Commanders’ Joe Whitt Jr. on demotion: ‘I understood and expected it. … It’s about winning’

MADRID — After the Washington Commanders took a 44-22 drubbing by the Detroit Lions last Sunday to drop to 3-7 on the season, coach Dan Quinn sat down with his defensive coordinator for a conversation that Joe Whitt Jr. was anticipating.

Quinn told him he would take over as coordinator and handle defensive play calling on game days. Whitt would remain on staff, Quinn said, at least for the time being, as the Commanders prepared to travel to Spain for their Week 11 meeting with the Miami Dolphins.

“I understood it. And I expected it,” Whitt said Friday in his first public comments since the change. “So, it was what it was. When he came and sat down and talked to me, I knew what the conversation was gonna be.

“Our relationship is a special one. There’s very few people in coaching that I’m closer to, but I understood it. … I have no ill will to anybody. It’s about winning. That’s what it’s all about. It’s about winning and playing well, and we haven’t done that. That’s the bottom line.”

Quinn announced the coaching change on Monday, saying it was made because the Commanders’ defense “felt off,” a feeling no one could dispute at this point.

The Commanders have lost each of their last four games by 20-plus points. They’ve given up 36 completions of 20-plus yards (tied for the most in the NFL) and have allowed more passing yards per attempt (8.4) than any defense in the league.

Over the last five games, which have all been losses, the Commanders gave up an average of 151.8 rushing yards per game, the fifth most in the NFL in that span.

Quinn and Whitt made multiple changes to try to eliminate the mistakes on game days, such as simplifying the play calls, changing some personnel and moving Whitt from the coaches’ booth to the sideline with the hope of streamlining communication.

However, nothing worked. Instead, the defense got worse, giving up 546 net yards and 9.1 yards per pass attempt to the Lions.

“It’s disappointing in the fact that going into the season, we felt very good about it,” Whitt said. “Then coming out of that (season-opening) Giants game, I felt very good about where we were. It is a little bit frustrating that we haven’t produced better. Didn’t see it coming. Definitely, if you saw it coming, it would’ve been different. But it is what it is. Being frustrated doesn’t help the end product.”

Whitt said his role throughout this week has been similar to what it was in Dallas a couple of years ago, when he was the Cowboys’ defensive pass game coordinator and secondary coach. Whitt has been more involved with the secondary and has helped in the game planning and preparing the call sheet. Then on Sunday, he’ll return to the booth to serve as an extra set of eyes for Quinn while the head coach calls plays from the sideline.

“Our relationship is the same,” Whitt said. “… We’re very comfortable with that. The only difference is, he was in the box with me when he called (the defense in Dallas). He’ll be on the field, so that’ll be a little different. We did that one time when we played New Orleans when (then-Cowboys head coach) Mike McCarthy got COVID. So we were in separate places from that standpoint. But other than that, we’re working it very similar to what we did in Dallas.”

When Quinn was hired in Washington, he said he learned a number of lessons from his last go-round as head coach in Atlanta. Among them, he said, was the need to delegate more to focus on the team as a whole. He took over play calling in multiple stints in Atlanta and, in hindsight, felt it stretched him too thin.

To avoid repeating the mistake, Quinn said he has relied more on assistant head coach and offensive pass game coordinator Brian Johnson and senior vice president of football initiatives Dave Gardi.

He no longer goes to all of the meetings for all three phases — offense, defense and special teams — and instead turns to his assistants to catch him up when needed.

“That part has felt better because I can stay connected to the team,” Quinn told The Athletic. “I was pretty intentional about it. I know it’s a weakness to say, ‘I can help with that, I can help with that, I want to take it on.’ I was like, ‘not doing that.’ ”

Stepping back into play calling isn’t exactly like riding a bike, Quinn admitted, but having a game plan makes it easier. He knows what he’d like to call in certain situations, and after working on it throughout the week, he can eliminate the calls that aren’t game-ready and keep the ones that players are clearly comfortable running.

“Sometimes just hearing a different voice can be what you need at a time like this,” Quinn said. “I don’t think it’s like this big structural thing, because obviously it’s the same package. I’m not coming in with a new playbook. I’m just going to keep digging on the execution part. Everybody here got us to this point and everybody here is going to get us past this point.

Neither Whitt nor Quinn said they know what the long term holds for Washington’s defensive coordinator role, or for Whitt’s involvement with the team in any capacity.

Their focus for now is on the immediate future: Sunday’s game against the Dolphins.

“Not worried about that now,” Whitt said. “Just worried about winning this game. If we can win this game and get on a streak of winning and producing and playing better defense, we’ll worry about that down the road. But right now, we came here for one reason and that’s to win.”