Regular Season Preview: What to expect from the Commanders’ defense

Previewing what to expect from the Commanders defense this season in terms of fronts, personnel packages, blitzes and coverages.

After a long offseason it’s finally time for the NFL regular season to get underway. It’s officially Week One which means the Washington Commanders are preparing to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. With that in mind, I thought I would give a preview of what I’m expecting to see from this version of the Commanders’ defense from a scheme and personnel standpoint. 

Let’s start then by looking at the personnel and the depth chart. 

This is the current state of the Commanders roster as we enter the regular season. You can see they have gone slightly heavier on offensive personnel than defensive personnel, but there’s also plenty of extra defenders on the practice squad that they can call up on Sunday if needed. 

I have them lined up in a base 4-2 nickel package in that graphic because I think that is what will be the most common package, but head coach Dan Quinn and defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. loved to mix up their personnel packages each week depending on the opponent and situation. The key pieces on this defense all have flexibility to play in multiple spots, so Quinn and Whitt will make use of that. 

Free agent signing Frankie Luvu is the obvious example. He will play linebacker in a base set, but on third down and other obvious passing situations, he can shift to being an edge rusher. Safeties Jeremy Chinn and Percy Butler can both play strong safety in a base defense, but both are capable of shifting down into the box as a dime linebacker in any dime packages Quinn and Whitt want to use. Free safety Quan Martin has experience playing in the slot so the Commanders can rotate him down to the slot for another package if they want to. 

Even on the defensive line, guys like Jonathan Allen and rookie Jer’Zhan “Johnny” Newton have the flexibility to kick outside from their normal three-technique defensive tackle spots to play what’s known as a “heavy” defensive end. That could be an effective way of helping stop the run with a bigger body on the edge, but it also offers some pass rush differences too, as tackles on the edge are used to dealing with lighter, more agile edge rushers rather than bigger, more powerful defensive tackles. With Allen, Newton and Daron Payne, the Commanders can even use some three-man fronts instead of four.

We’ve already seen some examples of these different personnel packages in preseason. 

Here we see the Commanders in their base 4-2 nickel package. They have their four down defensive lineman, two linebackers and five defensive backs. The personnel would be slightly different to what we see in this picture. Allen and Payne would replace Pollard and Mathis at defensive tackle while Bobby Wagner would come in for Jordan Magee at linebacker. But rookie Mike Sainristil has shown he’s capable of holding down the slot corner position while Chinn is the starting strong safety also in the box. Quan Martin sits back deep with Benjamin St-Juste and Emmanuel Forbes on the outside at cornerback. 

On the very next play of that Jets preseason game, we saw a different personnel package. 

Again we see four down defensive lineman here, but the picture changes behind them. Luvu sticks as the sole linebacker while Percy Butler comes in to act as the dime linebacker. We’ll see in the regular season if Butler keeps this role or if Chinn is the dime linebacker with Butler playing strong safety, but both have the ability to play either role, so it will likely be matchup and coverage scheme dependent. Chinn would be the better run defender in the box as a dime linebacker, Butler might have the edge as a man coverage defender though, so it depends on what they will require the dime linebacker and strong safety to do on any given play against different opponents. 

On the play after that one, we saw yet another new personnel package. 

This is again a dime package, but this time there are two linebackers on the field. The Commanders sacrifice an interior defensive lineman to bring Jordan Magee. Defensive end Clelin Ferrell then kicks inside to defensive tackle to give the interior lineman a quicker defender to worry about in an obvious passing situation, while Luvu rotates down to replace Ferrell on the edge. That leaves Magee and Butler as the two linebackers in the middle of the field while the back five remain the same. 

In effect, this is still a similar package to the last one, but Luvu is technically a linebacker now playing as an edge rusher, giving the Commanders lighter, quicker rushers in an obvious passing situation. There’s almost unlimited combinations the Commanders could use up front in a package like this. Their best four pass rushers would likely be Dorance Armstrong, Jonathan Allen, Johnny Newton and Frankie Luvu, but they could mix in the personnel depending on the offensive line they face each week. If the lineman deal better with bigger bodies like Allen and Newton, then guys like Armstrong and Ferrell can kick inside and the likes of Luvu and Dante Fowler can rush off the edge. If the offensive line consists of smaller, more agile lineman that struggle with power, then perhaps the front four would consist of Allen, Payne, Newton and Luvu, with one of Allen or Newton lining up on the edge. 

The Commanders have also shown the willingness to shift their fronts and get five defenders on the line of scrimmage. 

Here we can see the Commanders shifting their front to resemble a 3-4 look. Instead of just four down lineman on the line of scrimmage, the Commadners shift the defensive line across and have a linebacker line up on the edge to the weak side. The strong safety then rotates down into the box to replace the linebacker now lined up on the edge. From the end zone angle, it looks a lot like a 3-4 front. 

This type of look is a large part of why the Commanders could use Allen or Newton as a “heavy” end in certain packages. In this picture, we can see the Commanders get two three-technique (outside shoulder of the guard) defenders thanks to the shift. On this occasion, the Commanders use a defensive tackle against the right guard and a defensive end kicked inside against the left guard. But with their starting defense, I’m sure they would love to see Jonathan Allen and Johnny Newton in those two spots with Frankie Luvu lining up on the edge outside the left tackle and Daron Payne as the nose tackle directly over the center. 

This type of front was a big part of what Quinn and Whitt did in Dallas. They loved to get their five best rushers on the line of scrimmage and send all five. They did that to force the offense to either keep in an extra blocker or two, taking away the number of options running routes, or be forced to try and block the five best rushers one-on-one across the board without any help. If the offense is willing to risk blocking five rushers one-on-one, Quinn and Whitt can mix in various stunts to help generate pressure up front, or they can mix and match the rushers. If the offense is expecting the front five to rush, only for Luvu to drop into coverage and Sainristil to blitz off the slot from the other side, then suddenly the offensive line has to adjust quickly post-snap or Sainristil will come free off the edge. 

It’s a very tough world to live in, so most teams will keep a back and/or a tight end in to help protect, which then limits the number of receivers running routes and add on rushers. If the back stays in to protect, then the linebacker that was due to cover him can get a green light to add on to the rush, allowing the defense to maintain its one-on-one matchups across the board. 

We’ve yet to see the full array of personnel packages, fronts, blitzes and stunts that Quinn and Whitt will use in the regular season, but hopefully this gives a solid idea of what is to come up front. Of course, the front is only half of the defense, so what can we expect to see from the Commanders on the back end in terms of coverages? Quinn and Whitt both come from zone backgrounds but have evolved into more and more man coverage schemes during their time with the Cowboys. I would expect that to continue in Washington.