Washington Roster Review: Defensive Ends
Taking a closer look at how Washington's defensive ends 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. Previously I looked at the safeties, cornerbacks and linebackers. Today it’s the turn of the defensive ends
Under contract for 2022: Chase Young, Montez Sweat, James Smith-Williams, Casey Toohill, Wiliam Bradley-King, Shaka Toney.
Notable free agents: Daniel Wise (ERFA), Bunmi Rotimi (ERFA)
Unit analysis:
The defensive end group was always looking to be top heavy coming into the season. Montez Sweat and Chase Young talked up their ability to break sack records, but behind them was a bunch of unproven young players. The team allowed veteran Ryan Kerrigan to walk in free agency, leaving the rotational and back up roles to a group of seventh-round picks in James Smith-Williams (2020 seventh-round pick, William Bradley-King and Shaka Toney (2021 seventh-round picks) and Casey Toohill (Eagles seventh-round pick in 2020).
Young and Sweat were solid run defenders, but didn’t come close to threatening any sack records as they had spoken of before the season. Both then missed significant time due to injuries, and later in the season Sweat tragically lost his brother and understandably missed the final two games of the season after he had returned from a broken jaw earlier in the year. This was the risky Washington took when they let Kerrigan walk. Kerrigan isn’t the player he once was, but he was able to provide reliable reps off the bench and rotate with Young and Sweat to keep them fresh in 2020. This year though, without an established back up like Kerrigan, Washington struggled without Young or Sweat in the line up.
Now, to their credit, the seventh-rounders all showed flashes of potential and undoubtedly improved with the extra reps they received once Young and Sweat went down, but Washington desperately lacked that real consistent threat off the edge down the stretch. That’s not necessarily to say they got it earlier in the year from Young and Sweat, because they both had poor seasons, but certainly those two would have likely improved as they played more down the stretch had they been healthy.
What we did get to see was who has potential to stick around next season. Toohill gave Washington something a bit different by being able to drop into coverage and allowing the team to disguise a rusher from somewhere else. Smith-Williams proved versatile in being able to shift inside and work against guards at times. Daniel Wise particularly caught my eye before he got injured and would be someone I’d be looking to bring back, which should be easy enough given he’s an exclusive rights free agent.
I think Washington should still look to bring in a veteran defensive end to add some experience to the room. Someone that can be rotated in with Sweat and Young as the primary back up and not see a huge drop off, like Kerrigan did in 2020, would be ideal. Perhaps the team thinks the group of young seventh-rounders are enough to develop going forward and perhaps someone takes a step up next year during training camp, but I don’t think a bit of competition from a veteran would hurt the group.
Individual analysis:
We’ll start with the biggest disappointment. Chase Young had a tough second year in the league before tearing his ACL against the Buccaneers in Week 10. Now, sacks shouldn’t ever be the overall determining factor of defensive end play, because it's a statistic that can be incredibly misleading at times, but for someone of Chase Young’s ability to only have 1.5 sacks in 10 games is not good enough. So what went wrong for Young in year two?
At the start of the year, the entire defensive line struggled because there was very little discipline and cohesion amongst the group. Players were often freelancing and just rushing however they felt like it, rather than sticking to their gaps and working stunts with other defensive lineman to generate pressure. Throughout the first four or so weeks of the season, we saw plays where Young would stunt into the same gap as a defensive tackle and they’d get in each other’s way and we also saw plays where Young was too easily ran beyond the quarterback by the offensive tackle.
As the year progressed, the freelancing and cohesion issues started to iron out and both Young and Sweat became much more impactful, even without the sack numbers necessarily following suit. They both ran better stunts up front which allowed the likes of Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne to generate pressure and get sacks too. But still, on an individual basis, more was expected from Young.
I think Ron Rivera was spot on with Young’s pass rush issues. Young too often attempts a stutter step move, waiting to see how the tackle is setting up to block him before then reacting with a move. Stutter moves can work well at times, especially against tackles that struggle to start and stop their feet, but they also can make things easier for the tackle.
Young’s biggest asset is his burst off the edge. He has the speed and athleticism to explode out of his stance, dip and turn the corner before the tackle can even get a hand on him. By stuttering, Young takes away that threat of a burst to the edge and he doesn’t yet have the full package of hand moves to make up for that. There were certain games this season where Young didn’t worry about what the tackle was doing and just attacked, and those were his best games.
Going into next year, Young is still a very talented player and I think with another year of experience and mastering some different hand moves, he’ll start to play faster and more instinctive instead of stuttering to read the blocker. This is something Montez Sweat struggled with in his rookie year too. Sweat’s go-to rush was the stutter step as he was trying to figure out the perfect counter to every set and hand move a blocker gave him. In his second year, he realised he’s an athletic freak and if he just rushed and defaulted to a long-arm rush that made use of his freakish length, he’d have much more consistent success, and he did.
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