Now look, there are a few reasons why the Washington Commanders struggled on defense last year, and injuries played a big role.

But that’s all in the past, now, and the defense is in brand new territory under Daronte Jones, who previously coached under or alongside guys like Brian Flores, Mike Zimmer, Lou Anarumo, and Vance Jospeh.

That’s an impressive quintet and it’s allowed Jones to gain a wealth of knowledge when it comes to coordinating his first NFL defense. Mainly because the aforementioned coaches are great at making their defenses look complicated for opposing offenses, but nowhere near as such for their players to execute.

“I like to think you’re pulling from a little bit of everyone,” Jones told reporters when asked about his process in figuring out what he wants to do with his own defense. “And just your experiences, as we all have done in our past, with anything, you know, you take multiple classes in college, you’re going to pull from all types of classes, you know what I mean?”

As promising as it all sounds, we all know learning a new system always involves ups and downs and it’s never guaranteed things automatically click.

That might not be the case for Jones and the Commanders in Year 1, however, thanks to the levers being pulled behind the scenes.

Daronte Jones makes it easy for his guys, but hard for anyone trying to score points

Daronte Jones’ defense is quite an interesting one from a 10,000 foot view. Once the ball is snapped, they aren’t doing anything revolutionary from a coverage perspective. It’s your standard Cover-3, Tampa 2, etc.

Where the uniqueness comes into play is with the pre-snap looks. The Minnesota Vikings are so good on defense because they will show you 3-6 different coverage looks before you snap the ball, and it makes communication paramount for the success of the unit. It’s also why Flores included many players in the construction of his defense, because ownership breeds more success. Think of it like this: you hired a Michelin star chef to cook at an Applebee’s.

There are commonalities at play, here. Jones and the Commanders defenders, like Flores, have been collaborating when it comes to constructing the defense. The same goes for the Commanders offense, too.

On top of that, Jones is making it easy for his guys to learn the defense, which obviously goes a long way toward helping them hit the ground running.

“I think if you like to run, hit, play fast, you know, it’s perfect use for you,” Sonny Styles said when asked about Jones’ defense. “You don’t have to do a whole lot of like crazy thinking, you know? I think we’re multiple defense, but like, it doesn’t feel like crazy for us.

“The way he teaches informations is easy to digest. … It’s super easy to understand. So, I feel like guys are really far along right now.”

And as for the communication aspect, which is integral to the whole operation? Well, that’s getting taken care of quickly in itself.

“Every defense has its own little language, like you said, but [there] a lot of similarities,” said Styles. “You know, football is football, you can only do so many different types of defenses. [You] just call it a different way…

“… We’re announcing, ‘Hey, you’re going, you’re going, he’s dropped.’ Whatever it may be, we’re all communicating within the play. There’s so much going on, but just to make sure we’re on the same page so when the ball is snapped you can play fast.”

So far, it sounds like things are moving in the right direction for the Commanders defense and it’ll be fun to see what this unit can do when once training camp rolls around in late July.