Washington Football Team has a couple of big holes on defense

The Washington Football Team had the second highest-ranked defense in 2020. But when you compare the team to the others in the top five – Los Angeles (Rams), Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and San Francisco – you notice one glaring difference, and this points to an enormous opportunity to improve in 2021.

Washington ran a base 4-3 defense in 2020 and they stuck to that base consistently through the year. Of course, they adapted based on situation, as all teams do. And when their outside linebackers were injured (Cole Holcomb early, and Kevin Pierre-Louis late) they often filled in with extra defensive backs instead of linebackers.

I suspect that had to do with personnel more than scheme. Washington had better depth in the secondary than at linebacker.

More from Riggo's Rag

Among those other top-rated defenses, San Francisco also ran a 4-3, often subbing an extra defensive back in place of a linebacker on passing downs. The Rams and Steelers nominally ran 3-4 bases, though they shifted quite often.

New Orleans, at least when I watched them, looked like a team that claimed to play a 3-4, but played closer to a 4-3. They were the most hybrid of all the top defenses.

The biggest hole on the Washington Football Team’s defense

Leaving Washington aside for a moment, these are the free safeties on those other top five defenses:

Rams: John Johnson (now on Cleveland)
Steelers: Minkah Fitzpatrick
New Orleans: Marcus Williams
San Francisco: Jimmy Ward

I don’t know how you want to define “elite,” but those are all excellent football players.

Here are the players who played a fair amount as a classic middle linebacker:

New Orleans: Demario Davis
San Francisco: Fred Warner

No quibbling here. Those are elite players.

The Rams and Steelers did not have especially good interior linebacker play in 2020, but they are also the two teams on this list that most often played two inside linebackers at the same time.

The Washington Football Team used Jon Bostic at middle linebacker and a revolving cast of free safeties that included Troy Apke, Kamren Curl, Deshazor Everett, and Jeremy Reaves at various points.

Modern defenses have gotten very complex but a few basic principles endure. Bigger, stronger linemen are a good thing. Slow cornerbacks are a bad thing. Lining up Chase Young and Montez Sweat against backup tackles – good thing. Asking your middle linebacker to cover Alvin Kamara – bad thing.

And one thing that is true in all team sports – good defenses are strong up the middle.

If you are running any defense that does not split the traditional middle linebacker role amongst two inside linebackers, your middle linebacker patrols the middle of the field.

Unless you are running a zero blitz, with no deep safety, or a cover 2/3, with multiple players dropping deep, your free safety patrols the deep middle.

In 2020, Washington almost never employed two inside linebackers and rarely ran zero blitzes or cover twos. That means the middle linebacker and free safety have to be very good.

It’s one of the simpler defensive concepts to grasp. When you play the type of defense that the Washington Football Team seems to want to play, the middle linebacker and the free safety have to run to the ball on every single play.

Of course, you want everybody doing that. But you need those two players to execute.

The linebacker may be more central to run defense and the safety more crucial to pass defense, but you still want both involved on every single snap. If they either misdiagnose the play, or don’t have the physical size/speed to get to the proper spot, you risk a big play.

You can stuff an opposing offense on first and second down, but if you give up a chunk play on third-and-eight, you have failed.

Washington gave up too many such plays last year. In hindsight, it is remarkable that they performed as well as they did given the mundane play they received in the middle. It is a testament to how well that star-studded line and efficient cornerbacks played.

Of course, this is not all the fault of Bostic and the free safety de jour. There are other linebackers and defensive backs who share responsibilities with those positions.

Bostic, I have always maintained, is playing out of position as a 4-3 middle linebacker. He is best-suited to playing inside in a 3-4. He is a good blitzer and acceptable in coverage. His real problem is in run support. And there is not a player on the current roster who looks to be a future star at free safety.

Washington has not signed a free safety in free agency, though former Ron Rivera player Tre Boston is still available. The linebacker they signed, David Mayo, could be a serviceable situational player in the middle. He has been good against the run in his career, and poor against the pass.

But this is where the Washington Football Team could take a major step forward in the draft. I recently argued that Washington should select safety Trevon Moehrig in the first round of the upcoming draft. As part of the same series, Ken Johannesen explained why they should opt for linebacker Zaven Collins.

Either player would fill a major hole in a defense that is already very good, but still has room to grow.

dark. Next. Who should WFT take in Round 1?

Securing the middle of the field with a player like Moehrig or Collins would do that. I believe it would vault them ahead of the other defenses in the upper echelon of the league.

Home/Commanders News