Kliff Kingsbury falling into familiar trap amid Commanders' turmoil

The Washington Commanders are reeling, with three straight losses dropping them to 3-5 in a season that started with hopes of a potential Super Bowl run.

Everything has gone wrong. Injuries have decimated the squad. Age is catching up to trusted veterans, and the inexplicable regression of players who should be just hitting their primes hasn't helped, either. Most of the criticism has centered around the defense, but the offense hasn't been up to scratch either.

Washington scored a season-low seven points in its Monday Night Football loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, and did absolutely nothing offensively during the second half. It's time to have an honest conversation about Kliff Kingsbury.

Commanders' offense is starting to show cracks in the chaos

In Week 8, Washington's offense ran through running back Jeremy McNichols. The Commanders returned the services of both Terry McLaurin and Deebo Samuel Sr. — though the former was re-injured during the third quarter and will miss Week 9 — and they combined for 65 receiving yards. Jacory Croskey-Merritt had another invisible outing, as the team was unable to establish a run game that was nothing short of dominant earlier in the campaign.

The concerns with the offense have existed all season. Washington has struggled to keep drives alive the way it did in 2024 and hasn't had nearly as many explosive plays. The creativity in the play-calling has been lacking, with too many runs straight up the gut and short outside passes that have been sniffed out immediately.

Kingsbury has had a reputation throughout his career for being easy to expose. Everybody knows about the "Kliff Cliff" trend from his head coaching days at both Texas Tech and the Arizona Cardinals, where his teams have considerably dropped off during the second halves of seasons. His scheme is heavily predicated on deception, and he struggles to adjust.

A healthy Jayden Daniels is obviously the biggest key to making Washington's offense click. Even then, he needs to be set up to succeed.

In Week 7 against the Dallas Cowboys, Daniels struggled to move the ball even before leaving the contest, understandably so with Chris Moore and Robbie Chosen as his top wide receivers. But the signal-caller's job could have been made easier had the Commanders leaned on the rushing attack against one of the league's worst defenses, and they didn't.

Kingsbury is fortunate that the defense is underperforming even worse than the offense. Otherwise, he'd be under major fire right now.

As it is, he's gone from a potential candidate for another head coaching position to facing questions about whether or not he's the right guy for his current role. Much like everyone else involved in this organization's leadership right now, Kingsbury will need to do better.