Analyzing an actual Commanders roster move that matters

Washington adding Rasul Douglas shows Dan Quinn is being real.

Dan Quinn told the truth.

It’s not necessarily remarkable that an NFL head coach told the truth, but it doesn’t happen all that often either. Quinn prides himself on his ability to not divulge much information, but he doesn’t do the outright misinformation spew that many other NFL coaches thrive in either.

So what did Quinn tell the truth about? The Commanders held an unusual minicamp where the second and third-stringers got the bulk of the work while the starters mostly did jog-throughs.

It was kinda weird but Quinn explained he wanted to see where the depth was on the roster, and to my eye, it was quite obvious the depth at cornerback was suspect.

Now enter Rasul Douglas.

The Commanders signed the veteran corner earlier in the week and he immediately provides depth in the corner room. Heck, he could maybe compete for a starting job.

A third-round pick in 2017, Douglas has been largely healthy and productive throughout his nine-year NFL career. He’s not young, he will turn 31 before Week 1, but he’s a real NFL corner.

The Commanders defense needed that. We can argue about the abilities of Mikey Sainristil, Trey Amos and Amik Robertson, but they’re NFL corners. After that was real questions. Douglas adds a real NFL corner to the room.

While most fans focus on starters and potential Pro Bowlers to count up possible wins, what really tanks a season is poor depth.

Think about the receiver position in Washington last year: Terry McLaurin dealt with injuries and Noah Brown basically missed the whole season. Add in injuries to other players and all of a sudden Chris Moore was the 5th most targeted wideout on Washington’s roster.

Positional depth raises the floor for position groups. Which is exactly why Washington added Dyami Brown and Van Jefferson this season. It might not impact the ceiling of the receiver group - that hinges more on Antonio Williams development and Treylon Burks’ health - but the floor is much higher than last year.

Similarly bringing Douglas in raises the floor of the cornerback room, and that’s arguably more important than the floor of the receiver room. In a typical game five cornerbacks get defensive snaps. A lot of guys play week after week at that position, and that’s not even counting special teams work.

Listen I’m not suggesting that adding Douglas in July will change the Las Vegas win totals for Washington. It won’t.

But it raises the floor of a defense that was terrible last season. And that matters a lot.

It’s nice to write an article about a roster move that will actually impact the upcoming season instead of postulating about the latest social media videos posted by a receiver on another team.

Speaking of those videos, in Brandon Aiyuk’s latest he said Jayden Daniels isn’t calling him back and that’s it time to get serious because there’s money on the line.

This is all so asinine. Now is the time to get serious because there’s money on the line? THERE’S BEEN MONEY ON THE LINE FOR A YEAR PLUS.

Assuming Aiyuk is telling the truth - which is a big assumption - that’s great news for Daniels. The third-year quarterback has handled this entire Aiyuk nonsense with true professionalism, and if he’s reached a breaking point, good.

More than that, if Aiyuk plans to stick to his guns and refuse to reinstate with the 49ers, than none of this matters. At all.