The Washington Commanders made several changes to the defense, from hiring a new defensive coordinator to overhauling their personnel. Commanders analysts Logan Paulsen, Fred Smoot and Santana Moss have high hopes for the changes and believe there is a chance the unit could be in store for a massive improvement. They laid out their reason on the last episode of the "Command Center" podcast.
The personnel
- Moss: I look at it and I say to myself, in terms of things to be excited about, good players make good defenses. We've got a lot of good players. You got [Sonny] Styles in the first round. You got Odafe [Oweh], you got [K'Lavon] Chaisson, [Leo] Chenal. That's just to name a few. And we can't forget about the guys we already have. They're coming back. Some of them are coming off injuries. Some of them are coming off of having a productive year. We have a huge problem, but it's a great problem because now you're going to get the competition level to rise. Those different individual rooms -- the linebackers, the d-line -- those guys going to be chomping at the bits every day to get out there. That's No. 1 for me.
The scheme
- Smoot: Taking turns; that's what you want to be. A good defense in this league makes the offense adapt to them; we don't adapt to you. You adapt to us, because we're going to run what we're going to run. We're going to let you know what we're running, but we're going to run to the ball. All 11 of us are going to run to the ball ... They're getting after the quarterback. But they're also making the quarterback throw quick. When we make you throw quick, now we all just become tacklers. And when we become tacklers, wide receivers, you start to drop the ball. And that's the thing about it. If you ain't got time for the five-step drops, you ain't got time to really get deep on us. We become the aggressors.
Statistical regression
- Pauslen: It's regression for other teams, but it's also us getting back to the mean. Last year, we were 31st in the league on EPA gained from turnovers. The Jets had no turnovers. So, we're in poor company there. This defense is going to foster more turnovers, and I think just statistically, we'll get there. if we get this group to the middle of the pack from a turnover standpoint, you're going to feel a huge benefit for the offense and for the defense for sure.
The offense
- Paulsen: I look at this offense and how it's going to supplement and support the defense. I think Kliff [Kingsbury] did some really interesting stuff. I like some of the principles they brought to some of the spaces. Then I look at this like this new David Blough offense on paper, and we've got to see it executed, so I'm not saying it's going to happen 100%. But with David Blough, who you're going to possess the football more. You're going to run the football more. And again, you're going to keep the defense off the field more and hopefully find some easy buttons for Jayden Daniels.
