Mike Sainristil provides bright spot for Commanders defense vs Eagles

Breaking down rookie CB Mike Sainristil’s performance against the Eagles

One of the bright spots of the Commanders loss to the Eagles on Thursday night was rookie cornerback Mike Sainristil. Sainristil was credited with six tackles and two passes defended. He was a big part of the reason why Eagles star receiving pair A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith were largely kept in check throughout most of the game, which enabled the Commanders defense to keep the team in the game for so long despite the issues on offense. 

The undersized Sainristil was drafted to be the long term slot cornerback for Washington, but he had some struggles to start the season both in coverage and handling the run fits that come with playing in the slot. The combination of his struggles and the struggles of Emmanuel Forbes on the outside led the Commanders to moving Sainristil outside, where he has quietly developed his coverage skills. That development showed up big time in this game as he made a number of key plays in coverage. 

On this play, the Eagles line up receiver A.J. Brown on the outside with DeVonta Smith in the slot. As the outside corner, Sainristil initially aligned opposite Brown, but before the snap Brown motions into a stacked set with Smith. At the snap, the receivers execute a switch release, with Brown working inside and Smith working outside. That means Sainristil’s assignment changes, going from initially focusing on Brown to suddenly having to cover a very different type of receiver in Smith. 

Sainristil doesn’t miss a beat. He changes his leverage with the motion. When Brown started outside, Sainristil had his hips open to the sideline and positioned himself with heavy inside leverage, but once Brown motioned inside, Sainristil flipped his hips and played with outside leverage. He gets his eyes in the right place and as the receivers switch their releases, he locks in on Smith. Smith takes his route outside, widening his path. As Smith gets closer to the numbers, Sainristil changes his leverage again, re-opening his hips to the sideline and taking an inside position. This closes off Sainristil’s vision from the quarterback, but enables him to focus on the receiver and funnel him to the sideline, cutting off any break back inside. 

Smith then uses a double move, stuttering at the 10 yard line before bursting to the back corner of the end zone. Sainristil responds to the fake, stopping his feet ready to break on the route, but he maintains his cushion instead of biting too heavily. This enables him to stay on top of the route and buys him time to get his feet going again as Smith looks to burst by him. From that point, Sainristil is level with Smith and knows there’s only one place Smith is going, to the back corner of the end zone. So Sainristil continues to try and funnel Smith to the sideline while also looking back for the football. With the ball in the air, Sainristil is able to show off his skills from being a wide receiver in college, tracking the ball well and reaching his hand up to the catch point in order to break up the pass. 

It was a strong rep by Sainristil, but it wasn’t his only strong rep on a double move down in the red zone. 

Later in the game, the Eagles showed a similar look as the one we just saw. Brown lines up outside of Smith and motions inside just before the snap. The pair execute another switch release, changing the assignment for Sainristil at the snap. His focus goes from Brown to Smith and like before, Smith looks to widen his route, but not quite to the extent we saw on the previous play. He never gets to the numbers, so Sainristil maintains his outside leverage. 

At the top of the route, Smith sells a hard fake that he’s breaking outside, designed to get Sainristil to bite and open up space inside. Sainristil doesn’t bite and in fact reads this fake as a tell that Smith actually wants to break inside. You can see as Smith takes his hardest step outside, Sainristil actually takes a step inside, anticipating Smith coming back in. He’s correct in his read and as a result, he takes away that route from the quarterback. 

On the very next play, the Eagles went right back at him again, but this time with A.J. Brown.