The opinions expressed in this article do not reflect those of the team.
The Washington Commanders have officially wrapped up camp, and there was plenty of attention surrounding first-round pick Sonny Styles as well as his development in their defensive scheme. It became a key talking point on social media, so "Command Center" analysts Logan Paulsen, Fred Smoot and Santana Moss took time to break down what they thought about the rookie and how he looked in camp.
Paulsen: I think the thing that I find frustrating is it's dishonest. So, what I mean by that is people will be like, "Well, Logan, I've seen the cutup. It doesn't look good." You know what? If you look at a linebacker -- take any linebacker in the league. Who do you want, Fred Warner? You wanna talk about him? -- So, if you highlight that player, there are what, 70 plays on defense? It's not even doing what he's supposed to do. Most of the time, outside of the eight to 10 tackles that he has in a game, he's just standing there. He's dropping in zone coverage; he's fitting a gap; he's not making every single tackle, and I think there's this perception of people, specifically with defensive guys, that if you're not making every tackle, you're bad at football.
When I go back and watch the all-22, I see an improvement from Week 1 to Week 2. And if I'm Coach Quinn, I'd say, "Sonny, we wanted you to be a little more physical, and you were more physical." On the first play of the game, they're running a little outside zone to his side. He absolutely chins the guard in the face. He's been great in coverage all the time. So, when you get that tunnel vision on the player, you don't see the route concept. You don't see what he's relating to; you don't see what he's looking at, and you're like, "Oh, he's just standing there." When you watch the all-22, that's not what comes across, which I think is annoying.
Moss: One of the things that's so odd about it is because if you really want to be technical about it, go look at your favorite wide receiver. Go to the one that put up the 18 catches for two touchdowns or three touchdowns and watch the plays where he wasn't getting the ball and tell me if he's good. I've seen a lot of them, so I've had this problem when I see someone nitpicking at something that's not even a thing. Like, bro, it's a football game. You mean to tell me he has to be on every play? He has to be doing something that you like.
That's the obvious answer when it comes to someone you know don't know football or don't know the game enough to know that he's doing his assignment. He's following his keys and whatever is meant for him to do to make everybody else better. He's carrying on his job, and when you see him dropping back into that lane underneath...that curl lane, he's doing his job to make sure the play doesn't get worse that what it is or make sure they don't move the chains, especially on his side of the ball.
Smoot: Here's the crazy part about it. You want to call Sonny Styles a bust, but Carnell Tate has played in two games and got zero catches. Are you ready to call him a bust? I'm not ready to call him a bust ... We're not game planning anything. Why is he not blitzing? Because we ain't blitzing. What are you talking about? ... We know this because we have trained eyes. We're talking to people who have untrained eyes. They're a highlight factory. If it's not a highlight, they can't understand, "I made the play without making the play." What do you mean? I did my job, which allowed him to go make the play. They don't understand that.
