Dorance Armstrong is heading into a season that feels bigger than the usual injury return. The Commanders are bringing him back into a pass-rush group that looks different now, and Washington has already made moves that say plenty about how carefully it wants to handle his comeback.
That is the tricky part for Armstrong. Before the torn ACL that ended his season against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 7, he was putting together the kind of stretch that makes a front office sit up.
He had 5.5 sacks in just six games, already topping the five sacks he finished with in his first season in Washington. But the injury changed the conversation, and it changed his standing too.
The Commanders did not spend the offseason waiting around to see if Armstrong would come back exactly as he was. They signed Odafe Oweh, K’Lavon Chaisson and Charles Omenihu, then added Joshua Josephs from Tennessee in the fifth round of the NFL Draft.
Those additions gave Washington answers if Armstrong’s recovery lagged or his game looked different. They also made it clear the team was willing to move forward with options in place.
Armstrong’s value last season went well beyond the sack total. Pro Football Focus gave him a 77.6 overall grade on 239 defensive snaps, a step up from his 65.3 grade in 2024.
Even more striking was the work he did away from the quarterback. His run-defense grade jumped from 41.4 to 77.5, and his tackling grade climbed from 28.7 to 82.3.
It was only a seven-game sample, but it showed a more complete player before the injury cut everything short.
The pressure numbers tell the same story. Armstrong had 22 pressures on only 143 pass-rush snaps last season.
The year before, he needed 450 snaps to get to 51 pressures. His pressure rate rose from 11.3% to 15.4%.
That is not enough to declare a full breakout, but it was enough for Washington to see real progress.
Head coach Dan Quinn said before minicamp that he liked the way Armstrong was trending and that he had continued to receive updates on his recovery, but had no timetable for his return.
There is also the contract side of this. Armstrong is in the final year of the three-year deal he signed before the 2024 season, and he carries a $12.055 million cap hit in 2026. That means the Commanders need him to produce, but this season is first about getting him back into the rotation and seeing whether the burst is still there.
Armstrong does not have to come back and lead the team in sacks right away. What he does have to do is show that last year’s jump was real and that the injury did not take away the player Washington thought it had.
With more bodies in the room now, the Commanders no longer have to build their pass rush around the hope that the old Armstrong simply returns. He has one more year to prove he belongs in their long-term plans.
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