The Washington Redskins, one of the National Football League’s most productive offensive teams, have promoted Dallas graduate Greg Manusky to try to fix their defense.
Washington announced Monday it had elevated Manusky from outside linebackers coach to defensive coordinator.
The Redskins, a playoff team in 2015, ranked third in the league in total offensive yardage while going 8-7-1 and missing the postseason by a half-game.
Washington’s defense ranked 28th out of 32 NFL teams in yardage allowed.
One of the unit’s highlights was Ryan Kerrigan, who had Manusky as his position coach, earning his second Pro Bowl selection after making 11 sacks. Trent Murphy, who had six sacks in his first two NFL seasons, had nine in his first with Manusky as his coach.
The Redskins made several changes official, including promoting Matt Cavanaugh to offensive coordinator and hiring former San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Tomsula to coach the defensive line.
Manusky, 50, has spent 28 seasons in the NFL, including 16 as a coach and 12 as a player. Nine of those seasons have been spent as a defensive coordinator. He held that position in San Francisco (2007-10), San Diego (2011) and Indianapolis (2012-15).
After playing at Dallas and Colgate University, Manusky started his playing career in Washington as a rookie special teams player for the Redskins in 1988. He moved up from there, starting at middle linebacker 15 times over the next two seasons while making 160 tackles. Manusky played in 113 straight games at one point in a career that continued on to Minnesota (1991-93) and Kansas City (1994-99).
Manusky got his unofficial introduction to coaching as a training camp volunteer with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2000. He landed his first staff position as a linebackers coach with the Redskins the next year.
Before being a defensive coordinator in San Francisco, Manusky coached the linebackers in San Diego from 2002 to 2006.
