4 Commanders coaches on the hot seat entering the 2022 season

Who’s on the hot seat for the Washington Commanders in 2022? There are obviously a group of players who need big years:

Carson Wentz is a new QB with question marks. Permanent hot seat situation.

Curtis Samuel is trying to rebound from an injury-plagued black hole of a first season in Washington. Jahan Dotson is the number one pick. He could have been Chris Olave. There is pressure. Dyami Brown is trying to prove he was not a third round whiff.

Chase Young will try to rebound from injury to take over as a face of the franchise. Daron Payne is balling for dollars. Jamin Davis is – well, see Dyami Brown above and replace “third round” with “first round.”

William Jackson III needs to live up to his contract.

Joey Slye is a kicker with no track record as a Washington Commander. ‘Nuff said.

There will be a kickoff returner. Once I know who it is, I’ll probably put him on the hot seat.

That’s ten players. But players are kind of easy. (Incidentally, so are the execs and the head coach, but more on them some other time.) Let’s take a quick look at four other coaches who need to produce big time this season.

4 Commanders coaches on the hot seat to start 2022

1. Jack Del Rio, Defensive Coordinator

This is the most obvious one, right? Two other times in his career, Del Rio has parlayed successful stints as a defensive coordinator into head coaching gigs. But this year in Washington, he is more in danger of losing his job.

Del Rio caused a stir back in June by referring to the events of January 6, 2021 as a “dust up.” For purposes of this discussion, I really don’t care where you come down on that. It just seems like a brain dead thing for a football coach – especially one in Washington, DC – to say. That situation seems to have been settled, so now we can just look at football.

Unfortunately for Del Rio, if we do that, he doesn’t look very good. A first-round draft pick in each of the five years from 2017-2021 spent on defense. $82 million on two free agent cornerbacks. After an exceptional year in 2020, the defense plummeted in 2021, falling into the bottom quarter of the league in almost every meaningful defensive stat.

Washington’s tackling was poor. Its zone schemes, especially on 3rd downs, were exceptionally porous. And the vaunted pass rush proved mediocre at best. Is it scheme? Is the personnel? Doesn’t really matter, does it? It all falls on the defensive coordinator.