Position Group breakdown: Defensive Ends

May 31, 2024

by Alex Zeese

There’s no position group on the roster that has seen more change in the last year than the Commanders’ defensive end group. We knew moves would have to be made here since Chase Young and Montez Sweat were traded away mid-season in 2023. Not only were the two big-name former first round picks traded away, but the guys who came in to replace them for the 2nd half of the season were also let go. The team only has three defensive ends left over from the prior regime with six players gone.

Gone from last season:
Chase Young
Montez Sweat
Casey Toohill
James Smith-Williams
Joshua Pryor

Held over from 2023:
K.J. Henry was drafted by Washington in round 5 in 2023. There was a lot of praise for his potential in his rookie season, as he had shown well in training camp that year. Unfortunately, he was buried on the depth chart and inactive for most of the 1st half of the season. He saw his first action on defense in week 9 vs the Patriots when he got a smattering of defensive snaps. He ended up rotating in through the 2nd half of the year, finishing the year with 19 combined tackles 1.5 sacks.

Efe Obada, One of Ron’s guys from Carolina who’s managed to stick around, and an NFL feel-good story as part of the international player program. The Englishman is in his 3rd season in D.C. Obada didn’t do a whole lot last year as an injury put him on IR.

Jalen Harris, an undrafted rookie last season who ended up getting some playing time, he appeared in the 5 of the final 6 games and had 6 tackles.

Andre Jones Jr. 2nd year player out of Louisiana, taken in the 7th round in 2023. Jones was a major contributor on special teams last year while also playing 171 snaps on defense, where he had very little impact overall, just 1 solo tackle and 3 assists.

Just to quantify how drastic of a change this has been at the position, the guys who they let go played about 3/4ths of all of the snaps in 2023.  While many fans may see some upside with Henry, he is not likely to be any kind of breakout star, rather his likely ceiling is as a solid 3rd DE in a future rotation, and even that will take time and coaching to get him there.

Drastic moves were necessary, as after releasing so many contributors last season, this was also arguably the most urgent area to address on defense this off-season. To their credit, Adam Peters and Dan Quinn were very proactive in free agency. They likely realized that the draft class wasn’t particularly deep at the end position & their other needs on offense would make it difficult to draft a potential starter, and instead, they put together a new room of veteran free-agent defensive ends.

Dorance Armstrong: the 7th year veteran out of Kansas followed Quinn from the Cowboys to D.C. Armstrong has been a career backup and rotational piece in Dallas. The last 3 seasons he’s defined his role as a solid player, with 21 sacks in 3 years while he’s averaged 499 snaps a season. He’s 27, so he’s probably got a few good seasons left in the tank, and his contract should keep him here for 3 seasons if he plays well.

Clelin Ferrell: signed with Washington on a one-year “prove it”-type deal. Ferrell spent most of his career with the Raiders, but last season was with San Francisco, so there’s familiarity there with Adam Peters. The Richmond Virginia native was the Raiders’ equivalent of Chase Young – he was taken 4th overall in the 2019 draft. However, he never produced at the level you would hope for from a top 5 defensive end. He’s had just 13.5 sacks in his 5 year career. His career has been impacted by a few smaller nagging injuries. Similar to Armstrong, he’s a solid rotational piece, but a decent player who can 450+ downs and be a decent contributor for the year.

Dante Fowler Jr.: Another seasoned vet, a top 5 draft pick who’s never quite panned out. Do we get the feeling that Adam Peters has a type when it comes to finding depth at the defensive end? Fowler also followed Dan Quinn from the Cowboys. He has had a few good seasons in his career. He produced a 11.5 sack season with the Rams in 2019 and had a good year with the Jaguars in 2017, in which he ended up with 8 sacks. However, for most his career, Fowler finished in the 4-sack range. although in his last two seasons in Dallas he had 6 and 4 sacks.

Fowler will be an interesting one to watch in terms of how Quinn uses him. Historically he has been considered both a defensive end and at times was more of an outside linebacker edge rusher type. So, I wonder if Coach Quinn uses him in that role given his tendency to go with an unbalanced 4-3 look. I could easily picture Fowler having a nice role as that strong side linebacker/edge rusher when the team wants to use 3 defensive tackles. Or will Fowler simple be that 3rd man up for the defense edge rotation this year?

The team did add one rookie:

Javontae Jean-Baptiste: The rookie out of Notre Dame was drafted in the 7th round. The 24 year old spent most of his college career at Ohio State before going to the Fighting Irish for his final season. He had a solid senior season and is a good overall athlete, but needs to improve his strength.