Commanders Officially Hire OC Kliff Kingsbury & DC Joe Whitt Jr.

The Washington Commanders announced Kliff Kingsbury has put pen to paper and is officially the team’s new offensive coordinator. 

They also announced the hire of DC Joe Whitt Jr., who lands in Washington despite also receiving interest from the Cowboys to stay in Dallas as defensive coordinator. 

It’s been an interesting few days for Kliff after he was set to be the Raiders’ offensive coordinator before backing out due to contractual issues, according to reports. 

It appears there were no such issues with Washington, and he’s now officially the headline hire for new HC Dan Quinn‘s staff.

Kingsbury, 44, was hired as the Texas Tech head coach back in 2013 and spent six years in the position before he was fired. USC hired him as their offensive coordinator but he resigned from the job after just a month after receiving interest from the NFL. He was subsequently hired by the Cardinals. 

After four seasons in Arizona, Kingsbury was let go and returned to USC as the QB coach. 

During his six seasons at Texas Tech, Kingsbury led them to a record of 35-40 (46.7 percent), which included three bowl game appearances.

For his NFL head coaching career, Kingsbury led the Cardinals to an overall record of 26-33-1 in four seasons with one playoff appearance.

Whitt, 45, began his coaching career at Auburn back in 2000 as an assistant-receivers coach. From there, he worked for the Citadel and Louisville before taking his first NFL coaching job with the Falcons in 2007.

After one season in Atlanta, the Packers hired Whitt as their defensive quality control coach for the 2008 season before promoting him to cornerbacks coach in 2009. He eventually worked his way up to defensive passing-game coordinator in 2018. 

However, the Packers elected to part ways with Whitt shortly after they hired Matt LaFleur as their new head coach. He joined the Browns in 2019 before the Falcons hired him as defensive passing game coordinator in 2020. 

The Cowboys hired Whitt as their secondary coach/defensive passing game coordinator in 2021.