Jack Del Rio says he’ll return as Washington defensive coordinator

ASHBURN — Washington’s defense has severely underperformed this season, but as Black Monday — the day when coaches and coordinators are usually fired as soon as the regular season ends — approaches defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio doesn’t seem to be worried about his job status. 

In fact, Del Rio laughed Thursday when asked if he was “hopeful” that he’d return for the 2022 campaign.

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Del Rio said. “I mean, I’m not hopeful, I will be.”

Under Del Rio, Washington’s defense improved dramatically in 2020 — but regressed drastically in 2021. The unit went from giving up 304 yards a game to more than 370, despite retaining most of its personnel. Advanced metrics like Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric, which measures efficiency, had Washington fall from third in 2020 to 27th this season.

Questions about Del Rio’s status swirled early in the season — when Washington got off to an ugly 2-6 start. After a Week 5 loss to the New Orleans Saints, Rivera balked at the suggestion Del Rio was on the chopping block. Rivera told reporters that making “wholesale” changes did not make sense. 

“I don’t see the issues the way [reporters] do. OK?” Rivera said. “I have the opportunity to watch the tape, to break the tape down, to look at what we’re doing and looking at how we’re doing it.”

The questions over Del Rio’s job status quieted as the year progressed. Starting in November, Washington rattled off a four-game winning streak — a stretch in which the defense seemed to regain its form. The unit even played well after losing top pass rushers Chase Young (ACL) and Montez Sweat (jaw) to injuries. 

But the progress that Washington seemed to make has disappeared in recent weeks. Heading into Sunday’s season finale against the New York Giants, Washington is in its second four-game losing streak of the season. In one of those games, the Burgundy and Gold gave up a season-high 56 points to the Dallas Cowboys.

During that contest, the problems were further magnified when defensive tackles Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne got into a fight on the sideline. 

Still, Del Rio insisted this season showed his defense’s “strong character.” Over the second half of the season, the unit had been hit hard by COVID-19 and injuries with a number of starters missing time. Del Rio said the unit had a “willingness to stick together.” 

Rivera has not been asked about Del Rio’s job status since October. 

Del Rio said he would use the next few weeks to evaluate what went wrong for the defense in 2021.

“We’ll have time to reflect on, on the year in its totality,” Del Rio said. “I know you’re not gonna be talking with me as we go through that process, but the organization, the head coach, the person, we will be very thorough in our analysis of what we wanna do.”