Mike Sainristil is one of the biggest steals from the 2024 NFL Draft class. The Commanders landed one of the highest-IQ players, who we graded as a first-rounder, on Day Two (50th overall) of the draft.
— Football Scout 365 (@DraftAnalyst365) September 28, 2025
More than a few times, Washington defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. has mentioned that communication is a necessity.
Whitt discussed it during training camp, the preseason, last season, and this season. However, with the Commanders‘ pass defense leaving the Falcons open repeatedly on Sunday, the question about communication in the secondary was bound to be raised on Monday when Dan Quinn conversed with the media.
“Yeah, I think there’s a fine line between trying to play perfect and hitting the communication and being loud on the go,” replied Quinn. “By being perfect, what do I mean by that? Sometimes a speed motion happens. Being so careful that you’re late on a communication, you’re not quick on it to go. And so, I really want our guys to really trust their training, they put good work in and allow that to fully be expressed and heard and acknowledged.”
Quinn acknowledged they are not substituting a lot right now, not rotating people in various situations of down and yardage. He didn’t say why, but the number of injuries would certainly be a reasonable reason for them to feel it best to rotate less until more people are ready to contribute.
“There’s not that many moving parts with different people on the defensive side, so we want to make sure we can nail that. It could be as easy as communication could have been, you said it, did I receive it on a call when somebody’s going quickly. It doesn’t always mean in motion or in the one we had a pressure that didn’t look as good. One player was doing one thing, thought heard a different call or different technique. So, I just want to make sure they trust their training. We don’t have too many different things up, let’s make sure, call it, let it rip, be aggressive.”
The secondary looked lost and or beaten much of the day, Sunday, as Michael Penix had his best day by far this season. According to Quinn, there was a bright spot in the secondary.
“Yeah, I was pleased to see a lot of what he (Mike Sainristil) did at the nickel in this game,” Quinn said. “I thought he had some good tackles. He was aggressive inside and had the interception. So, I was pleased to see Mikey improve from last game into this game. And so, I thought he and [LB Frankie] Luvu were two that stood out to me of some things that had real progress.”
There have been some calls to move Sainristil back to outside cornerback, replacing Marshon Lattimore. Sainristil has struggled at times in the slot through the first four weeks.