Scheme, personnel and preparation will lead to more turnovers, a stouter run defense, and better ability to close out games.
On Wednesday, Joe Whitt talked to reporters, and I found several of his comments about this season’s defensive goals and specific players to be highly intriguing.
Let’s look at some of his specific comments.
2025 defensive goals
Last season:
· We didn’t produce the ball like I wanted to — the reason being we dropped 16 of them, literally just balls that touched our hands that we felt that should have been caught. If we catch half of those, that puts us in a different ring.
· We didn’t play the run well enough, and I thought that we would have.
· Third, [we didn’t] close games out… the way that I was anticipating.
And so, when we get into the offseason, we look at it in three different things:
1. Was it schematics?
2. Was it the player? or
3. Sometimes, did we just get beat?
And so, the turnovers we’re going to emphasize because we just have to catch the ball. Some of the things we’re doing with the front for the run game we have changed and some we have adjusted. And then winning time moments in two-minute — we’re going [to compete] every day to get those things better.
Much of what he said in the rest of the press conference provided insight into how the Commanders plan to stop the run, produce more turnovers, and close games out defensively by adjusting scheme, personnel and preparation.
Javon Kinlaw
He’s a uniquely big man that can bend and play with some power and speed. We will have the ability to move him up and down the line of scrimmage. So, we can put him wherever we want to because he has that type of skill set. He’ll be difficult for tight ends to block if we put him in the six technique, or, if we kick him inside, he has the length that’s going to be difficult for guards to deal with as well. So, he’s an intriguing young man to work with.
This seems to confirm that Kinlaw will be used the way the Jets used him in 2024 – at times playing the DT spot in a 4-3 defense, but at other times, lined up on the outside shoulder of the tackle on the strong side (where the tight end is aligned).
With the Jets in 2024, per PFF, Kinlaw played 316 snaps at left tackle and 299 snaps at left end. This contrasts with his alignment pattern with the 49ers. With SF in 2023, Kinlaw lined up as a DT on 418 snaps, but played DE on only 116 snaps.
In 17 games with the Niners in ’23, Kinlaw produced 25 tackles and 3.5 sacks. In 17 games with the Jets in ’24, his production jumped to 40 tackles and 4.5 sacks. On a per-snap basis, he produced 9.3% more tackles in 2024 than he had in 2023 and his run defense grade from PFF jumped from 35.6 in ’23 to 50.8 in ’24. He earned healthy pass rush grades from PFF in both years (71.9 and 68.2).
The addition of Kinlaw to the roster seems to be part of a deliberate plan to use him as an inside/outside defensive lineman who can operate in diverse schematic alignments without the need for constant substitutions.
Getting big
With [Detrich] Wise, [Javon] Kinlaw, [and] Eddie [Goldman], we’ll be bigger on first and second down and we’ll be bigger versus 12 personnel [or] 13. When people want to get big, we’ll be able to get real big with them and be able to shore up some of the gaps on the front end. So, now the backers can play more free and the guys behind them can overlap.
Through scheme and personnel, the Commanders expect to improve their run defense in 2025. Kinlaw offers a quick big man who can play inside or as a strong side edge defender. Players like Wise and Goldman allow them to add quickness and size when needed.
Jodan Magee and Kain Medrano
We want to have some three linebacker defenses [so] that we can get a little bit bigger versus 12 and not play as much nickel to shore up…the run [defense].
[Magee] has been showing great call command. Linebackers control the huddle and control the defense, and he’s learning from Bobby [Wagner] and [the coaches] how to do that.
Kain is a unique kid because of his receiver background.
Is he a linebacker really?
Is he a safety?
Can he do some of the Jeremy Chin roles? Can he do some of the Frankie Luvu roles?
And so, we’re really testing the kid right now to see, alright, what is he going to be? And we’ll really tell a little bit more once we put the pads on.
He can really run. Does he have the ability to cover a tight end? Does he have the ability to beat a tackle in the rush? So, is he Frankie or is he Jeremy or is he across of both? And that’s what I’m trying to find out with him.
The Commanders typically played with just two linebackers on the field in 2024. It sounds like the plan is to deploy traditional 4-3 alignments more often this season (with less nickel) to beef up run support. This could expose the team’s passing defense unless the SAM linebacker has good coverage skills. This may shed light on why Kain Medrano was drafted in the 6th round.
Medrano is considered good in pass coverage. He is known for his athletic ability and coverage skills, particularly his ability to stay with slot receivers and tight ends, and he can play both man and zone coverage. Whitt mentioned Medrano’s background as a receiver, indicating to me that he’s hoping that having Medrano on the feild will translate into more caught interceptions.
Joe Whitt seems to think Medrano may have an even bigger tool kit. If he does, it should allow Whitt to use him as a versatile chess piece enabling the defense to scheme up challenging mismatches for opposing offenses by having Kain work as both a pass defender and a pass rusher.
Last season, Luvu was able to wreak havoc against QBs off the weakside edge; it’s possible that Medrano can do the same, allowing the coaches to use scheme and personnel to improve the pass rush, helping produce more turnovers and close out games more effectively.
Magee, meanwhile, seems to be in the coaches plans with “a package” that will get him on the field while he is in training to take over for Bobby Wagner at some point in the future.
Quan Martin
This time last year I sat Quan down. I was like, ‘Put him with the two’s.” The reason I wanted to put him with the two’s is [that] he was making mistakes that we can’t afford to make. And then, the next three practices, [it] was boom, boom, boom. He’s back in there with the ones and then he caught the ball — I don’t know if y’all saw that one — but he caught the ball from his back. And now, he’s taking a leadership role of communicating at a very high level, which he wasn’t doing at the beginning.
In my mind, Whitt is speaking to several things here. First of all, he is talking about coaching players and teaching them to excel – one of the key themes of the press conference: preparation. This is a story of Martin’s growth as a player and as a leader.
Joe Whitt is also talking about generating more interceptions and performing in ‘winning time moments’. But the overall picture that this paints is consistent with his comments about Jordan Magee: the coaching staff is constantly working to develop the next generation of team leaders.
Bottom line
Joe Whitt’s comments make it clear that the Commanders coaching staff took a deliberate approach to evaluating the team’s 2024 defensive performance, identifying the major weaknesses, and developing a systematic approach for improvement.
That approach involves using schematic adaptations, personnel adjustments, and focused coaching to take the next step.
The coaches seem to have a clear idea of how they want to use personnel, scheme and coaching to improve, despite the concerns of many fans that the front office didn’t do enough in free agency and the draft to help the coaches out.
As always, it will be interesting to see whether Adam Peters, Dan Quinn and Joe Whitt have developed the right formula.