Kingsbury weighed in on quarterbacks … sort of. The new offensive coordinator joked that the type of quarterback he wants to work with is “the Chiefs’ quarterback,” referring to Patrick Mahomes, whom he coached at Texas Tech. Kingsbury said the traits important to him are leadership, work ethic and mobility — the last of which he saw emphasized at the end of the Super Bowl.
“It doesn’t mean you got to run like Lamar [Jackson] or Kyler Murray,” he said. “But you better be able to move a little bit and buy yourself some time.”
The top quarterbacks in the upcoming draft — Southern California’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye and LSU’s Jayden Daniels — all fit that description. Kingsbury helped coach Williams last year at USC and called the presumptive No. 1 pick a “tremendous person.” But he declined to analyze his game.
The Commanders’ coaching staff was built strategically. At first glance, Quinn’s staff appears to be a hodgepodge of assistants from around the NFL. But the team selected them with their experience and expertise in mind, Kingsbury and Whitt said.
It’s a stark departure from the approach of Washington’s previous regime, which was built based on connections to the coach.
Quinn has a basic blueprint for how he plans to run the Commanders, but he said during his introductory news conference that he believes coaches and schemes have to evolve to remain effective. So his assistants include a former head coach (Anthony Lynn), four former coordinators (Lynn, Ken Norton Jr., John Pagano and Brian Johnson) and coaches who came up in different schemes.
“We wanted to bring a bunch of high-character people and good football coaches,” said Kingsbury, who described the hiring process as a collaborative effort with Quinn and General Manager Adam Peters. “I think anytime you get a chance to reinstall your offense, you’ll be more efficient with your processes and your verbiage and your play calls and scheme. So we’re going to all dive into it and figure out what we do best personnel wise and grow it from there.”
Kingsbury rejected the “Air Raid” label for his offense. The 44-year-old has run the pass-heavy, shotgun-based offensive scheme at least since he arrived at Texas Tech as a freshman quarterback in 1998. But his pass rate while he was the coach of the Arizona Cardinals wasn’t at the top of the NFL.
“We want to be balanced,” Kingsbury said. “We want to be able to run the football and play-action pass and really do whatever it takes to win. … I’m honored to be a part of [the Air Raid tree] because it was [popularized by] Mike Leach, and I have a lot of respect for him. But I wouldn’t categorize anything we do under that name.”
Kingsbury dodged questions about how his deal to join the Las Vegas Raiders fell apart. But in an episode of “The Pivot” podcast, Raiders Coach Antonio Pierce suggested he lost Kingsbury to Washington because of recruiting efforts by limited partner Magic Johnson.
Kingsbury also declined to discuss Johnson’s role in his decision.
Whitt expects disruption from the defense. Whitt’s priorities are aligned with Quinn’s as they dive into roster evaluations and begin to prepare for the draft and free agency. Their focus is more on developing and instilling a playing style than finding players who fit a certain play structure.
“We’re going to be a run-and-hit defense,” Whitt said. “The way that we live is not for everybody. It’s not. Because we’re going to run and put our bodies on people in a violent manner. … The structure doesn’t matter. The main thing that matters to me is we’re going to be arriving violently, and we’re going to turn the ball over. We’re going to make sure we disrupt these quarterbacks.”
The Dallas Cowboys — with Whitt as their secondary coach and defensive passing game coordinator — led the NFL in takeaways in 2021 and 2022, and though the personnel will differ and the scheme will be tweaked accordingly, Whitt plans to make the Commanders just as prolific. Part of that is coaching and development. Part of it is scheme and creating more disguises post-snap to try to confuse quarterbacks.
“These quarterbacks are too good, so if you allow them to see the structure that you’re lined up in and … they know the coverage or they know where the pressure is coming from, it’s going to be a difficult day for you,” Whitt said. “You’ll hear me talk about this all the time. The ball is life. It’s like air. We got to have it. We got to get it.”
It’s early! Chill out! Even though draft scouting is in full swing on social media, both coordinators are still evaluating their new rosters. Kingsbury was vague, saying the offense has explosive pieces, and Whitt was specific, pointing out the strength at defensive tackle and the promising youth at defensive back (cornerback Emmanuel Forbes Jr. and safety/cornerback Quan Martin).
“A number of guys on the back end are intriguing,” he said, adding, “We have quality young players.”
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