Commanders still can’t fix the one area they built their season around

It's been a disappointing season for the Washington Commanders so far. And arguably, the biggest frustration lies within a unit that was supposed to be a significant strength heading into the campaign.

In 2023, the Commanders’ defense was so atrocious that head coach Ron Rivera felt the need to fire defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio during the season. And specifically, the pass defense was so bad that defensive backs coach Brent Vieselmeyer was let go at the same time.

Of course, there was some scapegoating in the firings. It was Rivera who had looked at both Emmanuel Forbes Jr. and Christian Gonzalez and selected the wrong guy. It was Rivera who decided to build his linebacking unit around Jamin Davis. It was Rivera who invested heavily in Benjamin St-Juste. None of those players worked out in Washington.

The Commanders’ back seven in that fateful season consisted of Davis and Cody Barton at linebacker. St-Juste, Kendall Fuller, and a platoon of Forbes and Quan Martin were at cornerback. Kamren Curl and Percy Butler (filling in for an injured Darrick Forrest) occupied the safety spots.

Commanders' pass defense has been a major letdown over the first half of 2025

Perhaps the biggest mystery of the first half of the 2025 season is why the Commanders’ pass defense, filled with high-value talent and proven coaching, has utterly disintegrated.

How bad is it? Well, not quite as bad as that 2023 unit. But almost.

Whereas that 2023 squad was dead last in total passing yards and touchdown percentage, this year’s club is merely in the bottom 10. This year’s below-average interception rate is slightly better than the 2023 unit, which was in the bottom three.

But the current incarnation is obliterating the 2023 squad in yards per attempt. This year’s secondary is dead last in the league. The 8.4 yards per attempt is astonishingly bad. The league hasn’t seen a number that high since 2020. Even that wretched 2023 Commanders’ pass defense managed to keep that number under eight.

What makes this so mystifying is that the Commanders have one of the true miracle workers in regards to pass defense serving as the defensive coordinator.

The turnaround that Joe Whitt Jr. managed as pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach with the Dallas Cowboys in 2021 was the stuff of legends. The pass defense went from being one of the worst in the league in 2020 to one of the best in 2021. They became especially adept at taking the ball away.

This was not a fluke. He may not have had such magical success at every stop, but Whitt has improved pass defense wherever he has gone. In Dallas, the pass defense remained strong through his departure in 2023.

Want to get even more befuddled? Try this. Whitt appeared to be heading in the right direction last season.

The Commanders' pass defense in 2024 was statistically similar to the Cowboys' in 2023. The one disappointing area was turnovers. Whitt had not been able to pull off the same kind of transformation he managed in Dallas in 2021. But with a healthy Marshon Lattimore and a talented second-round rookie in Trey Amos joining the team, more interceptions seemed like a reasonable expectation.

Nothing has gone right. Washington’s defense is surrendering 55 additional yards through the air. They are allowing a significantly higher percentage of completions and touchdowns. And we already discussed that mind-boggling yards-per-attempt number.

The Commanders essentially swapped out St-Juste and Noah Igbinoghene from last season for Lattimore and Amos this year. They let Jeremy Chinn leave essentially because he wasn’t good enough in coverage. Fans expected these changes to make Washington's pass defense one of the league's best.

Instead, it has been among the worst. A weak pass rush may be one of the culprits. But there is far more at play.

Frankie Luvu and Bobby Wagner have been ineffective in coverage. Lattimore has shown some signs of life in recent weeks, but it seems clear he is no longer an elite cornerback. Most distressingly, Mike Sainristil and Martin, billed as cornerstones, have regressed significantly.

Nobody was clamoring to see players like Igbinoghene and Butler take on bigger roles on defense, but this fact is unavoidable. Last season, those two defensive backs played more than 1,200 combined snaps for the Commanders. They were in on more than 55 percent of the team’s defensive plays. And the pass defense was ascending.

This year, Igbinoghene and Butler have been in on barely five percent of the team’s defensive plays — a combined total of 55 snaps.

Would playing them more solve the team’s pass defense woes? Probably not. It’s just one more mystifying fact about the Commanders’ 2025 pass defense.

Whatever the answer is, Whitt and his fellow coaches — especially pass game coordinator Jason Simmons and defensive backs coach Tommy Donatell — need to get it figured out fast.