For all the things that the Washington Commanders have tried to solve under general manager Adam Peters, one position quietly sits at the crossroads of short-term necessity and long-term uncertainty.
At tight end, Zach Ertz has been a steady hand — a chains mover, a red zone threat (when he doesn't slip), and still crafty enough as a route-runner to give Kliff Kingsbury answers in the quick game. But he is in his mid-30s, and Washington knows full well that whatever he is in 2025, the clock is ticking.
John Bates, meanwhile, has carved out one of the clearest identities on the roster. He’s dominant in-line, a trench mover, a sixth offensive lineman, really, with the power to displace people up front. But he’s not a flex weapon.
He’s not someone Kingsbury can isolate, motion, or build progressions around. For Bates, a prior regime draftee out of Boise State, he's excellent at what he does, but he fills only half of the equation at the position.
Commanders need to find out what they have in their young tight ends moving forward
Washington thought they answered the other half when they selected Ben Sinnott at No. 53 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft.
The vision was easy to understand: a modern hybrid tight end with enough receiving chops to succeed Ertz and eventually give the offense formational multiplicity. But through nearly two seasons, Sinnott has been a ghost in the passing game. The toughness shows — he’s willing to stick his face in the mud, and he’s not shying away from blocking assignments, but that’s not why Washington drafted him.
They didn’t take him to replicate Bates. They drafted him to become a playbook extender, a matchup creator, a reliable option up the seams. To date, those flashes have been too rare.
The surprise has been 2024 undrafted free agent Colson Yankoff, who finally logged his first catch of the season in Week 11 against the Miami Dolphins. His impact has come in subtler ways: as a blocker, a core special-teamer, and a player who consistently earns trust through effort. And he didn't enter D.C. as a second-round pick.
In many ways, Yankoff — a former walk-on quarterback — has outplayed Sinnott in the areas of reliability and functional value.
In the short term, the question is simple: who helps the offense right now? Kingsbury’s system is timing-based, rhythm-oriented, and in constant need of middle-of-the-field contributions.
Ertz can’t do it alone.
Someone between Sinnott and Yankoff has to seize an opportunity and give Washington a reason to believe production can come from within. Or, is it as simple as force-feed Ertz, expand Bates' role in space, and ignore 2026 and beyond?
Which leads us to the long-term, where questions are far bigger: does Washington believe it has the receiving future of the tight end room already on the roster in Sinnott?
Through two seasons, the answer isn’t clear. And, how long is the leash to see any production that you can bet on for future campaigns?
With only six total picks in the 2026 draft, the Commanders don’t have the luxury of taking swings to find out. If Sinnott doesn’t show signs of becoming that Ertz successor, the team may be forced into free agency or a 2026 top-100 investment — an outcome they hoped to avoid.
It leaves Washington in a fragile balancing act: finding short-term contributors while evaluating whether their long-term solution is already here, or still needs to be discovered.
These are the types of questions that have to be answered when you're 3-8.