Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of NFL fans. All year long, we ask questions of the most connected Washington Commanders fans and fans across the country. Register here to participate in regular email surveys.

This week Reacts In the survey we ask two questions.

Question 1

I saw someone sing the praises of the Commanders’ performance against the Jets in their first preseason game, followed by a statement that the results of the preseason made them optimistic and hopeful for the upcoming season. The rather dry response was, “Imagine if they had won.”

I hear people see what they want to see. After a reportedly rough showing at joint practice last week in Florham Park, some Commanders fans saw Jayden Daniels’ first NFL drive in a contested game at Met Life Stadium — consisting of 11 plays, 70 yards, a 42-yard pass to the tightly covered Dyami Brown and a touchdown for No. 5 — as evidence that Adam Peters and Dan Quinn are building a winner. Others pointed out that the Jets played with only a single starter on Saturday (on offense) and that the Jets actually won the game, and saw it as evidence that the roster Adams and Quinn have assembled is still a paper tiger that needs a lot more development before it’s ready to compete for anything significant.

In today’s first question, we’d like to ask you if you personally feel better, worse, or about the same than you did before the Commanders left for their road trip to New Jersey.

Question 2

Surprises can be good or bad.

After months of speculation about most of the 91 players who make up the Commanders’ roster, we finally got to see them in an exciting game against players in different colored jerseys. We all know that some players look good in shorts but are less impressive in protective gear – or vice versa. In modern training camps where tackling teammates simply isn’t part of practice, it’s hard to predict how defenses will tackle or which players on offense will break tackles. Who will win the battles between receivers and defensive backs at the line of scrimmage and at the catch point? How will a quarterback handle a live onslaught of 300-pound defensive linemen with bad intentions?

The preparation games provide the first opportunity to answer many of these questions.

In his press conference on Monday, Dan Quinn highlighted some rookies who he felt performed well in Saturday’s game.

In today’s second question, we ask you to choose from seven players the one whose performance was the biggest surprise. I did not choose the three players highlighted by the head coach, but left out the “other” option. If you don’t like my list, you can skip the question or make your case for another player in the comments section.

Comments and results

We naturally invite you to answer the questions below, but you are also welcome to supplement and clarify your answers in the comments section. I will rely on these comments when discussing the survey results when they are published in a separate article in the next few days.

SURVEY QUESTIONS