ASHBURN, Va. — It didn’t come without some conflict, but Washington Commanders defensive tackle Johnny Newton got his first NFL sack on Sunday.
It came early in the game, on the second play for the Commanders defense against quarterback Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears offense, but it took until Wednesday afternoon for the NFL to turn it from a tackle for loss into a sack.
As frustrating as that fact might have been until the league did the right thing, having to deal with some adversity to get to where he wants to go isn’t new for the Washington rookie.
Drafted in the second round of this past NFL Draft, general manager Adam Peters didn’t hesitate to select the tackle that many had a first-round grade on but were a little put off of because of a foot surgery he had in the pre-draft process.
After arriving at Ashburn, it was discovered Newton needed surgery on his other foot as well, thus delaying his full arrival to the NFL.
“I done been through a lot since I've been here,” Newton discussed with WUSA9’s Chick Hernandez on the same day his tackle for loss was converted to his first career sack. “The surgery, the recovery, just getting back. And now actually being here, I just feel like it has been a long process.”
It’s a process that has been well worth it for Newton who told reporters later in the locker room that he loves where he is and has no ill feelings toward the process. In fact, he still refers to the moment he was drafted by the Commanders as a “beautiful moment.”
“I'm a pretty positive person, honestly,” Newton told Hernandez. “Even when I got the first one, I knew it was right before all the draft stuff happened to come behind. I was still positive about it. Like, ‘Alright, let's do the recovery, let's get the rehab back so I could get back on the field,’ And I got drafted. We found out about the left one. Same thing. I'm like, ‘Alright, let me hurry up and get the surgery out of the way so I could do rehab, get back, right. And be ready for the season.”
That unwillingness to waiver in the face of adversity is part of what endears him to his teammates. It is also part of the man Newton is, that made him the type of player this Washington staff wanted to - as head coach Dan Quinn might say - ‘do hard stuff with.’
“He's the type of player that we wanted to bring in here. He's a ‘Commander’, alright,” Commanders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. said of his rookie. “He works extremely hard, he's tough, he's physical, he's smart, he's diligent with what he does. And so the brotherhood that you hear that these men talk about, it's real. There's no fluff to it. Those guys care about each other and they put it out there for each other. And if there's somebody that's not willing to do that, it sticks out. And so he's a culture guy, he's a guy that we can build a foundation around.”
Washington knew it about Newton when they met him before the draft. Second-year Commanders safety Quan Martin knew it before then, as teammates with Newton at the University of Illinois where they both made their names and carved their paths to the same NFL franchise.
“I was super excited for him man,” Martin told WUSA9 about witnessing his former and current teammate's first career sack. “And every time he was making plays, I just try to make sure I just got to him and just ran up and (said), ‘Good play, congrats,’ whatever it was, man. And we actually talked about that on the sideline. I'm like, ‘Damn man, that was your first sack,’ (and) he was like, ‘Yeah,’ so we kind of laughed about it and congratulated each other. It's been great just to play with him and just see him make plays and just everything he'd been through. Just from the draft to now and just seeing him on the field. Man, it's fun.”