2025 Washington Commanders Camp / Preseason

[DWinzit]

Was the 7th team the Steve Spurrior led Redskins by chance?

 

[Iraolaball]

yeah am glad it wont be Dart

Watched a good bit of Dart last year, and while he made a lot of big plays, and has all the athletic attributes you’d want in an NFL QB, I also watched him make numerous head scratching decisions, especially in big games, and in big moments.

Much easier to put up big numbers when the games are meaningless, and most of the guys you’re going against will be out of the league soon.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I'm guessing the Giants Gameday thread will pop up soonish after this preseason game is over, and that thread can contain all the info on the Giants.

Giants are going to be better. We'll see how it works out. I take literally nothing from the preseason results. But the "vibe" of the Giants is better than it has been.

Dabol was dealt a crappy hand because he was saddled with Daniel Jones, who only looked like a professional QB when he played us. They had a ridiculous run his first year winning some really tight games to get into the playoffs, then the rabbits foot wore off.

Anyway, we'll see. I don't think they're going to go from worst to first, but they should be improved. The keys to beating them will be:

1. Ball out quick when passing to negate their DL
2. Run the ball right at them, make the DL respect the run and allow the OL to lean on the DL.
3. Beat the living snot out of Russell. Make him go crying back to Ciara and contemplate retirement. (Crying back to Ciara would not be the worst situation a human being has ever been place in, if we're being honest.)
4. Turn the game one dimensional by stopping the run. So that you can beat the living snot out of Russell and make him go crying back to Ciara.

That's all fairly obvious and easier said that done. But those are them keys to the game.

 

[burgold]

So many interceptions. My QB room is Daniels, Marriotta, and someone on another team.

That… or make Lule McCaffrey the emergency QB like Nrian Mitchell back in the day

 

[skinsinparadise]

Was the 7th team the Steve Spurrior led Redskins by chance?

lol, maybe, too lazy to look.

Preseason twist one way or another as to week 1. Giants the best team in the preseason, Washington the worst team in the preseason. Does it matter? Got no clue. But it should be interesting.

 

[skinsinparadise]

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

This is good info but also seems like a bit of an excuse rather than an explanation…

 

[skinsinparadise]

This is good info but also seems like a bit of an excuse rather than an explanation…

Yeah I think it was him or Bullock (I think it was Logan) forgetting whom were saying NE keep doing the Wham Trap runs against this defense successfully in preseason game 1 -- but it felt a bit unfair to them because clearly NE game planned for this team's weakness against stopping the run -- and in turn Washington didn't game plan.

OK, even if so, its not reassuring that the same perimeter wham trap runs that befuddled this defense last year -- they could not stop in the preseason even though it is the preseason.

 

[burgold]

Question for those who study these games more intently than I do. Just how vanilla were we?

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Yeah I think it was him or Bullock (I think it was Logan) forgetting whom were saying NE keep doing the Wham Trap runs against this defense successfully in preseason game 1 -- but it felt a bit unfair to them because clearly NE game planned for this team's weakness against stopping the run -- and in turn Washington didn't game plan.

OK, even if so, its not reassuring that the same perimeter wham trap runs that befuddled this defense last year -- they could not stop in the preseason even though it is the preseason.

Yeah, I think my point was more "something that simple shouldn't be such a problem no matter if they game plan or don't game plan for it."

 

[burgold]

One worry I have is this sense of entitlement. This sense of "We're too good for the preseason and playing in a preseason game is beneath me."

I don't know if I'm right about that, but it just seems that the effort and discipline in all the preseason games were off which seems strange to me because we kept hearing how sharp practices were. The level of play makes me think some of these bubble players and backups need an attitude adjustment. I suppose this could be the downside of all the one year contracts. Too many ten year vets who just tune out the preseason games.

It does make me wonder how flat we'll come out against the Giants because as much as it seems we never matched up in talent it worries me more that we never seemed to match up in intensity (minus the first quarter against the Bengals.)

 

[peanut0862]

I'm starting to think Joe Witt is not the answer. It does not seem to matter what team or QB we play we can never get off the field on D. We give up 6 or 7 yards on most run plays If Detroit would have stuck with the run more last year I do not know if we win that game. Maybe I'm over reacting but it's very hard to watch us play

 

[Faithful Fan]

Meanwhile we got outscored by 71! If a margin of 60 in the other direction is so rare and such an omen then it stands to reason . . .

 

[SkinsFTW]

Oh, No!

The Giants are going to win 45-10.

