The Takeaways, Week 16: Philadelphia at Washington
December 23, 2025
by Steve Thomas
Washington played pretty well, right? At least for about one half. You didn’t really expect them to actually win two games in a row, did you? Silly readers. I fully realize that some of you are a bit obsessed with draft status, meaning that this loss is actually a positive. That isn’t and never has been how I view things – I’d much prefer my team to win. The draft will come in time. Not to mention, frankly, based on the many hours I spent writing draft analysis columns (click here to read the final installment), the truth is that the draft is a complete crapshoot anyway. My advice is to just root for your team to win and not to worry about the difference between the fifth pick and the twelfth pick. As to the game, though, what we saw this week was a defense that hung with an underperforming Eagles offense for awhile before the inevitable collapse. Offensively, it was more of the same; meaning, mediocrity at best. The Takeaways for week 16 are below.
Dan Quinn’s poor playcalling
I’m not necessarily here to bash Quinn as a head coach and call for his firing. I think it’s pretty important to Jayden Daniels’ development to have the same offensive system for a several seasons while he is a young player, particularly give how this season turned out for him. However, there were several calls in this game that I didn’t understand. Quinn was very conservative on fourth downs on multiple occasions. Why? This was a 4 – 10 team (now 4 – 11) with nothing to lose. Why not go for it on some fourth downs instead of letting Tress Way punt 5 times? This was a close game up until the fourth quarter, and while they were probably not going to ultimately get a victory, in my view a slightly different approach at times might have made a difference. I’m not arguing with the run / pass balance; they had a total of 23 pass attempts between Marcus Mariota and Josh Johnson, and 24 called running plays to Chris Rodriguez, Jacory Croskey-Merritt, and Jeremy McNichols. That having been said, maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think Dan Quinn helped himself in this game.
Josh Johnson stinks up the joint
I am fully aware that I’ve defended Johnson as a quality third string quarterback at times this season, but boy was this a bad look for him. In his nearly two quarters of play, he went 5 for 9 for 43 yards, 1 interception, and no touchdowns, for a quarterback rating of 28.7. His interception in the third quarter was one of the worst NFL passes I’ve ever seen – it was a weakly-thrown attempt off his back foot across the field intended for Treylon Burks, but it completely missed the Eagles defensive back Cooper DeJean lurking in a perfect place to jump the route. It was terrible and reflected poorly on Johnson as a quarterback. More than that, though, he was unable to accomplish almost anything aside from being a beneficiary of an obvious pass interference call near the goal line. Do better, Josh, or you probably won’t be in Washington next season.
Mike Sainristil proves his worth, again
Saintristil, of course, caused the fumble on the opening kickoff, which was a great play. It wasn’t just that the returner fumbled the ball on his own. Sainristil appeared to strip the ball, Beyond that play, Sainristil played mostly outstanding coverage throughout the game. In my opinion, he’s proved that he can be part of the long-term future in a defense that’s going to need to be completely rebuilt from the ground up over the next couple of seasons, regardless of the injuries to the starters ahead of him. The only question is whether his future is in the slot or on the outside, and we just don’t have an answer to that right now. Congrats on a mostly fine game, sir.
Injuries continue to mount
Washington is absolutely cursed this year when it comes to injuries. For those of you who couldn’t keep up, the team lost Marcus Mariota to both a hand injury and a concussion, Jaylin Lane to an ankle problem, tackle Brandon Coleman to a shin injury, and both Samuel Cosmi and Jer’Zhan Newton to concussion protocol. Coleman, of course, was in for the already injured Laremy Tunsil. It’s a slog to the end, people. This season can’t end fast enough.
A salute to Bobby Wagner
Wagner had 10 tackles in this game, for a total of 1985 in his career. Wagner is now third in NFL history in combined career tackles, behind Ray Lewis with 2059 and London Fletcher with 2039. I realize that Wagner is old by NFL standards, isn’t nearly as athletic, speedy, and agile as he used to be, and that he’s more of a liability than a benefit in pass coverage. Can’t we just congratulate him for one day, though, before we call for his benching? Yes? Good.
I’ll be back next week after Washington’s loss to the hated Dallas Cowboys at home on Christmas day (thanks for that, NFL).