Jim O’Donnell: Commanders showing the Bears how quick a turnaround can be
WHAT INFO-SATURATED NFL FAN EXPECTED such progressive news so rapidly out of Washington, D.C., in 2025?
If only the dateline could be, “Lake Forest, Ill.”
Sunday is simply a splendid day to be a fan of the Commanders — however late the march of the burgundy-and-gold rejects stragglers.
SURE THEY'RE 6-POINT UNDERDOGS to brute pushable Jalen Hurts and the host Eagles in the NFC Championship game (2 p.m., Fox; Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady, Erin Andrews, Tom Rinaldi).
But doesn't that merely add more Hallmark Dogg cinematic spin to the dream?
In Jayden Daniels, they have one of the most viewer-amazing rookie quarterbacks in the history of the league. He's got poise, young Sly Stone eyes and the quick-bud bounce feet of a gold-medal winner at The World Hip-Hop Dance Championship.
Head coach Dan Quinn — he of the backward ball cap — is proving that success might be more sustainable the second time around.
Kliff Kingsbury is the most wizardly of the hotshot NFC offensive coordinators still playing for anything.
IN AN EXTRAORDINARY SHOW OF CHARACTER, prioritization and loyal professionalism, he also passed on allowable Zoom interviews — and likely tens of millions of dollars if he landed a fresh HC gig. Instead, he stayed focused on the Potomac crossing at hand.
The goal remains a most improbable trip to Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans two weeks down river.
THE FULL FOUNDATION of the remarkably fast renaissance tracks back to the laborious league ouster of imperious owner Dan Snyder in 2023.
Snyder was the alpha albatross who assumed command of the franchise in 1999. His reign of loathing subjected an extremely faithful fan base to 24 seasons of unremitting diminishment.
Memories of Joe Gibbs and Super Bowl championships were as faded as Jackie Kennedy's historic televised tour of the White House.
ONCE SNYDER WAS CROWBARRED OUT, principal partner Josh Harris stepped in, along with an extended cast of minority investors including Magic Johnson.
In a logical sequence unheard of in the Hollow of Halas, Harris and brains then went about extending their football vertical down from the hiring of general manager Adam Peters. He tabbed Quinn — most famous for blowing a 28-3 lead as head coach of the Falcons to Brady and the Patriots in SB 51.
Together, they oversaw a swift and inspired rebuild that included ditching some marginally contributing high draft picks and adding 26 free agents.
THEIR GREATEST PASSIVE COUP came via divine Joe Theismann providence when Ryan Poles and the Bears fanned on Daniels — hello, Patrick Mahomes — and made Caleb Williams their No. 1 test-crash QB in last spring's NFL draft.
The divergent bridle pathing of the '24 Commanders and the '24 Bears is impossible to overlook.
Consider:
— Both teams got out of the stable well. Heading into their Oct. 27 match at Northwest Field, Washington was 5-2. The Bears were 4-2 and playing off of a bye week;
— Daniels was already considered a more impacting QB but hardly a runaway over Williams. The national imaging of the Commanders rookie got a significant boost on Sept. 23 with his eye-opening play in a 38-33 win at Joe Burrow and the Bengals on “Monday Night Football”;
— That Halloween weekend game in Maryland proved to be the start of dramatic separation between the two organizations. Tyrique Stevenson worked the crowd instead of proper defense against a long ball on the final play. Daniels bounced a mammoth TD pass into the hands of Noah Brown for a wicked — but highly theatrical — 18-15 victory.
From there it was nothing but pain for the Bears (a final 5-12 and boring irrelevancy after Thanksgiving) and gain for the Commanders (12-5 with two postseason wins and counting). Their bridle paths were no longer even in the same forest preserve.
IN A FINAL ADDENDUM ABOUT them that's got and them that's not, mention of last weekend's 48-31 Washington divisional win over big, bad Detroit must be noted.
The game was the most important of young Ben Johnson's career. As OC of the Lions, he was said to be “the hottest” candidate in the fresh head-coach hiring cycle. He took time away from game prep to Zoom with Bears brass and told them, “I want this job” (and the tens of millions that come with it).
KINGSBURY STUCK TO his proscribed assignment and drilled his troops for their Ford Field melodrama against an admittedly decimated Detroit defense.
Johnson — in the single most important offensive decision of the Lions' season — swallowed his call card early in the fourth quarter. He went “cute” and turned the ball over on an ill-considered trick pass by wide receiver Jameson Williams.
Daniels, Quinn and the Commanders took the gift. They extended a 38-28 lead into a preemptive 45-28. Johnson's hot Motown bones crumbled to dust somewhere out on Woodward Avenue.
LESS THAN 72 HOURS LATER, Johnson was hired by the Bears. Some of the media fan people in Lake Forest still don't have the celebratory Cheetos crumbs off of their laptops and microphones.
The Bears remain out of sequence in hiring a GM, head coach and drafting a high-playin' QB. The Lions are toast and Washington is one win away from its first Super Bowl since 1991.
STILL, AT HIS INTRODCUTORY PRESS CONFERENCE WEDNESDAY, Johnson dropped the boyishly pleasant mien for a click and sternly intoned that he wants his players to be ready to, “Get comfortable being uncomfortable.”
Coach, don't worry.
Bears fans have been that way for years.
• Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.