson III, and Jamin Davis.
In Jackson and Davis’ situation it may be more so a coaching issue in terms of the situations they’re putting them in. Jackson is a press corner being told to give the receiver a five to 10-yard cushion, and Davis is a raw, but talented player that needs to be coached up and used to his abilities, not run through the wringer of playing coverage when it’s a known fact he struggles with it at this point in his development.
Fuller still appears to be misused/misplaced by this staff, as his talents have fit better at the slot or free safety role in the past, not the outside where Jack Del Rio has him playing this season.
This should also fall back on the staff, Del Rio mainly since it’s his unit, currently in year three. That’s the year teams show if they’re on the right track or not, and after two weeks this defensive unit looks much like it did last year when it gave up the most passing touchdowns (34) of any team in the NFL.
Let’s hope they get it together because unless Carson and the offense can outscore teams, this unit looks like it’s going to lose a lot of games this year for Washington.
