It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…
The 5 o’clock club is published from time to time during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.
CLICK HERE to see the full 5 o’clock club archive
Last year, Washington went through the season with either 5 or 6 defensive ends. I spot-checked the Cowboys for 2022 & 2023; what I found was that Dallas rostered 5 DEs in ‘22 (with Micah Parsons listed on Our Lads as a LB) and 6 DEs in ‘23 (with Micah Parsons listed as a DE).
On that basis, I’m going to project that Dan Quinn will keep either 5 or 6 DEs on the roster in 2024. We heard Quinn, during his press conference on Wednesday, talking about Jamin Davis working on pass rushing skills. If that experimentation is successful, then I think it’s a fair bet that we see Davis as the “6th DE”, regardless of where he gets listed on anyone’s depth chart.
It’s early-June, and we don’t know if Jamin Davis will be able to step up as a pass rusher or not, but for the sake of today’s discussion, I’m going to assume that he ends up being a good enough pass rusher that the team keeps 5 true DEs rather than 6.
Of the 5 available spots, I think we can agree that the three free agents signed this offseason — Dorance Armstrong, Clelin Ferrell and Dante Fowler — are roster locks.
That would leave two positions to be filled, and I think we have 4 legitimate contenders for those two roster spots:
Efe Obada
Last season was a tough one for Efe Obada. He opened up the season on IR, missing the first 5 games. Between Weeks 6 and 11, he was active for 5 games. In the last of these, a home game against the Giants, he was carted off the field at the end of the game’s opening drive having suffered multiple lower leg fractures. His season was over with Obada having played just 98 snaps, and logging just two tackles.
Efe Obada is a success story for the NFL’s International Player Pathway program, spending his first NFL season (2017) on the Carolina Panthers practice squad. He then spent 3 seasons (2018-2020) on the Panthers’ regular roster, with his snap counts rising year-by-year. In three seasons with three different teams, Obada consistently saw the field for more than a third of the defensive snaps as a rotational defensive end:
- 2020 Carolina – 39% of defensive snaps
- 2021 Buffalo – 35% of defensive snaps
- 2022 Washington – 37% of defensive snaps
Obada is a good veteran player who is back for his 3rd season in burgundy & gold. He is one of only 4 free agents (out of a total of 36) that Adam Peters and Dan Quinn re-signed from Ron Rivera’s 2023 roster (the others are Cornelius Lucas, Jeremy Reaves and Jamison Crowder), which indicates that they’ve seen something in his game that they like.
Obada is a 32-year-old 6-year veteran coming off of late-November surgery. He’s got a great story and he’s played well for the Commanders in the past, but it’s fair to wonder how healthy he is and how much he has left in the tank.
KJ Henry
KJ Henry was drafted by the Commanders out of Clemson in the 5th round of last year’s draft. He was inactive for the first 8 weeks of his rookie season, but following the trades of Montez Sweat and Chase Young followed by the injury to Efe Obada, Henry became an increasingly integral part of Washington’s defense in its final 9 games.
| Tackles | Def Interceptions | Off. Snaps | Def. Snaps | ST Snaps | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Date | G# | Week | Age | Tm | Opp | Result | GS | Sk | Solo | Ast | Comb | TFL | QBHits | Int | Yds | TD | PD | Num | Pct | Num | Pct | Num | Pct | Status | |
| 1 | 2023-09-10 | 1 | 1 | 24.226 | WAS | ARI | W 20-16 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 13 | 46% | |||||||||||||
| 2 | 2023-09-17 | 2 | 2 | WAS | @ | DEN | W 35-33 | Inactive | ||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | 2023-09-24 | 3 | 3 | WAS | BUF | L 3-37 | Inactive | |||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | 2023-10-01 | 4 | 4 | WAS | @ | PHI | L 31-34 | Inactive | ||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | 2023-10-05 | 5 | 5 | WAS | CHI | L 20-40 | Inactive | |||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | 2023-10-15 | 6 | 6 | WAS | @ | ATL | W 24-16 | Inactive | ||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | 2023-10-22 | 7 | 7 | WAS | @ | NYG | L 7-14 | Inactive | ||||||||||||||||||
| 8 | 2023-10-29 | 8 | 8 | WAS | PHI | L 31-38 | Inactive | |||||||||||||||||||
| 9 | 2023-11-05 | 9 | 9 | 24.282 | WAS | @ | NWE | W 20-17 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 9 | 14% | 3 | 11% | ||
| 10 | 2023-11-12 | 10 | 10 | 24.289 | WAS | @ | SEA | L 26-29 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 12 | 15% | 13 | 37% | ||
| 11 | 2023-11-19 | 11 | 11 | 24.296 | WAS | NYG | L 19-31 | 1.5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0% | 37 | 67% | 5 | 17% | |||
| 12 | 2023-11-23 | 12 | 12 | 24.300 | WAS | @ | DAL | L 10-45 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 31 | 57% | 6 | 24% | ||
| 13 | 2023-12-03 | 13 | 13 | 24.310 | WAS | MIA | L 15-45 | * | 0.0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 30 | 49% | 7 | 25% | ||
| 14 | 2023-12-17 | 14 | 15 | 24.324 | WAS | @ | LAR | L 20-28 | * | 0.0 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 42 | 56% | 5 | 19% | |
| 15 | 2023-12-24 | 15 | 16 | 24.331 | WAS | @ | NYJ | L 28-30 | 0.0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 39 | 43% | 6 | 17% | ||
| 16 | 2023-12-31 | 16 | 17 | 24.338 | WAS | SFO | L 10-27 | 0.0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 34 | 49% | 5 | 24% | |||
| 17 | 2024-01-07 | 17 | 18 | 24.345 | WAS | DAL | L 10-38 | * | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 48 | 67% | 15 | 68% | ||
| 10 Games | 2-8-0 | 1.5 | 14 | 5 | 19 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||||||||||||||
As you can see, from Week 11 to Week 18, Henry started three games and played between 43% and 67% of the defensive snaps, finishing the season having played 41% of the defensive snaps for which he was active and available.
