{"id":714626,"date":"2026-01-29T18:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T18:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/714626\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T18:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T18:59:14","slug":"washington-commanders-defensive-coach-expected-to-join-pittsburgh-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/714626\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Commanders defensive coach expected to join Pittsburgh Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">The Washington Commanders fired defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr and replaced him with Minnesota Vikings <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hogshaven.com\/washington-commanders-news\/399685\/washington-commanders-have-hired-joe-whitts-replacement-at-defensive-coordinator\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:DBs coach\/passing game coordinator Daronte Jones;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">DBs coach\/passing game coordinator Daronte Jones<\/a>. Whitt had his playcalling duties stripped, and head coach Dan Quinn took over for the remainder of the season. There are a lot of questions about Jones, who hasn\u2019t called plays in the NFL, and what his new coaching staff will look like.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Jason Simmons joined the Commanders after Quinn and Whitt were hired in 2024 as the defensive pass game coordinator. He interviewed with the Pittsburgh Steelers for their open defensive coordinator job under new head coach Mike McCarthy. That job went to former Las Vegas Raiders DC Patrick Graham, but Simmons will be joining his new coaching staff in Pittsburgh where he played safety for four seasons(1998-2001 Simmons is the first assistant coach to exit, but there will likely be a lot more changes on both sides of the ball with two new coordinators.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Commanders current defensive coaches<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Defensive Coordinator \u2013 Daronte Jones<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Senior defensive assistant \u2013 John Pagano<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Defensive backs \u2013 Tommy Donatell<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Assistant DBs \u2013 William Gay<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Linebackers \u2013 Ken Norton Jr<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Assistant LBs\/Pass rush specialist<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Defensive line \u2013 Darryl Tapp<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Assistant defensive line \u2013 Sharrif Floyd<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Defensive quality control \u2013 George Banko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Commanders fired defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr and replaced him with Minnesota Vikings DBs coach\/passing game&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[52946,427,7291,93687,13147,2792,1156,22491,7,6496,44154,15639,393,259,6,14269,57,103575,855,111,2480,44155],"class_list":["post-714626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-commanders","tag-assistant-coach","tag-commanders","tag-dan-quinn","tag-daronte-jones","tag-darryl-tapp","tag-defensive-coordinator","tag-defensive-line","tag-defensive-staff","tag-football","tag-head-coach","tag-jason-simmons","tag-joe-whitt-jr","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-nfl","tag-patrick-graham","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sharrif-floyd","tag-washington","tag-washington-commanders","tag-washingtoncommanders","tag-william-gay"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115979928522810534","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714626","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=714626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}