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Washington Redskins new safety Dashon Goldson hails from Carson, Calif. and was a fourth round draft pick for the San Francisco 49ers. But he played his last two years in the NFL for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and is familiar with humidity in the summertime. Asked how he liked the area since coming to Washington, his answer was just a bit indicative of how he feels about that humidity.
“I’m enjoying. Yea… I’m enjoying it. The weather’s a little tricky,” he said on a laugh after OTAs today, “but, it’s cool. I’m enjoying it.”
The former Niner is one of three veteran defensive backs that General Manager Scot McCloughan signed to the team this offseason in an attempt to upgrade the secondary. In addition to Goldson, cornerback Chris Culliver and safety Jeron Johnson were brought in and, while this third batch of organized team activities that Washington is going through this week is just that ― football drills and activities with no pads and no hitting ― there is an aggressiveness to the secondary that hasn’t seemed to be there the past few years.
Gruden has preached about the need for more turnovers since last season. The last time the Redskins defense was better than mediocre in that department was in 2012 when their turnover ratio was +17. There were a total of 21 interceptions that season and about half of them were made by defensive backs. Veteran cornerback DeAngelo Hall had four that year and the remaining six DBs that got interceptions that year got only eight of the remaining 17 picks.
(Of course, part of the reason that the defense was better was because the offense was better but that’s an entirely different subject for another day.)
It should not be a stretch for Redskins fans to think that Washington’s secondary will absolutely get better this season, in part, due to the presence of the three new defensive backs.
Goldson and Culliver both played for the 49ers and Johnson came to the DMV from the Seattle Seahawks. Both of those teams are light years ahead of the Redskins when it comes to numbers of wins and having a “winning” culture.
Goldson is a seasoned vet with nine years under his belt who was with San Francisco from 2007 to 2012. There were seasons during those years that the 49ers had a really good defense. The safety knows what it means to win. In 2011, the 49ers had a turnover ratio of +28. That year, he had 55 solo tackles (third on the team) and six interceptions (second on the team behind Carlos Rogers).
Culliver was also in San Francisco that year (although farther back on the depth chart) but he even had an interception and 33 solo tackles.
In 2013 Goldson left San Francisco to go to Tampa Bay.
Culliver tore his ACL in training camp that same year (2013) and so was lost for the season. But in 2014, the 49ers still had a +7 turnover ratio and Culliver logged four of the team’s 23 INTs (third on the team behind Perrish Cox who had five and Antoine Bethea who also had four but more yards off of them).
In 2014, Washington’s turnover ratio was -12. Of those turnovers, seven were INTs and only three of those were made by defensive backs: two by then-rookie Bashaud Breeland and one by safety Trenton Robinson.
Guess who Robinson was drafted by in 2012? The San Franscisco 49ers.
Johnson went to Seattle in 2011 as an undrafted college free agent. Having been with the Seahawks the year they won the Super Bowl, this safety has first-hand experience in what it takes to get to the Big Game. While he was behind Legion of Boom members Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas on the depth chart, he still played in 31 games total with the team and landed two sacks in 2012, his best year. His former defensive backs coach, Kris Richard, maintained that Johnson knows he’s good enough to start and described him as “hungry” when the team re-signed him before the 2014 season.
These three guys have not only been brought here to lend their talents as players to the team on the field but to be leaders in their unit and help change the culture. Goldson especially has a lot of experience and Johnson has been to the mountaintop. It actually helps that they are all from the NFC West division as well. It is always interesting to watch the race between the 49ers and the Seahawks and the West Coast defenses just seem to be nasty. That is the look that the Redskins secondary ― even this early in the process ― just might be heading toward.
“It’s easy for me,” Goldson said today about being asked to lead this group. “It’s comfortable. I know what’s expected, I mean, this is my ninth year. I had some guys that I looked up to that were leaders on my teams so they just helped me out and put me in the position I’m in now.”
Goldson and Culliver played together and that will help with communication in that defensive backfield.
“A lot of excitement,” Goldson said about what Culliver brings to Washington. “You can leave [him] on an island and he’ll get it done. He’s a physical corner, he loves the competition, he loves to win. You want a guy out there that can hold his own. He’s got a lot of ‘dog’ in him. You like that, you know? You like guys that can get after it.”
Culliver does know what it takes and it starts with getting everyone on the squad onto the same page. That’s got to be easier to do when there are guys in the defensive backfield that have won countless times before and so know what it takes.
“[We’re] just trying to bring everything together,” the former 49er said about how to get this secondary group back to its winning ways. “First things first is to get this defense together and everybody on the same page. You know, everybody is new. The coaches are new, the players are new so we’re just trying to bring this whole thing together and come collectively together everyday. We all want to read the same sheet of music.
“Every day I think it’s a lot better,” he continued. “Communication, understanding certain situations… Coach JG, Jay Gruden, does a great job of putting us in different situations and things like that as far as offensively and as far as the defense. [They’re] putting together quite some good things for what we have to go over as far as what we have to understand and to adjust and then come out here the next day and do better.”
The Redskins actually already had some talent in the defensive backfield. Hall ― an experienced vet in his own right who has been out there “coaching” even as he rehabs ― doesn’t seem to age even as he ages, Up until this latest Achilles injury, the cornerback has been able to cover the best receivers with apparent ease. Safety Duke Ihenacho came from the Denver Broncos ― also a winning organization ― and is competing hard for a starting position. Breeland showed some serious flash last season. David Amerson started out well last season and fell off some but who knows if that was coaching or a second year slump? Phillip Thomas hasn’t really been on the field long enough to really know how good he is in the NFL although he was an All-American in three different organizations in college.
Add three veterans that come from a winning culture along with a fresh, new coaching staff and things could really be looking up for the Washington Redskins secondary.
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