Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. praised third-year safety Quan Martin more this offseason than any other player. Whitt praised Martin’s talent, work ethic and leadership, saying he had the talent to be one of the NFL’s best safeties.
“Quan is what we really stand for here,” Whitt said in June. “He’s a guy, they were messing with me because this time last year I sat Quan down. I was like, ‘Put him with the twos.’ And the coach was like, ‘Well, you made a great decision with that one.’ The reason I wanted to put him with the twos is that he was making mistakes that we can’t afford to make, and then the next three practices were boom, boom, boom. He’s back in there with the ones, and then he caught the ball. I don’t know if y’all saw that one, but he caught the ball from his back. And he just now, he’s taking a leadership role of communicating at a very high level, which he wasn’t doing at the beginning. And I give a lot of that credit to [Defensive Pass Game Coordinator] Jason Simmons and [Defensive Backs Coach] Tommy Donatell. They’ve done a great job of developing him. This kid has the potential to be one of the better safeties in this league, and that’s what I’m holding him to.”
Through six games, Martin has yet to develop into one of the NFL’s best safeties. In fact, he’s regressed from last season, along with cornerback Mike Sainristil. Pro Football Focus has Martin with a 50.6 overall grade for the season, which ranks 119th among the 141 safeties graded. Martin has struggled in coverage, with a 43.0 grade.
PFF grades don’t always tell the entire story, though. Sometimes, the eyeball test tells you everything you need to know. In Monday night’s shocking 25-24 loss to the Chicago Bears, Martin missed a critical tackle in the fourth quarter that pulled Chicago to within two points.
Deandre Swift with the Bears touchdown, Quan Martin completely missed an easy tackle 😂 pic.twitter.com/vxbMv5lQx4
— SM Highlights (@SMHighlights1) October 14, 2025
Had Martin made the tackle or pushed Chicago running back D’Andre Swift out of bounds, the Bears would have had a first down somewhere around the 40-yard line, but would still have needed to drive it into the end zone. The Commanders‘ defense had done a good job, up until that point, of forcing the Bears to kick field goals, so you had to like your chances of getting a stop. Martin’s miss changed everything.
He faced the media this week and discussed the play.
“It’s tough just to have a play like that happen,” Martin said. “That’s a play I’ve made 100 times in my career. I take pride in my tackling, something I’ve always taken pride in. Just being able to shake back, really, I think, stuff’s going to happen. They get paid, too. They’re great players; it’s the NFL. I think just being able to respond, take the lesson from it, learn from it and just come back and get better.”
Quan Martin talks about his missed tackle on D’Andre Swift’s 55-yard TD Monday night
“That’s a play I’ve made 100 times…just being able to respond, just take the lesson from it, just learn from it”@JPFinlayNBCS#RaiseHail#Commanderspic.twitter.com/jHYvplMb7o
— NBC4 Sports (@NBC4Sports) October 15, 2025
Martin didn’t hide from his mistake. He owned it. Some believe Martin would be better off in the box, allowing veteran Darnell Savage to take over as the free safety. Savage hasn’t been in Washington long, but his snaps have increased in each of the last three weeks.
If you’re Washington, you hope Martin puts it behind him and turns things around, beginning on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Washington Commanders: Quan Martin responds to missed tackle in loss
