The late Monte Coleman (1957-2026) was a mainstay on Washington’s Defense for 16-years. After walking on to the team at Central Arkansas University he was drafted in the 11th Round of the 1979 NFL Draft at #289. For reference the 2026 NFL Draft had only 257-selections. Monte would play all 16 of his years in Washington. He would go on to have 17-Interceptions, 999-Solo Tackles, and 13-Forced Fumbles. #51 was on 4-Super Bowl teams winning 3-times. He never went to the Pro Bowl or was selected as All Pro. But, his steady play was invaluable. In rebuilding the Defense players like Coleman are what the franchise is seeking.

Just how poor was the Washington Defense last year? No. It was worse than that. Rankings don’t often tell the whole story. But, the rankings in this case don’t lie: 27th (out of 32) for Points Allowed; Dead Last at 32 for Yards Allowed; 29th in Touchdowns Allowed; 25th in Interceptions; 31st in Turnovers; and Dead Last for Rushing Yards Allowed. Feel free to scan the statistics in search of a bright spot. Pack a lunch as it will be a protracted venture. Football people in the building at Ashburn knew those numbers by heart. What followed in the off-season was predictable: It was essentially an “Oil Change.”

Younger, Stronger, Faster

It’s worth a few moments to re-visit how the team got here. Adam Peters inherited a barren pantry when he arrived in early 2024. In 2023 Ron Rivera drafted Emmanuel Forbes with the 15th pick. The very next selection was Christian Gonzalez by New England. He’s now a top Corner in the League likely to become the highest paid player at that position. Forbes? Well…he’s gone. That’s your Ron Rivera drafting story in microcosm. Of that 2023 8-player Draft only one player remains; Safety Quan Martin. Peters brought in veterans. It kind of worked the first year when the Offense could simply out-score opponents. It’s the Cincinnati Bengals’ formula. Then last year the Offense sputtered with Daniels hurt. Defensively the pass rush vanished when Dorance Armstrong Jr was hurt. No pass rush means no pass defense. Did we mention the Defensive Backfield was pretty much wiped slick with injuries? Yes. That happened too. Oh, and the Linebackers were not having much success running down opposing ball carriers.

It was bad.

It’s not a surprise then that Pass Rushing was a key area of focus for the off-season. It’s also not a surprise that the franchise went after Linebackers, and Corners. Basically, everything on the Defensive side of the ball was an area of focus.

The unspoken, but inescapable reality is that this Front Office values high-end athleticism. One metric is a combination of results from the so-called “Underwear Olympics” at the Combine. The Relative Athletic Score is a window into the Adam Peters thought process. Guys he picks score really high. The Linebacker additions of Sonny Styles and Leo Chenal are perfectly aligned with the vision of younger, stronger, and faster. Styles authored the single highest RAS ever for a Linebacker over the last 35-years. Leo Chenal, a Free Agent acquisition from Kansas City produced the fourth-highest Linebacker RAS. Get the picture?

With that, let’s go look at the Defensive Rooms

Linebackers

Since we’ve started with Styles and Chenal let’s stay in the room. But, first a word about scheme. The new Defensive Coordinator Daronte Jones was the understudy of Brian Flores in Minnesota. In this scheme the pressure comes from any and everywhere along the front. Who is hot and who is not is hard to figure. That’s especially true in the heat of battle. Flores’ Defense shut out the WFT last season. It made an impression. A key to this type of Attack First Defense is mobile Linebackers. Chenal ran a 4.53-second 40-yard dash. Styles ran a 4.46 which is tied for fastest all-time since they started the combine. That’s plenty fast enough.

Sonny Styles was chosen by the WFT at #7 in this April’s Draft. He didn’t have that kind of rating going into the Combine. His athletic numbers and interviews changed the calculus. If you want a worry bead then there it is. Guys who have meteoric rises at the Combine sometimes don’t have real football instincts. Another one of Ron Rivera‘s 1st-Round duds was Jamin Davis in 2021. He also had a very high RAS where he ran a 4.47-second 40-yard dash. But, he had no feel for the game. He, like every single Rivera 1st-Rounder is gone. On his fourth team now he’s attempting to make the Steelers’ roster.

Styles had very good tape in college. But, it wasn’t mind blowingly good. His interviews were exceptional which helped him get drafted where he was. So, it’s not surprising to see skeptics pouncing on some late reads in his first pre-season game to declare him a bust. Let’s get a dozen or so games under his belt before such pronouncements. His coverage skills are already better than what Bobby Wagner was able to do last season.

Leo Chenal was not used as an every down piece in Kansas City. The general thinking has been that he will be used a lot more in this Defense. His speed on Dogs is going to be a big factor. By the way, an old Ken Beatrice reference is in order: When a Linebacker rushes the Quarterback it’s a “Dog.” When a Defensive Back rushes the Quarterback it’s a “Blitz.” The Dog designation has slowly faded from the lexicon. We’ll try to keep it going.

Frankie Luvu lead the League for the most missed tackles last year. He was simply trying to do too much. In this scheme look for a return of the Luvu of 2024.

That’s three of the assumed four Linebackers. Pencil in Jordan Magee for the fourth. Although Kain Medrano and Ale Kaho are going to be pushing for a slot. Medrano is fast, as in really fast. He contributes on Special Teams. Kaho is a guy who is likely to go to the Practice Squad only to get poached by another team.

This room got significantly younger, faster, and more athletic over the off-season. It is set to take advantage of the new Defensive Coordinator’s scheme.

Defensive Line

Find your favorite catch phrase and insert here: “The best pass defense is a good pass rush.” “No pass rush equals no pass defense.” There are others. But, they all revolve around the central truth that Defensive Backs can not cover Receivers but so long. Dogs and Blitzes will get you only so far if the Front-Three or Four can’t generate pressure and QB hits. The Afterguard went after the problem in a big way.

