Commanders' newcomer spots the beauty in Daronte Jones' defensive rethink

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Washington Commanders defensively in 2025, but linebackers struggling to cover in space was the biggest eye-sore.

It's why new coordinator Daronte Jones is simplifying things for those tasked with tracking receivers across underneath areas, a change that's already impressed high-profile recruit Leo Chenal.

The two-time Super Bowl winner with the Kansas City Chiefs is one of many big-money additions made by general manager Adam Peters during free agency. He spent a chunk of the money beefing up the pass rush to give Jones what he needs to run the elaborate blitz schemes he learned from Brian Flores and Mike Zimmer with the Minnesota Vikings, but Chenal can prove the most value for money as a versatile playmaker in space.

Leo Chenal offers an exciting window into Commanders' new defense

Chenal explained why streamlined pass-coverage responsibilities will help him quickly make an impact, per The John Keim Report:

"We drop back a lot of time, a lot of defenses, different defenses, and it works for them. They search the routes down. They're centered the routes while, you know, sometimes the ball's in the air, but a lot of our match zones or a lot of our coverages here allow us to really like get back to where we're supposed to be, you know, see periph' routes, but be able to look back at the quarterback, be able to break on where he's throwing."

The shift to keeping pass-catchers in front of them, rather than trailing running backs and receivers with their backs to quarterbacks, makes sense on two levels.

Opposing teams found a lot of joy isolating Washington's linebackers in the passing game last season. Senior players like 10-time Pro Bowler Bobby Wagner were routinely shredded thanks to a lack of top-level athleticism and the muddled coverages called by Jones' predecessor, Joe Whitt Jr.

The latter often relied on man coverage, particularly during the Commanders' Cinderella season of 2024. Whitt and head coach Dan Quinn were still leaning on that last season, when Washington played the scheme at the sixth-highest rate in the league, according to Stat Muse.

A closer look at the numbers reveals the Commanders left the deep middle of the field open on a staggering 49.5 percent of plays, per Sharp Football Analysis. This means Washington's defense used a single-high safety behind either Cover-1 or Cover-3 alignments.

Cover-1 is just man coverage with a safety over the top, while even a three-deep structure blurs the lines between man and zone coverage. So the Commanders were in man a lot more than the headline numbers might suggest.

Jones was always going to change this trend after serving as defensive backs coach and pass-game coordinator for a Vikings' defense that played zone 77.1 percent of the time in 2025. What stands out about Chenal's comments is how the play-caller is reducing the complexity for his linebackers and installing concepts better suited to letting the best athletes at the position think less and simply play.

Leo Chenal has the ideal running mates for new Commanders scheme

This is the right time for the Commanders to simply let their players play. Chenal's arrival, along with the decision to draft Sonny Styles with the No. 7 overall pick, has given Jones a pair of dynamic athletes at the heart of the linebacker corps.

Even holdovers Jordan Magee and Kain Medrano, lighter, roving types with safety-style skills, fit the new schemes. Those X's and O's are less about combination coverages like sophisticated pattern-matching, where linebackers drop into a zone shell, but latch onto and follow any receiver who enters their territory.

Instead, what Chenal has described is more like old-fashioned spot-dropping. Where linebackers simply bail to a spot in zone, keep their eyes on the quarterback, track the ball, and swarm on pass-catchers in a hurry.

The formula is naturally suited to producing turnovers. Like this interception snagged by Chenal against the Baltimore Ravens last season.

More spot-dropping is also a good way to limit yards after the catch, which will be crucial to making Jones' pressure schemes work. Ensuring short passes yield only small gains will put offenses into third-and-long more often, giving the Commanders extra chances to call the blitz.

That's good news for Frankie Luvu, another member of the linebacker group. He's set to get back to doing what he does best in this new-look defense, but he cannot do it alone.

But this time around, he has help. A lot of it.

Schematic shifts in both pressure and coverage can create new defensive stars for the Commanders, with Chenal one of the more likely candidates.

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