Commanders fans display some summer optimism for ‘26 - Reacts survey results
In this week's Reacts survey, we asked a pair of questions about the predicted winner of the NFC East and Commanders projected playoff success.
The results are slightly schizophrenic, with the Kool-Aid (or Flavor Aid, if you prefer) flowing strongly when it comes to predicting the division winner, but a lot less confidence about the Commanders' postseason fortunes.
Winning the (B)EastIn an incredible display of belief in the home team, more than half of our survey respondents picked the burgundy & gold to hang the divisional championship banner ahead of the 27 season.
This indicates huge buy-in from Hogs Haven readers regarding the team's reworked roster and two rookie NFL coordinators and new NFL play callers. Achieving this result will probably require a fast start since Washington is on the road against Philly and Dallas in Weeks 1 and 2, and complete the first half of the NFC East schedule with a home game against the Giants in Week 5.
Washington's NFC East scheduleWhile the Commanders close the season with a Week 18 home game against the Cowboys, they will complete the home & away series with New York and Philadelphia by Week 10 - that's five division matchups in the first nine games of the season, which is far different from recent years when Washington has had a late bye week and closed out December and January with three or four division games.
Parity?It feels as if the NFC East is up for grabs in 2026, with the back-to-back reigning champion Eagles fighting a slow entropic decline as the effects of the team's massively leveraged salary cap cut into roster flexibility, making it a little more rigid every year as productive players who've earned paydays leave in free agency to be replaced by lesser/cheaper veterans or unproven rookies. Philly still has a good roster, but they've been leaking starters for three offseasons now, and it feels like they're approaching the tipping point.
A lot of defensive strugglesThe story lines for the other three teams in the division are almost eerily similar. All three teams struggled on defense in 2025 with the Giants, Commanders and Cowboys ranking 26th, 27th and 32nd, respectively, in points allowed last year.
Coaching turnover galore in 2026Unsurprisingly, all three teams mentioned above dumped their defensive coordinators in an effort to turn around the dismal defensive performances. In fact, the Giants changed the head coach and turned over all three coordinator positions while Washington replaced coordinators on offense and defense.
Even the Eagles, who lost their opening playoff game in January, made a coordinator change, dumping offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo in favor of Sean Mannion. For those keeping count, that's 1 new head coach, 3 new defensive coordinators, 3 new offensive coordinators, and 1 new special teams coordinator in the division this year. Don't get me started on the new positional coaches and other staff changes.
Injuries hit two teams really hardWashington and New York both dealt with heavy injury tolls in 2025, with the Commanders taking massive defensive hits, while the Giants lost their three young offensive stars - WR Malik Nabers, QB Jaxson Dart and RB Cam Skatteboo - for big chunks of the season. Per Sports Information Solutions, Washington was the 2nd-most injured team in 26, while the Giants were ranked 7th. The Eagles were found to be the 7th-healthiest and the Cowboys the 4th-healthiest.
Four fan bases with high expectations for 2026
Eagles fans expect the train to keep on rolling. Giants, Commanders and Cowboys fans are looking at the coaching shakeups and what each fan base perceives to have been a good offseason leading to improved rosters and are thinking, This could be a big turnaround; this could be our year".
Winning in the playoffsInterestingly, when the focus of this week's Reacts survey questions shifted from predicted division winner to projected playoff success, the consumption of Kool Aid/Flavor Aid changed from guzzling to polite sipping.
Despite 51% of respondents predicting, in Question 1, that the Commanders would win the division crown, only about a third of respondents projected Washington to enter the playoffs as a division winner in answer to Question 2, and 21% of all respondents said that the Commanders wouldn't qualify for the postseason at all!
Another 20% predicted that Washington would qualify as a wildcard team and win one game.
18% said F*** it" and predicted that the burgundy & gold would enter the playoffs as NFC East champs and end the season with with a playoff win and Washington's 4th Lombardi trophy and 6th league championship.
What some other fan bases are talking about in this week's Reacts surveysSeahawks fans were asked to identify the most difficult game out of their first five. The Commanders are on the list, hosting Seattle in Week 3. Seattle fans, fresh off a super bowl win, are not too concerned about their trip east, putting Washington next-to-last in the list of most difficult game" candidates.
The Cowboys, like the Commanders, have hired a new defensive coordinator and re-tooled the defensive roster via trade, free agency and 4 draft picks on the defensive side of the ball. New DC, Christian Parker, seems to be bringing a new and exciting scheme to the Star, but Dallas fans, who, despite annual promises and high hopes, haven't seen their team in an NFC Championship game in over 30 years, predicted by a vote of 2:1 that their team's new-look defense would finish in the middle-of-the NFL pack in 2026.
