Washington thought they had finally fixed one of their biggest problems last year.

After a surprise run to the NFC Championship Game, the Commanders went out and got Deebo Samuel to take some pressure off Terry McLaurin. The idea was simple: if defenses couldn’t just key in on McLaurin anymore, the whole offense would open up. Samuel was supposed to be the versatile piece who could line up anywhere, turn short throws into big gains, and make life easier for Jayden Daniels.

But it never quite clicked the way Washington hoped.

Samuel had a solid year on paper — 72 catches, 727 yards, five touchdowns — and he chipped in a bit on the ground too. Nothing about it was bad. It just wasn’t the difference-making impact the Commanders were counting on when they traded for him and committed $17 million.

So now they’re trying again, this time with Stefon Diggs.

Diggs comes to town at 32 years old, on his fourth team in four seasons, but still fresh off a 1,000-yard campaign that helped push a young quarterback all the way to the Super Bowl. This isn’t a nostalgia play or a name-chasing move. It’s Washington betting that the version of Diggs they saw last season is exactly the kind of reliable second option Jayden Daniels has been missing.

Deebo Never Became A Real Second Answer

Samuel was fine for Washington. Not bad, not a disaster, just… fine. And that was kind of the issue. The Commanders didn’t really need “fine” at that point — they needed someone who actually changed the math for a defense.

Before he got there, everything in the passing game basically ran through Terry McLaurin. And to be fair, McLaurin handled it like a star. He finished 2024 with 1,096 yards and a franchise-record 13 touchdowns, and there were games where it felt like he was the only receiver Daniels could trust to be where he was supposed to be. But no other Washington receiver even cracked 510 yards.

That’s a lot of weight on one guy, especially for a young quarterback still figuring things out.

And honestly, that’s not a sustainable way to live on offense. It can work for stretches — and it did, because Daniels was electric at times, the run game held things together, and McLaurin kept bailing them out with big-time plays — but you can’t really build a long-term identity like that and feel good about it.

So the idea with Deebo Samuel was pretty straightforward. Take some of that pressure off Daniels. Give him a guy who could turn a five-yard slant into a 20-yard gain. Line him up in motion, throw him screens, sneak him into the backfield, and just let him create a little chaos so the quarterback didn’t have to do everything himself. In theory, it was exactly what they needed.

And to be fair, you could see it at times. There were moments where it looked like it might click. But it never really stacked together in a consistent way.

The numbers kind of tell the story. Samuel’s average target only traveled 5.3 yards downfield last season, which tells you how much of his game was built on short stuff. Of his 727 receiving yards, 466 came after the catch. He averaged 1.64 yards per route and finished with a 69.3 PFF grade, which put him right in the middle of the pack at 44th out of 81 receivers.

And that’s the thing — that kind of player can absolutely help an offense get more creative. But it doesn’t really force defenses to change how they feel about you. It’s more “we’ll deal with it” than “we have to adjust for this guy.”

Samuel still needed the offense to manufacture touches for him. He could make you pay once the ball was in his hands, but he wasn’t consistently winning early in routes. So if a defense wanted to load up on McLaurin, there wasn’t always that answer on the other side.

And then, of course, the season kind of fell apart around him. Injuries piled up everywhere. Daniels only played seven games, McLaurin just 10, and the whole thing went from an NFC Championship appearance to a 5–12 season in a hurry. Samuel was actually one of the more available pieces in the offense, but even then, the unit never really found a rhythm or identity with him in that role.

Diggs feels different in that specific way.

He ran 421 routes for New England last season — actually fewer than Samuel — but still put up 286 more receiving yards. His average target came 8.54 yards downfield, he caught 83.3% of his targets, and he averaged 2.41 yards per route. On top of that, he earned an 87.5 PFF grade, which ranked seventh among all qualified receivers.

And if you go a step deeper, the advanced numbers back it up too. Next Gen Stats had him at 0.16 EPA per route, which ranked third in the league among receivers with at least 200 routes. He was also near the top in catches over expected and receiving yards over expected.

But honestly, you can strip all of that away and say it a lot simpler: Diggs still gets open.

