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Only 1 of 29 NFL analysts is picking Commanders to win NFC East

Originally posted on Washington Commanders on SI
By David Harrison | Last updated Aug 30, 2025 9:00 AM ET

Not since 2004 has the NFC East Division had a repeat champion, and if the Washington Commanders have their way, it won't happen again for two years.

Back then, the Philadelphia Eagles were the Kings of the division, having won their fourth-straight group-play championship. The Commanders, meanwhile, haven’t even won four division titles since that streak was broken by the New York Giants in 2005.

According to a collective predictive effort involving 29 members of the NFL.com media staff, Washington is expected to fall short of its goal to prevent a back-to-back winner this year. Still, it wasn’t quite a unanimous decision.

On Notice

“The NFC East’s decades-long streak without a repeat winner is officially on notice,” the collective states. “The reigning division and league champs are forecasted to retain at least one of those crowns this season, garnering 93% of the first-place votes in their group -- and our analysts expect their dominance once again to extend beyond just the East, with the Eagles being the lone NFC team to appear on all 29 ballots. That said, don’t sleep on the Commanders, who ranked third in wild-card confidence one year after a 12-win campaign earned them the conference’s No. 6 seed.”

The Lone Believer

The one NFL.com staffer voting for the Commanders to win the NFC East in 2025 was Michael F. Florio.

Florio then did not cast a vote for Washington as a Wild Card team, because he voted them in as a Division winner, but 13 of the other 28 voting members did, with seven predicting a sixth seed entry into the Lombardi Tournament, four putting the team in as the fifth seed, and two as the seventh.

That means less than half of the 29-person panel believes the Commanders will be a playoff team in head coach Dan Quinn, quarterback Jayden Daniels, and the rest of the coaching staff’s second season together.

Keep the Receipts

That’s one heck of a receipt for Washington fans to store for the season, and a long list of analysts who might need to have it read back to them at the end of the regular season.