American Football

The 5 O’Clock Club: the Commanders corners

May 6, 2024

Washington Commanders v Los Angeles Rams — Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…

The 5 o’clock club is published from time to time during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.

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Today, I want to spend some time talking about the 2024 cornerback unit of the Washington Commanders.

St-Juste & Fobes

Washington’s cornerback group is interesting, in part because it features two returning players who have substantial question marks over their short and long-term futures in Benjamin St-Juste and Emmanuel Forbes. St-Juste has been on the field a lot over the 3 seasons since being selected by the Commanders in the 3rd round of the 2021 draft, yet he has been part of an often-dysfunctional unit, and has often been ‘handsy’, drawing a lot of penalty flags. Forbes, who was drafted 16th overall last year, is an undersized player who struggled and was benched for a stretch during his rookie season. It’s possible that both players may benefit from a new coaching staff.

Coaches

Joe Whitt gets his first crack at being a defensive coordinator. His history as a defensive backs coach and defensive passing game coordinator dates back to 2003, with Louisville in the college ranks. If anyone is capable of helping these two players upgrade their play, he seems to be as good a choice as can be found in the NFL. The team’s DB coach is Tommy Donatell, who is the son of Ed Donatell, who has been coaching for 32 years, and last coached for the Minnesota Vikings as their defensive coordinator in 2022. Tom Donatell got his first opportunity to be a position coach in 2021, when he joined Brandon Staley’s coaching staff with the Chargers. He was charged with assisting secondary coach Derrick Ansley develop veteran Derwin James, who was coming off a season-ending knee injury, and former second-round pick Asante Samuel Jr.

Donatell was successful with both players. James bounced back from his injury and earned two Pro Bowl appearances, while Samuel emerged as a valuable starter for the Chargers’ secondary.

Sainristil & Martin

Of course, there has been a lot of focus on the team’s rookie corners, especially second-round pick Mike Sainristil, who appears to fit into the defense as a nickel/slot corner. He may be able to displace last year’s second-round pick, Quan Martin, who is a safety with quickness and good cover skills. In any event, the team should have two talented young players to provide options and help disguise scheme and coverage.

Chigozie Anusiem

One other rookie cornerback, Chigozie Anusiem, has drawn a lot of attention after going undrafted. At least one draft analyst declared that Anusiem was fast, and compared him to Kendall Fuller, predicting that he would be drafted in the 6th round. However, Lance Zierlein’s pre-draft profile of the player reads much more like that of an undrafted free agent:

Anusiem is a big, strong outside cornerback whose lack of ball production could cancel out his favorable size. He doesn’t have ideal top-end speed or closing burst, but he’s a decent athlete in space. He’s more interested in covering than finding the football and taking it away, and that is unlikely to change in the NFL. He might not have the necessary speed to stick at cornerback, but his tackling success and size give him a chance to try his hand at safety.

Michael Davis

Apparently forgotten by many Commanders fans in the excitement of the draft is the fact that the team signed Michael Davis in free agency. Davis had spent his entire career with the Chargers after going undrafted in 2017 out of BYU. Davis is a boundary cornerback and has proven to be quite durable, playing at least 73 percent of the Chargers defensive snaps in each of the last four years.

His best stretch of football came during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, when Davis allowed a completion rate of only 53 percent on 160 combined targets. He would also hold opponents to 11.9 yards per catch while coming away with 20 pass breakups and two interceptions.

More recently in 2023, Davis surrendered a completion rate of 65.6 percent at a modest 12.9 yards per catch with seven pass breakups and an interception. Davis’ missed tackle rate jumped to 14.3 percent this past season as well, but for much of his career he has shown to be capable in that regard as well.

With a fresh start on a new team and a new coaching staff, could Davis return to his pre-23 form? The Commanders didn’t have to pay big money to find out. Davis signed a one-year, $3.6m deal to come to Washington where he should have a good opportunity to compete for a starting role in a young and somewhat undermanned cornerback group. As a 7-year veteran, he will be the only player in the cornerback group not to be on a rookie contract, and could take on a leadership role.