r/Commanders • u/JT-1963 • 14h ago
Player character first
With everyone freaking out about our O-line and center, and noting that we didn’t make any successful moves for free agents, and no waiver wire pickups…
My take is that AP and DQ are serious about defending their locker room culture and only considering players that are “Commanders” - right attitude, high football IQ, “dawgs”, etc.
(No way they would accept Brandon Aiyuk, as an example!)
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u/RoddytheRowdyPiper My Wife Left me for Josh Harris 14h ago
I mean, we took Diggs.
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u/POHoudini LEFT HAND UP 13h ago
He may be shit head in his personal life, but I've never heard anything bad about his locker room etiquette.
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u/kon--- 14h ago
I'm unsure what culture has to do with it. Especially in the wake of the turnover that happened with coaching staff. There was enough change that I'm either looking at DQ for bringing on the wrong guys or looking at the FO for DQ surviving the purge for what looks like stability and stability only reasons.
But here we are, the FO and staff have decided to stand pat and roll the dice with a unit that puts the QB in jeopardy. Fans have to hope that after two seasons of tape to work with the new staff have sorted out how to game around the unit's weaknesses.
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u/dcsportzfan I Got JD5 On It 14h ago
I do think they put too much emphasis on "character." I'd rather have a few more rotten eggs who can play. The whole "Commanders Tag" thing seems like it's going to become a joke around here in a few years like "The culture is damn good," "HarvestFest," "Commanthers," etc.
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u/Knyfe-Wrench I Got JD5 On It 13h ago
I think you put too much emphasis on what they say in press conferences. "Good character" is just something that sounds good when you say it to the media.
Assume every reason is football related unless it's proven otherwise beyond a shadow of a doubt.
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u/eddy_g0rdo 14h ago
Not everyone. Just some people. I just want the damn season to start….let’s get out there and see what we got.
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u/salamanderman10 10h ago
I think it is moreso they knew Nick was coming back this week and they are confident in him. They want to continue to develop Gulbin. They have always liked Paul, which is why they signed him. They probably were only looking for a spot as a potential guard to replace the UDFA but felt like they couldnt get a significant enough upgrade to cut him to overcome whatever potential they see in him.
There really werent any other spots that scrapheaps would have improved.
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u/Ok_Cobbler_8778 14h ago
The best teams have a culture that is unshakable even with a few bad apples.
Rashee Rice has a checkered off field history but doesn't mean he won't be on the roster (top 5 wr in fantasy when healthy).
Josh Jacobs will be welcomed back with open arms once he returns.
If your culture is good, having a few elite talent bad apples makes your team better.
I mean the eagles won a super bowl when AJ Brown was reading books on the sidelines lol
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u/Rare-Signature-7526 12h ago
its generally coachspeak to say theyre looking for guys to "fit the culture", though I will say our last 2 coaches have leaned more heavily into the character of their guys than most teams do. Its something you see more often with these CEO style HCs that don't call offense or defense (ron, DQ), and a lot of the time it could harm the overall talent of the team.
Sometimes I believe that AP is deferring too much to DQs preferences. Initially AP was seen as a young forward thinking mind, and he was gonna get his young innovative HC to pair with himself, both those HCs he wanted didn't come, and AP had to revert to his third option. When youre a first time GM growing into your role with a well respected HC like DQ, youre naturally gonna pick up a lot on how he sees the game, and now a few years later we still have a pretty not great roster, and the culture seems to be fine
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u/Romance_Tactics 14h ago
I don’t think it’s really that deep. The waiver wire guys weren’t studs, and we didn’t scrape the bottom of the barrel of free agents because we believe the answers are in the room already.
AP signed lots of free agents, we were really cooking this summer. This overreaction to not signing some depth guy is just par the course for a bored fandom.