Head Coach Dan Quinn
Opening Statement:
"Something that's unique to today, just where this journey all begins. And I know we got together yesterday, but there is something special about the first day on the field at training camp with the team. And been [at] a lot of training camps, and so it's never lost on me the excitement that goes with that because really the journey that this team goes on together, today's a big part of starting that. So, it's cool and a lot of excitement in the building yesterday. I thought I'd give you a reminder of kind of what training camp looks like at the start and what is a ramp up period, and what does that mean and why do we do that? And so, there's two days of just helmets. We do a lot of work, you'll see, in the red zone today just to take out some of the long running. Then we'll do two days in shells, just some protective stuff over their shoulders, and then you'll begin the padded work. There's a lot of install of the systems in all three phases. How do you put certain people in certain spots on certain plays? It'd be one thing to have everybody has to know every play, but now that you get into it, where would we feature somebody? How would they be? Where would we line them in the blitz? Where would the tight end be on this one? Which tight end could we use? So, a lot of that goes on over the next four or five weeks. And the last piece, every practice you'll see some type of end of game practice work. And we do that every OTA practice, every training camp practice. It's just that important that we put it right at the top of the pile. So, we'll begin that process today. So yeah, it's awesome man. I'm really pumped to see you guys and get rocking. So, let's get started."
On QB Jayden Daniels' biggest step forward from last season:
"Anytime you go through, maybe the adversity you come back on the other side, injury, coming back from that, just the recapturing of things. But I thought the more time in the system it slowed down in a way. He could process things so much more quickly that it was harder to fool him on certain looks or certain things that would come up. So, those were some of the things. I think there's some real confidence that comes with that because the more you prepare and then you're nailing it in practice, you're really ready to take that into the game. And I thought that's what I saw take place towards the end of the regular season and into the playoffs."
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On how he handles WR Terry McLaurin's holdout and on if he talks to any other head coaches who have handled holdouts:*
"No, I certainly don't need to reach out to anybody else. And it's part of the business of the NFL and I don't judge it or get too worked up about it. I know [General Manager] Adam [Peters] and his team and they're working as hard as they can with Terry. And so, the best thing I can do, honestly, in this space is put all the attention and the focus to go doing it. We love them. So, I know they're working really hard to go do that, but it's part of the business of our league and this happens on teams all over. And so, the longer you've been in it, the more you recognize that's just part of how things go."
On bringing new players into the team's culture:
"I think it's exciting because I walked to the hotel with [OLB] Von [Miller] and asked him, 'How was the first day of school, man.' Because there's all these new faces and they meet everybody. 'I'm this person, I'm this person.' I said, 'You remember any names? A couple.' So, I like it because yesterday I kind of got to talk about who we are, a philosophy standpoint, why the competition drives us, what we're looking for. There has to be this collaboration on a team of offense and defense and special teams, the way they work together, the way they go after it against each other. And so, seeing new players, you can call it onboarding because there's an element of that. These are the standards we have. They're really high and we're certain you're going to meet them. But there's also a lot of fun with that also because we're finding out who they are. And in Von's example, there's a lot that he's going to bring to our team on and off the field. Adam had referenced it yesterday, they're not here to coach, they're here to play. But the 35 or 36-year-old Von is different than the 25 or 26, from an experience standpoint. Now you're able to share some of those thoughts and ideas with another teammate. So, I like fresh ideas, fresh thoughts, but their first job is to get acclimated to the team and find their rhythm and that takes a minute."
On how to handle the increased expectations:
"Yeah, we're fortunate that last year we came up with some standards that we want as Commanders. This is our Commander standard, and it was written by the players. So, we really see the expectations being external, but the ones that we have are internal. These are the standards that we want to go after. And so we definitely recognize there could be a narrative or a voice outside, but the truth of it is internally and our standard of what we want to do and how we want to get down, that's way more powerful and we're fortunate that we're able to rely on those standards as opposed to an expectation which comes from the outside. So, I think those are what we lean on and we're fortunate that we have those."
On creating competition during training camp:
"We'll have certain periods that are designed just for that, end of the game ones today that will go, but as much as it is for offense, defense or kickoff coverage versus kickoff return, it's also individualized. And if we can really nail that part, in the meeting yesterday, I had said to the guys I'd like to be a running back to try to go against Wags [LB Bobby Wagner] in the open field. This man has over a thousand tackles. Can I beat him? Can I work him? As a defensive end, I'd love to go against [T] Laremy [Tunsil], to know that this is going to be hard. And if you can find that edge in that competition as well, I think that's where it brings out one another. It's not contentious of F-you, it's more man, how can we take it to the next space together and really go after it? But that's what it's about. And that is a really fun part of what we do. At the core, that's what these guys are, man – competitors at their core. So, it also fuels into who they are as people."
On changes from last year's training camp:
"Yeah, it was definitely rinse and repeat. What we try to do is do an after action after each block of time. And so, each training camp one. What did we do last year in the rookie camp? The first block, second block, ramp up. We really liked starting in the red zone last year, so that stayed. So, there's not as much long distance running on an early time for the guys who've been training at a different location. So, there's some things we kept the same. There's other things as you're going to see during camp, maybe we'll do a different type of inner squad this year based on, we have a longer preseason game one to game two from an earlier game with New England to a later game with Cincinnati. So, there are some tweaks that we'll do. And then in the system there are some things that you go through from a teaching standpoint, say, 'Okay, this was worth it, this wasn't, what do we do?' So, there are definitely things that we tweak."
