OPINION:
Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters and coach Dan Quinn held a press conference Monday afternoon, presumably to face accountability and responsibility for a 5-12 season.
It lasted 35 minutes, but reportedly everyone there got to ask a question. So there’s that.
For the record, I was not in attendance. I was almost a thousand miles away on a Florida beach. But I was there in spirit. Really.
About half of the press conference consisted of questions Quinn answered. So that means Peters answered questions for about 20 minutes.
I may be overreacting, but that seems a little thin for such a collapse – from 12-5 and a trip to the NFC championship game to a complete reversal in fortune. But maybe that’s just me.
At the very least, Peters should have been up there alone. We’ve heard enough from Quinn all season. This was the only time all season Peters faced questions about accountability and responsibility.
You could have held an all-day Peters media retreat on questions that needed answers.
He wasn’t there when the trading deadline came and passed without the Commanders making a move.
More importantly, he never surfaced throughout the whole Jayden Daniels injury fiasco.
Two questions were asked at the press conference about Daniels.
The first was on communicating the changes they want to make to the quarterback. Quinn answered that one.
“Yeah, very much so that part,” Quinn said. “And even after his injury, we specifically said, this is the area, this is what we’re going to work on. And as opposed to waiting until the offseason, we decided let’s get a jump start on that. So very much so will he be a part of it, but I would say not only will he, like we already are going there, and so it’s really important we know what he brings to us, what it means to us. I think it’s all encompassing, you know, and how we go play the game. So, we’re like fully committed to finding ways to continue to do that.”
The other was on the plan to keep Daniels healthy long term. Peters answered this one, but reluctantly.
“I think, and this might be a better question for DQ, but you know, for me, I think it’s just continuing to, I think from a personnel or GM perspective, is continuing to put good players around him,” Peters said. “That’s in front of him at the O-Line. It’s running backs to control the ball and control the clock and not put it all on his shoulders and get in second-and-third-and-manageable. It’s receivers that he can trust and throw to so that he’s not holding onto the ball longer, and so from my perspective, it’s just getting good players around him, getting a good defense on the other side, so he’s not, it’s not all on his shoulders to win the game. So, DQ can probably talk more schematically, but in terms of from me, I think those are the things that I can and need to do to help him out.”
From a barstool in Cocoa Beach, I had a few more questions about Daniels.
What did Peters think about his coach’s decision to keep Daniels, already sidelined with two injuries during the season, in the game midway through the fourth quarter of a 38-7 blowout (a 38-14 result) loss to Seattle, when Daniels suffered a dislocated left elbow? Or the confusion that followed about Daniels’ status after he returned four weeks later for the game against Minnesota, only to reaggravate it and leave the game – then hear from Quinn that he could have returned, and then was finally shut down for the season days later?
Did Peters have a conversation with Quinn about Daniels being in the Seattle game in that situation? Quinn later said he made a mistake by having his quarterback in that game at that point. Did that result from a conversation with Peters? Was Peters involved in the decision to shut Daniels down for the season? Were there conversations about Daniels with owner Josh Harris? Was he involved in the decision to shut Daniels down?
This is not water under the bridge. It’s a review of the flood that swept over this organization and buried this team in 2025. It’s seeking answers to how the team handled this disaster. It’s accountability. It’s responsibility.
There was much more to seek answers for. Why did Peters leave so much money unused during free agency? Is ownership financially committed to spending on payroll? What was the impact on Daniels of the contract dispute with receiver Terry McLaurin?
A question about the McLaurin holdout was asked. This was Peters’ response:
“I think both us and Terry would agree that we would’ve liked to get that done a little bit faster. It didn’t happen that way. Certainly, you know there’s reasons for that, but ultimately you’d like to get those things done before we did. In terms of where Terry’s at, I thought, you know, obviously he got hurt early, but I thought he did a really good job at the end of the year. I was really pleased with where he’s at. Playing at a really high level right now and going into next year. So really pleased with the end result of the contract. Obviously, you’d like to get it done earlier, and I think that’s a good lesson too. Just engaging in those things a little bit earlier and hopefully you get to the end before we did on this one, and certainly, we’ll do that moving forward.”
So what were the reasons Peters spoke of? Were they worth fighting over? Was the juice worth the squeezing?
Would I expect answers to these questions? No, that’s not the way the game is played. But Harris inherited a franchise with credibility nightmares. Showing a full commitment to answer for your failures would be a small step in the right direction.
• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.