Mills says immaturity can be a function of the defensive lines inconsistency

Coming off of a 42-point loss and a two-game stretch where Washington’s defensive line was completely dominated, the unit with such high expectations has been in disarray the entire season. The fight between Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne can even symbolize the underwhelming production of the unit and the frustration stemming from that.

Today, defensive line coach Sam Mills III spoke with the media as Washington gears up for its week 17 matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles. Mills said on the recent performances from his unit in recent weeks:

“Yeah. You know, due to circumstances of injury or COVID or what we’ve had to get used to just kind of rotating guys,” Mills said. “The good thing about it is there’s a lot of guys familiar with our system that have been here the last two years. So we kind of look forward to watching a young guy get in there and giving us what he’s got and putting him in positions to be successful. But yeah, it has been a revolving door with some players in our position, but we’re always prepared for it and we get those guys ready to go.”

Preparation has been vital for Mills, especially for the younger guys on the roster:

“Yeah, the biggest growth is in the preparation. You can see those guys asking questions, trying to learn, you know, what the opposing offense is gonna do, and then working together, understanding where each other’s gonna be, doing different fronts that we’ve been put in this season. Just it’s different, not having the big four that we usually have.”

While preparation has been a focus, inconsistency has dominated the narrative this season. “I think we’ve hit our peaks at times. It’s just not consistent enough,” Mills said when asked if the line had hit its peak. “To be honest with you, I think we’ve hit our highs where we can play dominant brand of football. You know, we can play gap, sound, run defense, we can play collapsing pocket pass this sense. I just think consistency. We just have to do it more often. That’s all it is. But I have seen a lot of growth out of this group. I’ve seen this group mature in, in certain ways and just consistency is the key.”

Mills knows there are many reasons why inconsistency exists: 

“It could be one guy giving up a rush, you know, and when you add those things up, that’s what makes it inconsistent. The thing is, you keep reteaching, you don’t make stuff up, you can keep reteaching and eventually they come together and it sticks and it means a lot.” 

Can it be a function of immaturity? Mills says that it can be. “What coach spoke about, it could also be just a function of time on tasks. We practice for a reason and these guys keep doing it over and over for a reason. We don’t do it just for the heck of it. We do it so that they get comfortable with it. And so it becomes part of you, you’re not thinking about it, that’s part of it.”