The Washington Commanders made a surprising in-season addition last week, adding former NFL head coach and defensive coordinator Steve Wilks to the coaching staff. Wilks will not be an on-field coach for Washington, but will instead work half the week with the defensive coaching staff on game planning and film review.
General manager Adam Peters broke down why Wilks was a good fit for the Commanders last week.
“I know Steve; we worked together in San Francisco, and so he’s an awesome person, a good man,” Peters said on the “Sports Junkies” last Friday. “This is something we had talked about really throughout training camp. DQ (Dan Quinn) and Daronte (Jones) had talked about this during training camp in adding another experienced mind, especially in the secondary.”
Peters and head coach Dan Quinn both said the Commanders were planning to hire Wilks as early as training camp, but he had other obligations to fill.
“Daronte’s expertise is in the secondary, and with him coordinating the defense, he wanted to get another set of eyes back there as he (Daronte) took over the whole defense. So that’s where it started. The guys started talking about it in training camp, and these things take time.”
Peters opened some eyes when one of the Junkies asked if they had considered the same move for first-year offensive coordinator David Blough.
“That’s not something we’ve talked about with Blough,” Peters said.
That was certainly an interesting response.
Head coach Dan Quinn was asked the same question on Monday, and he opened up a little further on the topic.
“On the offensive side, we felt we had, with [Offensive Pass Game Coordinator] David [Raih] ’s role as a pass game coordinator, that would be something that he would assist with in terms of the game plan,” Quinn said. "I’ve been pleased with what I’ve seen there. As far as, on the defensive side, it was something Daronte and I had discussed some during training camp as we got there. And then it took a little while. There’s a number of candidates that we like, and you can imagine some guys that wanna help and be a part of things. So just took a little while, and Steve has some responsibility still that he works toward the end of the week. To have him with us and coaching on the early part of the week, I thought that just made too much sense: a good football coach, and allowing him to be a part of stuff at the beginning of the week when we're game planning was the easiest fit, as there could be.”
Washington also has veteran offensive assistants Anthony Lynn [running backs coach] and Bobby Engram [wide receivers coach]. Lynn was the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers for four seasons and has served as an offensive coordinator. Perhaps Washington felt that was enough experience to surround Blough with on offense.
At 1-4-1, the Commanders have had their share of issues so far this season. After a week off, Washington hosts the equally struggling Philadelphia Eagles in a must-win NFC East game on Sunday night.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Did Commanders consider outside help for OC David Blough?