Another addition to the Commanders coaching staff: per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, the team is hiring Raiders defensive backs/pass-game coordinator Jason Simmons for the same role.
Simmons, who spent 10 years in the NFL from 1998-2007 as a safety and special teamer in Pittsburgh and Houston, has a dozen years’ experience on the sideline, having started with the Packers as a coaching administrator.
He spent the last two seasons in his current role with the Raiders, helping oversee a unit that developed multiple young DBs despite a ton of flux in the secondary and ranked ninth in scoring defense in 2023. Simmons had joined Las Vegas after two years in Carolina, the latter seeing his Panthers secondary help the team rank fourth in the NFL with 192.1 passing yards allowed per game.
Simmons spent nine years in various roles in Green Bay before moving to Carolina in 2020, and spent those two years there before two with Las Vegas.
He now comes to DC to be a vital part of Joe Whitt Jr.’s staff, and made one of Brian Mitchell’s predictions come true – hours before news broke, when BMitch and JP Finlay were discussing Al Harris being blocked from an interview with Washington, Brian had said that ‘if Al Harris doesn’t end up on this staff, it’s probably Jason Simmons.”