Being named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in his 14th season aged 34 would be definitive proof Washington Commanders middle linebacker Bobby Wagner is getting better with age.
It “feels absurd to say, but it’s true,” according to Pro Football Network’s Jacob Infante. He believes Wagner “is as good now as he’s ever been.”
Whether that makes him good enough to join a select group of 30-somethings who won the league-wide award, is debatable. Yet, few candidates are as qualified as the veteran who “has been an All-Pro for a whopping 11 seasons in a row. He’s a future first-ballot Hall of Famer and still one of the best off-ball linebackers in the game today.”
Wagner remains key to the Commanders defensively, but his being chosen as the team’s likeliest most dominant defensive player also speaks to the lack of elite difference-makers at both ends of the unit.
Bobby Wagner’s Still a Force for Commanders
He’s still a force, but Wagner is no longer the all-action ‘backer who served as the tone-setter and brains of some of the greatest defenses in NFL history for the Seattle Seahawks. Wagner’s physicality, range and smarts helped the legendary ‘Legion of Boom’ unit win a Super Bowl, and he brought instant credibility to the rebuilding Commanders in 2024.
The 47th player drafted in 2012 paced a new-look defense with 132 tackles, including 75 solo stops. Many of his tackles came against the run, with several stuffs highlighted by Pro Football Journal, making Wagner a force in an area where the Commanders D’ was otherwise fatally flawed.
Numbers and plays like these made it easy for the Commanders to hand Wagner another short-team deal in free agency. So did his status as an experienced mentor to a potential breakout player at the linebacker level.
Wagner has also proved his value by helping establish the culture general manager Adam Peters and head coach Dan Quinn sought when they were hired in 2024. It’s a team dynamic fostered through professionalism and accountability, two qualities Wagner embraced by showing up to OTAs this offseason and putting in the work just like everybody else, per Mitchell Tischler of Monumental Sports Network.
The Commanders need more leaders like Wagner, but they also need more game-breaking talent at the headline positions of their defense.
Commanders Lacking Star Power Defensively
Inside linebackers have won DPOY before, notably Luke Kuechly in 2013, Brian Urlacher in 2005 and Ray Lewis two years earlier. While all three were dynamic, sideline-to-sideline playmakers, the position is usually the purview of those who call the defense on the field and blend into the confines of the scheme, rather than be its star.
Status as a star is often reserved for splash players. Like a prolific edge-rusher, dominant defensive tackle, shutdown cornerback or aggressive box safety.
The problem is the Commanders don’t possess any of those, although there are some candidates. They include a flexible defensive back tipped to enjoy a banner campaign, as well as a rookie corner who’s a natural ball-hawk.
Quinn and defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. would still love to see a bluechip quarterback hunter emerge, but Wagner’s fellow linebacker Frankie Luvu will remain a weapon on the blitz.
Luvu has a better chance of making more of the splash plays award voters love. Wagner will still be invaluable, but his understated work won’t be enough to join the likes of Jason Taylor, Charles Woodson and the late, great Reggie White as 30-plus Defensive Player of the Year winners.
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