From Scandal to Stardom: Commanders Playoff Push Marks New Chapter

The record-setting, $6.05 billion purchase of the Commanders by Josh Harris was premised in large part on reviving a long-suffering but still-beloved franchise. The team returning to the playoffs with their best season in more than three decades provides an early sign of just how far Harris has come so far in that effort.

The Commanders clinched a playoff spot Sunday night with a 30–24 overtime win over Atlanta, marking the team’s first postseason berth since Harris completed the historic deal in July 2023. The victory, Washington’s 11th of the season, clinched the franchise’s winningest campaign since a 14-2 run in 1991 that culminated with a victory in Super Bowl XXVI—their third and still most recent championship.

Long mired in scandal and competitive malaise under the embattled, 24-year tenure of former owner Dan Snyder, the Commanders are quickly becoming the proverbial team nobody wants to face as the current No. 6 seed in the NFC.

“The fan base waited a long time for this,” said star rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. “I really can’t put into words how much it means to them.”

Growing Pains

While the team’s turnaround has been rapid, it certainly wasn’t immediate, and there were plenty of bumps along the initial path. As Harris gained control of the team just days before the start of 2023 training camp, there was little he could do to change the initial trajectory, and it showed as Washington limped to a 4-13 record last year.

Even as the team hit the one-year mark of the Harris era this past summer, there wasn’t a lot of hope that the situation was improving, and the Commanders nickname is still unpopular locally and nationwide.

Several critical things, however, have since happened. Daniels, the No. 2 pick in the 2024 NFL draft, has been the revelation, on and off the field, that Chicago thought it was getting and haven’t gotten from top pick Caleb Williams, and he is now a heavy favorite to win the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award. Commanders players have bought into the system of head coach Dan Quinn and GM Adam Peters, each in their first year with the team and part of a series of key moves under Harris to reshape the franchise leadership.

Fans have also responded meaningfully, with an attendance spike at Northwest Stadium seen in 2023 essentially holding this season. Perhaps more important, though, the facility is no longer the overwhelming haven for visiting-team fans that it was for many years during the Snyder era, and instead has seen a resurgent energy from the home faithful. The Commanders also recently hired former Campbell Soup Co. CEO Mark Clouse as their new president.

Stadium Matters

Beyond this season’s playoffs, the next big step for the Commanders will be deciding on the location of a planned new stadium—an issue that has dogged the franchise for years across the tenures of both Snyder and Harris. A bill to transfer control of the RFK Stadium land from federal authorities to the District of Columbia passed unanimously, reviving that former site of the Washington team as a potential future one.

Sites in Maryland and Virginia, however, are still under various levels of discussion, too.

“This bill will create an equal playing field so that all potential future locations for the home of the Washington Commanders can be fairly considered and give our franchise the opportunity to provide the best experience for all our fans,” Harris said after the bill’s passage.