Long snapper was a huge issue for the Commanders last year before Camaron Cheeseman was cut, and the secondary was also a bug-a-boo, but it appears the new regime is rectifying those issues, too, in their latest batch of moves.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Washington is signing long snapper Tyler Ott to a three-year deal, bringing in another player familiar with the new coaching staff, and Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz reports the Commanders are adding defensive back Jeremy Chinn on a one-year deal worth up to $5 million.
Chinn, 26, was a second-round pick by the Panthers in 2020 and was runner up to Chase Young for Defensive Rookie of the Year that season, recordinf 116 tackles, one sack, one interception, two forced fumbles, and two touchdowns.
Like Young, Chinn hasn’t again reached those heights, but he has fit the mold of versatility Dan Quinn seems to be going for in his back seven. PFF lists him playing at least 500 career snaps at linebacker, safety, and nickel, and last year, he had 30 tackles and a sack in eight games for Carolina around a mid-season quad injury.
He will fill potentially multiple holes in a secondary where Kam Curl and Terrell Burgess, the Commanders' top safeties by year's end due to injuries, and veteran corner Kendall Fuller are all free agents.
Ott, 32, spent 2023 with the Ravens, but prior to that, he spent five-plus years in Seattle, where now-Commanders special teams coach Larry Izzo was a special teams assistant from 2018-20 and the coordinator from 2020-23, and he was a Pro Bowler in 2020.
The Harvard alum has been active for parts of eight years in the league, playing for the Giants, Bengals, Seahawks, and Ravens, and will hopefully shore up a position that saw Cheeseman, whom Ron Rivera traded up to take in the sixth round in 2021, nearly replaced when the Commanders worked out several others after a Week 2 win in Denver but not cut until December after he botched snaps on a punt and an extra point against the Rams – the latter nearly causing injury to punter Tress Way and the former a pivotal point the Commander could have used given the way the game ended.