JUST IN: 49ers game, commanders fielding a “makeshift” secondary with three starters out

The ugly truth about the Washington Commanders this season is that the defense has been a complete disaster. But the worst may be yet to come as the secondary will be without three starters on Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers.

Cornerbacks Kendall Fuller and Benjamin St-Juste and safety Percy Butler will all miss the game for the Commanders leaving the team in a perilous situation facing possibly the most electric offense in the NFL today.

In reality, Butler himself is actually a backup who has started 13 games due in large part to the injury suffered by Darrick Forrest earlier this year. This means Washington is not only having to replace two starting cornerbacks but a safety who was already replacing a full-time starter in the first place.

Well, it’ll be a little bit makeshift,” coach Ron Rivera said about his secondary. “I mean, [DB] Quan [Martin] will play both safety and nickel for us. [S Terrell] Burgess will play safety as well. We still have [S] Kam Curl. On the outside, it’ll be [CB] Tariq [Castro-Fields] and [CB Emmanuel] Forbes…So those would be our defensive backs. It’ll be the mix of those five guys. It’s taken out a couple of the other packages we’ve had, so for the most part, those will be the five DBs that’ll rotate. And like I said, it’s taking us out of some other sub packages.”

The versatility of Martin to play both the slot and safety positions will help spread some of those snaps, but if the 49ers really want to stress the group we’ll likely see plenty of three or four receiver sets and plenty of deep routes early in the game.

It’ll also make controlling the clock more important than ever for the Commanders who average just over 30 minutes of possession per game entering Week 17.