Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Dan Quinn
Offensive Coordinator: David Blough
Defensive Coordinator: Daronte Jones
Special Teams Coordinator: Larry Izzo
2025 Summary (W-L Record: 5-12)
Dan Quinn’s first season in Washington was a pleasant surprise. The Commanders went 12-5, won two playoff games, and made it all the way to the NFC Championship Game. Then they got blown out by the Eagles, 55-23.
Unfortunately for Washington, last year they seemed to pick up where they left off against the Eagles. Their defense couldn’t stop anyone all season:
They didn’t do anything well on that side of the ball last year. Their pass defense was atrocious, and it didn’t matter what coverage they called. Washington finished the season 31st in EPA against when playing MOFC coverage (middle of the field closed) and 30th when playing MOFO (middle of the field open), according to Cody Alexander of MatchQuarters.
Washington also couldn’t stop the run (30th in yards), generate takeaways (31st), get off the field (23rd on 3rd down), or hold offenses to 3 points instead of 7 in the red zone (31st in red zone defense).
The offense wasn’t without its issues either. Although many of those were brought on by injury. Quarterback Jayden Daniels wasn’t able to build on his phenomenal rookie season and missed 10 games. Running back Austin Ekeler missed 15 games. Wide receiver Terry McLaurin played in just 41% of the team’s offensive snaps.
The good fortune experienced by the offense one year earlier was nowhere to be seen in 2025.
Key Additions
RB Rachaad White
RB Kaytron Allen (6th Rd, 187th Overall)
WR Antonio Williams (3rd Rd, 71st Overall)
WR Van Jefferson
WR Dyami Brown
TE Chigoziem Okonkwo
DL Tim Settle
DL D.J. Davidson
EDGE K’Lavon Chaisson
EDGE Odafe Oweh
EDGE Charles Omenihu
EDGE Joshua Josephs (5th Rd, 147th Overall)
LB Sonny Styles (1st Rd, 7th Overall)
LB Leo Chenal
CB Amik Robertson
CB Ahkello Witherspoon
CB Rasul Douglas
S Nick Cross
Key Losses
RB Chris Rodriguez
WR Deebo Samuel
WR Chris Moore
TE Zach Ertz
C Tyler Biadasz
DL Eddie Goldman
DL Jalyn Holmes
EDGE Jacob Martin
EDGE Von Miller
EDGE Preston Smith
LB Bobby Wagner
CB Marshon Lattimore
CB Jonathan Jones
CB Noah Igbinoghene
Biggest Questions Entering 2026
Can Jayden Daniels stay healthy?
This is the first and most important question with this team. His slight build and ability to stay on the field at the NFL level were some of the only concerns with Daniels coming out of college. The issue didn’t really pop up in 2024, but last year, he missed 10 games due to injury.
Even when Daniels did play, he couldn’t seem to capture the rhythm that made him such an unbelievable story during his rookie year. His numbers dropped off pretty much everywhere. His completion percentage went from 69% to 60.6%. Yards per attempt dropped from 7.4 to 6.7. His passer rating dropped from 100.1 to 88.1.
Until further notice, I’m happy to attribute this to Daniels battling through injuries and being in and out of the lineup. You don’t go from playing the quarterback position at such an advanced level physically and mentally to a mediocre QB in just one offseason.
And that’s exactly what Daniels showed as a rookie. He has advanced traits, from his poise in the face of pressure, to his quick processing and anticipation skills, to his ability to shatter defenses with his legs:
Jayden Daniels Was Great in Key Moments vs. Buccaneers
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Jayden Daniels looked completely unflappable in the most critical moments of Sunday’s game.
As Daniels goes, this team will go. There is nothing more important to the Commanders’ success. He has to remain on the field in 2026.
Will the David Blough hiring work out?
Washington added a few new faces on offense, but the biggest change is at the offensive coordinator position. The Commanders and Kliff Kingsbury parted ways just one year after he played an instrumental role Daniels’ tremendous rookie season.
Washington promoted from within, giving David Blough the job. Blough played quarterback in the NFL from 2019-23 before joining the Commanders’ coaching staff under Kingsbury as the Assistant QBs Coach. That’s quite the risky move to go from Kingsbury to such an inexperienced coach for such an important position.
It’s hard to predict exactly what Blough’s scheme will look like. We can make assumptions based on his experience and some of the comments he’s made this offseason. Basically, he’s going to use his time playing for Kevin O’Connell and Ben Johnson and coaching under Kingsbury for 2 years to create a super-duper hybrid of all the best systems in the NFL and tailor it specifically to his players.
