Emptying The Notebook: Commanders' Defense vs Browns
A compliation of smaller notes from the Commanders' defense in the preseason opener against the Browns.
Yesterday, I emptied my notebook on the Commanders’ offense in their preseason opener against the Browns. Today, it’s the turn of the defense, so let’s take a look at a few players and plays that stood out to me when I watched back the All-22 of the Commanders’ defense against the Browns.
Chase Young
Unfortunately, Chase Young only managed to play four snaps against the Browns before suffering a stinger that has held him out of team drills this week, though he has been able to participate in individual drills. Hopefully he doesn’t miss too much time because reports in training camp before the injury suggested he was back to the explosive version of Chase Young that won defensive rookie of the year. On the play that he got hurt, we actually got a glimpse of that explosiveness, as well as a sign of his hard work in the offseason translating to the field.
On this play, Young lines up across from Browns left tackle Jedrick Wills. One of the complaints I’ve had with Young and a criticism we’ve heard regularly from Ron Rivera is Chase Young stuttering too much during his rushes. He still does a little bit of that here, but this time it’s purposeful. He’s baiting the Wills to throw his hands and try to engage in the block. Wills takes the bait and throws his outside hand towards Young’s outside shoulder.
The hand lands, but Young shows that he’s clearly been working on some new hand fighting techniques this offseason. Young responds to the tackle by using his outside hand to grab under the elbow of the tackle. From that position, Young can lift the tackle’s outside arm up and not only clear the tackle’s hands from his chest, but get underneath him as he works to the edge.
Wills has no way of resetting his hands at this point and despite trying to shuffle his feet to cut off Young’s path to the edge, Young turns the corner and closes in quickly on the quarterback. As he goes to sack the quarterback he suffers his stinger injury which prevents him from bringing the quarterback down and you can see Young is shaken up and immediately looks to the sideline after the play.
Obviously we can’t get carried away with just one rush and Young will have to prove that this injury isn’t going to linger, but it was a very encouraging rep. That’s not a technique I can recall seeing from Young before, so clearly he’s been working hard on his hand fighting during the offseason. Combining Young’s explosive athletic ability with hand fighting techniques like that is a scary prospect, so hopefully Young will return to the field quickly and show that this wasn’t just a one-off play.
Christian Holmes
Another player that stood out on a few plays was second-year corner Christian Holmes. Holmes was a seventh-round pick in 2022 and spent most of his rookie season on the periphery of the roster, making contributions on special teams more than on defense. With a deep group of defensive backs this year, Holmes will likely have to be a special teams standout again to make the roster, which he is by all accounts. However, in this game against the Browns, Holmes showed there’s some upside to him at corner as well as special teams.
Holmes caught everyone’s attention with this pass break up on the Browns’ second drive of the game. Holmes aligns as the outside corner to the right of the offensive formation. He starts about eight yards off the line of scrimmage and gains depth off the snap as the receiver opposite him begins to run his route. However, that receiver quickly breaks off his route on a quick hitch. As a zone defender, this is one of the routes that is frustrating to play against because the defender has to respect the threat of a deeper route and then adjust to a quick route underneath which typically results in a completed pass for a minimal gain.
Holmes doesn’t settle for that though. As the receiver breaks off, Holmes sticks his right foot in the ground and uses it to drive down on the hitch route from the outside receiver. He works to close the gap between himself and the receiver as quickly as possible but arrives just after the ball. Still, Holmes manages to use the momentum generated from driving down on the route to land a big hit and force the ball out, ensuring an incomplete pass.
Later on, Holmes again demonstrated the ability to read passes underneath from a zone alignment and break down quickly to make a tackle.
This time, Holmes aligns in a press technique on the outside receiver, but the defense is actually in Tampa-2. This means Holmes is responsible for the flat and his job is to jam the receiver, try to force him inside but then peel off and play the flat. Holmes is a little lazy with the jam, allowing the receiver to release outside and get down the sideline, which better quarterbacks may take advantage of. But fortunately the quarterback was working to the other side of the field at the time. Having then peeled off to the flat, Holmes has vision on the quarterback and can see the running back working out of the backfield as a checkdown option.
As soon as Holmes spots the quarterback working away from his initial read to his left and coming back across to the right side, he knows that the ball is going to be checked down to the running back. Holmes immediately breaks on the running back, making up a lot of ground and landing another big hit just after the ball arrives. The back manages to hold onto the ball this time, but the gain is kept to a minimum.
Holmes won’t likely see the field as a defensive back unless there’s some injuries, but this performance shows there’s more to his game than just being a strong special teams player. He’ll make the roster as a special teams player this year, but his instincts and quick reactions in zone show there is potential there for him to develop down the line and that he could be an option to play in a pinch if there are multiple injuries at corner in a game.
Quan Martin
Much is expected from Jartavius “Quan” Martin by Commanders fans after Washington spent a second-round pick on him back in April. He received a lot of criticism for his performance against the Browns, so let's dive into it a little bit and break down what actually happened.
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