How can the Commanders replace the injured Dorance Armstrong?

Breaking down different ways the Commanders could look to replace Dorance Armstrong after his season ending injury

The Commanders loss to the Cowboys on Sunday was tough to take on its own, but news broke this week that made it even worse. Dorance Armstrong, the Commanders top defensive end, suffered a season-ending injury during the game and was placed on injured reserve as a result. The Commanders were already struggling at defensive end after losing starter Deatrich Wise earlier this season and his back up Javontae Jean-Baptiste a few weeks later. But Armstrong is a much more significant loss. He was having a breakout year, leading the team in sacks and causing a lot of havoc as a pass rusher while also being a versatile and reliable run defender at multiple spots.

So now the question becomes how can the Commanders go about replacing Armstrong? There’s not many strong free agent options out there, and the Commanders have already gone down that route by signing Preston Smith after Wise and Jean-Baptiste went down. They could always try and trade for someone but they’ve already given up their 2026 second and fourth round picks as part of the Laremy Tunsil trade so they have limited ammo to make a move of significance. The Commanders do have a few internal options, which we saw them cycle through against the Cowboys after Armstrong went down.

The first option that the Commanders have is to shift their defense from a 4-3 base to a 3-4 base and move linebacker Frankie Luvu to the edge. This isn’t a completely new thing for them, they have used a 3-4 look with Luvu on the edge quite a lot this season, especially to help against the run. But what it does is enables them to lean on their defensive line strength, which is the depth of the defensive tackle group, by getting three of them onto the field at the same time.

With Luvu on the edge, the Commanders only have to use one other edge defender, so they can rotate between the likes of Jacob Martin, Preston Smith and even Von Miller on the other side and limiting their exposure. It also presents a good way to get linebacker Jordan Magee onto the field more frequently. With Luvu on the edge, the linebacker spot next to Bobby Wagner becomes available and Magee is finally healthy enough to step up and play a more significant role.

This sounds great in theory, but how does it look in practice? Well, the Commanders used this front on the play that saw Daron Payne make a tackle in the backfield for a safety.

This play shows a great example of what the 3-4 front can look like. The Commanders go with Eddie Goldman at nose tackle and Daron Payne and Javon Kinlaw either side of him here, but both Payne and Kinlaw are capable of playing the nose tackle spot and Newton can rotate in regularly too, as he did in this game. Luvu and Jacob Martin are the edge defenders while Magee joins Wagner as the linebacker pair.

The Cowboys look to run a basic duo scheme to try and get themselves out of the end zone. Duo is a run scheme that tries to generate as many double teams up front as possible to drive the defensive line off the ball and give the running back some space to work with. However, because of the front that the Commanders use, the Cowboys get some bad matchups. The center and right guard have to combine to double team Goldman as the nose tackle, which means the right tackle and tight end have to double up on Payne. But with Bobby Wagner behind Payne, the right tackle feels the need to work off of Payne quickly and get up to Wagner to prevent one of the best run defenders in the league from making a stop.

With the right tackle leaving Payne to go block Wagner, the tight end is left with an impossible task, trying to block Daron Payne one-on-one. Now if the Commanders had been in their base 4-3 front, then the tight end would be working against a smaller defensive end like Jacob Martin, but because of the 3-4 front, he has to try and block Payne. That goes about as well as you would expect for the Cowboys and Payne blows up the tight end to get into the backfield and make the tackle before the running back can get out of the end zone.

It was a big play for the Commanders at the time, but it was far from the only occasion that they used this 3-4 front.

This time, the Cowboys look to run a power scheme at the Commanders 3-4 front. The Commanders don’t have Payne in for this snap, with Kinlaw switching to the right side of the line and Sheldon Day subbing in on the left side of the line. Day does get pinned inside on the down blocks from the left side of the line, but both Goldman and Kinlaw read the down blocks and work over the top of them to get to the play side of the run. Meanwhile, Preston Smith avoids the kick out block from the tight end and Wagner, along with safety Quan Martin, are quick to fill as they read the pulling guard.

This leaves the back with nowhere to go on the play side of the run, but all of that almost doesn’t matter. Luvu is on the edge outside the right tackle before the snap. The tackle doesn’t try to block him. Typically the tackle would use a hinge technique, where they work inside to close the gap created by the pulling guard, but then use their body like a hinge to open back outside so they can cut off the edge defender. But the tackle doesn’t do that so Luvu is left completely unblocked. He comes flying in and makes the tackle in the backfield for a loss. But even if Luvu had been blocked, there wouldn’t have been much on offer on the play side of the run anyway.

This 3-4 front has been one of the more stout fronts against the run for the Commanders defense this season, so it makes sense that they would try and lean more into it. Even on run schemes that they’ve struggled with dating back to last season, this front helped them have success.

On this play, the Cowboys look to execute a crack toss scheme. The Commanders have had real troubles defending perimeter runs since Dan Quinn took charge of the team and it was a real problem for them last year. This year it hasn’t been quite so bad for them, but the past few weeks had seen them give up a few hits to this scheme. But here, they use that same 3-4 front and have more success against it.

As the Commanders are in a 3-4 front, Jacob Martin is able to take a much wider alignment on the edge. The Cowboys have their tight end slightly off the line of scrimmage to that side and his task is to try and pin Martin inside to enable the left tackle to pull to the edge. But with Martin so wide, it becomes a much more difficult task. The tight end does get outside of Martin at the snap, looking to pin him inside, but Martin is able to work up the field and because of the wider alignment, he gets some success in penetrating into the backfield. This takes him into the path of the left tackle, who is trying to pull around Martin and get to the edge.

The left tackle has no choice but to engage in the block otherwise Martin could penetrate into the backfield and make the stop, but that stops the tackle from getting to the edge. Jordan Magee fills quickly to avoid another crack block from another tight end and he works underneath Martin’s block to prevent any sort of cut back from the running back. Bobby Wagner then scrapes over the top to run down the running back and make the tackle for a minimal gain.

The fun part of using this front with Luvu playing as an edge defender is that it provides the Commanders with a lot of flexibility. Luvu’s natural position as a linebacker means he is very comfortable dropping off into coverage if the Commanders want to just rush four, but he can also join the rush if they want to blitz five. It also enables them to get creative with some blitz packages.