Where’s Washington’s pass rush going to come from?
May 19, 2025
by Steve Thomas
One of the major questions amongst fans and media alike during this 2025 offseason is the question of Washington’s pass rush – over the past several years the team drafted such luminaries as Chase Young and Montez Sweat in an attempt to get at least one elite sack specialist on the roster. Neither of those choices worked out, especially Young, and as a result Washington is now stuck with what most view as roughly average defensive ends and pass-rushing linebackers.
Fans, in particular, have been screaming “EDGE!!!!!” in somewhat irrational fashion all offseason, only to watch both free agency and the draft go by without
The truth is that Washington wasn’t terrible in this area last year. As a team, they had 43 sacks, which was ranked 11th in the NFL. The leader was the Denver Broncos, with 63, followed by the Ravens with 54, the Cowboys with 52, and both Houston and the Vikings with 49. As you can see from this list, elite sack numbers aren’t necessarily the be-all, end-all to winning football games. Regardless, certainly, more is better.
Last season, Washington’s 43 sacks included 10.5 from the now-departed Dante Fowler, 8 from linebacker Frankie Luvu, five from defensive end Dorance Armstrong, 4 from Daron Payne, 3.5 from Clelin Ferrell, 3 from the now-departed Jonathan Allen, 2 each from the now-departed Jeremy Chinn, Bobby Wagner, and Johnny Newton, and 1 from Javontae Jean-Bapiste.
The reality is that Washington was unable to grab an elite pass rusher. Trey Hendrickson is in that category and may yet end up a Redskin Commander on the Washington team, to the delight of some in our comment section, but that hasn’t happened yet. What does Washington have right at this moment? The reality is that 3 of 4 starting spots on the defensive line are set: Payne is a plus-level player who has a cap hit of more than $26M. New veteran signing Javon Kinlaw doesn’t have a huge cap hit this year, only $5.3M, but he does have a $45M contract with a very large $30M pre-June 1 dead cap figure. So he’s in. Armstrong is next; he is in year 2 of a $33M deal and has a cap hit of more than $10M. As a result, he’s going to start as well.
That only leaves one of the end spots realistically open. No other defensive line player on the roster sticks out as a “must start” from a contract perspective. I’ll get back to that later. In the linebacker group, the obvious starters are two plus-level players, Bobby Wagner and Luvu. Beyond that, the other outside linebacker position is an open question; possibly Jordan Magee by default, but I’ll get back to that one later as well.
In terms of the guaranteed defensive line starters, neither Armstrong, Payne, nor Kinlaw have a history of big sack numbers. Armstrong is heading into his 8th season, and his high water mark is just 8.5 in 2022. Payne’s career high is 11.5 in 2022, but he’s roughly averaged 4 per year in everyone other season. Kinslaw’s career high was 4.5 with the Jets last season, and he’s had two seasons in which he had no sacks. Wagner has had some seasons here and there in which he had a few sacks, including 6 in 2022, but as a middle linebacker in a 4 – 3 defense, that isn’t really the point of his position.
Luvu’s last three seasons have been noticeably better than his first four – from 2022 – 2024, he had 7, 5.5, and 8, respectively, but those are also the only seasons in which he was a regular starter. Luvu will probably come at roughly the same level this coming season as well.
The point here is that the team’s leading sacker, Fowler, is gone, and there’s no obvious replacement. The main candidates for the starting end spot are, first by default, Clelin Ferrell, then a multitude of very young and inexperienced players such as, in no particular order, 6th round pick Jacob Martin, 2024 practice squad Viliami Fehoko Jr., 2024 7th round pick Javontae Jean-Baptiste, 2023 7th round pick Andre Jones Jr., 2025 International Pathway Program signee T.J. Maguranyanga.
That doesn’t appear to be an awe-inspiring list. For his part, Ferrell doesn’t have a history of anything but low sack numbers, even in the seasons in which he’s been a regular starter. His career high was 4.5 sacks in his 2019 rookie season. That’s a far cry from replicating Fowler’s total from last season. Martin had 8 sacks for the Temple Owls last season, which is somewhat promising, although that was by far his collegiate high. Fehoko had 23 total sacks in 5 seasons at San Jose St., including 16 in his final two seasons. Jean-Baptiste’s high in college was just 5 sacks in his final season at Notre Dame in 2023. There’s no telling what sort of skills or demonstrated history Maguranyanga may have.
Clearly, the options to replace or improve on Dante Fowler’s production are limited, and if we’re being honest, unlikely. Kinlaw isn’t known as a sack specialist on the inside, so Washington is most likely going to need to rely on Payne to recreate the magic of his 2022 season. Call me crazy, but that sort of turnaround seems unlikely.
What is Washington supposed to do here in order to at least maintain their 43 sacks in 2024? I don’t believe that there are any good answers here. It’s possible that Dorrance Armstrong takes a step forward and bumps his numbers up somewhat; however, there’s no reason basis for that sort of prediction other than just . . . hope. It’s also possible, albeit unlikely, that one of the newbies comes from relative obscurity in one offseason to become a plus-level starter. Again, though, there’s no evidence to suggest that’s possible at this juncture.
There may not be an answer to this dilemma. Washington’s sack numbers may go down this season unless the combination of Payne and Kinlaw are able to generate more pressure the inside. Linebacker Jordan Magee did generate some pass rush in college in his last two years at Temple, with 3.5 and 4.5 sacks in 2022 and 2023, respectively, so it isn’t too crazy to think that he could at least come up with a few sacks at a starter. I think the odds of Magee putting up 10 or more aren’t great from the outside linebacker position in a 4 – 3 defense, though.
The most likely scenario is that Washington loses 4 or 5 sacks in this coming season, unfortunately. That isn’t the end of the world – some good teams last season didn’t generate a ton of sacks, such as Buffalo, with 39, Detroit with 37, and the Super Bowl champion Eagles, who had 41. Washington can overcome this probable deficiency with better coverage in the secondary and a great emphasis on turnovers. They can’t fix every problem in a year or even two. Unless one of these players comes out of nowhere, look for Washington to either sign an expensive free agent or burn a high draft pick on an edge rusher next season.