2026 Commanders Training Camp

I agree with you, Mark Bullock disagrees with you. He had a discussion about this on Galdi's podcast. What he basically said was that it was different types of athletes. Soccer players were smaller, fasters, and the better athletes in football, baseball and basketball wouldn't be good soccer players.

I think there is some degree of truth to that, but not fully.

You're just not going to convince me that guys like Barry Sanders couldn't have been absolutely dominant and elite in soccer. Steph Curry is 6-2. If he focused on soccer, I think he's be pretty damn good at it. Sure, there probably isn't a position for Trent Williams.

But I think if we took the raw talent for that type of athlete, and focused it on soccer, and it was the most popular sport in the country, I think we would do better.

I do think it would be arrogant to think we would dominate. However, I think we would would be a lot more competitive.

For sure. I don’t get his argument because it’s not just the guys who bulk up and make it to the league, it’s also the lost potential of every single soccer-sized athletic body in America who plays American football instead, couldn’t make the league or D1, but never even looked at a soccer ball. Tons of great athletes don’t make it in their chosen sport and would’ve been great at something else if sculpted from a young age. Soccer doesn’t capture those athletes in America, they mostly either make it or wash out in other sports. In many countries, their soccer programs get almost the pick of the litter from birth lol

We have an enormous country of over 350M people now, if soccer was our #1 sports export like it is for most smaller countries, it’s hard to argue that the sheer number of potentially elite athletes who play other sports here (especially football) all being directed into a soccer development pipeline instead, from a young age, wouldn’t change outcomes in a huge way.

Not to mention that he’s just also wrong because correctly sized athletes change their bodies and sculpt their athleticism and skill sets based on the sport they play. At a formative age, when they were still elite clay, football skill players with elite footwork and ridiculous hand/eye coordination worked hard to develop wide bases and sturdy running styles and the ability to run routes and/or take a hit, and vision to find the holes an OL opens…instead of focusing on foot/eye coordination, field vision that applies to soccer, agility over strength and size, um actual soccer skills, etc…

Everything would be different. Obviously you wouldn’t be taking an elite NFL player (even a small one) and chucking him into soccer. You’d be taking the unformed clay he used to be and instead shaping it into a soccer player from birth. Millions of times, until different stars emerge and the results change
 
Yeah, people specialize over time and are definitely more gifted at some things than others, but I always really bought into the idea that (besides America not having much of a training program in place for soccer), the main reason our enormous country struggles more (historically) with the ol’ futbol is precisely because most of our best athletes are playing American football instead. You take those incredible athletes playing RB, DB, WR, etc. and put them in big soccer programs instead from a young age and things would look completely different.

I agree with you, Mark Bullock disagrees with you. He had a discussion about this on Galdi's podcast. What he basically said was that it was different types of athletes. Soccer players were smaller, fasters, and the better athletes in football, baseball and basketball wouldn't be good soccer players.

I think there is some degree of truth to that, but not fully.

You're just not going to convince me that guys like Barry Sanders couldn't have been absolutely dominant and elite in soccer. Steph Curry is 6-2. If he focused on soccer, I think he's be pretty damn good at it. Sure, there probably isn't a position for Trent Williams.

But I think if we took the raw talent for that type of athlete, and focused it on soccer, and it was the most popular sport in the country, I think we would do better.

I do think it would be arrogant to think we would dominate. However, I think we would would be a lot more competitive.

At the risk of jumping into a conversation uninvited LOL...

I coached HS soccer for a bit, I'm not a professional or anything, but I've watched / coached more than most Americans (which may not be saying much :))

The "our best athletes are playing other sports" is a minor part of the problem IMO. A country like Norway with ~6M people can outperform a country of 350M... we probably have between 10M-15M youth soccer players currently in the USA. Soccer is the 2nd most popular youth sport by numbers in our country...

What we don't have is a soccer culture where kids are obsessed with the game from their earliest age, who spend all of their free time playing around with a soccer ball. Take a much smaller group that grows up like that, and get them competing against the best around from age 5 onward and you produce kids that have more coordinated feet than hands, and they think the game at an advanced level...

So, if you could clone the soccer obsessed culture within the right competitive framework in the USA, we'd be up there with the best in the world. If you just increase the number of American kids who play soccer, but within our current soccer culture and competition, you'd see minimal gains IMO.
 
I think we are getting off topic but the fact your Womens "soccer" team is so dominant kind of supports your arguments. I assume other sports except American Football are available to them but enough choose "soccer".
 
I think we are getting off topic but the fact your Womens "soccer" team is so dominant kind of supports your arguments. I assume other sports except American Football are available to them but enough choose "soccer".

***Just my opinions here, they may be wrong***

Yes off topic... but... The USA was actually in the exact opposite position in women's soccer (and women's sports) as compared to the men's game. The USA was ahead of the curve on women's sports and the collegiate development pathway was actually better than what was happening in most European clubs. In addition, the football culture in much of the rest of the world was mostly with boys not girls (generalization).

