The Washington Commanders informed veteran cornerback Marshon Lattimore that they plan to release him before the start of the new league year, according to a league source. It ends a failed, and costly, two-year experiment to improve the team’s secondary. The move has been long expected because of the financial benefit — the team will save $18.5 million in salary cap space — and Lattimore’s struggles since arriving in Washington.
The Commanders gave up 2025 third-, fourth- and sixth-round draft picks to acquire Lattimore and a 2025 fifth-round pick from the New Orleans Saints in November 2024, at the league’s trade deadline. At the time, the Commanders were 7-2 and poised for a deep playoff run. But their weakest positional group was the secondary; Washington’s defense had given up a league-high 14.2 percent explosive play rate to opponents through Week 9 of that season, the last game before the trade. The team finished with the sixth-highest rate, at 12.1 percent.
The Commanders viewed Lattimore, a four-time Pro Bowl selection and the league’s 2017 Defensive Rookie of the Year, as a veteran who could immediately upgrade the back end of their defense once he recovered from a hamstring injury he suffered earlier in the season with the Saints.
But Lattimore, who is now 29, was already long removed from his prime years, and he struggled to acclimate to the Commanders and their defense.
Although Lattimore’s first start with Washington showed promise — he wasn’t targeted at all in coverage by his former team when the Commanders played the Saints in New Orleans in Week 15 of the 2024 season — he was penalized three times the following week against the Philadelphia Eagles. Including the playoffs, he finished the season with more defensive penalties (six) than starts (five) for the Commanders.
Yet, general manager Adam Peters and coach Dan Quinn remained optimistic that Lattimore would improve in 2025.
“Anytime you come into a new team and you’re injured, it’s really hard to integrate,” Peters said after the 2024 season. “And plus, you’re coming in at the end of the season, so at the same time you’re rehabbing, you’re learning a new defense, you’re trying to meet new teammates, and so it was a tough situation for him.”
Lattimore’s 2025 season included flashes of the player Washington hoped to get, but the good moments were overshadowed by the many struggles of the Commanders’ defense, and especially its secondary. Lattimore often appeared a step behind his primary target, leading to explosive plays by opponents. And he had a team-high seven defensive penalties — even though his season was cut short by an ACL injury in Week 9.
Lattimore’s exit seemed all but guaranteed at that point. In early January, Lattimore was arrested in Lakewood, Ohio, and faced a charge of failing to disclose a concealed weapon, a second-degree misdemeanor in Ohio that is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $750.
His attorney, Marcus Sidoti, described the incident as a “misunderstanding” and said Lattimore cooperated with law enforcement.
The Commanders are undergoing a rebuild that should touch every phase of the defense, especially the secondary. New defensive coordinator Daronte Jones, the former Minnesota Vikings’ defensive backs coach and defensive pass game coordinator, will implement his system and call plays for Washington after two subpar years under Joe Whitt Jr. and his version of Quinn’s defense.
“Looking back, the things that I’m not pleased with is our turnover margin and not creating enough takeaways, not doing a good enough job with the ball,” Quinn said in January before beginning his search for a new defensive coordinator. “Those are the things that come to mind first. We want to play bold. We want to play aggressively.”