Did Washington Draft a Replacement for Jeremy Chinn?

Who steps up at safety this year?

Your response to the headline might be to point out that Washington did not select a safety in this year’s draft. You would be correct. Nick Emmanwori, a plug and play replacement for Chinn was available in the first round, but Peters opted for the highly athletic Oregon tackle prospect Josh Conerly Jr. instead. The scenario would be repeated in the second when the value of Trey Amos overrode the availability of Andrew Mukuba. Ultimately, a safety prospect never aligned with their board and the front office eschewed drafting one altogether.

Your next assumption might be that the article is about Kain Medrano, the 6th-round linebacker that projects as a safety/linebacker hybrid at the next level. Defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr called him a “unique” player during OTAs , saying the team was testing him for some of Jeremy’s old roles. While Medrano may develop into the Chinn’s replacement at some point in his time in D.C., this article is about a different player.

To determine the identity of our mystery man, it might be helpful to review what Chinn brought to the table last year. The former second round pick owns a perfect 10.00 RAS score and tips the scales at 220 pounds.

Chinn was at his best last season as an instinctive safety, reading and reacting to plays in front of him. He graded out well versus the run and tied for seventh among safeties with 26 run stops, struggling somewhat in coverage, giving up 28 receptions for 354 yards, five touchdowns on 43 targets for a 119.7 passer rating. Despite this, Whitt loved utilizing Chinn’s versatility to implement his scheme. Next Gen Stats listed the safety’s snaps by alignment in 2024 as follows:

Despite a solid season, the front office did not retain his services, and he inked a reasonable 2-year, $16.258 million dollar deal with the Las Vegas Raiders. Clearly the front office had a plan for replacing his snaps this upcoming season. So what is it? In my opinion, the answer is a player they drafted…last year. Dominique Hampton.

Since Hampton was inactive for all but one game last season, a brief refresher on the fifth-rounder might be in order. A height, weight, speed prospect, his 9.57 RAS score is very comparable to Chinn’s.

Hampton is also blessed with an enormous wingspan (6’7”), big hands, and a long frame. One of his MockDraftable comps is Deone Bucannon. Along with plus measurables, Hampton’s other calling card was versatility and a high football IQ. Below are his snaps by alignment as listed by PFF for his last three seasons at the University of Washington.

If you compare Chinn’s 2024 snaps with Hampton’s 2023 chart you will note the distribution similarity. Lance Zierlein profiled Hampton as more comfortable operating in a read-and-react safety role and The Draft Network listed low-hole SS as one of his strengths. On paper he would seem be an ideal replacement for Chinn. However, you might question the fit seeing how Dominique Hampton was moved to linebacker last year.

My response would be that the term linebacker is simply an issue of semantics in Dan Quinn’s defense. We will use one of his former players, Markquese Bell, as a reference point. Bell was a 6’3”, 205 pound undrafted safety pressed into more of an in the box role for the Cowboys defense after a season-ending injury to DeMarvion Overshown. After he excelled as an undersized linebacker, Joe Whitt was quoted as follows in a CBS Sports article in 2023.

Well, one thing talking about Bell and just our defense in general is, I think the NFL is going to trend this way, positionless defense,” Whitt Jr said. “He’s a good football player. We want as many good football players as possible. You can see he is a linebacker, but when we play our Dino package, what is [safety Jayron Kearse] JK? He is a linebacker. But then we can go into our Hippo package and what is Yeh [safety Juanyeh Thomas] in our hippo package? He is a corner. So, it doesn’t really matter. We’re going to put as many good football players on the football field and allow them to show their skill set, so we don’t limit it by position. By position is he [Bell] a linebacker now? Yes, but he is playing some of the same roles that he played when he was the safety in our Dino package. That helped him get into that role as a linebacker. The only difference now is he has to set the front [take Kearse’s call and relay it to the defensive line]. He has to do some front things that he didn’t have to do when he was playing the Dino position.

