Hogs Haven
Survey results!!!
One of the first things defensive coordinator Joe Whitt said at his Thursday press conference this week was that he doesn’t know when Marshon Lattimore — the CB just traded to Washington from New Orleans — will play. There are two potential issues. First is Lattimore’s health; he has missed time recently with the Saints due to a hamstring injury, and was listed as ‘not practicing’ on Washington’s Wednesday injury report with that hamstring. The second issue, of course, is that Lattimore’s coaches and teammates need to be confident that he understands the defensive system and his role within it, and that he can communicate effectively on the field to prevent coverage breakdowns.
I get the sense that we won’t see him on the field Sunday against the Steelers, though his status remains up in the air at the moment.
Whenever he does get on the field, one thing is clear — Marshon Lattimore, the four-time pro bowler, will be the #1 CB on the field for the Commanders.
That means that the starting lineup that Joe Whitt has used for the past several weeks, with Noah Igbinoghene in the slot and Ben St-Juste & Mikey Sainristil outside, will change. In this week’s Reacts survey, we asked which of those three players (Sainristil, St-Juste or Igninoghene) would lose his starting job.
The answer from those that responded to the survey was pretty clear.
Two-thirds of Hogs Haven readers who responded to the survey expect Igbinoghene to head to the bench. If that happens, then Mike Sainristil would take over as the slot corner — the position for which he was drafted — while St-Juste would play opposite Lattimore.
At his Wednesday press conference, it was pointed out to Dan Quinn that, in New Orleans, Lattimore had generally played on the same side of the defense. The questioner asked if that would be the case in Washington:
l would say it’d be more versatile. I want to get a sense for getting into the rhythm here for a while, but I would sense that [he] would...move around some.
Joe Whitt offered similar sentiments when asked on Thursday about the plan for the secondary:
You know, and I thought about that as soon as I found out that we were acquiring him. And then I said, ‘Why even worry about it right now until he gets out there, right?’ Because somebody could get injured; somebody could play really, really well — you never know what might happen. And so, once it gets to the point where he’s going to be out there, we’ll put him where he needs to be and then we’ll adjust the other guys where they need to be.
While the confidence in Lattimore is obviously very high, the possibility of Igbinoghene losing his starting role is not an indictment of his play.
This chart indicates that Noah has been among the better CBs in the league...
