PFF’s Trevor Sikkema seems to agree with a lot of pundits that the 7-2 Commanders are for real, and while they’re not one or two or even three supplements away from being a long-term powerhouse perhaps, the addition of Marshon Lattimore was exactly what they needed.
“I think it's a good deal for Washington, and even beyond saying the price tag was worth it and things like that, which I do think that it was, you are in a spot where your winning window has sort of been accelerated a little bit here,” Sikkema told Kevin Sheehan Thursday. “I think that Washington probably would have been happy with a seven or eight-win season, and they’re basically there already, so everything from this point on is cake. You got a chance to win the division, you got a chance to get some real momentum to really establish a new culture, and I think that when you look at an area that they struggled with throughout the first four or five weeks of the season, they were one of the lowest coverage grade teams in the league, especially when you isolated it to just the defensive backs. It has been better since, but you still love their idea of going after a cornerback who has played at an All-Pro and Pro Bowl level at different points throughout his career. And, look at what Dan Quinn did as a defensive coordinator with some of his corners in Dallas – he knows how to put corners in the best situation, and he is open-minded and ready to put these guys in positions to succeed.”
What Washington gave up is ‘a decent price, especially for somebody that’s not a quarterback,’ but Sikkema thinks it was worth it.
“You have to think about a little bit of value there, but for me, and Washington, it's absolutely worth it given the ceiling of Marshon Lattimore and how young he is and how Dan Quinn will use him,” Sikkema said. “And, he can help the run defense. When you don’t have to put the football in the air, that’s not a good thing for a defense, so you make a deal at the deadline to get a corner and you wanna be a little bit more aggressive in coverage, but maybe you don't have to allocate as many resources to coverage now that you bring in a guy like Lattimore. Instead, you can rotate safeties down a little bit more, play much more toward the box, and get a little bit more aggressive in how you're aligning your front – and you can sort of be a better run defense team by increasing the numbers game in your favor. This team has safeties who have played pseudo-linebacker positions, so you've got the option to be more aggressive in the front seven or eight when you have the corners that you trust on the outside.”
Hopefully it will be a big addition, as Sikkema admitted that he didn’t know where Washington would be exactly, but expectations have already been overachieved.
“You talk about overachieving expectations, I remember when I was doing my preseason predictions…I’m a big Dan Quinn guy, and I like Jayden Daniels, so I had them somewhere around 7-10 or maybe 8-9, and I almost put them in second in the division over the Cowboys,” Sikkema said. “I thought it was probably a year too early, but they're gonna kick the crap out of that. It looks like they could win the division, and then they could do a lot better than that. Right now they’re 11th in our power rankings, and that’s just a projection for us going forward, but they started in the mid-20s and are now knocking on the door of the Top 10. There are a lot of really good teams this year, especially within that concentrated Top 12, so to be in that group says a lot about Washington.”
Take a listen to Sikkema’s entire visit above, as he also goes into Jayden Daniels’ PFF rankings and more!