Washington Redskins: Defensive improvements imminent

The Washington Redskins haven’t fielded a competitive defense in what feels like forever. The lackluster performances can be attributed to a number of things; the mishandling of cap space, severe injuries, retirements, low camaraderie and poor coaching have all played a hand in Washington’s defensive fallout. These types of things can be detrimental to a team’s success, and the recent struggles by the Redskins defensive unit is proof of this.

Under former defensive coordinator Jim Haslett, who ran Washington’s defense for five seasons between 2010-2014, the team failed to reach the Top 20 in the NFL in terms of fewest points allowed. To make matters worse, Haslett’s defensive units only managed to finish better than 18th in yards allowed only once during his tenure.

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A lot of the struggles that Washington faced during the Haslett era can be attributed to a lack of defensive playmakers; but, at the same time, the failures can be directly linked to Haslett’s ignorance as a defensive coordinator. Look no further than his implementation of the 3-4 defense. In my opinion, the transition was much rockier than it had to be.

My biggest problem with Haslett’s defensive efforts in Washington was how oblivious he seemed in his role. I understand that there are growing pains when you’re trying to make the switch from one scheme to another, but I personally believe that Haslett exacerbated the situation by ignoring the blatant weaknesses in his defensive front – starting Barry Cofield, who weighs in at around 300 pounds, at nose tackle is an example that quickly comes to mind.

He also had a problem with defensive consistency during his stay in Washington. From one week to another, it often felt like you were watching completely different defenses. I know that some of this comes down to game planning, as you can’t take the same approach every week, but the amount of change that their defensive attack saw on a week to week basis was substantial.

If the Redskins want to be competitive on the defensive side of the ball, they’ll need to find ways to be more aggressive, energetic and consistent moving forward. Washington fans, players and ownership alike are hoping that the additions of general manager Scot McCloughan and defensive coordinator Joe Barry will help.

McCloughan took it upon himself to upgrade Washington’s ailing defensive line with the additions of Terrance Knighton, Stephen Paea and Ricky Jean-Francois. The defensive improvements didn’t stop there, though. McCloughan also worked diligently to upgrade the Redskins horrendous secondary. With the additions of Chris Culliver, Jeron Johnson and Dashon Goldson, it’s all but guaranteed that the team will have a significant amount of turnover on the backend of their defense.

While large amounts of turnover can harm a unit’s ability to properly gel and communicate on the football field, McCloughan and company were right to make the changes that they made. The Washington Redskins defense now sports a number of formidable players that can properly operate within their 3-4 defense. It will be Barry’s job to teach, motivate and bring together the defensive unit.

In an interview with Larry Michael for Redskins Nation, Washington’s new defensive coordinator spoke about his newly inherited defense and how he plans on utilizing the skill sets of his players. “We got guys that are going to get off the ball and cause havoc in the backfield,” Barry said. “Whether it’s, you know, tackles for losses. Whether it’s sacking the quarterback, uhm, we’re going to allow them to really get off and penetrate and you know, cause havoc in the backfield.”

Next: Scot McCloughan is RG3's best chance

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