The Washington Commanders are parting ways with both coordinators after a season that unraveled fast. Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. are both out.
Dan Quinn brought them back in February 2024 when he took over. Two years later, neither made it through. Injuries piled up this past season. Jayden Daniels went down, and so did several other key players.
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Still, the front office decided to clean house on the coaching staff anyway. The team is moving forward with a full coordinator search, and the timing suggests this goes deeper than just wins and losses.
New reporting from NFL insider Jordan Schultz points to serious dysfunction inside the building. The problems are not new, either. They stretch back to when the Commanders were actually winning games.
“Part of the issue the #Commanders have had in the building is the front office meddling with the coaching staff on personnel and which players to use — an ongoing problem dating back to 2024 when they were having success,” Schultz reported.
https://twitter.com/Schultz_Report/status/2008935148650221944?s=20
This season, those tensions got worse. Schultz noted there were clear disagreements between the coaching staff and front office. He also indicated Quinn may not have wanted to let his coordinators go.
“There’s a lot of s*** going on there,” a source said, per Schultz.
Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn looks on during the first quarter against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images
Washington looked like a team fighting itself for most of 2025. They finished well below .500 just one season after reaching the NFC Championship Game. That kind of drop does not happen without something breaking internally. The fall was sharp and obvious.
Now the focus turns to what happens next. The Commanders have not named replacements yet. Those hires will matter, especially if the organization wants to patch things up and get the locker room back on track.
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