Everyone knows the Washington Commanders have a good defense. Almost by any metric you use, Washington’s defense was ranked inside the top 10 last season.
The Commanders could be even better on defense in 2023, with the return of defensive end Chase Young and the additions of linebacker Cody Barton and cornerback Emmanuel Forbes.
As for the offense, it’s a work in progress. New offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is installing a new offense with a quarterback who has thrown 19 career passes and four new starters on the offensive line.
No surprise, the defense is ahead of the offense. That’s often the case early in training camp around the NFL. Washington’s defense has been together for four seasons, comprising mostly of players the Commanders have drafted.
This week, Washington put pads on for the first time this summer, and it didn’t go too well for the offense. Head coach Ron Rivera spoke after Friday’s practice about the defense’s dominance over the offense. Rivera offered perspective for anyone with concerns.
“Again, we’ve got the same defense system for four years,” Rivera said. “We’ve got a brand-new offensive system, so I would expect ’em to be slightly ahead, and if not, I’d been a little disappointed in the defense and be real thrilled about the offense. Offense is where I think it needs to be in terms of its growth and development.”
This is correct. Rivera also noted how things will change once you can start game planning. There is no game planning on Day 9 of training camp.
“Yeah, when you start game planning, you know, you start preparing, I think that’s what’s more important,” Rivera stated. “I mean, right now, there’s no game planning out there, you know what I’m saying? There’s just learning your base fundamentals, learning the foundation of what you’re going to do and then you got to go out there and use your tools and react to it.”
Washington legend Brian Mitchell, on his radio show “BMitch and Finlay” on 106.7 The Fan Friday, further elaborated Rivera’s point.
Good point from @BMITCHLIVE30 about Commanders offensive struggles in camp: "People think Ron is making an excuse but when a defense knows an offense is running certain things, you cant beat them…If you dont game plan it's hard to look good"
— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) August 4, 2023
Things will change once the games begin. Bieniemy can game plan against opposing defenses. That doesn’t mean the Commanders will be an elite offense in 2023, but no one should be assuming after two weeks of training camp that the offense is already a failure.
There’s a long way to go. Is it fair to be concerned about pass protection? Yes. Is it fair to be concerned with Howell? Sure. But Rivera and Mitchell are 100% correct. When the defense knows what’s coming on each play — especially a good defense — they are going to win the majority of the time.
