2022 Roster Review – Defensive Tackles

May 27, 2022

by Alex Zeese

As a part of our continuing Position Group Breakdown series, this week we will be looking at the defensive tackle group.

The defensive line coaches for the team are Sam Mills III, who has been an assistant under Ron Rivera since his early years in Carolina and was in Carolina prior to that with John Fox. His assistant is Jeff Zgonina, who had a long career in the NFL as a journeyman, playing from 1993 to 2009 with 8 different NFL teams, and has been coaching since 2013.

There have been a lot of changes in this group so far this off-season and if the rumor mill is to be believed, there’s likely to be more in the future. In the past 4 seasons, this was easily the most talented and deepest part of the defense if not the entire roster. But that may no longer be the case. In all likelihood, Washington will keep 4 defensive tackles on the roster this season and one on the practice squad.

Departures:

The big names we all know and the team has no small task in trying to find someone to take on the workload that these first two names used to do.

Matthew Ioannidis was cut with 1 year left on his contract to make cap room after the trade for QB Carson Wentz, the former 5th round pick far outplayed his draft status in his 6 seasons in D.C., playing in 73 games, while starting 40. While Ioannidis was occasionally hit by the injury bug through his career, he was a major contributor to this roster, playing 59% of the defensive snaps last season. Ioannidis reunited with former Temple University coach Matt Rhule down in Carolina for next season.

Tim Settle’s departure was a bit more expected. Despite being a highly talented player, he had been 4th on the depth chart in his 4 seasons in Washington, he only was credited with 2 starts in 63 games, and played just 20% of the snaps on defense. Settle moved up to super bowl contender Buffalo on a relatively inexpensive deal.

Also, one player to note was here for just one game last season, Akeem Spence the 30 year old who came to Washington and played just 11 snaps. That game was against the Philadelphia Eagles in which much of Washington’s roster was out due to COVID. Let’s give a golf clap to a guy who was brought in for a tough situation.

Jonathan Allen: Captain-Commanders? Or is he the Commander-Captain? Master and Commander? While we may not yet know what to call the man, just know that he is the leader of this defense. Last year, was a big year for the 1st round pick. He received a 4 year, 72 million dollar deal to stay in his hometown, and was also able to get to the Pro Bowl thanks to an impressive 62 tackle and 9 sack performance.  The one stat many overlook is Allen’s 30 QB hits, double his best season to date.

Daron Payne: More often than not Payne is the disruptive force on the defensive line and the one who does some of the dirty work.  He was brought in to DC  to take on the more traditional nose tackle role, to push up the center of the field and stop the run. Last season Payne had 4.5 QB sacks and 61 tackles. Despite being a very effective and talented player, it sounds likely that the team will move on from Payne after this season. After his rookie deal expires, Payne will be looking at a big payday and will deserve it.

The key backup who’s likely a lock to make the roster this season will be Phidarian Mathis, Washington’s had a sound strategy over the last few seasons, where they just keep drafting defensive tackles from Alabama, and it’s worked fairly well so far. Here is hoping that incoming rookie Phidarian “Phil” Mathis is able to perform as well as his predecessors Allen and Payne. Mathis was taken in the 2nd round after 4 years at Alabama. He was impressive in his senior year at Alabama, notching 10.5 tackles for a loss and 9 sacks in 53 tackles in his senior year.

Competing for a roster spot

Meanwhile, there is likely only 1 roster spot and a practice squad space for which the remaining players can fight.

Daniel Wise played 6 games for Washington last season as a backup filling in while other players were out due to injury. Wise played a decent amount last season, 139 snaps as the fifth defensive tackle on the roster.

David Bada Is one of the International Pathway Program players, something that Ron Rivera seems to love. He was on the roster last year and active for 3 games. Fun fact: Bada won the German Bowl in 2018 with the Schwabish Hall Unicorns.

Tyler Clark, who is 23, is a former Georgia Bulldog who graduated after the 2019 season. He has yet to make it to an active roster in the NFL.

There are two things that will be interesting to see next season. The first is how often the team decides to utilize the 5-1-5 and 5-2 fronts that they relied on so much last season after the departures of Settle and Ioannidis. There has been little indication that Washington may have interest in going to a different defensive front, as they haven’t made any moves for a 3rd starting linebacker to this point, nor did they spend any major draft capital on a safety to replace Landon Collins. It seemed to make a lot of sense last season to use the 5-2 looks with 3 defensive tackles last season. The construction of the roster lent itself well to that.

The bigger thing that we should all be watching will be who takes over the workloads of those backups who are now gone. Over the last 3 seasons, Allen and Payne have both played an average of 767 and 825 snaps each season. When you combine the playing time of Ioannidis and Settle, those two averaged 796 snaps each season. The two of them have essentially been a 3rd starting player in our defensive line rotation. That is going to be a huge void that the team will need to fill going forward. It would be no surprise to see Mathis taking on a large workload to start the year.  Given his draft status, it’s expected, but Washington will also need a 4th player to come in and take on a solid workload.