On their way to a 4-13 record in 2023, the Washington Commanders yielded more points and more yards than any other defense in the NFL.

That led to a housecleaning of the Commanders’ coaching staff with Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn becoming the head coach in Washington. He brought Cowboys secondary coach and pass-game coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. with him to become the defensive coordinator for the Commanders.

Both coaches noted the same thing about Washington’s defense during their introductory press conferences: The defensive tackles give them something to work with to build a better defense.

“Man, was I impressed by the inside of the defense, with the defensive tackles,” Quinn said. “And knowing that it starts up front on both sides, man – defensive line and offensive line – that was the spot that jumped out to me – both defensive tackles.”

The defensive tackles are Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne, former Alabama standouts who have been Pro Bowlers.

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“Everything starts up front,” Whitt said. “I’m a backend guy, but when you see me at practice, even when I was the cornerback coach in Green Bay or at Louisville – it doesn’t matter – I’m always going to the big guys. It starts up front, and so I’m a believer of that, and I’m glad we have those guys.”

In contrast to Washington, the Dallas defense ranked fifth in points allowed and yards allowed during the 2023 NFL season. During the three seasons that Quinn and Whitt worked together with the Cowboys, Dallas totaled 93 takeaways, the most in the NFL.

“I had a chance to be shoulder-to-shoulder with him for the last three years in Dallas,” Quinn said of Whitt, “and through that time, I’ve just seen the detail, the connection, the play style. To play good defense, you better be a good tackling team and you better know how to take the ball away. Those are two things that Joe and the units that he was charged with have been excellent at. I think over the last three years with Joe there, the team had been at the top of the league in terms of takeaways and defensive touchdowns.

“If you want to play good defense, you better tackle because … there’s space plays that happen in today’s NFL. And so in that space, how do you have the technique to go and make tackles? Guys like (Commanders offensive coordinator) Kliff (Kingsbury) and (San Francisco 49ers coach) Kyle (Shanahan) want to create all this space to make it hard, so you better be a good tackling team and you better know how to get the ball away and show good disguises to make the quarterback have to read the coverages after he has the ball in his hand, and Joe’s been exceptional at that throughout his career.”

An Auburn High School alumnus who spent two seasons as a walk-on wide receiver at Auburn before injuries turned him into a student assistant working with the Tigers’ pass-catchers, Whitt has spent 22 seasons in coaching since leaving the Plains.

“I’m excited to be here,” Whitt said on Thursday. “This is one of the teams that you think about growing up. They won all the Super Bowls as I was growing up, and to have the opportunity to be here at Washington is exciting. To be here with coach Quinn is exciting. …

“The way that we live is not for everybody. OK? It’s not. We’re going to run and put our bodies on people in a violent manner. And so we’re going to get that play style right first, and then the structure of what we do doesn’t really matter – 3-4, 4-3, everybody really plays the same coverages to some point. The structure doesn’t matter to me. The main thing that matters to me is: Are we going to be arriving violently? And we’re going to turn the ball over. We’re going to make sure we disrupt these quarterbacks.”

Whitt also was the secondary coach and pass-game coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons in 2020, which was Quinn’s final season as the team’s coach.

“Joe’s had a big impact on me,” Quinn said. “Leaving Atlanta and coming to Dallas, I knew Joe had special traits about him. Not just in the coverage side — although I would say that’s his super power of the detail, the coverage, the play style — but what also is there is the ballhawking, the tackling and the fundamentals.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.