Arguably, his best performance may have been in Week 11 against the Giants when Efe Obada was injured on the opening drive. Henry finished that game with 4 tackles, 2 passes defended and 2 sacks in 37 defensive snaps. His other standout game came in Week 14 on the road against the Rams, when he had 4 solo tackles (5 total tackles; 1 tackle for loss) in 42 snaps.
A 5-year college player, Henry is a 25-year-old 2nd-year player who appears to be on the rise as a rotational defensive end. At 6’4” and 254 pounds, he is a fast and explosive player with a promising NFL future.
Javontae Jean-Baptiste
Jean-Baptiste is a rookie who was drafted 222nd overall in April’s draft after a 5-year college career with 4 seasons at Ohio State followed by a 5th-year at Notre Dame. Like many of Washington’s 2024 draft selections, Jean-Baptiste has a lot of athleticism.
Javontae Jean-Baptiste was drafted in round 7 pick 222 in the 2024 draft class. He scored a 9.22 #RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 142 out of 1798 DE from 1987 to 2024. https://t.co/W6Wmuy2VAj pic.twitter.com/5FpKgSimZE
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 27, 2024
With no NFL experience to rely on here, let me just quote from Hogs Haven’s pre-draft profile on the player:
Jean-Baptiste played 45 games for the Buckeyes but never lived up to the play of the Bosa brothers or Chase Young. After 2022, Jean-Baptiste transferred to Notre Dame for his last year of eligibility. The decision paid off as Jean-Baptiste as he put up his best statistical season, putting himself in the best position possible to be drafted.
Physically, the only thing that looks like a concern for Javontae is his weight; at 238 pounds, he is light for a defensive end, but it’s easy to imagine that some time in an NFL strength and conditioning program could help him bulk up.
Andre Jones Jr.
Andre Jones was picked with the 233rd pick in last year’s draft, 2 rounds after the Commanders picked KJ Henry.
Although Jones was active for 14 games last year, he got on the field for only 2 snaps prior to the trades for Sweat & Young. After the trade, Jones saw the field much more, playing about 21% of the snaps in Weeks 9 & 10 (before the Obada injury), rising to nearly 50% of the defensive snaps from Week 11 to Week 14. He was inactive for 2 of the final 3 games, and did not register and defensive statistics in the one game for which he was active, despite playing 15 snaps.
Andre Jones Jr. was drafted with pick 233 of round 7 in the 2023 draft class. He does not qualify for a #RAS due to a lack of measurements. https://t.co/AKPO1EY8g9 pic.twitter.com/tFJCO5Ok6N
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 29, 2023
Jones, with a 6-year college career, will be a 26-year-old 2nd-year player in 2024. On 250 defensive snaps in his rookie season, Jones tallied 4 tackles and 3 passes defended; the passes defended came against three different teams (Patriots, Seahawks and Rams).
Andre Jones Jr. may well find himself as the odd man out when it comes time to set the 53-man roster. He seems to be behind the other DE from his draft class, KJ Henry. There’s a chance that the coaching staff would prefer to hold onto a 26-year-old player with potential instead of a 32-year-old Efe Obada coming off of an injury-plagued season, but even then, Jones would find himself — a Ron Rivera 7th round draft pick — competing with Javontae Jean-Baptiste, a 7th-rounder selected by Adam Peters and Dan Quinn.