Replacing Dorance Armstrong for the season will require Commanders to adjust the defense in a different way

The Washington Commanders' season has derailed with multiple injuries adding up, and they've continued to play the next man up.

Certain players can't be replicated, however, and you have to change things up to keep the season going. The defense has been the liability of the team with no real changes to fix their problems, and it just got even worse after losing the best player for the rest of the season.

The Commanders won't be able to just roll out another player to replace what defensive end Dorance Armstrong has done this season, and they'll need to pivot.

The Commanders need to make changes to replace Dorance Armstrong

Armstrong was the team's sack and pressure leader when he suffered his season-ending knee injury, and you can't just replicate that. The Commanders already lost Deatrich Wise for the season back in Week 2, and already dealt with issues on the edge, especially stopping the run. Head coach Dan Quinn was asked how they would adjust without Armstrong, and he said it's not an easy or traditional task.

"For Dorance [Armstrong] and D Wise [Deatrich Wise], these are heavy hitters for us and specific to how they play," Quinn said. "Not just the same run edge setting, pass rushing to go. So, yeah, when that new opportunity comes for somebody, it won't be featured in exactly the same way. So, that's part of the adjustment to say how do we do it differently. It's not just plug and play."

"So, that opportunity for that next person, how do they put their own flavor on it? Won't be the next Dorance or the next D Wise. It'll be done a little bit differently, and it might not be all with one person; you split that up, and then it works its way through, but it is part of it. And you always are kind of thinking of the contingency plans to go do that, and when they come up, you adjust, but yeah, for those two in specific, it's a bummer."