{"id":958360,"date":"2026-07-29T05:24:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T05:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/958360\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T05:24:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T05:24:34","slug":"commanders-tap-wes-welker-to-replace-tight-ends-coach-fired-after-dwi-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/958360\/","title":{"rendered":"Commanders tap Wes Welker to replace tight ends coach fired after DWI arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Commanders have a new tight ends coach, and it\u2019s probably a name you remember well.<\/p>\n<p>After the team <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/27\/sports\/commanders-fire-new-tight-end-coach-ben-steele-after-dwi-arrest\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fired its previous tight ends coach Ben Steele<\/a> following a DWI arrest, Washington named the former All-Pro receiver Wes Welker to the position.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Welker joined the Commanders staff a year ago and was elevated to an assistant this offseason. He also worked with the tight ends when Steele was initially suspended after driving while intoxicated.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40117864\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2190892504.jpg\" alt=\"Wes Welker was names Commanders tight end coach.\" class=\"wp-image-40117864\"  \/>Wes Welker was named Commanders tight end coach. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Steele was pulled over at 1:15 a.m. on June 7 in Loudoun County, Virginia (where the Commanders practice), for suspicion of DWI and refused a breath and blood test.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Steele was additionally charged with resisting and obstruction without force, and has a court date on Aug. 13.\u00a0He was suspended by the Commanders for the last two voluntary spring practices and their three-day mandatory minicamp <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/49462862\/commanders-fire-te-coach-ben-steele-following-dwi-charge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">before his firing<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Commanders head coach Dan Quinn told reporters that Welker doesn\u2019t have an official role for his position, but that he will be in charge of the tight ends, a job pass game coordinator David Raih held the last two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Welker spent 2025 with the Commanders as a personnel analyst following his firing as the Dolphins wide receivers coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He spent 2022-24 as Miami\u2019s receivers coach, working with dynamic threats Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Before that, he spent three seasons as the 49ers receivers coach and two as an offensive and special teams assistant for the Texans.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.41632089;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40117676\" width=\"836\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/73506717_Free-Agency-Football.jpg\" alt=\"Former New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker.\" class=\"wp-image-40117676\"  \/>Former New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker. AP<\/p>\n<p>But Welker is most well-known for his playing career.<\/p>\n<p>Across 11 seasons with the Dolphins, Patriots, Broncos and Rams, Welker had 9,924 receiving yards and 50 touchdowns.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Welker was a five-time Pro Bowler, two-time First Team All-Pro and led the NFL in receptions three times.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He will work with a Commanders tight end room featuring John Bates, Ben Sinnott and Chig Okonkwo.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Commanders have a new tight ends coach, and it\u2019s probably a name you remember well. After the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":958361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[427,7,6,9,855,111,2480,2722],"class_list":["post-958360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-commanders","tag-commanders","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-washington","tag-washington-commanders","tag-washingtoncommanders","tag-wes-welker"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117001602346621555","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958360","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=958360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/958361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}