Commanders' Daron Payne Reveals Goal for Season

The Washington Commanders defense is looking to take over and dominate games this season.

For all of the questions surrounding the Washington Commanders' offense, the same can't be said about their defense.

Washington's defense often kept a floundering offense afloat in games where they struggled to produce last season. One of the leaders for the Commanders defense, defensive tackle Daron Payne, is coming off the best year of his career and has even higher expectations for the unit heading into this season.

"I want to go out there and take over games," Payne said. "I want us to be the most dominant group on the field every game. We've got the capability to do that...We've got all the pieces we need to take over games, dominate and lead the team."

The Commanders defense was 12th in sacks with 43 in 2022 and seventh in points allowed, allowing an average of 20.2 points per game. 

In a contract year, Payne was at his best, posting career-highs in sacks (11.5), tackles (64), tackles-for-loss (18) and quarterback hits (20). His play led to his first Pro Bowl appearance and a four-year $90 million deal this offseason. 

Payne's teammate, defensive end Montez Sweat, is also coming off one of the best years of his career with eight sacks and a career best 14 tackles for loss along with 28 quarterback hits. His play may also see a boost with the return of a healthy Chase Young. 

Another potential piece for an already deep Commanders defensive line is former 2022 second round pick, defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis. Mathis tore his meniscus in Washington's season-opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars and missed the rest of the season. 

Now having fully recovered from the injury, Mathis has been seeing the field when Washington puts five defensive lineman on the field and has been picking Payne's brain at training camp. 

"He's really explosive," Payne said of Mathis. "He's always coming up to me asking for advice and things that he can do. I'm excited for him...I feel like he's going to be good for us, he's going to be a good rotation guy and he's going to make a lot of plays."

With an already strong defensive line, Washington added to its secondary through the draft with cornerback Emmanuel Forbes and versatile safety Quan Martin. The two rookies could be instrumental in buying the defensive line more time to get to the quarterback and forcing more turnovers. 

Washington's defense only had nine interceptions last season, which was 28th in the NFL.

With the defensive line fully healthy and key additions to the secondary, Washington's defense may be poised to "take over games" and become one of the best units in football. 

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