As much as this roll to the NFC Championship Game by the Washington Commanders has been fueled by the best rookie quarterback we’ve ever seen, Jayden Daniels, I couldn’t help but notice some of the so-called “old heads” living it up in the festive visitors’ locker room at Ford Field on Saturday night.
There was Zach Ertz, the 34-year-old tight end who many might have figured was close to the end last season, when he missed the final 10 games for the Arizona Cardinals with a quad strain and posted a career-low 27 catches. The year before that, his season ended with torn knee ligaments.
Now Ertz is headed back to Philadelphia, where his records as the most-prolific tight end in Eagles history still stand.
Now Ekeler, who had 88 rushing-receiver yards in the divisional playoff win at Detroit, is poised to play in a conference title match for the first time.
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Then there’s Bobby Wagner. His presence is striking in another sense.
During his second NFL season with the Seattle Seahawks, Wagner won a Super Bowl ring as a member of the vaunted defense led by its “Legion of Boom” secondary. The next year, they went back to the Super Bowl and were positioned to win … until Russell Wilson’s last-minute, goal-line pick.
In the decade since, Wagner, 34, hasn’t sniffed the Super Bowl. Until now.
Wagner went to the playoffs five times during his final seven season with the Seahawks and never got past the divisional round. That’s one reason why in his 14th NFL season, the grizzled vet is savoring this new deal.
“It just means a lot,” Wagner told USA TODAY Sports. “When I first got in the league, we made it to the Super Bowl my second year, again in my third year, and then we hadn’t been back to the NFC Championship Game. So you appreciate these moments a little bit different now, knowing how hard they are to get to.”
Wagner is undoubtedly a huge key to Washington’s formula to spring an upset and become just the third sixth-seed to advance to a Super Bowl. The middle linebacker led the Commanders with 132 tackles during the regular season, but this unit is a far cry from the dominance of those old Seahawks Super Bowl defenses that, incidentally, were coordinated by Washington coach Dan Quinn.
The Commanders tied for the NFL’s fourth-worst run defense during the regular season. And now comes the challenge of handling Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, who ran for 205 yards and two touchdowns against the Los Angeles Rams last weekend. During his 2,000-yard season, Barkley went for 146 and 150 yards against the Commanders.
“You just try to contain him,” Wagner told reporters at Commanders headquarters this week, mindful that Barkley’s ability to break off a long-distance run at any time is enabled when defenders get out of their gaps. “This is going to be a game of discipline.”
I asked Wagner, whose Hall of Fame-credentialed career includes 11 All-Pro selections, to compare the Commanders to his old Seahawks team. Like Washington, there was a young quarterback in Wilson, who was in the same Seattle draft class with Wagner in 2012. And youth was served across the board, with the likes of Richard Sherman (2011, fifth round), Earl Thomas (2010, first round) and Kam Chancellor (2010, fifth round).
‘If I were to compare it to those teams, the biggest thing is how close we are,” Wagner said. “Our team in Seattle might have been a little smarter, but what made us so good was how close we were.”
Ekeler won’t dispute that. He pointed out that, on top of new GM Adam Peters, Quinn and a staff of new coaches, there were 60 new players on the 90-man roster when the team began offseason workouts last spring. To develop a bond, they were intentional about spending time together away from the field.
“I think it’s a staple of our brotherhood, and the talent we have, too,” Ekeler told USA TODAY Sports. “A lot of people came together who were new to the area. You really can’t measure the way we’ve connected.
“And then you throw in 5 having a crazy year as a rookie,” he added, referring to Daniels, “and it kind of puts a cherry on top.”
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