What's Wrong With the Washington Football Teams Defense?

We are now through six weeks of the NFL season, and the Football Team's defense has been awful. Today we are going to figure out why.

Reason 1: No pass rush

The big difference from last year is that the defensive line is getting no pass rush. The football team can't get pressure with just a four men rush like it did last year. Through six weeks, guys like Daron Payne and Chase Young only have 1 and 1.5 sacks. Compared to last year, this isn't very good. But this isn't the only reason that their defense is utter garbage.

Reason 2: Secondary is lackluster

The Football Team pass rush hasn't had the time to get to the QB because the secondary isn't good. Sure it has guys like Kendall Fuller, William Jackson, and Kameron Curl. But Landon Collins is overpaid and isn't the leader he promised he would be when they paid him $84 million. If the secondary were able to cover people for longer, the pass rush would do more damage.

Reason 3: Losing Ryan Kerrigan

You may be wondering how Ryan Kerrigan plays into this. Even though he was a backup last year, he was still a leader, and the players respected and rallied around him until Chase Young took that leadership role. The Football Team is missing that veteran presence in the locker room to help and get out of this funk.

What surprises me:

I'm surprised about how bad this defense is playing. The defensive coordinator, Jack Del Rio, is an excellent defensive coordinator, so I am astonished that this defense just looks lost. The biggest thing is how the defense is managing to lose them games. The offense has surprisingly been decent so far and has kept them in games, but the defense can't make stops. All of the losses that they have received were all winnable games. That's the saddest and most shocking thing about being 2-4.

What needs to happen:

In my opinion, I think this team needs to trade for a guy like Mikah Fitzpatrick or Marcus Maye to help with the secondary or trade for a veteran like Von Miller because he may want out if the Broncos think that the ship has sailed on this roster. Or even Chandler Jones to help with the linebacker and get a veteran presence in the locker room. They could also wait until the offseason to try and sign some people like Miller, or Jones, or even Donta Hightower, Tyrann Mathieu, and Jason Pierre-Paul.

Another thing they can do is they can blitz more often. They are too predictable and need to figure out ways to be more creative.

If they do nothing then I see this team becoming like the Steelers. They have the talent but they don't show it. The one difference is that the Football Team has the legendary Taylor Heinicke while Pittsburgh has some dude named Ben.

Anyway see you next time.