So in that sense, when the USA embraced women's sports ahead of the curve, we actually created the same competitive advantage in our favor that had worked against us on the men's side.
 
At the risk of jumping into a conversation uninvited LOL...

I coached HS soccer for a bit, I'm not a professional or anything, but I've watched / coached more than most Americans (which may not be saying much :))

The "our best athletes are playing other sports" is a minor part of the problem IMO. A country like Norway with ~6M people can outperform a country of 350M... we probably have between 10M-15M youth soccer players currently in the USA. Soccer is the 2nd most popular youth sport by numbers in our country...

What we don't have is a soccer culture where kids are obsessed with the game from their earliest age, who spend all of their free time playing around with a soccer ball. Take a much smaller group that grows up like that, and get them competing against the best around from age 5 onward and you produce kids that have more coordinated feet than hands, and they think the game at an advanced level...

So, if you could clone the soccer obsessed culture within the right competitive framework in the USA, we'd be up there with the best in the world. If you just increase the number of American kids who play soccer, but within our current soccer culture and competition, you'd see minimal gains IMO.
Everybody is always invited. However, this has not gotten to the point past a few passing posts, so we should probably move it somewhere else if we want to continue. Either the world cup thread or the random sports comment thread in the "All Things Sports" forum. Heck, I'm going to continue this in the Random Sports thread...

 
Looks like it was a great day at training camp! Anybody on the board go?
 




I don't think he was really an option here, but it looks like he wasn't really an option anywhere








I wonder if Dan Quinn uses "in this space" or "to go" when he's actually coaching guys....


MORE!!! TUDDY!!!!


Not Commanders related, but I really want to see Dan Quinn doing this:
 
I got a ticket from someone on twitter for season ticket member day on Wednesday. One question though. Does anyone know if that includes seating in the VIP area, or will i have to sit in the bleachers instead?
 
I got a ticket from someone on twitter for season ticket member day on Wednesday. One question though. Does anyone know if that includes seating in the VIP area, or will i have to sit in the bleachers instead?
I don't think there's enough information to figure that out from what you posted. Recommend you put this in the random thought thread or another non-Training Camp related thread. If you provide more information (where the ticket is, what game, etc.) somebody might be able to help you.
 
Digesting muliple podcasts, some impressions I get

A. Antonio Williams is already the 2nd best WR on the team

B. Daronte Jones is running a variation of the Flores scheme. Yesterday with the fans there, they simplified it so they want to keep it undercover to an extent

C. Blough's scheme -- lot of motion, trick plays

D. Jones has been terrible subbing in for Allegretti at center

E. Oweh is a freak athlete and looks the part in camp

F. Styles seems to be very assignment sound. I watched a segment-interview where I saw he is one of the first guys in the building every morning

G. Wrs so so, the first two days, but better yesterday albiet David Harrison who covers the team didn't think the WRs were that hot yesterday but others thought they were better

H. Sinnott with some drops, Chig, too but otherwise seperating well

I. Croskey Merritt watch ball securitry -- Saintristil punched a ball out.

J. Hearing nothing about J. Ford. But Robert Henry Keim has said don't sleep on at RB

H. R. Douglas seems to be the CB that's standing out so far.

I. The young QBs aren't playing that hot, maybe they go with 2 QBs this year.
 
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No practice today, day off. So media is not at camp and I don't believe there is any open media availability, so the news might be slow today.



However, a few cleanup nuggets from yesterday:

I've never seen this before from this angle. Really cool. It reminds me of a swim meet warmup which is complete chaos and I am always shocked nobody drowns...








I had to look REALLY hard to find what Keim was talking about. Look way in the back for 74 snapping to 8 (Mariota). Ignore the the guy in the black tank (I think it's Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu, who I know nothing about) doing footwork drills in the foreground.


Link to Keim's article on ESPN:
 
Digesting muliple podcasts, some impressions I get

A. Antonio Williams is already the 2nd best WR on the team

B. Daronte Jones is running a variation of the Flores scheme. Yesterday with the fans there, they simplified it so they want to keep it undercover to an extent

C. Blough's schme -- lot of motion, trick players

D. Jones has been terrible subbing in for Allegretti at center

E. Oweh is a freak athlete and looks the part in camp

F. Styles seems to be very assignment sound. I watched a segment-interview where I saw he is one of the first guys in the building every morning

G. Wrs so so, the first two days, but better yesterday albiet David Harrison who covers the team didn't think the WRs were that hot yesterday but others thought they were better

H. Sinnott with some drops, Chig, too but otherwise seperating well

I. Croskey Merritt watch ball securitry -- Saintristil punched a ball out.

J. Hearing nothing about J. Ford. But Robert Henry Keim has said don't sleep on at RB

H. R. Douglas seems to be the CB that's standing out so far.

I. The young QBs aren't playing that hot, maybe they go with 2 QBs this year.
Good list, consistent with what I've heard. A couple other items that stuck out to me:

Nick Cross has been really good

Van Jefferson has been impressive

And to reiterate your comments, Good-Jones isn't cutting it
 
A talked a little about Henry in the USFA at the time, he was the biggest name they took at least upon my reading-watching about the draft. Not sure fast but explosive albiet alas like Croskey-Merritt a liability in pass protect but has good hands,

 
Good list, consistent with what I've heard. A couple other items that stuck out to me:

Nick Cross has been really good

Van Jefferson has been impressive

And to reiterate your comments, Good-Jones isn't cutting it

The WRs reports are really mixed so not sure what to make of it. More negative than positive for the first two days, more positive than negative yesterday albiet Lake Lewis a reporter who covered camp thought the WRs were meh yesterday, along with David Harrison.

