3 Commanders players who can reinvent themselves under Dan Quinn in 2024

The first major roster move the Washington Commanders made in the Josh Harris era was trading away two former first-round picks. That was before Adam Peters and Dan Quinn were on board. The new general manager continued that trend when he dealt Jahan Dotson to the Philadelphia Eagles for draft capital.

The Dotson trade was unexpected. But in hindsight, not especially surprising.

He didn’t achieve much during his second season and had been a negligible presence in camp this year. More importantly, almost none of the managers and coaches involved in making the decision had a hand in bringing him to the organization.

Quinn and his staff had no existing relationships with the players they inherited. We have no real way of knowing whether they even had positive impressions about them - something that the previous regime possessed in abundance.

Here's another thing we have no real way of knowing. Was the across-the-board failure to develop young players over the last four years a result of poor scouting or poor coaching?

We tend to think of the former, but unless you are on the inside for a long period, you can’t evaluate the latter. If you want to blame the scouting, you can point to the fact that no draft pick over the past four seasons went to another team and got a lot better.

If you want to single out the coaching, you can say that a couple of young players did outperform expectations. Running backs Brian Robinson Jr. and Antonio Gibson grew into reliable players. Maybe it means something that their position coach, Randy Jordan, was one of the few assistants who was already with the team when Ron Rivera took over.

Almost all of the good foundational players were in Washington before Rivera took over. Terry McLaurin, Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne, Tress Way. Others who played key roles came from other franchises, like Charles Leno Jr. and Kendall Fuller, who was originally drafted by the team but went away for a while before returning.

We have already discussed how this impulse to jettison underperforming players from the Rivera era may signal bad news ahead for someone like Emmanuel Forbes Jr.  But we should also acknowledge that there could be a flip side, and it could be a very positive development.

In the same way that Quinn and his coaches have no allegiance to last year's roster, they also enter without any negative preconceptions. For players who have disappointed, it’s essentially a clean slate with coaching upgrades that will allow some to succeed.

We are already seeing this with Dyami Brown. The former third-round pick has been a significant disappointment as a wide receiver through his first three seasons, but he looked reborn in training camp. He does have the same position coach, but Bobby Engram was new to the club last year. The vertical threat seems to be benefitting from a new offensive coordinator and a new, more talented quarterback.

Let’s check on three other players who could see a benefit from a fresh start under better coaching this year.

Commanders players who can benefit from a fresh start in 2024

Jamin Davis - Commanders LB/EDGE

Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio - two former professional linebackers - took an athletically gifted, inexperienced second-level defender out of Kentucky in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft. They immediately thrust him into the most difficult defensive position on the field.

Jamin Davis struggled mightily during his rookie season. He was constantly overrunning gaps and essentially taking himself out of plays. As a result, he grew tentative and struggled even more.

Things improved when he was shifted to a more traditional SAM position after Cole Holcomb departed. Davis grew into a middle-of-the-road linebacker. A lot of us thought his athleticism could best be employed as a pass rusher, and Dan Quinn agreed.

Davis has been playing both at linebacker and edge rusher this preseason. Since the Washington Commanders finally acquired several quality linebackers to support him, he will be able to rush the passer more freely this year.

He will get coaching from both Darryl Tapp (defensive line) and Ken Norton Jr. (linebackers). Davis will benefit the most from Ryan Kerrigan, who will be specifically assigned to help edges develop their pass-rush skills.