In major shakeup, Commanders part ways with OC Kliff Kingsbury, DC Joe Whitt Jr.: Sources
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:Nicki Jhabvala and Dianna Russini
After finishing 5-12, the Commanders are making major changes on both sides of the ball.
ASHBURN, Va. — A year ago, the Washington Commanders said they felt fortunate to have their offensive and defensive coordinators returning for another season. But now, they’re willingly moving on from both Kliff Kingsbury and Joe Whitt Jr., according to team and league sources, with the hope that after a 5-12 season, significant change will lead to significantly different results.
According to one of those sources, Kingsbury met with head coach Dan Quinn on Tuesday to discuss the future of the offense, and after their conversation, they mutually agreed to part ways.
Sources said the Commanders also parted with offensive line coach Bobby Johnson, who joined the staff in 2024.
But the decision to part with Kingsbury comes as somewhat of a surprise, given the success of Washington’s offense in 2024. Kingsbury is expected to draw interest as a head-coaching candidate. As the Commanders spiraled in 2025, it became a real possibility that they could move on without him, no matter if he landed a head-coaching job elsewhere. One person with knowledge of Washington’s operations cited a difference in philosophy between Kingsbury and general manager Adam Peters in the development of quarterback Jayden Daniels, who missed 10 games this season because of injuries.
In his first season with the Commanders, Kingsbury developed a system around Daniels, blending Air Raid principles with run-pass options, zone reads and a heavy dose of tempo.
The result: an offense that ranked seventh in total yards (369.6 per game) and fifth in scoring (28.5 points per game), converted a record 87.0 percent of its fourth-down attempts and transformed a franchise that, for years, had toiled near the bottom in most offensive categories.
Kingsbury helped Daniels have arguably the finest season ever by a rookie quarterback, in which he completed 69.0 percent of his passes and set the rookie QB rushing record with 891 yards to earn Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.
“I love working with Kliff,” Daniels said Monday. “Me and him have a special relationship. We kind of built that over these past two years, and I just wish I was out there more to play for him this past year. So, that’s kind of the focus for me this offseason is just rebuilding myself from the ground up.”
Year 2 in Washington was a sharp fall, due in large part to injuries. The Commanders lost running back Austin Ekeler for much of the season; lost their top two receivers, Terry McLaurin and Noah Brown, for long stretches; lost tight end Zach Ertz to a torn ACL and later lost backup quarterback Marcus Mariota (quad/hand).
But undoubtedly the biggest loss was Daniels, the key cog in both the run and pass games. He suffered injuries to his knee, hamstring and elbow, and played only four full games.
Washington’s full starting offense, as initially envisioned, didn’t play a regular-season snap until Week 14. And because of injuries, Week 14 also marked the last time the offense played together.
“The injuries just, they happen,” Kingsbury said last month. “So, I don’t know if there’s a way to be like, ‘Hey, you got to play a certain style or do this or do that.’ Last year (Daniels) played in all 19 games, and so I think it’s just more of continuing to work at your craft and continue to be the leader you want to be, and you know, all those things are going to take him to the next level and become the player and leader he wants to be.”
Statistically, Washington’s offense fell far below expectations in 2025, finishing in the bottom third of the league in scoring (20.9 points), third-down percentage (37.6 percent), total yards (318.8) and passing yards (184.1).
“I think when you go through these seasons, it’s always best to start with yourself, point at yourself and then figure out what you could do better and then collectively what we could do better,” Kingsbury said ahead of the team’s Week 18 win over the Philadelphia Eagles. “But there’s a ton of different decisions I wish we would’ve made and I would’ve made more, just like individual play calls than anything … trying to slow the games down, limit possessions, do things of that nature.”
In his final news conference in Washington, ahead of the win over the Philadelphia Eagles, Kingsbury declined to discuss his potential head-coaching candidacy, saying only that he’ll “cross that bridge, when and if we get there.”
Mariota also praised Kingsbury on Monday for his vision of the offense and his coaching style.
“First and foremost, it allows the quarterback to see everything,” Mariota said. “I’ve been in systems where quarterbacks have to call these long play calls, and you get up there, and you have five seconds to diagnose everything and make a check and make a play. I think being able to be on the ball is very quarterback-friendly. It allows you to see it, gets you into good plays, gets you out of bad plays. And the way we prepare day in and day out has been very unique for me, and one that I think as I go forward in my career I’ll continue.”
