New York Giants Week 7: Examining the Washington Commanders Offense

Washington boasts the seventh-best red zone offense and the tenth-best goal-to-go offense.

Author:
Brandon Olsen
Publish date:
Oct 18, 2023 2:11 PM EDT

In this story:

The Washington Commanders offense is still trying to find footing under new offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. That said, they have the potential to create explosive plays, so let's have a look at how the offense is built.

Personnel

At quarterback, the new man at the helm for Washington this season is Sam Howell, the 2022 fifth-round pick out of North Carolina. Howell still shows some of his tendencies from his days in college, but I also suspect that this coaching staff is trying to keep him in the pocket more than they probably should.

In college, Howell thrived as a big-arm quarterback who frequently made plays with his legs, although he seems hesitant to take off running this season. That’s resulted in him standing in the pocket far too long and taking an impressive number of hits this season, being sacked a league-high 34 times -- six more than second-place Daniel Jones.

Howell’s arm gives him plenty of playmaking ability without running, but he’s almost being held back. He’s still raw, but allowing him to be himself as a quarterback would be a big help for him to take the next step as a signal-caller.

In the backfield with Howell is Brian Robinson, one of the few true starting running backs in the NFL. The Commanders have shied away from the running back by-committee approach every NFL team takes in modern football.

Whether that’s indicative of their confidence in Robinson or their lack of confidence in their depth backs like Antonio Gibson and Chris Rodriguez Jr. remains to be seen. Still, we’ll likely be able to determine how they handle the load the rest of this season.

Robinson has also succeeded as a receiver in this offense and has been the primary target on screen plays. His pass protection leaves much to be desired, but he’s still out there on passing downs.

Terry McLaurin is forever one of the most underrated receivers in the league, and it’s almost always because of who he has at quarterback being the reason that people seem to write him off. The fact remains, though, that McLaurin is often open, and he’s proven to be the type of alpha receiver that, even when he isn’t open, just throws the ball in his direction, and he’ll come down with it more often than not.

The complementary options of Curtis Samuel and Jahan Dotson make up the rest of the wide receiver core. However, Dotson has struggled to find a consistent role and chemistry with Howell at quarterback. Samuel’s been operating primarily out of the slot but has also seen the occasional snap out of the backfield and is a threat to get the ball as the jet motion man.

Logan Thomas has been about as inconsistent as possible this season, seemingly having a breakout performance with Howell just a few weeks ago against the Bears as the Commanders were trying to make a comeback but was practically non-existent just last week. Whether or not he’s involved in the game plan, Thomas will always be someone that Howell can look to as a safety valve with usually reliable hands.

Scheme

The Commanders made some noise this past offseason by bringing in Eric Bieniemy from the Kansas City Chiefs so that he would have the opportunity to break free from the “he doesn’t even call the plays” narrative and make a name for himself to get a head coaching opportunity.

So far, he’s done a solid job of running this offense, but they’ve been inconsistent. That’s because of multiple reasons, however, partially the youth of this team at positions like quarterback, partially because of Bieniemy trying to find a rhythm as a full-time game planner and play-caller, and partially because this team just lacks talent along the offensive line.

The Bieniemy offense is a West Coast style offense that will rely on timing and getting the quarterback some easy completions that put receivers in position to make runs after the catch. We haven’t this offense look as schematically similar to the Chiefs as some of us may have thought it would look, but it’s still got the core principles.

The Commanders have adopted more of a zone-based blocking scheme under Bieniemy that works inside and wide zone concepts. The wide zone is the more back-breaking option for a defense as the offensive line blocks horizontally to give the ball carrier multiple rushing lanes to get vertical in so that a back with good vision can create more explosive plays on the ground.

The passing attack is still trying to find an identity that works for them, but to this point, they’ve tried to get things done working in all areas of the field. Howell often looks to push things toward the sidelines and downfield, but the offensive line struggles have limited his ability to do either consistently.

What This Means for the Giants

The Giants' defense under Wink Martindale has taken a more conservative approach in recent weeks, shying away from the blitz-happy Martindale approach in favor of a more conservative style to help mask their talent deficiencies in the secondary. It’s worked for them, too. Despite giving up 31 points to the Miami Dolphins, the Giants' defense forced turnovers and took away primary options in the passing game.

The plan should be the same when defending against Howell and the Commanders. Howell’s shown a tendency this season to spend far too much time sitting in the pocket and waiting for receivers to get open.

Drop seven into coverage and allow Howell to make the mistakes he’s made this season. Look to the Bills game for the blueprint - crowd receivers in coverage and trust your four-man rush to do their job against a mediocre offensive line.

With the zone-blocking offense, the key to disrupting is having individual defenders handle two-gap duties. Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams should be able to do that and cause issues for the Commanders offensive line.

The next part is where it’s difficult to gameplan around. Brian Robinson has about 75% of his yards coming after defenders make initial contact with him.

It’s more important in this game than any other this season for the defense to fly to the ball and make gang tackles to stifle the rushing attack. Ideally, individuals can finish the tackle on their own while minimizing forward progress, but with how Robinson keeps his legs churning, teamwork makes the dream work.

Final Thoughts

This week should be one of the easier matchups the Giants defense will face over the past month. It won’t necessarily be easy, but the personnel is talented enough for the Giants to have a big game defensively.