Commanders struck gold with Frankie Luvu

Breaking down how well Frankie Luvu has played for the Commanders in his first year in Washington.

Yesterday, I broke down how Tyler Biadasz has turned out to be one of the Commanders best free agent signings in the last few years. Today, I’m breaking down another successful free agent signing, but this time on the other side of the ball. Linebacker Frankie Luvu has been the heart and soul of the Commanders defense. He brings the energy and play style that head coach Dan Quinn and defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. are looking for. He’s a tone setter because he plays at 100 miles per hour on every single play, but he’s not just running around like a headless chicken either.

Luvu has developed into a key piece of this defense thanks to his versatility. The Commanders move him all over the defense, from a linebacker dropping into coverage on one play to rushing from the edge on the next. He’s proven to be very effective in a wide variety of roles, so I wanted to take some time during the bye week to break down just how well he’s played so far this season. Let’s start with his run defense.

Run Defense

One of the knocks on Luvu when he was signed was that he can be a little erratic because of his play style, which can lead to him being a bit boom or bust. Sometimes that style could enable him burst through the line of scrimmage and make a big tackle for loss, but sometimes it could backfire and lead to him running to the wrong spot at great speed. But since signing for Washington, and quite possible thanks to playing next to a guy like Bobby Wagner, Luvu has been very strong with his run fits generally speaking this season.

Here’s a duo run from earlier in the season against the Giants. The idea of duo is to create as many double teams up front as possible, with the offensive lineman using double teams to drive back the defensive lineman up to the linebackers. Duo can be a very hard play to defend for defensive lineman because they’re put in two-on-one situations, so to prevent those defensive lineman from getting driven back too far, the linebackers have to fill quickly. You can see Luvu and Wagner do that perfectly here. Both step up to the line of scrimmage immediately and force the offensive lineman to peel off their double teams early to try and pick them up.

Luvu is more aggressive than Wagner here. He immediately initiates contact with the center, who was still trying to help the right guard on the double team. By being so aggressive, Luvu can stand up the center and shed the block quickly, peeling off to tackle the running back at the line of scrimmage for a minimal gain.

That speed of action while making the correct play has continued for Luvu throughout the season.

This play comes from the Eagles game just a few weeks ago. The Eagles attempt to run a counter scheme, with the right guard pulling to the left side to kick out the edge while a tight end follows him and wraps around for the first linebacker, which should be Luvu. At the snap of the ball, Luvu is incredibly quick to read run and charge down to the line of scrimmage. His first step forward comes even quicker than Wagner, who is a master of knowing exactly what is coming in the run game. That speed of read enables Luvu to get to the hole early and spot the incoming tight end. From that position, Luvu is able to duck inside of the block from the tight end and close on the running back for the tackle.

With Luvu’s tenacity and athletic ability, he opens up the playbook for the Commanders. They know they can dial up some blitzes, even in the run game, that other teams can’t necessarily do because they don’t have someone like Luvu at linebacker.