{"id":161216,"date":"2024-02-06T12:00:56","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T17:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=161216"},"modified":"2024-02-06T00:53:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T05:53:56","slug":"commanders-hire-joe-whitt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/02\/06\/commanders-hire-joe-whitt\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Commanders Hires Former Cowboys Coach as DC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington Commanders have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/news\/dallas-cowboys-breaking-joe-whitt-jr-cancels-interview-hired-by-dan-quinn-washington-rivera-zimmer-martindale\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hired<\/a> former Dallas Cowboys secondary and passing game coordinator, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/02\/02\/cowboys-lose-defensive-coordinator-dan-quinn-to-commanders-whos-next-for-dallas\/\" target=\"_self\">Joe Whitt<\/a> as their next defensive coordinator. Whitt was scheduled to interview with Washington but canceled and jumped on board. The floodgates are finally opening with the Commanders for a busy time. Whitt wasted no time taking the position and reuniting with head coach, Dan Quinn.<\/p>\n<p>The Dallas Cowboys knew that Whitt would follow in his footsteps once Quinn was gone. Dallas is eyeing a more veteran coordinator, one that has the experience to fill Quinn\u2019s spot. Jerry Jones said they are going \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/news\/jerry-jones-says-cowboys-will-be-all-in-and-push-the-hell-out-of-2024-as-they-change-their-philosophy\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">All In<\/a>\u201d for their next hire, assuming that it\u2019s going to change Dallas\u2019 defensive landscape. The Cowboys are currently having<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nfl\/profootballtalk\/rumor-mill\/news\/ron-rivera-mike-zimmer-aden-durde-interviewing-for-cowboys-defensive-coordinator\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> interviews<\/a> with Ron Rivera and Mike Zimmer for the defensive coordinator position.<\/p>\n<p>This is something that Jones is valuing while in Washington, they are in the rebuilding stage. However, Whitt has a similar experience to the DC position. He served similar roles with the Packers, Browns and Falcons. The expectation was always for Whitt to come to Washington and now they are close to focusing on this upcoming free agency. Quinn said he won\u2019t be calling the defensive play calls, but Whitt will.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a change for Quinn, who\u2019s been the defensive play-caller for Dallas for the last three years. New Commander offensive coordinator, Kliff Kingsbury will be calling the plays on offense. This allows Quinn to remain<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nfl\/profootballtalk\/rumor-mill\/news\/dan-quinn-ill-coach-entire-team-joe-whitt-jr-will-call-defensive-plays-for-the-commanders#:~:text=The%20game%20management%20part%20is,show%20up%20on%20the%20scoreboard.\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> open and coach the entire team<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The next DC in D.C.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Whitt Jr. is our new defensive coordinator <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EsMXAQ3wEi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/EsMXAQ3wEi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Washington Commanders (@Commanders) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Commanders\/status\/1754506358378946618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 5, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Washington Commanders Hire Joe Whitt as the Next Defensive Coordinator<\/h2>\n<h3>All of the Pieces Are Coming Together<\/h3>\n<p>As Quinn is distributing the responsibility for his staff, it\u2019s been reported that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/sports\/dan-quinn-says-eric-bieniemy-wont-return-commanders-staff-2024-02-05\/#:~:text=At%20his%20introductory%20press%20conference,Kingsbury%20as%20their%20offensive%20coordinator.\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he won\u2019<\/a>t bring back Eric Bieniemy. Quinn wishes him well in his next stop, but it\u2019s an interesting development. There was never an official report coming out that Bieniemy was fired from Washington. The question was brought up about Bieniemy\u2019s future and finally, there is the answer.<\/p>\n<p>Bieniemy was bound for a head coaching position with Washington, but that went out the window. He now has not been in the cycle for any other coordinator jobs around the league so far. However, it\u2019s a new era for Whitt and Kingsbury who\u2019s set to call the shots. The interesting part is that Whitt had a scheduled interview with the Cowboys as well for the DC job.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t a guarantee and Whitt knew that. No one can fault Whitt for finding the door to exit. The good news is that this allows the Cowboys to find a veteran and Zimmer becomes the <a href=\"https:\/\/thelandryhat.com\/posts\/dan-quinn-stealing-cowboys-assistant-leaves-clear-favorite-for-dc-job-whitt-zimmer-01hnwtbxmq2v#:~:text=Late%20Sunday%20night%2C%20Quinn%20named,to%20become%20Quinn&#039;s%20defensive%20coordinator.\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">favorite<\/a> to become the new defensive coordinator. Whitt probably would\u2019ve run the same scheme for Dallas either way so a new start would be best.<\/p>\n<p>A change in the coaching philosophy was overdue. All the pieces are coming together in Washington in their coaching staff. They can focus on the upcoming free agency and NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<h3>What\u2019s Next for the Commanders?<\/h3>\n<p>The next step would obviously be the free agency, but Quinn and his staff are strategizing to put responsibility in place. There are plenty of pending free agents that Whitt could look into. Edge rushers like Danielle Hunter and Jadeveon Clowney. After losing Josh Allen and Chase Young, these could be the replacements. They do have the draft, too, to find their next franchise defensive player.<\/p>\n<p>However, there could be a guarantee that the Commander&#8217;s defense gets stronger under Whitt. It looks young now, but once they make some moves then that can change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the Washington Commanders hire former Dallas Cowboys secondary and passing game coach, Joe Whitt as their next defensive coordinator. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4795,"featured_media":161230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,36,8896],"tags":[217,1304,1473,1449,4599],"class_list":["post-161216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cowboys","category-nfl-news","category-washington-commanders","tag-dan-quinn","tag-danielle-hunter","tag-jadeveon-clowney","tag-joe-whitt","tag-kliff-kingsbury"],"modified_by":"Anthony Palacios","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}