Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NFL. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Commanders fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
Commanders Roster Update
On Monday, we got the news via NFL insiders (no official announcement yet from the Commanders) that veteran CB Rasul Douglas has agreed to terms with Washington on a 1-year deal for 2026.
In some ways, as a 30-yr-old player, Douglas runs slightly counter to the ‘younger, faster’
mantra of the 2026 offseason, but in July, he is typical of the types of veteran players available. He certainly does fit the bill of a capable cornerback to help improve both the floor and potential of the Washington secondary, as well as adding needed depth for a long NFL season in which injuries are inevitable. There are arguments to be made about whether he is still an NFL starter, but I’ll point out here that, according to Pro Football Reference, he hasn’t played less than 680 defensive snaps in a season since 2019, and he’s played at least 830 defensive snaps in each of the past 4 years.
Putting the secondary puzzle together
I think it is pretty much universally agreed that, assuming he is healthy, Trey Amos will be one of the starting outside cornerbacks, if for no other reason than he is last year’s 2nd round pick and he is not a slot corner.
Looking at the rest of the secondary players, it becomes something of a puzzle to figure out the primary starter and primary backup at the other cornerback positions — a task made more difficult by the mysteries of the not-yet-seen Daronte Jones defensive scheme that is expected to make substantial use of 3-safety looks.
The survey question
So, I decided to put it to a vote. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out which cornerback, outside of Trey Amos, will get the most defensive snaps in 2026.
To help you out, I’ve put together this handy chart for each cornerback listed in our survey; it shows the snap distribution for cornerback alignments (slot and wide) in 2025 and for each guy’s career as a whole. To keep things simple, these numbers ignore any snaps, for example, where the player was aligned on the DL or as a safety, which are basically just clutter.
Added details
You’ll see immediately that the only reason to include Darius Rush in this survey is to find out if you were paying attention.
After that, you’ll notice that the two players drafted in 2017 — Ahkello Witherspoon and Rasul Douglas — are predominately outside cornerbacks who seldom (perhaps rarely) play in the slot.
Notes on Rasul Douglas and 2022
The only reason that Douglas is below 96% of snaps played wide in his career is because of his 2022 season in Green Bay.
In 2022, the Packers secondary boasted 3 elite CB talents: Jaire Alexander, Eric Stokes, and Rasul Douglas. Because the first two were traditional, high-investment perimeter cornerbacks, DC Joe Barry chose to move Douglas inside to the nickel/slot role to get all 3 players on the field together during sub-packages.
Over the first 8 weeks of the ‘22 season, Douglas was utilized primarily inside, logging 189 snaps in the slot compared to just 154 on the outside.
In Week 9 against the Detroit Lions, Eric Stokes suffered a season-ending ankle/knee injury, which forced the Packers to scrap the experiment entirely. Douglas was moved back to his natural outside alignment full-time for the remainder of the season.
So, while some people see Douglas as an inside/outside option, he is really more of a perimeter corner.
I’ll leave it to you to sort out where you think Mikey Sainristil should be utilized, but I’ll include this summary of Amik Robertson’s usage as a final bit of data for you to ponder before answering our poll question.
Comments & Results
Of course, we invite you to answer the survey question below, but also feel free to expand on your answer and provide nuance in the comments section. While you are certainly free to simply share which choice you made on the survey question, the most interesting comments will explain why you answered the way you did. I rely on those comments when discussing the results of the survey when they are posted in a separate article the next few days.
