Commanders Defense Philosophy Revealed by Joe Whitt Jr.

Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. recently spoke about how his scheme and style will function together.

ASHBURN, Va. -- The Washington Commanders are turning a lot of heads this offseason with the hires of general manager Adam Peters, coach Dan Quinn, and coordinators Kliff Kingsbury and Joe Whitt Jr.

The last name on that list spoke to us at Commanders Park this week and answered the all-important question of scheme usage with a message more than a diagram.

Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. made several stops on his way to earning his opportunity in D.C / USA Today

“You know, 3-4, 4-3. Everybody really plays the same coverages to some point. The structure doesn't matter to me," Whitt said. "The main thing that matters to me is, are we gonna be arriving violently? And we're gonna turn the ball over, right? We're gonna make sure we disrupt these quarterbacks.”

That style of defense is music to the ears of Commanders fans who grew tired of watching a mostly passive defense in recent years under the previous coaching staff. 

But the messages didn't stop there, because Whitt also issued a challenge to opposing coaches to not just study the tape from Dallas, because to do so would mean coming in woefully unprepared.

“We have a base structure of what we want to do, but very similar to what we did when we went to Dallas, everybody just knew when we went to Dallas that we were going to run an ATL three or the Seattle three package," Whitt says. "And it was probably the fourth, fifth game when they realized, ‘Oh, they're not doing that.’ So what we're going to do, and that's another reason why we brought coaches from different schemes and we were very strategic from where we brought these coaches from, because we're going to build the Commanders defense."

Of course, that film of the Cowboys defense is a good place to start and certainly might lend some information about the type of aggression to expect from this currently-developing version of the Commanders defense.

5 Questions on Commanders New Coach Kingsbury

But one thing we already know for sure is that Washington is getting a coaching staff unlike any other it's had in a long time. 

One with true direction, purpose, and an intent approach to bringing the right kind of players and football back to the District.