Hogs Haven
Examining the weakest part of Washington’s unexpectedly strong game: Part 2 of 4
Heading into the second off-season of Adam Peters’ rebuild, the Commanders’ biggest issues to address were on defense, and in particular, a rushing defense that gave up the fifth highest average gain (4.8 Y/A) and allowed the 9th highest opponent success rate and the 6th highest EPA/rushing attempt.
The Commanders made a number of moves in free agency to get bigger along defensive front, while releasing some key defensive players. The big questions heading into training camp are whether the right moves were made to strengthen the running defense and to make up for the loss of production of the departing starters.
The defensive front received the most attention of any unit on the team in free agency, with the release of starters Jonathan Allen and Dante Fowler and the addition of DT Javon Kinlaw, NT Eddie Goldman, and Edge Defenders Von Miller, Deatrich Wise Jr. and DE Jacob Martin.
The first edition of this four part series asked which running gaps were most successful for opposing running backs in 2024. That analysis showed that the Commanders had a particular weakness at stopping runs around the left end of the offensive line, corresponding to the right end of the defensive line. The rushing defense was also weak along most interior gaps, particularly the A gaps and left B gap.
This article will take a look at where the Commanders’ defensive linemen took snaps, and how that might relate to the strengths and weaknesses of the rushing defense. The final two articles will take a look at productivity stats of the defensive linemen to see how the returning players stack up and how the new additions compare to the players who were released.
The following table shows where the Commanders’ defensive linemen and outside linebacker Dante Fowler Jr lined up relative to the OL gaps. Players are listed in order of the proportion of time spent at interior gaps (top) vs on the edge (bottom).
Carl Davis Jr. was the Commanders’ nose tackle, and played the highest proportion of snaps in the A gaps of any of Washington’s defenders. He played the least of any of the interior defensive linemen, but made important contributions to stopping the run when he was on the field.
Rookie Jer’Zhan “Johnny” Newton played the second most snaps of Washington’s interior defenders. Newton is a somwhat smaller (6’2”, 304 lbs), gap shooting defender. The first surprise for me was that he second most interior-oriented of the iDL, aligning in A or B gaps on 85.8% of defensive snaps, and only taking 14.1% of snaps at edge alignments.
Journeyman Sheldon Day was a rotational piece on the DL. He aligned predominantly in the B gaps, but split out over the offensive tackles on 16.8% of snaps.
Jonathan Allen was slated to be the starting Right Defensive Tackle, but missed 9 games with a torn pec. Unlike the...
