Nothing much has gone right for the Washington Commanders this season. It's a mess, especially defensively, and head coach Dan Quinn is taking one last roll of the dice in pursuit of turning the tide.
The Commanders confirmed that defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. will be moving back to the sideline from the booth to call plays in Week 10 against the Detroit Lions. Quinn obviously wants to keep a closer eye on things, and he also believes that this can improve communication in the pressure cooker.
Just how much this is going to help against a Lions team looking to avenge their divisional round playoff loss to Washington is anyone's guess. The Commanders are missing several key players, including quarterback Jayden Daniels, so it's going to take a monumental effort even to keep this one remotely competitive.
Joe Whitt Jr. knows time is running out to save his Commanders' future
Whitt also subtly revealed just how high the stakes are. The no-nonsense coach stated that this has to work. And the underlying tone suggested that repercussions would be severe if it didn't.
"I gotta do a better job getting the coaches to get the players to understand how we're going to do it. And we gotta get this thing turned. We gotta get it turned right now. The amount of explosives that we're giving up in the pass game is really frustrating, because they're coming from mistakes that really shouldn't happen, and I gotta do a better job, or we gotta do a better job of getting that communicated."
Joe Whitt Jr. via Commanders.com
To cut a long story short, it's now or never for Whitt.
Quinn doesn't want to make any coaching changes this season. He's made that clear, and his close connection to Whitt from their time together on the Dallas Cowboys might give him a longer leash than most. At the same time, things cannot continue like this much longer, especially with the head coach under fire for some of the decisions this season.
The Commanders have nothing else to lose. Whitt stated that moving down to the sideline was his decision at his players' request, but it's hard not to see this as the last-chance saloon. If the same complications emerge, and the adjustments don't have the desired effect, Quinn either has to take over defensive play-calling or remove his coordinator from the equation entirely.
That might not alter much in the short term, but it prevents delaying the inevitable. And it seems as if Whitt is all too aware of the ramifications if this move doesn't go according to plan.