This began as an attempt to explain a confounding problem. Why have the Washington Commanders been unable to produce quality cornerback play over the past five seasons?
The last time Washington had dependable cornerback play was 2020, in Ron Rivera’s first season as head coach. The club had two steady veterans on the perimeter and a tough, undersized, second-year player in the slot. Ronald Darby and Kendall Fuller were second and third-round draft picks, respectively. The slot, Jimmy Moreland, arrived in the final round of the 2019 draft.
Darby left via free agency after the 2020 season, and Moreland was released in the final cuts of 2021. Rivera replaced them with free agents William Jackson III and Bobby McCain. On paper, this should have been an upgrade. But it was the beginning of a catastrophe.
It is not as if Rivera and Dan Quinn have ignored the position. Since 2021, Washington has rostered four former first-round picks — Jackson, Marshon Lattimore, Emmanuel Forbes Jr., and Noah Igbinoghene. Mike Sainristil and Trey Amos were second-rounders. Fuller and Benjamin St-Juste both heard their names called in the third.
Commanders' defensive recruitment needs a complete rethink, especially on the edge
These were all primary options at different stages. Yet, despite a modest, and ultimately fleeting, uptick in 2024, the cornerback play has continued to plummet.
The reason hit me over the head a few weeks ago while watching Forbes break up pass after pass for the Los Angeles Rams. Why was he so much more effective? For that matter, why was St-Juste thriving, albeit in a reserve role, for the Los Angeles Chargers?
The answer goes by the name of Jared Verse. Or Tuli Tuipulotu. Or Odafe Oweh. Or Byron Young. You get the picture.
The Rams and Chargers have both invested in pass-rushing edge players. The Rams have made it a significant priority, spending four picks in the first three rounds on edge rushers since 2023.
The Chargers took Tuipulotu in the second round of 2023 despite having elite rushers Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack already on board. Earlier this season, unsatisfied with only having one elite rusher, Joe Hortiz traded for another first-round edge in Oweh.
Twenty-nine of the NFL’s 32 teams have used at least one pick in the first three rounds of the draft to acquire an edge rusher over the last four years. Most of them have invested multiple high selections, and more than 20 of those players have come in the first round.
The Chicago Bears have not chosen pass rushers high in the draft, but they have acquired one first-round edge — Montez Sweat — via trade. They also signed second-round pick Dayo Odeyingbo in free agency.
The Pittsburgh Steelers used a fourth-round pick on Nick Herbig in 2023 and a third-rounder on Alex Highsmith in 2020, which means they are skirting the edges of my parameters with two players. And of course, through all these years, they have had T.J. Watt on the roster.
The third and final team that has not prioritized pass rushers according to these standards, as I’m sure you have guessed, is the Commanders.
It’s almost as if the entire franchise was so damaged by the failed attempt to field a defensive front made up of four first-round picks early in the Rivera era that they have run as fast as they can in the other direction. They gave up on Sweat and Chase Young. Those moves made a lot of sense at the time.
The problem is that they didn’t bother to replace them with high-level talent, either through the draft or via free agency. Every edge drafted since Young in 2020 has come in round five or later. None has left a mark.
Peters signed Dorance Armstrong Jr. and Dante Fowler Jr. for the 2024 season. No one shed a tear when Peters chose to let Fowler leave in the offseason, but it is worth noting that the Commanders' cornerback play was somewhat better in 2024 when he was on the club.
Armstrong was a fourth-round pick by the Dallas Cowboys in 2018. He has developed into a quality all-around player, but no one would classify him as an elite pass rusher. His injury came at the worst time, mainly because Washington has already lost its two other legitimate defensive ends.
But would the presence of Armstrong — or Deatrich Wise Jr. and Javontae Jean-Baptiste, for that matter — make a big difference?
Peters chose to fill his edge-rusher room with players at the end of their careers, such as Von Miller and Preston Smith. The Commanders' best healthy edge rusher right now, by a wide margin, has been Jacob Martin. He is an undersized journeyman who is neither big enough to be an every-down defensive end nor agile enough to be a true linebacker.
The bottom line here is that the Commanders have ignored edge rushers, and they now have the worst pass rush in the league.
Do not look at sacks to determine that. Sacks can sometimes result from quality coverage. Look at the hurries. It is not an official stat, so the criteria for deciding hurries are not uniform across the league. But wherever you look, the Commanders have the worst hurry percentage of any team in the NFL this year.
By a wide margin. Except for occasional plays by Daron Payne and Martin, the Commanders do not have players who can beat opposing blockers in one-on-one matchups and force the quarterback to make a poor throw.
They don’t have those players because they have not made it a priority, even though virtually every other team in the league has done so over and over again.
So, back to the original question.
Washington’s cornerbacks have not played well. The defense uses two linebackers who are not good in coverage, which may contribute to that. Even so, those corners have tackled very poorly this year.
Tackling is crucial if a secondary plays zone. The Commanders' corners have failed to do that, and that is on them. But their actual coverage is not as bad as it may seem.
If you go back and watch the Commanders’ sacks this year, many of them are coverage sacks. They didn’t come about because a pass rusher beat his blocker and pressured the quarterback. They came because the secondary actually held up long enough to allow those rushers to get home.
There’s a symbiotic relationship between the pass rushers and the secondary. If Peters wants to fix his secondary, he should start by investing in multiple high-caliber pass rushers.
This position has been ignored for far too long.