{"id":680629,"date":"2026-01-16T01:27:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680629\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T01:27:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:27:21","slug":"commanders-hire-d-j-williams-as-qbs-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680629\/","title":{"rendered":"Commanders Hire D.J. Williams As QBs Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Commanders are already transitioning from Kliff Kingsbury to David Blough at OC, giving a recently retired quarterback the play sheet ahead of his 31st birthday. Washington is now adding another key voice for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/D\/DaniJa02.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-15_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jayden Daniels<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.profootballrumors.com\/files\/2026\/01\/USATSI_27456181-1-scaled.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-389389 size-medium\" style=\"border: 2px solid #000000;margin: 15px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/USATSI_27456181-1-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\"  \/><\/a>D.J. Williams, son of Commanders exec and former Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams, is coming over from the Falcons to be Washington\u2019s next QBs coach, ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AdamSchefter\/status\/2011594433066909795\" rel=\"nofollow\">tweets<\/a>. D.J. Williams spent the past two seasons with the Falcons, first as assistant QBs coach and then as QBs coach.<\/p>\n<p>This decision comes after the Panthers made the move to keep another Commanders candidate. Carolina is promoting assistant QBs coach Mike Bercovici to pass-game coordinator, insider Jordan Schultz <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Schultz_Report\/status\/2011869352157479246\" rel=\"nofollow\">tweets<\/a>. Bercovici received an <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2026\/01\/commanders-request-interview-with-mike-bercovici-for-qbs-coach-job\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">interview request from the Commanders<\/a> about the job but will remain on Dave Canales\u2018 Carolina staff. Bercovici, 32, has been with the Panthers since Frank Reich\u2018s 2023 stopover.<\/p>\n<p>Previously a five-year Saints assistant, Williams will join his father in Washington <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2026\/01\/commanders-want-to-interview-brian-flores-for-dc-job\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">after interviewing for the job<\/a>. The former Grambling State QB mentored <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/P\/PeniMi00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-15_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Michael Penix Jr.<\/a>\u00a0over the past two seasons, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2024\/02\/nfc-south-coaching-updates-panthers-qb-coaches\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">being hired just before Atlanta completed<\/a> an unusually assembled quarterback room by signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CousKi00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-15_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kirk Cousins<\/a> to a big-ticket contract and then drafting Penix. The latter was inconsistent before being shut down due to injury this season, but Washington will bring in his position coach to work with Daniels.<\/p>\n<p>This will be an interesting setup for the Commanders, who jettisoned a seasoned play-caller in Kingsbury. Blough was on the Lions\u2019 OC radar, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2026\/01\/commanders-promote-david-blough-to-oc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">leading to this Commanders promotion<\/a>. Blough entered the 2025 season as Washington\u2019s assistant QBs coach, moving up a rung on the ladder when QBs coach Tavita Pritchard became Stanford\u2019s HC. It will now be Blough overseeing Williams as the top offensive staffers in Washington ahead of Daniels\u2019 third season.<\/p>\n<p>Bercovici has been part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/Y\/YounBr01.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-15_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bryce Young<\/a>\u2018s development since the diminutive passer\u2019s 2023 arrival, but he also worked both under Kingsbury in Arizona (2020-22) and with Daniels at Arizona State. Bercovici was with the Sun Devils as a graduate assistant in 2019, Daniels\u2019 freshman season with the then-Pac-12 program. It would appear the Panthers\u2019 decision to promote Bercovici prevented a reunion with the standout quarterback, but Doug Williams certainly carries plenty of clout in Washington. The former Washington starting QB, now <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2024\/06\/commanders-move-doug-williams-back-to-personnel-role-part-ways-with-eugene-shen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">working in an advisory role<\/a>, has been in the franchise\u2019s front office since 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Commanders are already transitioning from Kliff Kingsbury to David Blough at OC, giving a recently retired quarterback&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2069],"tags":[260,427,99439,7,98052,6,855,111,2480],"class_list":{"0":"post-680629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-commanders","8":"tag-carolina-panthers","9":"tag-commanders","10":"tag-d-j-williams-qb-coach","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-mike-bercovici","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-washington","15":"tag-washington-commanders","16":"tag-washingtoncommanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115902182695540699","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}