On how McLaurin's absence effects practice:
"Well, good news, there's been a lot of reps with him before. But as we're putting the system in, that's the advantage of being through it an entire year of going through it. In the old days when sometimes, we've all heard about a member of the rookie class that held out and missed some of the training, that's probably the person that's the hardest to recover from – the rookie that has limited time due to injury or a contract, those types of things. So, for him through the [early parts of the] offseason [program] he was here, through that program to go. So, do I love it as a coach? No, you want every player on the team on the field all the time, but I'm really comfortable with where he's at."
On the players ability to improve and on what he sees for Daniels this camp:
"For us like the development of skill, man. That's almost like an endless marketing campaign here. We just, we don't back off of that. We're a development staff and team so where we think we are, can we get it to here and then take it to the next step? To me, the most important element of that is players and coaches that have self-awareness. If you have to rely on someone else to say, you need to work on this, you need to work on this, you won't get there as quickly. The coach will stay on it, he'll go there but if you can collaborate together to say, these are the things that you do, these are the things that I think we can add to it. We devote pre-practice and post practice to that skill work, but the coaches have things they're also developing on together. It's really like, if the players, excuse me, if the coaches can improve also, then the players can, we can't ask them to do this and then ignore our example. We have to get better too. That's kind of the fun part of it here. We're trying to absolutely go for it from a skill standpoint and yes Jayden and everybody has something, this is the thing and our next block that we update will be in about two weeks. This is the stuff I worked on through the offseason, this is what I'm starting training camp with and around August 1st or 2nd we'll go through another phase. 'Hey, what does that look like for the next three or four weeks?' This specific thing that I want to nail down and sometimes it carries on into the season sometimes, 'Okay, I nailed that part, I want to go to the next spot.' We're pretty methodical about how we want to go work on our skill improvement. Long answer, but it's one that we love doing here."
On how Tunsil and T Josh Conerly Jr. will improve the run game:
"There's a lot. I think it's the athleticism of being out on the perimeter. Those are pull plays, where you could be on a counter, you could be on a toss, you can get outside. The other one that comes up is on the screen game because now you're downfield. In the old days, you remember the lineman could go and just throw, that's the term, we'd go and cut. It was a corner or downfield and the big guys could go and, just that. But now you have to sustain that block on your feet and it's in space and so those are the two areas I think, pulling and being in space where you can go sustain on a screen and if you can get a block on a screen, you give a guy like [WR] Deebo [Samuel Sr.] a chance to go hit a crease, that's a big deal. I think it's twofold pulling, because that's also space and the screen game."
On if Conerly Jr. will get reps against Miller during camp:
"We definitely will. That's in the morning meetings with the staff. When can we do this? When to find it/ I've kind of felt through the years there's about three positions that training camp is where the best evaluations happen. Running back, did he break the tackle? You know, because there's an angle, you're not sure and then the offensive line and defensive line because their games are just different with the contact. The receivers, the corners, the quarterbacks, I think you can get a better assessment but for those three positions specifically we will. That's exactly the type of competition that we're talking about."
On the odds of G Sam Cosmi being ready for Week 1:
"I think it's on the table for sure, but we won't put that there until that. It gives you the chance for him to go be able to do that. If you wait until the season, there's other guidelines and you're four weeks in and that, so he's hitting all the markers, but let's find out. I think we'll have a better question on that. Or excuse me a better answer on that as we get closer to the end of the preseason, but I'm very encouraged with the work he's put in."
On competition in the wide receiver room with McLaurin not being absent:
"When you're on a roster, you're trying to just finding ways to make your mark and do your thing. There are advantages to that where, you got highlighted, what can you do? I'm so excited to see some of the people making the development from one year in the system to the second year in the system. There's also some players that we signed during the season last year that you guys didn't see a lot of, [WR] Chris Moore, he was on the practice squad, but when I saw like he or [WR] KJ [Osborn] come back this offseason, man, it was like the speed, the energy, you felt it. Sometimes it can be difficult to be dropped off into a team in December or where that looks like. To have a full offseason and now into training camp, I'm just as excited to see guys like that really take their stand and say, 'Hey, I want to go fight for this,' and I'm excited to see that."
On WR Noah Brown working towards being one hundred percent:
"We'll work him in to it. He's not out, but there'll be some days he's on/off and so just due to when his injury was, we're going to ramp him up. And that's customary with some other players as well. There'll be days where we'll hold back on some veteran players but Noah's in that space where we're going to make sure over the next two weeks really that he's hitting all the strides and the markers and some players are so competitive that you have to be like, 'No, no wait it out,' and Noah is one of those players. So, we're very excited that he's doing good, but we're not going to miss a step with him."
On if he can share a timeline of the negotiations with McLaurin, on if the team plans to fine McLaurin and on if he thinks this will impact the team's chemistry:
"If you're working backwards with your questions, I know like Adam and his team are working hard, so as far as a timeline for negotiation, I certainly don't have that. Moving prior to that. Yes, the CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement] does have guidelines and it's honestly pretty easy to follow. That's why we have guidelines from the union and the CBA. So that's pretty cut and dry. It's not different from Washington than it is in another city or team. That's the standard operating procedure. As far as Terry goes, we think the world of him. I think Adam referenced that yesterday. It's why we're trying to do the extension. We hold him in really high regard. We love him. That's kind of where we're at, but it does happen that the business side gets in and that's not here. That's everywhere."
