Washington Football Team: Building a Super Bowl blueprint

Defense

On the defensive side of the ball, the Bucs found a good number of their pieces in the draft with linebackers Lavonte David and Devin White, safeties Antoine Winfield Jr. and Mike Edwards, and cornerbacks Carlton Davis, Jamel Dean, and Sean Murphy-Bunting.

The defense came up big against the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, pressuring Mahomes on 48% of his dropbacks and finishing with 10 quarterback hits, nine passes defended, 3.0 sacks, and two interceptions.

The Washington Football Team and Tampa both had pretty comparable defensive numbers on the year, with Washington finishing second in total yardage allowed and fourth in points allowed, compared to sixth and eighth for Tampa Bay. Washington had 23 takeaways compared to 25 for the Buccaneers.

The Washington Football Team has also done a good job in building its defense through the draft with the additions of Chase Young, Kamren Curl, Montez Sweat, Cole Holcomb, Jimmy Moreland, Daron Payne, Jonathan Allen, and Ryan Anderson, all within the previous four years.

One of the areas where Tampa had a large advantage over Washington is its run defense, with Tampa ranking first. Tampa allowed only 82.7 yards per game compared to Washington, who gave up 114.5 yards per game (15th). This is in large part due to Tampa’s 1-2 linebacker combo of Lavonte David and Devin White, which is one of the best LB duos in the league.

If Washington can shore up its linebacker group and continue to improve its secondary, it will have the makings of a Super Bowl-caliber defense.