For Edge Rushers, or Defensive Ends if you prefer the team went and plucked Odafe Oweh and K’Lavon Chaisson from Free Agency along with Charles Omenihu. In all three cases the players are good solid pass rushers. None of them are The Man on the line such as Maxx Crosby or Trey Hendrickson. Washington tried to get the 31-year old Hendrickson. Apparently they were out-bid by Baltimore. A guy like Crosby forces the Offense to slide protection his way. It’s not apparent that any of these guys will produce the same result. Oweh was traded from Baltimore to the Chargers last year. Once he was opposite Khalil Mack his Sack production soared from 0 for the year to 7.5 over 12-games. He was what football lifers call “The Other Guy.” What we have here is a collection of Other Guys. It will be interesting to see how this works.

Dorance Armstrong is going to be back for the second game of the season. He’s going to miss the first because of a 2025 incident that is a better kept secret than most military ones. He’s also returning from a knee injury that killed a budding season. With only 6 games and a partial 7th he racked up 5.5-Sacks. If he’s back to that form then he’ll get the extra protection. Right now he’s rotating into the first team reps in Camp.

Don’t sleep on Joshua Josephs. The fifth-round selection this year has turned heads at Camp with his speed and “Bend.” Again, this is a perfect fit for Jones’ scheme.

At Tackle are Javon Kinlaw, Johnny Newton, Daron Payne, Tim Settle, Shy Tuttle. This will be a different year for the Line. Tim Settle was brought in to be the “0-Technique” or Nose Tackle. Tuttle is the backup. The job of the 0-technique is to plug the center of the Line. Washington never ran a true Steelers’-type 3-4 alignment. So, they haven’t had a true Nose Tackle. If you think back to the glory years when Dave Butz and Perry Brooks completely clogged the middle of the line that’s about as close as it gets. Those two guys let Dexter Manley and Mat Mendenhall get loose. In this scheme the Nose stymies the opposing Center and one Guard. All that speed then can get loose.

What will be of key interest is how Daron Payne plays. He’s got a nice pay day coming if he has a good year. That did the trick one contract year. Maybe that incentive will produce similar results this time.

On the outside looking in are Javontae Jean-Baptiste and Deatrich Wise who is on the Physically Unable to Perform list. Jean-Baptiste will not survive waivers. So, this is a good camp battle to watch over the last two pre-season games.

Late news is that Johnny Newton hurt a Pectoral muscle in the Miami game. He’s in New York seeing a specialist. That has “Ominous” written all over it. Chaisson and Magee are dealing with dings of their own.

Defensive Backs

All the other areas on this side of the ball got a lot of help. This room isn’t different. The Corners are: Trey Amos, Rasul Douglas, Amik Robertson, Mike Sainristil. Amos is having a hard time recovering from his broken Fibula. Structurally all is well. But, soft tissue soreness is lingering. He’s only practiced twice. So, being in football shape is a big concern. He showed great promise last year until the injury.

Sainristil is an Outside Corner in a Slot Corner’s body. He plays better when he’s outside on an X or Z Receiver. He gives up a height disadvantage when facing someone like A.J. Brown. Slot guys are quick. They give Mikey fits. His football IQ is off the charts, however. Expect the coaches to try to move him inside…and him to end up outside.

Rasul Douglas is the old guy at 31 by the time season starts. He has 21-career Interceptions. He was brought in to be the stabilizer. Amik Robertson is another veteran brought over from Detroit. You just know they’d like to have him back right now. Overall this group should be an upgrade if Amos returns to health and form.

Safety Wise here are the likely survivors: Percy Butler, Nick Cross, Will Harris, Quan Martin, Tyler Owens, Jeremy Reaves. Butler and Reaves are Special Teams core guys. Reaves’ Defensive snaps skyrocketed last year in order to fill vacancies due to injury. He did fine. As a result, he’s going to get more snaps with the “D” and less Teams work.

Nick Cross is a young guy, still 24-years old. He comes over from Indianapolis. He’s regarded as a solid player. Quan Martin, as noted earlier is the only survivor from the 2023 Draft. He’s athletic. But, it hasn’t translated into on-field success. He may be on the bubble.

Every fan needs a scape goat. Will Harris was a personal favorite last year. It will be interesting to see how he does this year.

Overall

The Defense is much faster and younger than last year. It has a new and exciting scheme. There’s plenty of solid reasoning for optimism. So, here’s a word of caution: Don’t get hung up on pre-season game results. First of all the Defense is playing pure Vanilla. No Dogs. No Blitzes. Nothing in the least bit exotic is on display. Also missing are most of the starters. Cue the first pre-season game. The Dolphins started all of their Offense. Their Center is one of the best in the business. What resulted was a 93-yard 14-play drive ending in a Touchdown. For many it was a sure sign of the End of Days. Oh, and, “Sonny Styles is a complete bust.” Don’t go there. In the joint practice the WFT Front-Seven “Feasted” on the Dolphins. Malik Willis could have been sacked numerous times had it been allowed. Pre-season games are not true indicators.

Styles is getting a serious dose of the NFL. It’s learning by drinking from a fire hose. If he’s still late on his reads in November then we can revisit the discussion.

Watch the Camp Battles on the interior D-Line and the Defensive Backs. Settle has been dinged. Jean-Baptiste needs a couple of good pre-season games to wiggle into the room. Newton’s issue will help his cause.

This Week

The team will have practice in pads for two days in a row for the first time. This is a few weeks into Camp. Old timers would surely shake their head in disbelief.

Saturday the team goes to Detroit to play the Lions in pre-season Game #2. We’ll have a Gamer up for it Saturday morning.