Washington’s commanders gave up key players in their successful defense in 2020. Some of this was inevitable. But now it seems that Jack Del Rio and other decision-makers had an ever-greener mindset when it came to evaluating their own talent.
Ronald Darby, Jimmy Moreland and Fabian Moreau were key contributors in the secondary in 2020. None were re-signed after the season.
Neither does Kevin Pierre-Louis. The defensive front’s key reserves – Matt Ioannidis and Tim Settle – would depart over the next few seasons.
This kind of turnover is inevitable. On quality teams, new players are continually identified and developed to take over the roles of departing veterans.
Rookies Jamin Davis, Benjamin St-Juste and Phidarian Mathis were supposed to be those players. For whatever reason, none have lived up to their draft pedigree thus far and face an uncertain future with further coaching changes expected once the campaign ends.
Mathis has been injured for much of his brief career and is now starting to look like a major mistake in the 2022 NFL Draft. I don’t blame Del Rio for that. But as far as St-Juste and Davis are concerned, he deserves criticism.
