Jayden Daniels felt the pocket close around him on the first padded practice of the Washington Commanders training camp. Technically, there aren't any "sacks" in practice to protect the quarterbacks, but it was clear that Daniels would have been taken down for a loss in a real game.

Daniels and the rest of the quarterbacks have spent a chunk of their time running away from the front seven in the opening days of camp. The defense's recent performances must be pleasing for general manager Adam Peters and head coach Dan Quinn, as the Commanders used much of the free agent and draft capital to upgrade the unit.

So far, the investments are playing as expected, as the Commanders' defense has gotten the better of the offense on the majority of plays to start camp. That's not meant to be an indictment against Daniels, who otherwise looked sharp on Monday, or the rest of the offense. However, it does speak to how much faster the unit looks compared to last season, and it might be a glimpse at how much it has improved since 2025.

"It's an attack style," Commanders pass-rusher Odafe Oweh said after practice. "Get guys off the spot. That's what he [defensive coordinator Daronte Jones] tells the D-line."

The defense did plenty of attacking over the first four practices, and that is a credit to the speed and athleticism the Commanders added to their personnel. Oweh, the Commanders' biggest free agent investment this past offseason, was part of that effort, and he has lived up to the part with his 34.5-inch arms, quick burst at the line of scrimmage and violent hands. On one play, Oweh batted away a pass from Daniels back into the quarterback's face.

Oweh and the rest of Washington's defensive front have embraced the aggressive style, which was a key selling point for Daronte Jones becoming the new defensive coordinator. Jones joined the team promising the system will be "multiple" in its methods of getting to the quarterback, and he has lived up to that promise. Players have been moved to different spots, while linebackers have played closer to the line of scrimmage. Sometimes they're coming on a blitz; other times, they back up into coverage. It creates another level of confusion for quarterbacks to account for.

Oweh said Jones has put together "a great defense," but it's a complex system involving several moving parts. Players are guaranteed to be moved up and down the line of scrimmage, which is why he's requiring players to learn the entire scheme so they can have a clear idea of what they're doing on each play and why. Defensive tackles Daron Payne said Jones is like "a mad scientist" with the way he explains his process for disguising coverages and other aspects of the system. "It's cool to see," Payne said, adding they have "a big catalog of plays."

Leo Chenal, who is used to having multiple responsibilities thanks to playing for Steve Spagnuolo with the Kansas City Chiefs, loves the system, mostly because of how Jones has taught it.

"He makes sure we're all set on the fundamentals before we move on to the actual defense and terminology," Chenal said. "He breaks it down just so thoroughly to make sure we understand what we're doing first before we get into how we're doing it or the play call and stuff like that."

The part the players like the most is that Jones takes how they like to play into account. Payne said he feels more versatile, as he has been lined up on both the outside and inside. Oweh said Jones has given him "a lot of freedom" on when to take chances at rushing the quarterback. The only other team where he's been able to do that was the Los Angeles Chargers, and it led to him getting 10 combined sacks in the regular season and playoffs.

"Just getting one-on-ones, attack style letting us go frontwards instead of backwards too much," Oweh said. "We're still going to be dropping a few. And I'm cool with that because it keeps the offense on their toes.

It's a stark change from what Quinn, who established a reputation for building productive defenses, had the Commanders running the last two seasons with Joe Whitt Jr. as the play-caller. While the Commanders did rank in the top half of the league in sacks generated, they struggled to generate actual pressure and shorten the quarterback's throw time. It was one of multiple reasons why the unit struggled to bottle up passing games in 2025, particularly once its personnel were ravaged with injury.

Now, Quinn said, it's "just a lot of versatility," and it's an "ongoing experiment" to figure out which combinations work the best.

"This is the time to try and say, 'Okay, let's add him to that ... Let's split this person, see where it's at,'" Quinn said. "And that'll be a good bit of the next three to four weeks, so that process is ongoing, for sure."

As Oweh said after Monday's practice, "the bullets aren't flying right now," which gives the Commanders time to tweak and work on how to best disrupt offenses. But Jones has earned his and players' trust over the last few months. He's made it clear to them that he wants to put them in the best position to succeed, regardless of where they have to be on the line of scrimmage.

"For you as a good player, you gotta understand how you can manipulate that and how you can play chess with the offensive line when you have those calls, those freedoms and stuff like that," Oweh said.

And the Commanders have faith that their trust will lead to more results.

"I hope so. I pray so," Payne said. "That's always the goal; to make a whole bunch of plays in the backfield, interceptions, turnovers; just hunt."