New York Giants Week 12: First Look at Washington Commanders Defense

Brandon Olsen has the low-down on what to expect from the Washington Commanders defense.

Author:
Brandon Olsen
Publish date:
Dec 1, 2022 10:00 AM EST

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New York Giants

The New York Giants started the 2022 season with a 6-1 record but have fallen back to Earth recently, dropping three of their last four. This week’s matchup is the second of four consecutive NFC East games for the Giants and their first matchup of the season against the Washington Commanders.

Personnel

This weekend could see the return of Commanders star pass-rusher Chase Young, who hasn’t played football since November 14th, 2021. Young tore his ACL against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and while he hasn’t played since, the Commanders have been flirting with his return for weeks.

In his place, Montez Sweat has been the best edge rusher on this team - and one of the most productive edge rushers in the NFL. Sweat has 48 pressures on the season, leaving him with the seventh-most pressures amongst edge rushers this season.

Sweat is nothing short of an absolute freak athlete off the edge with arguably the quickest first step of any front-seven player in the NFL.

On the interior of this Commanders defensive line is someone who causes almost the same amount of havoc but from a less glamorous position. Jonathan Allen generates the second-most pressures from an interior defensive lineman with 43. That leaves Allen with more pressures than Aaron Donald (40), JJ Watt (42), and the Giants’ very own Dexter Lawrence (39).

Allen isn’t the only force to be reckoned with on the interior of the Commanders line, as Daron Payne has 33 pressures of his own. The Commanders defensive line is one of the best in the NFL with those three; once Chase Young returns, it could challenge for the best.

The defensive line is the star of this defense, but on the back end, this team has young and talented playmakers. At safety, the Commanders use a trio that has all played over 540 snaps in Bobby McCain, Darrick Forrest, and Kamren Curl (who has been playing primarily as a box defender this season).

McCain is primarily the deep safety in Washington, with Darrick Forrest as his running mate in a defense that utilizes a lot of two-high safety looks. McCain has been the weakest of the bunch, primarily as a run defender - where he has not only missed tackles but also struggled consistently with the angles he takes to the ball carrier and sometimes seems disinterested.

It’s also important to note that McCain has been asked to play the slot defender role this season due to injuries, roster moves, and a general lack of depth.

Forrest is a second-year safety that has taken a massive leap this season while also coming up with two clutch interceptions in recent weeks against the Eagles and Texans. One of the biggest steals of the 2021 Draft, Forrest has allowed a passer rating of just 53.3 this season, giving the Commanders a promising young safety on the roster.

Curl is a safety that lines up mostly as a linebacker, and people will look at that and say that he’s not a good safety because of that - but make no mistake that he’s been excelling in his role this season. Curl can be hit or miss in coverage, but he’s been consistently reliable and an invaluable Swiss army knife.

At cornerback, the Commanders have Kendall Fuller and Benjamin St-Juste as their primary options on the outside. Fuller and St-Juste have had their fair share of struggles in 2022, especially with St-Juste being asked to shadow top receivers at some point in the year.

The duo can be physical at the line of scrimmage, and the versatility of having the smaller, more technically sound Fuller with the taller, more physical St-Juste allows the Commanders to line up against almost any outside receiver duo in the NFL.

For the Commanders, linebackers are asked to be versatile defenders that are focal points of the defense. Jamin Davis is the linebacker that gets the most runs for the Commanders, especially with Cole Holcomb being injured. In Holcomb’s absence, veteran Jon Bostic has stepped up from depth defender to full-time starter.

Davis is an elite athlete who is still trying to learn to play football at the NFL level. Bostic has the highest IQ on this defense, but the expectation for him was always to be veteran depth instead of being thrust into a starting role.

Scheme

The Commanders base defense is a 4-3 that when they operate out of the nickel, it’s a four-down line still. With a defensive line as talented as Washington’s, you could get away with never blitzing and never needing to get very creative; rather, just line up and say, “Our four linemen will beat your five.”

But that’s not what Washington does. This is a modern Commanders defense that likes to make the most of their defensive tools by breaking out two-high looks (two deep safeties pre-snap) that allow you to get creative and play multiple coverages out of the same look while also helping to prevent deep plays overtop. Out of these two-high looks, the Commanders could seamlessly switch between Covers 0-4 while giving opposing offenses the same look pre-snap.

The Commanders play plenty of zone coverage on the back end but also use their athletes defensively with fire zones and creepers--and no, I’m not talking about Dan Snyder.

For those who don’t remember from earlier in the season, creepers are also known as replacement blitzes. The defense isn’t showing blitz and technically doesn’t blitz because only four defenders rush the passer. One of the “traditional” pass-rushers, like a defensive lineman or stand-up edge rusher, drops back into coverage and is replaced as a pass-rusher by a non-traditional pass-rusher, usually an off-ball linebacker or nickel defender.

This throws a new look at a quarterback post-snap, and if the offense is running an RPO, it could throw a wrench into the plans with an unexpected defender in the throwing lane. The only defender that isn’t a threat here is the far corner, as, by the time he’s in the backfield, the offense could target his area, and it would take a defensive front player too long to get to his spot.

Fire zones are your more traditional zone blitzes. A fire zone is a blitz where the defender has five pass-rushers, three underneath defenders in coverage, and three overtop defenders in coverage. This allows the traditional pass-rushers to do their jobs with the help of an extra pass-rusher that usually either has a free run or allows for one-on-one pass-rush opportunities across the line.

What This Means for the Giants

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Run the ball with Saquon Barkley. The Giants have been at their best when running the ball wide with Barkley, but in recent weeks, the Commanders have allowed explosive runs when targeting either shoulder of the offensive tackle.

The expectation should be for the Giants to run power O often. No, Power O is not just a play from Madden; it’s specifically an off-tackle run that allows the back to choose either the inside or outside shoulder of the tackle.

Mixing Saquon’s vision with the Commanders' weakness should lead to chunk plays on the ground for the Giants.

Whether the Commanders are calling their creepers or fire zones (which is usually 5-7 times per game), the weakness of the coverage will usually be the seams. The seams are the weakness, whether that’s because a non-traditional cover man is being forced to drop into that zone or because there are only three underneath defenders in coverage.

In the run game, the Giants should look to utilize Daniel Jones more than ever before. Jones hasn’t been used often on designed runs, but the Commanders have allowed quarterbacks to take off running against them for big plays.

With the sheer volume of injuries on this Giants' roster, using Jones more as an offensive weapon has to be an option if the Giants legitimately want to make the playoffs.

Final Thoughts

This is a very good Commanders defense that had its fair share of struggles early before making adjustments and improving significantly. Given how young this defense is, it’s fair to assume that at least some of the early issues could have been attributed to inexperience.

There are still weaknesses here, but at this point in the season, the bigger concern is the piling up of injuries on this Giants roster - even with some returning players.