Former Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins praises the Commanders new quarterbacks coach, DJ Williams.
The new look coaching staff for the Washington Commanders in 2026 will feature several coaches stepping into roles for the first time in their careers.
Except for DJ Williams, who joins the organization as quarterbacks coach after leaving the Atlanta Falcons in the same role. It also marks a reunion for Williams, who previously worked on the coaching staff when his father, legendary Washington quarterback Doug Williams, re-joined the organization as a personnel executive in 2014.
For former Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins, now expected to hit free agency with the Falcons expected to move on, he acknowledged the hire gives Washington a "personable" coach now working with the quarterback room.
"I remember meeting DJ when he was still in college playing and we had hired Doug Williams to come back and help out with personnel and DJ came out to a practice in OTAs or minicamp and I got to meet him. And you could tell even then that Doug had raised a great son," Cousins said on The Kevin Sheehan Show.
"Personable, mature and loved football," he added.
After playing for his dad at Grambling State in the early 2010s, Williams went undrafted in 2015 then drew a pair of workouts with the Steelers and Ravens before eventually transitioning to the next phase of his career where he joined the New Orleans Saints organization in the operations department in 2018. Williams would then transition into an offensive assistant the following season where he remained until 2023 before accepting the assistant quarterbacks coach position with the Atlanta Falcons in 2024, then being promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2025.
It was during his time in Atlanta when Cousins worked closely with Williams, giving him a up-close perspective on the Commanders new coach years after Williams worked with the Commanders in 2016 and 2017 "doing the low level tasks."
"Then he worked for the Saints for many years and saw what it looks like in the quarterback room from Drew Brees and from Sean Payton and from a lot of the big time offenses they had. So getting with him in '24, I was constantly asking him about the Saints and what they did so well for Drew Brees his final years. And he really knows ball."
"He and I worked a together a lot in '25 this past year and I really enjoyed him. I think he's another coach that's up and coming, knows football, is hungry to learn, has good self awareness, good emotional intelligence."