 

[Boone]

I'm starting to think Joe Witt is not the answer. It does not seem to matter what team or QB we play we can never get off the field on D. We give up 6 or 7 yards on most run plays If Detroit would have stuck with the run more last year I do not know if we win that game. Maybe I'm over reacting but it's very hard to watch us play

I think it's reasonable to feel uncertain about Whitt. Couple things. First of all, I think it's possible our secondary is light years better in 2025 than last year. If that proves to be the case it's going to give us a chance to pressure the QB a ton more, and start forcing turnovers which is what Whitt and Quinn want to do. And with Quinn as our HC, Whitt has someone that is watching and assessing and likely advising, almost as if we have 2 DCs.

Whitt made some comments a month or so ago that lead me to believe he got 'called on the carpet' after seasons end last year. He talked about letting his assistants coach, not being a control freak and trying to do everything himself. I am almost certain those were probably Dan Quinn's words we were hearing echoed. So maybe that was one of the issues last year. We have an outstanding coaching staff from top to bottom, probably one of the least talked about strengths of this team. If Whitt was micromanaging or not listening to his assistants last season, that would be a problem.

 

[heisenberg]

I'm starting to think Joe Witt is not the answer. It does not seem to matter what team or QB we play we can never get off the field on D. We give up 6 or 7 yards on most run plays If Detroit would have stuck with the run more last year I do not know if we win that game. Maybe I'm over reacting but it's very hard to watch us play

Ive been concerned about our run defense since we hired both quinn and whitt.
Dallas had a good secondary but they were atrocious against the run.
At the time it was easy to blame it on personnel just as it was an easy excuse for us last year but this year they have no excuse, we recognized then problem (not that a blind man wouldn't have seen it) and we brought in a bunch of huge bodies to rectify it.

If we are abysmal against the run now its a scheme problem.

Dan quinn has said many times he likes to find what guys do well, he calls it their superpower, and focus on and nurture that so they're playing to their strengths.
Thats all good and all and you certainly dont want to be putting players in unnatural positions regularly but if you have too much of it going on i have to imagine you'll become easy to read.

Now im not an x's and o's guy ive never tried to hide that so i have no idea if that has anything to do with it or what the problem is really but im more concerned about our run game than just making adjustments from last year.
Quinns defenses have been mediocre to bad against the run going all the way back to his atlanta days and its a pattern im not confident they'll correct this year.

I expect we'll have an improved defense, mostly in the secondary but im almost certain we'll still have large schematic weaknesses that exploit our run defense because that seems to be quinns m.o. for the last ten seasons or so which is a disturbing trend.

 

[aledb11]

From his opening press conference, Whitt has seemed to me to be the wrong choice. He came across as entitled and past deserving of the job. And when called out since, he has shown no humility or reason. He seems to think that he has earned the right to have and keep the position when he has done nothing of the sort.

 

[DWinzit]

Ive been concerned about our run defense since we hired both quinn and whitt.
Dallas had a good secondary but they were atrocious against the run.
At the time it was easy to blame it on personnel just as it was an easy excuse for us last year but this year they have no excuse, we recognized then problem (not that a blind man wouldn't have seen it) and we brought in a bunch of huge bodies to rectify it.

If we are abysmal against the run now its a scheme problem.

Dan quinn has said many times he likes to find what guys do well, he calls it their superpower, and focus on and nurture that so they're playing to their strengths.
Thats all good and all and you certainly dont want to be putting players in unnatural positions regularly but if you have too much of it going on i have to imagine you'll become easy to read.

Now im not an x's and o's guy ive never tried to hide that so i have no idea if that has anything to do with it or what the problem is really but im more concerned about our run game than just making adjustments from last year.
Quinns defenses have been mediocre to bad against the run going all the way back to his atlanta days and its a pattern im not confident they'll correct this year.

I expect we'll have an improved defense, mostly in the secondary but im almost certain we'll still have large schematic weaknesses that exploit our run defense because that seems to be quinns m.o. for the last ten seasons or so which is a disturbing trend.

It's proper coaching to find players superpower and nurture paying to their strengths while they learn to improve their weakness. The coaches got a bit of a mulligan last year based on inheriting what was already here.

When you have the ability to bring in your own players, you select them based on their superpowers fitting your scheme/needs. With the staffs second year they should have brought in the right players (superpowers) to clean up weaknesses. Fingers crossed the run D will be vastly improved as that was the teams biggest weakness. Same of course goes with getting at the QB, coverage, and tackling which all were not great.

 

[burgold]

Insecurity often comes out as brashness. Maybe he was trying too hard to prove he was the man. I enjoyed Whitt's press conferences. We'll see what he's learned. It's hard to coach defense with no corners or only one good one.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

People are bailing on Quinn over preseason losses?

For the record I am not a Joe Whitt fan, he's never been a DC and that aggressive downhill defense we were promised never materialized. But I'm good with Quinn.