Diggs Fits In The Space McLaurin Leaves Behind

McLaurin and Diggs don’t have to step on each other’s toes here. If anything, the whole point is that they shouldn’t be doing the same job in the first place.

McLaurin's still Washington’s clear-cut downfield guy. Even in a 2025 season that got cut short by injuries, he was stretching the field like he always does — his average target was still nearly 14 yards downfield. His job is to stress corners vertically, win on the outside, and basically force safeties to play honest so the rest of the offense can breathe.

Diggs, on the other hand, doesn’t need to live in that same world. He can operate in all the space that McLaurin creates just by existing. Some snaps he’ll line up outside if Washington wants to move Terry around, but honestly, the slot might be where he does his best work. That’s where his timing and route IQ still show up. He knows how to sit down in zones, how to adjust mid-route when coverage shifts, and how to give a quarterback a clean answer before things break down.

Dan Quinn basically said it himself after Diggs’ first practice in Washington:

With him, in man-to-man, you better be ready, because if he does beat you across your face or you lose leverage, this is going to be an explosive play.

And that’s really the whole idea here. You can’t just load up on one guy anymore. If defenses roll extra help toward McLaurin, Diggs is sitting right there in the middle of the field ready to punish it. If they try to bracket Diggs on third down, McLaurin gets cleaner looks outside. And if they try to get cute and account for both, Daniels is going to have way more room to work when he breaks the pocket.

For once, there’s no easy answer for defenses — and that’s kind of the point.

Diggs doesn’t need to turn back the clock to “Buffalo Diggs” for this to work. Washington isn’t asking for 120 catches or 1,500 yards. They just need the version of him that showed up in New England last year — the steady, reliable guy who still cleared 1,000 yards and who did a ton of damage on crossers over the middle.

That version is more than enough as a second option. More importantly, it gives Jayden Daniels something he didn’t really have last year: a receiver who can bail him out when the first read isn’t there.

Daniels’ sophomore season was messy in every way — injuries piled up and he finished with just 1,262 passing yards, eight touchdowns, and three picks in seven games. Washington went 2–5 in his starts, and a lot of that came down to an offense that seemed to always ask him to just figure it out on his own.

Diggs changes that a bit. He shortens the play. He gives Daniels a veteran who already knows where the soft spots are going to be, so the quarterback doesn’t have to sit back there waiting for something to magically open up. Diggs has talked before about helping young quarterbacks play with confidence, and he just did it for Drake Maye in New England. Now that job shifts to Daniels.

And honestly, McLaurin might benefit just as much. He's never really had another receiver who consistently takes pressure off him the way Diggs can. That’s kind of wild when you think about it — he’s been doing this for eight seasons with rotating quarterbacks and very little real help next to him.

McLaurin already has five 1,000-yard seasons under his belt, and he finally got some stability at quarterback in 2024. Now, for the first time, he might actually have a true running mate beside him too.

Washington Protected Themselves From The Risk

Despite all that Diggs can still provide, there's a reason he was still available in August. He's not the player he was when Josh Allen was throwing him passes. 

The Commanders know that too. That's why his deal is one year worth up to $12 million, which is basically the NFL version of “let’s see how this goes.” If the age cliff shows up fast, they’re not stuck. They can move on next offseason without it turning into a long-term problem.

But if he still looks like the guy who finished 15th in the league in receiving yards last year, then suddenly this becomes one of those sneaky-good, low-risk moves teams love to brag about in hindsight.

It’s also just a cleaner bet than what they tried with Deebo Samuel. Washington guaranteed Deebo $17 million and gave up a draft pick to get him. With Diggs, there was no trade, no extra cost, and the money only gets to $12 million if he actually earns it. That alone changes the feel of the whole thing.

None of that means it’s “safe,” though. A 32-year-old receiver who tore his ACL just 21 months ago is never safe, no matter how you slice it. What it does mean is the risk actually matches what Washington is trying to do here instead of swinging wildly and hoping for the best.

Diggs has already said he still sees himself as the best No. 2 receiver in football. That’s a bold claim, especially with guys like Tee Higgins, George Pickens, and Davante Adams still doing their thing. But Washington doesn’t really need to settle that debate. They just need him to be better than the second options Jayden Daniels has had so far.

All stats courtesy of NFL Pro.

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