Washington Roster Review: Cornerbacks

Taking a closer look at how Washington's cornerbacks played in 2021 and where the team stands at the position heading into 2022

With the 2021 season in the books for Washington, it’s time to look back at the roster and evaluate each position to see where the team stands going into the offseason. Yesterday I looked at the safeties, today it’s the turn of the cornerbacks.

Under contract for 2022: William Jackson, Kendall Fuller, Benjamin St-Juste.

Notable free agents: Darryl Roberts, Danny Johnson, Troy Apke, Torry McTyer.

Unit analysis:

As a unit, the cornerbacks really struggled at the start of the season. Washington made a big splash in free agency, adding cornerback William Jackson to the group with the intent to play more man coverage and make use of his ability to play press and stick tight to receivers. The team also drafted Benjamin St-Juste in the third round, a raw corner with terrific length and pressing ability at the line of scrimmage. With those two outside, Kendall Fuller shifted back into the slot, where he played so well in Washington before he was traded to the Chiefs in the Alex Smith deal. The hope was more man coverage could help the team take away short quick passes and blanket receivers long enough for the intimidating front four to get home with their pass rush. 

What Washington ended up trying to do was mixing and matching coverages. For the first few weeks of the season, the team played some man, some zone and some pattern-matching concepts to try and make best use of all the different skill sets at corner. What ended up happening though was a disaster. When the team played man coverage, Kendall Fuller struggled in the slot or rookie St-Juste got picked on. When the team played zone, Jackson and St-Juste had some miscues and when Washington looked to use more complex pattern-matching concepts, half the defense looked completely lost. Much of the first half of the season saw Jackson turning to teammates with arms out looking for what the coverage call was, which of course led to a lot of coverage busts because the ball would be snapped without him knowing the call. 

After the bye week, Washington solved this problem by simplifying the coverage and reverting back to the zone-heavy schemes of 2020. St-Juste had some typical rookie ups and downs while flashing potential before he was lost for the season with concussion issues. Fuller then shifted back outside and looked far more at home playing off and with vision on the outside than trying to play man coverage in the slot. Jackson started to get on the same page as everyone else thanks to the simplified schemes and he was largely solid after the switch, though it failed to make use of his man coverage talents.