Mitchell Tischler wasn’t beating around the bush Thursday.
As a guest on Grant & Danny on 106.7 The Fan, Tischler, the operations manager at Monumental Sports, discussed what he is tired of hearing about the Washington Commanders’ defense. Former Commanders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. said poor communication seemed to come up in nearly every week. But after hearing that throughout 2024 and 2025, we began to realize it is a familiar refrain that apparently doesn’t improve.
“Well, I will say about the communication thing, to me it is more of a convenient out for a coach to use. Because at that point, you’re not directly calling out a player. You’re not condemning your scheme. It’s something you can say, and it’s a little nebulous as to what
it means."
Jalen Hurts recognizes man, motions Wicks across the formation isolating him on Mikey Sainristil and that’s all she wrote pic.twitter.com/2l2f8cd8Pw
— Mitchell Tischler (@Mitch_Tischler) September 13, 2026
New Washington defensive coordinator Daronte Jones mentioned communication issues on Thursday as a reason for some of the defensive struggles.
I think it starts with the communication, obviously, and looking at the communication and why there breakdowns in the communication,” Jones said. “Obviously, looking at, okay, what do we have in? How do we limit that? Let’s take some of those things off our guys’ plates, so that they can just line up and play fast. But regardless of what you have in little or a lot, the emphasis on the communication has to be there.”
Tischler’s comment brought to mind how often we heard that familiar refrain, and he is right; it didn’t really communicate much. It did, however, communicate that the Commanders’ secondary and linebackers were repeatedly beaten in pass coverage.
“Ultimately, I think the talent in the secondary is not good enough. There comes a point where it’s Jimmy’s and Joe’s, not Xs and Os. We’re now multiple years into Dan Quinn’s system. Multiple years with bad kind of defensive back play, where things haven’t improved. Ultimately, at some point, if you had guys who were good enough to be beyond serviceable NFL players, they would go out and make a big play here and there. They would go out and force a turnover.”
Tischler wasn’t being overly critical; he wasn’t being mean-spirited. He was expressing the obvious, and he was correct.
Fans would agree. Everyone is tired of blaming communication problems when, in fact, it’s more than that.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Commanders' communication problems is an excuse for bad defensive play
