One of the biggest changes for the Washington Commanders this offseason was bringing in a new offensive and defensive coordinator. David Blough previously served as the Commanders’ quarterbacks coach, so his transition was smooth and relatively seamless. Daronte Jones, though, is a completely new face to the organization.
Both coordinators are doing the job for the first time in the NFL, but Jones has a bigger hill to climb. Not only is this his first NFL stint as defensive coordinator, but he’s been handed a defensive unit that kept only a few faces and brought in a slew of new ones. Getting the players on the same page and buying into what he sees the scheme and personality of this defense being was hurdle number one.
That hurdle seems largely behind the Commanders, so the next step is to make sure the players execute plays efficiently. Jones’ defense gives a ton of looks, as Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer points out, and the Commanders have the pieces to do it.
Finally, Jones’s defense is going to be very multiple and throw a ton at offenses (as Daniels and Blough would attest), and that’s going to require having guys with positional flexibility. To that end, the guys up front have proved to be very good fits. Javon Kinlaw’s shown an ability to line up all over the place, and hyper-athletic edge rushers Odafe Oweh and K’Lavon Chaisson, imported from the Chargers and Patriots, respectively, look like potential Swiss Army knives for Jones as he builds the scheme. And you can put No. 7 pick Sonny Styles in that category, too, as a guy who’s lived up to his reputation in just about every way and looks physically freakish, even among NFL players.
Part of the reason Adam Peters brought in the players he did was the defensive scheme Jones wants to run. You can be sure that Jones had a big say in which players got contracts, too. Looking at it now, it makes sense.
One thing we still need to ascertain is how much trust these new faces truly have in each other. It’s one thing for everyone to tell the media that they’re all on the same page and they’re all gelling as a unit and they’re creating bonds off the field, and it’s something else entirely to have that hold up on the field. In the preseason, the defense has looked improved over 2025. To be fair, that’s a low bar, but right now that’s what we have to work with.
Until we see this defense face another team in a real-game setting, we won’t know how well Jones has done to get them where they need to be. For now, the outlook remains positive, and they can build on that.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Commanders' defense starting to take shape in 2026
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