But as Washington continues to search for consistency, it moves on to its sixth offensive and potentially its sixth defensive coordinator in the last 10 seasons.
Whitt, a 19-year NFL coaching assistant who has spent the bulk of his career working with defensive backs, followed Quinn to Washington in 2024 after spending more than three seasons with him as the pass game coordinator/secondary coach in Atlanta and Dallas.
The Washington Commanders are moving on from Joe Whitt Jr. after two seasons. (John McDonnell / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
His years of working with Quinn and his development of the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive backs from 2021 to 2023 made Whitt a logical pick for defensive coordinator in Washington, though he had yet to call plays full-time. The two men were aligned on system and play style — Quinn specialized in the front, and Whitt’s expertise was on the back end — and in Washington, they believed they could mold a defense with its own identity.
“Being with Joe for three years gave me a lot of confidence knowing that if given the opportunity, he’d nail it,” Quinn said in the spring of 2024. “So, that’s why he was an important person for me here.”
But the Commanders’ defense never developed into what they envisioned and instead devolved into a liability. The Commanders gave up the most yards (384.3), and ranked 31st in both defensive EPA (-7.54) and takeaways (0.59) per game. They also gave up the second-most first downs per game (22.12), the third-most yards per play (6.0) and had the third-highest opponent explosive play rate (12.6 percent).
In Whitt’s first season, the unit found a rhythm late to finish with the NFL’s third-best passing defense (189.5 yards allowed per game), with an emerging group of young players, including cornerback Mike Sainristil and safety Quan Martin.
Washington altered its defensive line in the offseason to try to improve against the run, but the defense failed to fully launch in 2025. Worse, those young players who starred in ‘24 seemed to regress.
Injuries ravaged the roster, especially the defensive line, and the unit’s shortcomings were exposed early. Mistakes — missed tackles that led to big plays, blown coverages that led to more big plays, communication problems and more — became weekly occurrences that often thwarted any positive momentum and turned close games into blowouts.
Players and coaches insisted the issues were primarily tied to poor execution of the calls. Despite adjusting the practice structure, simplifying the call sheets, and even moving Whitt to the sideline, the Commanders found no solutions.
After they fell to 3-7 on the season following a debacle of a loss to the Detroit Lions, Quinn took over the defensive play calling, making the announcement hours before the team boarded a flight to Madrid.
“We had a conversation that night after the game, and so I understood it,” Whitt said later that week. “And I expected it. … It’s about winning and playing well, and we haven’t done that. That’s the bottom line.”
Whitt kept his title as defensive coordinator and retained some of the same duties throughout the week to help prepare the call sheets and get the defense ready. But during games, he sat in the booth to serve as an extra set of eyes for Quinn, who called plays from the sideline.
The defense showed some improvement in Quinn’s first two games as play caller, but the same mistakes of the past soon resurfaced, and the defense failed to find any consistency.
Quinn initially left open the possibility that he could serve as defensive coordinator in 2026, which would create continuity in scheme and personnel fit. But a full evaluation of Washington’s defense needs to go deeper, and he seemed to hedge Monday, saying, “I think what I’ve learned is to make the best decision for what the team needs.”
He continued: “What I do know is I’ll be heavily involved one way or another. And that’s the part that I do enjoy. But, yeah, I think I’ll keep an open mind as I’m going through the next parts of the process.”
Should the Commanders bring in someone else to lead the defense, it wouldn’t be an usual ask for Quinn. He surrendered play calling twice during his six seasons as the Atlanta Falcons’ head coach. And when he arrived in Washington, he said he wanted his focus to be on the full team and not a single phase or group.
But the question then becomes what type of candidate would Washington pursue — an up-and-coming assistant with minimal or no play-calling experience, such as Al Harris, the Bears’ defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach who was with Quinn in Dallas?
Or would Washington seek a more proven coach with years of play calling on his résumé? Raheem Morris, Quinn’s former player turned assistant, was let go by the Falcons on Sunday and could be a candidate if he doesn’t land another head-coaching job. Morris’ former defensive coordinator in Atlanta, Jeff Ulbrich — who was the linebackers coach for the Falcons when Quinn was their head coach — could also be available. Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores will also be a free agent after the season unless he re-signs with Minnesota.
