One Commanders assistant is making a change to the gameday operation.
Defensive coordinator Joe Whitt told reporters on Thursday that he’s moving from the booth down to the field, starting with Sunday’s contest against the Lions.
“I went and asked [head coach Dan Quinn] to do that for a number of reasons,” Whitt said. “The first reason is, I’ve been in the box, Q, most of the coordinators I’ve been around called it from the box — Q, [Dom] Capers, Mike Pettine. Even when I was in college, the coordinators always called it from the box. You have a good view. You can see. You don’t really have to have as much help with personnel, people coming in and out. So, that’s the advantage of being in the box.
“Moving to the field, I think the energy that I have in practice that can be probably positive within the game for the players — a couple of guys have been asking for me to come down as well. So, I think it’s time for that to happen. We’ve got to do whatever we have to do to get a win.”
Whitt, however, added that he doesn’t necessarily have an instance in mind where the outcome may have been different were he on the field. Instead, this is about looking forward.
“I’m gonna say that we’re going to try something different because the results that we’ve been getting aren’t good enough,” Whitt said. “So, if you keep doing the same thing you’ve been doing — we’ve changed the way we practice. We’ve changed our walk-throughs, the meeting structures, the voice-overs that we send them. We’re trying to find — offensively, defensively, and special teams, the whole team — we’re trying to get out of this rut that we’re in.
“But, my focus is on the defense, and it hasn’t been near good enough. So, this is a change I wanted to make.”
Through nine games this year, the Commanders rank No. 22 in points allowed and No. 28 in yards allowed.
