Commanders’ defensive tactics against the Buccaneers’ offense

American football is pretty simple on the surface. If the Washington Commanders score more points than their opponents (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this weekend), then they win. Easy.

After that, though, things get a little more difficult, as teams like the Commanders and Buccaneers do everything they can to stunt, twist, cross, post, blitz, and block, among other things, to gain an advantage over each other.

Washington has a seeming advantage over teams this season, at least early on, as opponents like the Buccaneers don’t have much material to study this coaching staff with this roster. However, there are personality traits for each coach that tend to show up in the material no matter where they are or what roster they’re coaching.

For Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator, those personality traits that show up in the schemes are what he leans on as he prepares to face what is expected to be one of the most man-to-man defenses in Washington.

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“Just having different priority calls,” Coen said when asked about the strategy for facing more man-to-man coverages versus zone. “The concepts and plays you’ll have will be maybe a little bit more geared toward their lead coverages, while also having answers within those plays for their complementary coverages. If they’re a man-to-man-heavy team, we might have a couple of man-to-man things, but we might have a couple of zone answers and vice versa. We always say, ‘Expect man-to-man, adjust to zone.’ That’s our thought process with anything in the NFL. Even zone coverage is often played like match coverage, like man-to-man coverage, especially when it’s a fire zone. That’s how they play it.”

In its most basic sense, a “fire zone” is a defensive front blitz with zone coverage behind it. However, the zone coverage behind it is usually a match zone, which, if read and executed correctly, looks a lot like man coverage. The phrase “all zones become man coverage” comes to mind.

Of course, Quinn and Whitt know what it’s like to lean into those personality traits, so the awareness goes both ways.

And while there will be a certain amount of Whitt and Quinn’s trademark aggressiveness, that doesn’t mean it will come in the same form, because this isn’t the same team they had in Dallas.

“This is a player’s game,” Whitt said this offseason about building his defense. “And you’re going to hear me talk about ‘feeding strong players,’ and … we’re designing our defense around the players that we have. I think if you just say, ‘Hey, we run a scheme and that’s all we have,’ no, you get the players that you have and you make sure you put them in the best position to play high-level football.”

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Stick with CommanderGameday and the Commanders blocked Podcast for more FREE coverage of the Washington Commanders during the 2024 season.

• Luke McCaffrey joins Commanders first team; Father Ed talks about the future

• The Majors prepare for a tough test against the Buccaneers in Week 1

• Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels reveals his mindset ahead of his NFL debut

• Commanders sign an extension for a promising OL