When Kendall Fuller picked off Carson Wentz in practice last week, the Washington cornerback jumped in front of Dyami Brown on a slant route to snatch the ball — no surprise to those who’ve followed the ball-hawking corner’s eight years in the NFL. But Fuller isn’t the only familiar sight in the Washington secondary this spring.
Lined up at the safety spots were Kam Curl and Bobby McCain. William Jackson III filled the other outside cornerback spot. Essentially, it’s the same Washington secondary from last season.
Outside the departure of Landon Collins, the Commanders’ unit is mostly intact for 2022. And though they’re coming off a down season, Washington is counting on continuity to fuel a defensive resurgence this coming fall.
“It helps a lot, man, just knowing the brothers, knowing your guys next to you,” McCain said. “You’re able to talk to them and talk to them confidently. Some guys, you come in, and if you’re a new guy, you can’t talk to everybody the same way. But we all know each other pretty well, so it’s pretty easy.”
A bounce-back is needed. After ranking second in pass defense the year prior, the Commanders fell all the way to 29th in 2021 — giving up 254.8 yards per game. That figure was 191.8 in 2020.
The Commanders’ coaching staff attributed the regression partly due to the continually changing parts in the secondary last year.
Cornerback Ronald Darby left in free agency, and though the team signed Jackson to a big three-year, $40.5 million contract to fill the void, the former Cincinnati standout was slow to adapt to Washington’s zone-based scheme. The team also initially moved Fuller to the slot, an experiment that surprisingly failed to pan out given Fuller’s success there during his first stint with Washington. McCain was new, while the Commanders tried to reincorporate Collins coming off an Achilles injury.
Still, as the year progressed, the secondary jelled. The Commanders abandoned the idea of Fuller playing the slot by Week 7. Jackson started to play well once he grew comfortable with Washington’s zone scheme, a shift that he said happened by Week 10 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Commanders also found success by deploying a three-man safety combination of Collins, Curl and McCain.
From Week 7 to Week 14 — a stretch that included a four-game winning streak — the Commanders actually allowed the third-fewest yards and 12th-fewest passing yards, according to Pro Football Reference. The team’s performance then dropped off again down the stretch when a COVID-19 outbreak left Washington thin in Week 15 and Jackson and Collins went down with season-ending injuries.
“I hate watching early on, because I don’t even look like myself out there,” Jackson said. “But later on in the season, I started playing better and then started feeling like myself and it started showing on the field.”
This year, Commanders coach Ron Rivera will have to adjust to the loss of Collins after the safety was cut in March. Rivera has mentioned that fourth-round safety Percy Butler could slot in Collins’ old job as the buffalo nickel (a hybrid linebacker-safety role) but so far the rookie has not yet taken reps with the starters during the practice sessions open to reporters.
Rivera and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio have used these voluntary sessions to experiment with some other spots on the back end as well. During the first week of 11-on-11 play, Washington went with a three safety look of Curl, McCain and Troy Apke — the latter of whom is a career special teamer. The following week, the Commanders used second-year corner Benjamin St-Juste in the slot with the first-team instead of veteran Danny Johnson.
St-Juste is an intriguing potential x-factor for the secondary. As a rookie, St-Juste played well on the outside when available, but concussions limited his season to nine games. In those outings, according to Pro Football Focus, he logged just 10 snaps in the slot.
Rivera said St-Juste’s size (6-foot-2) will allow Washington to match up with opposing offenses that choose to play bigger receivers on the inside.
“Pretty excited about him,” Rivera said.
By moving St-Juste to the slot, however, Rivera can keep Fuller on the outside — and maintain the status quo in the process.
“Playing on the outside for (Fuller) fits him because he plays with vision and he understands that a lot better than a lot of other corners I’ve seen,” Rivera said. “The only other guy that I ever really saw that really understood playing with vision was Josh Norman. I think he did it very well. I watch Kendall and Kendall does that very well.”
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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