Elephant, Star, Leo, Buffalo Nickel, Hippo, Dino. The names change but the overarching point is Quinn’s defense does not limit roles based on position name. In his press conference last week, Whitt also mentioned their desire to use more three-linebacker sets in the upcoming season. While I still expect Washington to run a good amount of 4-2-5, any increase in 4-3 sets would mean more snaps for in the box players. Hampton is reportedly tipping the scales around 230 pounds this season, after weighing in at 215 at the NFL Combine.

If Hampton is so great, why was he almost entirely inactive last season? The answer comes from looking at the players that were active. Jeremy Chinn played all 17 regular season games for the first time in his career, frequently playing every defensive down. Percy Butler logged most of his snaps at free safety and also played in all 17 regular season games. Quan Martin did miss the final week of the season. Hampton was active that week, but Butler saw increased snaps in Martin’s absence, with Darrick Forrest taking the remainder. All told, the top three safeties played every game except one, including the postseason. Luvu and Wagner also played in every game. There simply weren’t very many opportunities for snaps with the veterans healthy and playing well. This explains his lack of defensive reps, but what about special teams?

This is a little harder to reconcile, as Tyler Owens was frequently active over Dominique Hampton during the season. In a recent podcast, Logan Paulsen and Craig Hoffman addressed this question. Hoffman hypothesized that since Hampton was learning a new position, the coaching staff might try to limit how much they put on his plate. Paulsen’s theory was there is a different mentality required for special teams, which is certainly true. Using himself as an example, the former tight end explained that you could be a good player, but not necessarily a great special teamer. With all due respect to Logan, I don’t agree with this theory. Hampton was known as a hard-hitting, tough player in college and was named the team’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player in 2021. Adam Peters specifically mentioned his special team’s ability when they drafted him last year. Hampton has the mentality. To me, it’s a simple matter of Owens’ 4.3 speed being a bigger asset on special teams, although I do agree that Owens’ physical mentality is a perfect fit for teams. So, we have identified that Hampton has the skillset and resolved his inactive status last year. What about his competition for the job?

Will Harris has been advertised as a replacement for Chinn by some media outlets and he certainly has the versatility piece covered:

Harris also has the necessary athleticism with a 9.65 RAS and 4.4 speed. The one aspect he’s lacking is size. The veteran safety weighs 207 pounds. While he certainly isn’t a liability against the run, he lacks the bulk necessary to shed blockers and hold up over the course of a full season in the box. With his coverage ability, he profiles better as a traditional safety behind a three-linebacker set.

Tyler Owens is probably the most legitimate threat to Hampton for Jeremy Chinn’s former role. The undrafted safety brings size with elite speed and athleticism. He is also very inexperienced. Owens only made 12 career starts in college with fewer than 1,000 defensive snaps. In the previously mentioned podcast, Paulsen suggested that despite fan excitement, Owens might not play safety this year for Washington. Conversely, Hampton was the most utilized player in the history of the University of Washington. Hampton also had the production to go along with his snaps, totaling 190 tackles, 1 TFL, 2 INTS, and 14 pass deflections.

Finally, we get to Kain Medrano, the 6th-round linebacker/safety hybrid selected in this year’s draft. In his presser, Joe Whitt said they were testing the rookie to see if he could take on some of Jeremy’s roles. That would imply Medrano may be given the opportunity to win the job, but he possesses both flaws of the two previous candidates. Although Kain is currently listed at 222 pounds, he has a wiry build and needs to add both size and strength. A converted wide receiver with two years of starting experience at the college level, the 6th-rounder is also raw and needs to work on technique, especially tackling.

The take away is Dominique Hampton is in the driver’s seat for an increased role following Chinn’s departure. If he continues to work and develop this off season, he should have a legitimate shot to earn more playing time. Magee may still fill in on early downs and Harris in the deep middle, but that leaves Hampton plenty of opportunities to carve out a significant role. If the team’s goal is to get better against the run this season, imagine the player below with another fifteen pounds of muscle patrolling the middle of the field.