There's plenty to analyze in the approximately two hours of practice the Washington Commanders have been getting in most days of the week during training camp, but what about the work outside of the work on the grass?
Here and elsewhere, it's been a running bit of sorts in the media to "report" on who is the first player out at practice. Being first out on the field, it seems, says something about a player's work ethic and mindset. So, I took a deeper dive. I looked at "first players out" over the last few years of training camp (credit goes to Monumental Sports Network's Mitch Tischler for the diligent collecting of this data via his Twitter feed).
A couple observations: first, there isn't a much of a pattern when it comes to position. Wide receivers, linemen, quarterbacks and more have all been first-time-outers. The same goes for where a player stands on the depth chart. A line can't be drawn from a guy being first out to, say, his place on the initial 53-man roster. What does seem clear, however, is first guys out tend to make a habit out of the behavior. There's some awareness around that fact.
Defensive lineman Johnny Newton, for example, has made a playful point of shouting out to a team photographer when he is first out. While he's not fighting others out the door for the title, he admits it's a "personal thing" about ramping up for practice.
"The D-Line we get out there at 8 a.m., and I want to get my own stuff going. So, I always try to get out at 7:40, 7:45," Newton said. "I want to work on my individual stuff before everybody else gets out there."
Fellow lineman Deatrich Wise is the most frequent flyer on Tischler's list in recent years. That is intentional.
"I do make it a thing to be the first person out here," Wise said. "I would say my father instilled that in me a long time ago. He always told me, repetition is the father of learning, so the more I do things, the better I'm getting at it. I also learned that you need to continue to build your techniques and fundamentals because that's the foundation of your skills, so I come out here every day and do it. I always try to bring people along with me, so that we can work on things that need to get worked on…When it comes to practice, I'm warm, I've seen it before, and I'm ready to go."
As for after the final practice whistle blows, the extracurriculars witnessed are rather typical. Wide receivers on the jugs. Players doing extra sprints. Offensive lineman getting in some more blocking reps. A look far down the field and one can spot the defensive backs (with a wide receiver or often mixed in) participating in a newer post-practice drill/competition this year.
"It started in OTAs after our first workout," third-year cornerback Mike Sainristil said. "There was no football at this time. It was me, Amik [Robertson] and Q [Qwuantrezz] Knight, we're like, 'Every day let's just do releases.' And we just wanted to do that because by the time football season gets here, we've seen a million releases. As DBs, you always give each other the hardest releases you'll ever see because receivers have timing to go based off of. For us, it's just something that we like to do after practice to get repetition every single day."
The exercise is rather simple. A defensive back lines up against either an actual wide receiver or one playing the role. He then tries to react and disrupt their movement to throw off the timing of the route. This has been helping the defensive backs work on their steps, foot placement and press techniques. In the spirit of training camp and iron sharpening iron, it has also been beneficial for wide receivers.
"You want to beat the defender off the line as a receiver," Dyami Brown (who, by the way, was the first player out on the first practice of 2026 training camp) said. "I want to get work from them because I'll be going against DBs anyway."
The drill has now become very competitive, because of course.
"I keep score for that day. I want to win every single rep. They want to win every single rep," Brown said. "Of course, we go back and forth. It's just the competitive nature of us, just to go out there and compete and get better at the same time."
If it were up to them, it seems the battle could go on for a while. CBA rules help ensure players don't overdo it. The goal then becomes ending on a high before that signal on the clock.
"You just want to make sure the DB ends with a win just because you want to finish on a positive note," Sainristil said. "It's like a basketball player doesn't leave the gym until he makes his shot. That's how the mindset is for us."