I've heard some good things about Van Jefferson but then some don't highlight him at all and question whether he makes the team -- Finlay said Dyami has been the third best WR, after Antonio. But lol, I am sure someone else would have a different order. I've heard consenus good things about Antonio. Mostly good about Luke. If Lane is standing out, I haven't notice anyone talk about it.

In the defense of everyone, hard to tell from a few practices. In the old days when I went to Richmond, I'd need about 6 practices to get a feel.

Haven't heard a ton about Cross as to camp, but I do know the locals are high on him as I am. I know they use Cross among others on blitz packages. Sounds like the blitz packages are going to be exotic and relentless -- Flores style.
 
I don't think there's enough information to figure that out from what you posted. Recommend you put this in the random thought thread or another non-Training Camp related thread. If you provide more information (where the ticket is, what game, etc.) somebody might be able to help you.
It’s not a game, it’s for this Wednesday, for training camp practice (which is why I posted it in the training camp thread) for the season-ticket member day (yesterday was open to everyone, Wednesday is just open to people with season tickets) .
 
That was a really good summary based on the pods I listen to. I listen to Keim, JP's Beltway Football with Mitch Tischler, and Standig. I don't listen to Bram much anymore, he's boring alone.

To add some color to some of your comments (no disagreement, just additional commentary...)

Digesting muliple podcasts, some impressions I get

A. Antonio Williams is already the 2nd best WR on the team
Listening to Standig, Keim and JP, it certainly seems like he is the smoothest guy out there and "looks the part." I don't know who I heard say that. I didn't hear anybody come right out and say that he was the second best WR in camp. I think JP used the word "slippery" a bunch.

That's really good for the rookie. Maybe not so good for everybody else.

C. Blough's schme -- lot of motion, trick players
Funny story from JP's pod: He said that the screaming idiot (Chris Russell for those who don't know the appropriate nicknames) actually went to the Commanders PR staff and asked how to phrase a tweet based on the rules of what they are allowed to and not allowed to say. They came up with "Razzle Dazzle." The offense has a lot of Razzle Dazzle.

Which I think is going to infuriate some of our fans. But it sounds like there's a lot of motions, and even quite a few different types of handoffs and slight of hand with the ball. Our fanbase seems to like 40-gut and 50-gut, so it will be interesting to see how quickly fans start to say he's being "too cute."

D. Jones has been terrible subbing in for Allegretti at center
Yeah, I heard from both Keim and Mitch that Jones essentially is causing the offense to stall immediately and Payne is figuratively picking him up and delivering him into the lap of the QB. Not good. I think you're going to see a new veteran backup center. Also, Coleman was taking snaps at center. Keim indicated the signing could be after roster cuts. I'm not sure they will wait that long.

H. Sinnott with some drops, Chig, too but otherwise separating well
There was a lot of love for Colson Yankoff also. He apparently made the catch of practice one day. My impression from listening to all of the pods is Sinnott is doing ok, but Yankoff is flashing more. Which would be an interesting development if Yankoff beat out Sinnott for playing time.

I. Croskey Merritt watch ball securitry -- Saintristil punched a ball out.
Somebody said something like it was more of a collision and it's possible Bill just wasn't expecting it at all. It is something to monitor, though. He can't put the ball on the ground.

I. The young QBs aren't playing that hot, maybe they go with 2 QBs this year.
I think there are 2 draft picks who might not make the roster: Gulbin (C) and Athan Kaliakmanis (QB). Gulbin might just because he's a developmental center. But if there's a numbers game and Allagretti's injury is more serious, and they need to sign a vet center, that could get tough.

If that were to come to pass, that's a bad look for Peters. Cutting a 7th round QB and getting him to the PS, eh, that's not that big a deal. If they get squeezed on Gulbin, that's not great.

-------------------------
I'll add one observation. Terry has taken Jaden Bradley under his wing as an undrafted guy, and by all accounts, he's doing well. Terry keeps working with him after practice. He has a LONG LONG way to go to make the 53, because say what you want about the top end of the WR room, it is deep. He'd have to dislodge at least 2, if not all 3 of Van Jefferson, Burks and DBrown (with the assumption Terry, Williams, McCaffery and Lane are locks). And they really might sign Diggs.

So that's a long road to hoe to get on to the roster, but multiple pods have commented on it, Terry has spoken at length about working with him, and how impressed he is. So I'm filing that in the back of my mind to see if maybe they have a gem they can develop over time.
 

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