Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NFL. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Washington Commanders fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
Today, we have three simple yes/no questions to answer.
Question 1
The first is our standard question that is posed every week of the season (until December, anyway), asking about your confidence in the team’s direction.
Questions 2 & 3
There has been a lot of criticism of Washington’s defensive
play — especially at the 2nd & 3rd levels of the defense.
Future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner, it has been said by some, has lost too many steps. He is a liability in coverage and simply can’t keep up with speedy running backs on the edges. While his instincts keep him performing well in the middle of the field, and his tackle stats are impressive, too many tackles on completed passes or edge runs are made too far downfield to be counted as positive plays for the defense. On the other hand, he wears the green dot and both head coach Dan Quinn and defensive coordinator Joe Whitt regularly praise him for his role as a ‘coach on the field’. That said, the defense is clearly not functioning as intended.
At cornerback, aside from the rookie, Trey Amos, no one in the group has covered himself in much glory this season. Mike Sainristil, Marshon Lattimore and Noah Igbinoghene have all struggled to prevent completions and the group has drawn too many key penalty flags.
The conversation has progressed from fans grumbling among themselves about the play of the defense to open calls by bloggers and radio hosts for Joe Whitt’s job to be in danger and for certain starters to be replaced:
The defense has allowed the same explosive plays all season, and no adjustments have been made. Lattimore should be benched with Jonathan Jones back from his injury, and an honest conversation needs to be had about defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr.
A number of fans have made the argument that older players on the roster need to take a seat, making way for younger or better players. For example, there have been repeated calls for 2nd-year linebacker Jordan Magee to get more playing time. Some fans think that having a younger, faster player on the field will lead to more wins this season.
Others argue that the roster is too weak for personnel changes to add wins in what is already a lost season (since the defense seems incapable of playing well enough to win games against quality opponents). Still, these fans argue that, while younger players may not help the currently overmatched defense win more games, those younger players, who represent the future, will benefit enormously from the experience of playing. This argument is used to bolster the idea that, if any starting cornerback should be benched, it should be the older player with the big contract — Marshon Lattimore — and not the young developing player, Mikey Sainristil.
John Keim says that Joe Whitt will not be fired mid-season and that Marshon Lattimore’s starting position is also safe:
The coaches have made substantial changes on the offensive side of the ball by benching Brandon Coleman and moving from Nick Allegretti to Andrew Wylie at RG, and then to Sam Cosmi when he returned from injury this past week. At running back, the initial running back by committee approach has given way to more touches given to rookie Bill Croskey-Merritt at the expense of Chris Rodriguez and Jeremy McNichols.
It’s been a different story on defense; while a number of changes have been forced by injuries, Joe Whitt has largely stuck by healthy starters. If that approach was working, fans would probably accept it, letting results speak for themselves. But results have not been good. There have been coverage issues, poor gap discipline in run defense, atrocious tackling, and a failure to produce turnovers at even a league-average rate.
So, in today’s 2nd & 3rd questions, we ask if Bobby Wagner should be benched in favor of Jordan Magee, and — now that Jonathan Jones has returned from injury to provide the required depth and flexibility — whether Marshon Lattimore should be benched, resulting in a different look among the starting cornerbacks.
Comments & Results
Of course, we invite you to answer the survey questions below, but also feel free to expand on your answers and provide nuance in the comments section. I rely on those comments when discussing the results of the survey when they are posted in a separate article the next few days.