Or more accurately, we won’t know sh*t until we see it in action. And if Daniels can’t stay healthy, whatever plans he currently has will go out the window.
Regardless of what Blough does, keeping Daniels on the field will be a top priority. And that might be done by leaning more on his running backs to carry the rushing attack.
It sounds like he wants to operate more from under center than out of shotgun, which might help keep Daniels healthy since he won’t have as many read-option opportunities out of shotgun where he can keep the ball and put his body in harm’s way. But that also means his legs, which are a huge weapon, might not be as big of a factor.
Will the Commanders run Brian Flores’ Scheme?
After a disastrous 2025, the Commanders defense needed a complete overhaul. If you look at the key additions above, you can see that their defense is basically going to look brand-spanking new.
Schematically, that just might be the case as well.
When Dan Quinn arrived in 2024, he brought over his defense as well as Joe Whitt, Jr. to run it. But by hiring Daronte Jones as the defensive coordinator this offseason, Quinn might be ready to turn his defense over to a new scheme altogether. And an exciting one at that.
While Jones has limited experience as a defensive coordinator, he coached under Vikings DC Brian Flores during the last 3 seasons. In case you weren’t aware, Flores is known for his aggressiveness and exotic blitz schemes. You can learn more about them here:
Brian Flores' Pressure Schemes
Vikings Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores’ calling card is his aggressive 6-up and 7-up blitz schemes. This is where he loads the line of scrimmage with 6 or 7 potential pass rushers (generally one more than the offense can protect), and then attacks in an assortment of ways.
Jones has mentioned that his defense won’t be an exact carbon copy of what Flores runs in Minnesota, but he did indicate that there will be a lot of overlap.
Linebackers are particularly important cogs in this defense. They need to be interchangeable with the ability to read the O-line at the snap and quickly make the decision to blitz or drop out based on the protection.
Despite the loss of Bobby Wagner, the Commanders appear to have the dogs to run those Flores-type pressure schemes successfully.
The signed Leo Chenal away from the Chiefs, who brings with him the ability to do it all at the linebacker position. His experience in Steve Spagnuolo’s complex defense should serve him well in Washington.
The Commanders also used their 7th overall pick on linebacker Sonny Styles, who’s 6’5”, 244 pounds, and moves like a defensive back:
Perhaps most importantly for Jones’ defense, he has really good timing when he blitzes (which takes good recognition):
Frankie Luvu is another linebacker on the roster that might be a great fit for Jones’ aggressive system. In 2023, when he was playing more from an off-the-ball position, he was excellent at blitzing (even ranking first among linebackers in pass rushing according Pro Football Focus).
Last year, however, he spent more time on the edge as an outside linebacker/edge rusher (43% of his snaps according to PFF). That didn’t really play to his strengths, and he struggled as a result. The hope is he’ll have more success in Jones’ system blitzing inside.
The system also allows cornerbacks and safeties to sit on routes in anticipation of quick throws in response to the pressure. That should help a Commanders secondary that returns some players who struggled in coverage a year ago as well as the new joiners (Amik Robertson, Ahkello Witherspoon, Rasul Douglas, and Nick Cross).
Should Dan Quinn be on the hot seat?
What have you done for me lately? That’s the name of the game in the NFL.
And despite the fact that during Quinn’s first season, he brought the Commanders further than they had been in 33 years, last year showed that no one is safe.
Quinn parted ways with his offensive and defensive coordinators one year after reaching the NFC Championship Game. There are conflicting reports, but those moves seemed to be driven more by the front office than Quinn, which means the same thing could happen to him.
The biggest knock on Quinn would be that he is a defensive guy and his defense has been the weaker unit in both of his seasons with the Commanders. There were some significant improvements in his first season versus the year prior, but Washington got as far as the did based predominantly on the abilities of Jayden Daniels. The defense allowed 106 points in 3 playoff games (35.3 PPG).
It’s interesting that he chose to bring in someone from the Brian Flores tree to run (or add significant elements of) his style of defense instead of another coordinator who’s predominantly just going to run Quinn’s system. While there are some natural crossover elements to both styles of defense when it comes to being aggressive, this seems to be an attempt to try something different and implement one of the more modern (and unique) defensive schemes in the NFL.
Which is perhaps an acknowledgement by Quinn that he knows he needs to be willing to try something (anything) different to keep his job.
2026 Outlook
Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and think real hard. If the Commanders went 5-12 again this year, would you be surprised? If they went 12-5 and went on another run deep in the playoffs, would you be surprised?
To me, the answer is no to both questions. They are one of the few teams in the NFL where that range of outcomes is realistic. Which means this could be an interesting season in Washington D.C.