Part of the Washington Commanders retooling their roster for the 2026 season also means retooling their coaching staff — as evidenced by firing both of their coordinators immediately after the season when Kliff Kingsbury and Joe Whitt both got their walking papers following a disastrous, 5-12 regular season.
The Commanders, who promoted David Blough from assistant quarterbacks coach to replace Kingsbury, just made another important decision on their new-look coaching staff that ties directly to the future of star quarterback Jayden Daniels.
“The Commanders are hiring D.J. Williams — son of franchise legend Doug Williams — as their QBs coach,” NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero wrote on his official X account on Wednesday, January 14. “Williams most recently held the same position in Atlanta.”
Williams’ father, former Commanders quarterback and Super Bowl XXII MVP Doug Williams, is a senior advisor for the Commanders.
If the move to hire D.J. Williams seems like nepotism … it’s probably because that’s what it is.
In 7 seasons as an assistant coach, D.J. Williams has coached on teams that had winning records just twice — as an offensive assistant with the New Orleans Saints in 2019 and 2020 in legendary quarterback Drew Brees’ final 2 seasons.
As the quarterbacks coach for the Atlanta Falcons for the last 2 seasons, the Falcons quarterbacks have been objectively terrible — just like the team itself — which led to head coach Raheem Morris being fired after just 2 seasons.
It’s not the first time Williams’ famous father has put him in a situation he didn’t deserve to be in.
Williams May Have Cost Father College Coaching Job
Few players in NFL history have had the impact Doug Williams had in a single game.
After serving as the backup quarterback to Jay Schroeder for the 1987 season, head coach Joe Gibbs decided to make Doug Williams the starter for the playoffs. It was a move that ended with Doug Williams going 18-of-29 passing for 340 yards and 4 touchdowns in a 42-10 win over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII on the way to winning Super Bowl MVP honors.
It was the first time in NFL history a Black quarterback ever started in the Super Bowl or won Super Bowl MVP.
Doug Williams, who played in the NFL and USFL from 1978 to 1989, was a first round pick (No. 17 overall) by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1978 NFL draft out of Grambling State under Hall of Fame head coach Eddie Robinson.
Doug Williams returned to Grambling State as head coach from 1998 to 2003 then again as head coach in 2011. His second stint was with his son, D.J. Williams, at quarterback — a stretch in which he went 1-12 over his final 13 games, was eventually forced to bench his son and fired just 2 games into the 2013 season.
Williams Dealt With Minor Controversy in Atlanta
Having to replace Kingsbury, one of the great quarterback whisperers of all time, should be a cause for concern for Commanders fans.
Replacing him with Blough only furthers that concern — he wasn’t even the full-time quarterbacks coach until Tavita Pritchard left to become the head coach at Stanford late in the season.
Another cause of concern with D.J. Williams might be his ability to connect with Daniels. In Atlanta, D.J. Williams was forced to defend his relationship with second-yer quarterback Michael Penix after Penix said he had any internal support on the team.
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