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The Washington Commanders are the “best fit” for a two-time Super Bowl-winning CB in free agency, amid rumors about Marshon Lattimore’s future.
Retooling what’s been an underperforming secondary is a priority for new Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Daronte Jones, and he would surely welcome the team staring the process by signing a “long-armed” two-time Super Bowl winner in 2026 NFL free agency, particularly with veteran Marshon Lattimore looking an increasingly likely casualty of the salary cap.
Replacing Lattimore with Jaylen Watson would make sense for the Commanders, and The Ringer’s Austin Gayle believes Washington represents the best fit for the Kansas City Chiefs starter.
Gayle calls Watson “a tall, long-armed cornerback who has improved every year of his career. Over the past two seasons, Watson allowed just one touchdown and recorded eight pass breakups and two interceptions, per PFF. He’s a scheme-versatile, disciplined player with more than 2,000 snaps played at outside corner over the past four years. Watson may not have a ton of ball production, but he makes up for it with down-to-down consistency and an overall reluctance to give up the big play.”
Reducing big plays through the air has been a problem the Commanders haven’t been able to solve in recent seasons. Their efforts have hardly been helped by Lattimore floundering after arriving in trade midway through the 2024 season.
Rather than playing up to his CV as a four-time Pro Bowler, Lattimore “is almost certainly done. He has one year left on his deal, but his $16.5 million salary isn’t guaranteed, which means the team can move on and save $18.5 million in cap space,” according to Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic.
Moving on from Lattimore with the younger and more dependable Watson would be a win-win move for the rebuilding Commanders. Especially since Watson is already a good fit for the type of defense new play-caller Jones will run.
Jaylen Watson Perfect for Commanders’ New Defense
Jones is likely to call something similar to what he learned from Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores. While he may not be another Flores, Jones will still rely on a fiendish mix of sophisticated blitzing and elaborately disguised coverages.
It’s a complex plan, but fortunately, Watson already knows all about it thanks to his time with the Chiefs. He’s spent four seasons playing for legendary DC Steve Spagnuolo, who is also known for calling fire-zone pressures that ask for sudden coverage rotations and defensive backs who can blitz.
Watson made Spagnuolo’s schemes work by blitzing 13 times and collecting two sacks last season, per Pro Football Reference. He also allowed just a single touchdown in coverage.
The real key to how the Chiefs travel defensively is the ability of their corners to play on islands. Watson proved his chops in this area by snatching an end-zone interception off Russell Wilson and the Commanders’ NFC East rivals the New York Giants back in Week 3.
A corner who can stay outside the numbers and win without help has been missing from Washington’s defense for too long. This deficiency makes Watson worth the potential price tag in the “$16 million to $18 million per year range” Gayle believes he “could be looking for” in free agency.
That price tag is well within the range of the Commanders, who are projected by Spotrac.com to have as much as $66,506,531 worth of space under the salary cap.
The figure will increase considerably if, as many anticipate, the franchise takes action over Lattimore.
Marshon Lattimore Tipped for Costly Exit
Jhabvala isn’t the only one who believes Lattimore is headed for the exit door at Northwest Stadium. As she explained, cutting Lattimore is “a layup, and frankly it’s necessary for the defense to improve. But the failed experiment was costly. Washington gave up essentially three draft picks (the Commanders also swapped fifth-rounders) to acquire Lattimore from the New Orleans Saints at the 2024 trading deadline.”
The high cost of this ill-fated trade will sting Commanders general manager Adam Peters, but his plans for Lattimore have never yielded good results. Injuries and middling performances make Lattimore vulnerable to changes the Commanders need to make on the back end.
His offseason is currently more about his arrest back on Wednesday, January 7 in Lakewood, Ohio. Lattimore was charged with a misdemeanour charge of carrying a concealed weapon while a passenger in a car. He pleaded not guilty ahead of a second hearing on Friday, February 6, according to WKYC Channel 3 News.
On Monday, February 16, TMZ Sports obtained and released “body-worn camera footage” from Lattimore’s arrest, “and it shows the NFL vet telling cops he had no weapons in his car, before a search revealed otherwise,” per the report.
The Commanders have more than one difficult decision to make about defensive backs on their roster, but Lattimore’s future will be the biggest and have the greatest impact on Peters’ plans for free agency.
James Dudko covers the New York Giants, Washington Commanders, New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens for Heavy.com. He has covered the NFL and world soccer since 2011, with bylines at FanSided, Prime Time Sports Talk and Bleacher Report before joining Heavy in 2021. More about James Dudko
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