ASHBURN, Va. — Zach Ertz wasn’t ready to call it quits. But after 11 years, three Pro Bowls, over 700 catches and over 7,400 yards, he admitted last season in Arizona was “extremely difficult,” and questions regarding whether he could be the player he once was swirled in his head. Kliff Kingsbury, a big reason he had joined the Cardinals in the first place, had been fired. Ertz had come back — probably too quickly, he admitted — from a torn ACL and MCL, played in just seven games and then suffered a quadriceps injury. He then asked for his release, which was granted.
There were opportunities, but they weren’t the right opportunities. So he waited. And waited. And he wasn’t sure if that was it, even though he wanted to keep playing. And then Dan Quinn got hired as Commanders head coach, and Kingsbury came along as offensive coordinator. And then came Ertz, the first signing of the offseason.
“When Kliff got this job and DQ got this job, [it] was really just an opportunity for me to fall back in love with the game again,” Ertz said. “I would say and just enjoy the process again and just be around people that know how to use me and allow me to be at my best, so it’s just been so much fun. It’s exceeded all my expectations.”
Ertz has exceeded all expectations, too. The 34-year-old tight end, Quinn admitted, was expected to just be a red zone and situational player. Instead, he started 17 games for the first time in his career and caught 66 passes for 654 yards and seven touchdowns, that last category his most since 2018. He’s caught seven more passes for 51 yards and a score in the playoffs. He rediscovered his love for the game.
Now, he’s one game away from going to his second Super Bowl, playing for one of the most unlikely championship game participants the NFL has ever seen.
“It’s a testament to the people that they brought in, the coaching they brought in and just the enjoyment we’re having with one another,” Ertz said.
Perhaps it’s because Quinn knows what Ertz was going through. He, too, sat and waited for a call from Washington GM Adam Peters. Was his phone even working? But when the call came nearly a year ago, he knew he could deliver.
“I cannot wait to get it rocking here,” Quinn said in his introductory press conference. “I can’t wait. We’ll hit the ground running, there’s lots to do. But, I want to let you know, man, I’ve been waiting on this moment and so to be here with you guys today, I cannot wait to get this thing rocking.”
And rocking it is. Washington is in its first NFC Championship since 1991. There’s been a rebirth for the team, for the fanbase, for everything surrounding the organization.
Jayden Daniels, of course, has led that charge. The rookie sensation has led one of the NFL’s most improbable turnarounds under improbable circumstances: He has thrown three game-winning touchdown passes in the final 30 seconds of regulation or in overtime, the only quarterback to do so since at least 2000. There’s an idea that if you have a quarterback, you have a chance. Daniels has absolutely proved that right.
Though the first-year quarterback receives the headlines, it’s the second chances up and down Washington’s roster and coaching staff that have made this remarkable season possible.
“The guys were hungry,” Kingsbury said. “We just preached a fresh start, too. I didn’t care what you’ve done. I hope they didn’t judge me from prior stops I had been at or what they had heard or thought about about me, and I gave them a clean slate as well: ‘Hey, we’re gonna do the best we can do for the Commanders, and if you contribute to this team at a high level, you’re gonna play.’ Those guys have bought in, and when their number’s been called, they’ve shown why they’ve been in this league so long, and they still have a lot in the tank.”
That attitude doesn’t just apply to the players. Quinn is getting his second chance as a head coach. Eight seasons after leading to the Falcons to the Super Bowl and four seasons after an unceremonious mid-season firing from Atlanta, he hasn’t had the chance to reflect much yet, but he has instilled a culture that is undeniable.
“From day one, he hasn’t treated anybody differently,” Kingsbury said. “His expectation level has been what it is. You know, it’s going to be championship week every week. So, when you get to this week, which he preached, nothing’s going to be different, and guys believed in it. They followed him. There’s a lot of guys with a chip on their shoulder in that group. Players that I think people thought they were being sent off here to die, and they’ve been able to show that they still got a place in this league.”
Kingsbury has produced an offensive tour de force — Washington has a top-five scoring offense for just the second time this millennium — that is equal parts creative and sound. The Commanders are second in points per drive this postseason and haven’t turned the ball over once.
Kingsbury called Brian Johnson (pass game coordinator) “one of the smartest offensive minds I’ve been around” and credited Anthony Lynn (run game coordinator/running backs coach) for developing a physical, downhill running game. Bobby Johnson’s offensive line just allowed zero sacks against the Lions. All three are coaches who have taken full advantage of a second chance after some disappointing previous stops.
“I think that’s the beautiful thing about football is that you bring guys in from all different types of backgrounds and philosophies, and you get to work towards a common goal,” Johnson said. “I can’t say enough about the men in this building that come to work every single day, eager to get better.”
A team is not complete thanks to some exciting rookies and some notable veterans, like Ertz, Bobby Wagner and Tyler Biadasz. There are 53 spots on the roster, after all, and in a sport where injuries accumulate quickly, all 53 count. Jeremy McNichols is on his 10th team. This season, he scored four touchdowns — he had two in his entire career entering this season — and in the divisional round against the Lions, he powered in for a fourth-quarter touchdown that put the game out of reach.
“All those other moments have prepared me for this particular moment and this particular team and my teammates” McNichols said. “Getting to that moment was incredible, and being able to finish out the game like that … just incredible win, incredible team effort, and being able to play in a championship game is so fun and so exciting.”
That touchdown, appropriately, came behind the blocking of Trent Scott, a former undrafted offensive lineman filling in for Sam Cosmi, injured earlier in the game. Scott logged 45 snaps at right guard, his only snaps there all season.
“Always willing to do whatever the team needs to get the job done, and that week it just happened to be guard,” Scott said of his experience this season, which also included a touchdown on a trick play. “I think it’s the culture that [Quinn and Peters] built in when they first came in, that ‘next man up’ mentality. … We all have a responsibility, and the team expects it not to drop off.”
Of Washington’s 53 active players, 22 are on a one-year contract. That’s the nature of a “what have you done for me lately?” business, where chances come and go quickly and thin margins lurk everywhere. Some of those 22 players, like Wagner and Ertz, have been the stalwarts of a team very few people saw coming. Others, like Scott, McNichols and Olamide Zaccheaus, have simply filled their roles. When Terry McLaurin took a screen 58 yards for a touchdown against the Lions, it was Zaccheaus and Dyami Brown doing the dirty work, springing their Pro Bowl teammate with excellent blocks.
“I love when those moments happen,” Quinn said of Scott’s play. “That’s been the Jeremy McNicholses. It’s been people like him, [Zaccheaus], others that step into that space and deliver. It’s really powerful as a teammate.”
Credit belongs everywhere: Peters and the personnel department for finding these players, Quinn and the coaching staff for empowering them and the players for taking advantage. The result has, much like the players themselves, exceeded every external expectation, not that these veterans were ever worried about that, anyway.
“I think that’s what makes our team so special, and that’s what makes our connection easy and special, because no matter where you’re at in your career, I think we’re a group of guys that’s been doubted or people felt like the best ball was past him,” Wagner said. “And nobody in there believed that.
“I think that’s the biggest thing is just it’s a room of people — from the coaches to the players — that have been doubted, that are more interested to prove ourselves right.”
