Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar writes about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, we focus on Washington Commanders defensive lineman Jer’Zhan {Johnny) Newton, who seems to finally be living up to his potential for a franchise that could use every bit of good news it can get right now.
The 2025 season is not something that anybody involved with the Washington Commanders wanted —
or expected. A year after Jayden Daniels enjoyed perhaps the greatest rookie season any quarterback has ever had, and the Dan Quinn-led team made it all the way to the NFC Championship game, the Commanders fell back to earth with a 4-12 record that looks far too much like the 4-13 mark the franchise put up in 2023, before Quinn and Daniels mercifully arrived.
The reasons are the reasons — injuries (especially to Daniels), coaching and personnel issues (especially on defense), and a general malaise that did not in any way infect the building the year before — and now, it’s all about looking forward to 2026.
One thing the Commanders will need in 2026 is an improved pass rush. This season, Von Miller leads the team with nine sacks, Jacob Martin leads the team with 41 total pressures, and outside of those two gentlemen, no other Commanders defender has more than 30 quarterback disruptions — that’s Javon Kinlaw with 30 on the nose, and no sacks to speak of.
One guy who was supposed to lead the pack, at least on the interior, was second-year man Jer’Zhan Newton, the 2024 second-round pick from Illinois. I tend to have a bias towards smaller interior defensive linemen who can wreak havoc with the “low man wins” philosophy — this goes from John Randle to Geno Atkins to Grady Jarrett to Aaron Donald — and when I watched the 6’2, 295-pound Newton’s college tape, I thought he was the next in line. I assumed that the Commanders committed outright theft when they were able to pick Newton with the 36th overall pick in the second round.
But outside of a few flashes, Newton hadn’t lived up to that positive potential in the NFL. Injuries and the transition to the pros put an unexpected ceiling on his profile, and through Washington’s Christmas Day game against the Dallas Cowboys, he had amassed just two sacks and 19 total pressures in his second season, after putting up two sacks and 23 total pressures in his first.
There are those who will tell you that pass-rushers generally need a full season or more to adapt to the NFL and its better blockers and more advanced protection schemes. Only those in that aforementioned building could tell you why it’s taken as long as it has for the light to come on for Newton, but it most definitely did against Dallas in the Commanders’ 30-23 loss. Newton absolutely went off before a national television audience, with four sacks and six total pressures in 27 pass-rushing snaps. Basically, everybody in the middle or on the right side of the Cowboys’ offensive line was in for a very, very long day.
Whether he had his shoulders square or in a tilted alignment, one-tech or three-tech, in one-on-ones or against double teams, Newton was out for blood, and it showed up over and over on the tape. This was the Jer’Zhan Newton I thought I’d see in the NFL.
Quinn was asked about the difference now following the Cowboys game, and his response was both highly detailed and extremely interesting.
“I think the disruption, the quickness, so those are the skills that he has,” Quinn said when asked about his increased confidence in the second-year man. “And so, to hear him put all the pieces together, anticipation of plays, how to go execute it to go, I felt that. And some of that’s instinctual to go, ‘It’s pass, it’s a run, where can I go?‘ It does take some time to learn that. And when you do as a ballplayer, the game slows down because now you can anticipate a little better. I know the defensive call, I got that. Now how can I apply my skills into this call?
“What you don’t want, we had some of this early in the year, ‘I’ll go make a play, I’ll go overtry on one.’ And that’s part of instincts, knowing when and when not to. Much like a quarterback, ‘Can I fit this one in or can’t I?” on a tight throw. It’s no different at other positions. ‘Do I go take my shot to run through? Can I notice to pass, to hit a move?’ So, to see those instincts come through and it can slow down.
“You’re so ready to get going to go get another possession, and so to finish with under 45 plays, you don’t get enough cracks at that. And so, those are significant changes in it, double the amount of plays. And so, yeah, it does have an effect, not an effect of morale or that, just not enough cracks at bat. And so, I think it’s definitely a factor in the game but not in the emotional pull. It’s more if you’re on the offensive or defensive side that’s either converting, not converting, those are a bigger pull or factor, I think.”
The Cowboys game marked the first time since Week 18 of the 2024 season that Newton had more than 20 pass-rushing snaps in a game, so that’s obviously a thing now.
“Yeah, always happy for opportunity,” Newton said after the game. “I was talking to [WR Robbie] Chosen, and he was like, just always be grateful of every opportunity that you get, even in a meeting. So, I feel like that stuck with me since last night. I got a brother who would kill to be in this position. So that stuck with me all day. And I was like—since the morning—I was like, ‘Man, I just got to go in there and ball out, because I know my brother would do the same if he had the opportunity.’”
Newton has four brothers: Jervon, Jerquan, Jerjuan, and Jershaun. Jerjuan Newton played receiver for the Toledo Rockets from 2019 through 2024, totaling 206 catches on 324 targets for 2,901 yards and 32 touchdowns. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Denver Broncos in 2025, but didn’t make final cuts.
No matter the reason for Newton’s advancement, the Commanders obviously hope it will stick and stay in 2026 and beyond. The franchise has enough to address; having the boss three-tech Newton can be would check one very important item off the list.
