The Commanders probably regret one offseason move at an uncertain position after his recent performance
The Washington Commanders are on a bye week for Week 12, so that means stress-free football before the team comes back for the final stretch of the season.
Head coach Dan Quinn wasted no time kicking off the bye week with some big news by releasing veteran kicker Matt Gay. The Commanders would respond by signing former third-round pick Jake Moody to see if he's the answer for the rest of the year, and hopefully next.
The kicker position has haunted the Commanders for two seasons now, and they probably should've stuck with Zane Gonzalez, who just had a big game with the Atlanta Falcons.
Zane Gonzalez was lights out in his Falcons debut
I know we can say this about a lot of other players the Commanders let go, but releasing Gonzales didn't make too much sense, especially when Adam Peters' next move was a costly one. The Commanders gave Gay the biggest one-year fully guaranteed contract for a kicker ever, and he was a disaster. Fast forward to now, the Commanders are still trying to figure the position out, and Gonzales had a heck of a game for the Falcons.
The Falcons signed Gonzalez on Nov. 4th, and he hasn't missed a kick for them yet. He's now 6-6 through three games, including 56 and 54-yard makes against the New Orleans Saints. Gay went 4-9 on field goal attempts from 50 yards and beyond, and Gonzales is already 3-3 from the same distance.
Zane Gonzalez is the second Falcons kicker to make two field goals of 54+ yards in a single game. He joins Morten Andersen as the only other Falcon to do so.
Funny enough Andersen also did so against the Saints (1995). pic.twitter.com/2MFYyVdpVM — Tori McElhaney (@tori_mcelhaney) November 23, 2025
The Commanders could've brought Gonzalez back for much cheaper than Gay, and who knows what the results would've been, but it couldn't have been worse than what we saw this season. Now the next chapter starts, and they can only pray they got it right.
The Commanders need Jake Moody to be the answer
Releasing Gay was absolutely the right call, with the bye week giving them time , but now is the stressful part, trying a new kicker. Moody was a third-round pick with the 49ers when Peters was still there. He's a young option with a lot of upside, and he showed a lot of promise in his short stint with the Chicago Bears this season, including the game-winner against the Commanders.
We have signed K Jake Moody from Chicago’s practice squad
https://t.co/YcPCBDglUH pic.twitter.com/1BnfLza0Rp
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) November 18, 2025
The Commanders have six more games left this season to let Moody audition to be the starter next season, which is the best-case scenario. If Moody doesn't work out, then they likely release him at the end of the season and try again in the always revolving pool of kickers around the league.
Shedeur Sanders Breaks History, Leaves Cam Ward in the Shadows
Alright, that’s enough narrative-spinning with QB wins (not a stat). But Shedeur Sanders did, in fact, lead the Browns to a win in his professional debut against the Raiders. That win made franchise history, and it was a real favor for Sanders’ buddy in Tennessee.
Shedeur Sanders Breaks History, Leaves Cam Ward in the Shadows
The name of the game for the Tennessee Titans the rest of this season is showing as much progress as possible while maintaining their position atop the NFL Draft order. Through 12 weeks, it’s been so far, so good on that second part. They’re 1-10 and alone in the driver’s seat for the first overall pick.
As for improvement, well, this week’s loss to the Seahawks was easily the best performance of Ward's NFL career when considering the degree of difficulty. He put up a better performance against a ferocious Seattle defense than a lot of good QBs have this year, and he did it with a much worse collection of pieces around him than most (all?) of those quarterbacks.
Toeing that line of impressive play while still losing will get tricky down the stretch if they actually trend up as a team. And with a handful of the bottom-feeder competition for draft positioning on their schedule, it’s especially crucial to lose to them. They did so against the 2-9 Raiders in Week 6, and they have the 3-8 Browns and 2-9 Saints left to play.
But it’s thanks to Ward’s friend, Sanders, doing something no Browns QB has done in their debut since the franchise moved back to Cleveland, that his team has three wins.
That’s right, neither Sanders nor Ward was born the last time a Browns QB won their debut. That’s a lot of losses because they’ve gone through a ton of QBs. And with the Raiders already earning a win and the Titans earning a loss in their matchup earlier this year, it’s ideal for Tennessee that the Browns got a third win before these two face off in two weeks.
It might be a stretch to say Sanders was the reason the Browns won. He certainly benefited from playing a downright awful opponent and having a legitimately great defense on his side. He tallied 209 yards on 21 dropbacks, for one touchdown and one interception. That’s a perfectly normal traditional stat line. His advanced stats tell a worse story, however, -0.21 EPA/dropback isn’t great.
It’s his first start, though, and he’s allowed to have room to grow. He made some promising plays, including this one:
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski seemed to walk back his stance on who the Browns starter would be going forward, declining to commit to Sanders or Gabriel after the win.
Last week, before the game, he told reporters that Gabriel would return to the starting lineup when healthy. Perhaps we’ll see Sanders vs. Ward in Week 14 yet.
