First-year Redskins cornerback Chris Culliver sees great potential in the Redskins' secondary, and can't wait to get in some game action.

Chris Culliver is feeling the excitement as he enters his first year with the Washington Redskins.

A free agent signee who spent his first four seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, Culliver sees great potential in the Redskins' secondary.

"Oh, I definitely feel like the talent here is special," he said. "It's a good group of guys coming together."

Culliver describes his relationship with his teammates as one of "brotherly love." This closeness, he says, allows the guys to push each other to bring their very best to the field at camp and in the regular season.

"Man, things have been wonderful out there – the communication and just the standpoint of just coming together," Culliver said. "Everybody out here in camp and just communicating and going through the reps together, you know? So that's the best way we're going to be great."

Culliver is joining cornerback DeAngelo Hall, a player he says he has always admired, in the Redskins' defensive backfield this season. So far Hall and Culliver — each of whom are currently recovering from minor injuries — have enjoyed the chance to compete with one another.

Culliver is also utilizing this chance to learn from the Redskins veteran.

"He's a little older, so I try to pick his brain for some things that he see and I don't see, so the communication and the brotherhood is there," Culliver said of Hall. "We're just putting it together and just continuing to grow."

Familiar with McCloughan
Before signing with the Redskins, Culliver was already familiar with general manager Scot McCloughan from his time in San Francisco. Culliver said that this familiarity helped to build a sense of trust between both parties when he decided to sign with the Redskins this offseason.

"The communication and the belief in one another is there," Culliver said. "So he does his part, I do my part, and we come together and it's pretty much working like that."

Culliver also recognizes why players want to play for a general manager like McCloughan, calling him a "real down-to-earth player."

"He will tell you straight up what he is looking for," he said. "Also, he wouldn't be talking to you if you couldn't provide that. He's pretty much a straightforward guy. No sugar coating, no, 'Hey, uh, this or that.' Sometimes you get that from different organizations. Scot is a good guy… The things that he is doing, all the coaches and everybody coming in here together, trying to build, just keep this thing going, keep prevailing and keep rising."

An "exciting moment"
In terms of expectations set by first-year defensive backs coach Perry Fewell, Culliver said the bottom line is being good enough to get a win.

"Pretty much, we don't want any balls to go over our head, obviously, as defenders and keep everything in front of us," Culliver said. That is our first standing point and if we take care of that we'll just keep on moving forward."

With great play comes great statistics, as well, but winning is the No. 1 goal.

"As long as we do good as a defensive unit and try to go out there and give it back to our offense, at the end of the day, that's what we care about – getting a W," he said.

From his time in the league, Culliver has learned that in order to get those wins you can never stop competing, no matter how well things might be going.

Culliver would know, after all, having played in five postseason games with the San Francisco 49ers, including Super Bowl XLVII.

"You're doing good early in the first quarter or something like that, but you know, just because you did good early in the first quarter, the game's not over," he said. "You have got to keep competing, keep being patient, keep obviously focused and using your technique and things like that."

Achieving that winning attitude comes from repetition, Culliver says, something of which the team is getting plenty in training camp. As defensive backs, things don't always go your way, but as long as the communication is always there, mistakes can be overcome.

"You know, you have to work on things," he said. "You're going to have some busted coverages. You're going to have some people being upset about this or upset about that. So you just have to come together, communicate and just work on it together. That's how you start becoming good and start to get better, once the communication and everything is good across the board, sometimes it's kind of hard to beat."

As a whole, Culliver likes what he sees so far from his new team so far in camp.

"I think overall the defense is coming along good. We're just bringing everything together," he said. "I think we're excited for each other to be playing with each other against opponents. So I think it's an exciting moment right now."

RELATED LINKS:
-- DeAngelo Hall Ready To Roll In 12th Season
-- 2015 Redskins Positional Prospectus: Defense

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