If there’s one player who can flip Week 14 on its head for the Washington Commanders, it’s veteran Daron Payne — a player whose 2025 season has been defined as much by frustration as by flashes of dominance.
At 3–9, with a defense that has bottomed out far too often, Washington needs one of its foundational pieces to finally play like one again. And for Payne, the stage doesn’t get much clearer than this week against the Minnesota Vikings.
It’s almost hard to reconcile how much has changed around him since entering the league as a first-round pick out of Alabama back in 2018.