'Paradigm' shift: Are Commanders headed for rebuild after trading defensive stars?

ASHBURN, Va. — The corner locker in the Washington Commanders' dressing room that once belonged to Chase Young had been emptied, save for a teammate's post-practice sweats and a used towel temporarily discarded there.

A day after Washington (3-5) dealt Young and Montez Sweat — a fellow defensive lineman drafted in the first round — ahead of Tuesday's trade deadline, the mood at the Commanders' facility teetered between trepidation and business as usual. The silence, as the music that typically boomed from Young's corner was absent, felt the most abnormal. Close friends, Young and Sweat often provided the soundtrack of the Commanders' locker room, with either their own voices or music selection.

"I think it sinks in when you come in here and you don’t hear them, you don’t see them," said wide receiver and team captain Terry McLaurin.

The Commanders first agreed to deal Sweat to the Chicago Bears, which brought a return of a 2024 second-round pick. They then sent Young to the San Francisco 49ers for a third-rounder. No other NFL team – and certainly not one trying to contend for a postseason spot this year, as head coach Ron Rivera maintained Wednesday – completed multiple high-profile deals on deadline day.

"With the compensation we're getting for these players, it's gonna give us an opportunity to continue to build for the future and do things a little differently," Rivera said. "So yeah, there may be a little bit of a shift in terms of the paradigm and how we're gonna construct things."

Going into this season, Washington hoped that a healthy Young and the three other first-round picks on the defensive line (Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne and Sweat) would be the difference-maker for a team that faced high expectations under new ownership.

Reality ruins the best-laid plans. The Commanders are 10th in sack rate through eight games, but rank 29th in yards allowed per game and have surrendered the second-most points per game (28.5) in the league. The lack of success compelled team brass to move on and give other players on the line, such as Casey Toohill and James Smith-Williams, more opportunity.

"It gives us a chance to spread it around and keep some of the guys that we want to keep, go after some of the guys we want to go after and draft who we want to draft," Rivera said. "If we end up with the five picks within the top 100 or whatever that number is, that's pretty good for us going forward."

The ex-teammates of Young and Chase didn't seem shocked by their joint departure. Defensive tackle Daron Payne said "you kind of figured they wanted to make some moves." Wideout Jahan Dotson said there was plenty of social media speculation throughout the offseason.

"You hear the talks like, 'Oh, one of them is probably going to go,'" Dotson said.

For those still in the building, however, the trades and subsequent planning for the future doesn't affect their goal of stacking wins and attempting to fight for playoff position.

“You got to be able to compartmentalize and move forward,” left tackle Charles Leno Jr. said.

Asked about direction of the team this year, Leno Jr. replied: "You know what? I don’t know. Because at the end of the day, we’re 3-5 right now. On the defensive side of the ball, they’re still trying to figure things out. We are as well. We’re all in this together. So whether (Sweat and Chase are) here or not, we’re still trying to win football games and that’s what the plan is.

"The season is nowhere near over."

Players themselves aren't necessarily keyed into the front office's vision, though.

"We don’t really know the mindset behind it," McLaurin said, "because they don’t tell us the mindset."

Rivera said the team's trade deadline plans began being fleshed out between the front office and Josh Harris, managing partner of the Commanders' first-year ownership group. (On Monday, Harris' Philadelphia 76ers traded James Harden to the Los Angeles Clippers.)

"We all found that he is a deep thinker," Rivera said.

The conversations were "thoughtful" and revealed that ownership, front office and coaching staff are aligned with their short- and long-term goals. Washington also leaned on newly hired senior vice president of football strategy Eugene Shen while weighing the options to keep Sweat, Young, neither pass rusher (the ultimate outcome) or both.

One reason for the forward-looking pivot has been the play of quarterback Sam Howell, who has shown flashes throughout an up-and-down first season starting in the NFL.

"You lose two players like that, it gives an opportunity for some other guys to get in there and prove what they can do," Howell said. "We still have a lot of football left this year and we're not just fully set on rebuilding. We're trying to win right now, and we feel like we have the players to do that."

As more players filed into the locker room following Wednesday's practice, they took the first step to replacing Sweat and Young.

Somebody started playing music.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Washington Commanders hanging on to 2023 NFL postseason goals