2026 Commanders Training Camp

[Voice_of_Reason]

Oh, well that explains a lot

I took this conversation to the Covering the Commanders thread. I posted a few suggestions in there and tagged you.

 

[skinsinparadise]

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

That's a spin job if I've ever heard one:






(This is a bit they do on the Finlay podcast. Who's the first player on the field)


TUDDY!


More Tuddy!




This is going to be a good listen:

 

[Chris 44]

I can see center being a big issue this year. Wasn't great to begin with but early Alagretti injury hammers home the discussion about where the OL ranks. No matter where the tackles and guard ranks having big questions etc tanks whatever ranking the OL has as a unit. Many of us had concerns early in the offseason, hopefully this injury triggers a code red to figure a solution .

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I can see center being a big issue this year. Wasn't great to begin with but early Alagretti injury hammers home the discussion about where the OL ranks. No matter where the tackles and guard ranks having big questions etc tanks whatever ranking the OL has as a unit. Many of us had concerns early in the offseason, hopefully this injury triggers a code red to figure a solution .

If Allegretti is healthy, I think they're going to be fine.

If he's not, then I have major question marks. They need a 6th round rookie to develop into a competent backup in a month, or they need to go sign a guy at cutdown day.

I will also say, if they have to cut 2 draft picks (QB and C), and get them to the PS, that's not going to be a good look. I can't see how they can keep 3 QBs, so that's one draft pick which is ending up on the PS.

 

[Riggo’sRangers]

I love Riggo being at camp & the overdue honor this year. So happy it wasn’t done during the previous regime, which got nothing right. Very excited for this year and the new faces. We had an extreme overhaul this year and need to gel quickly with our early schedule. Training camp and preseason hold much more importance, for a variety of reasons. Let’s get after it today & please, no significant injuries! Hail

 

[Die Hard]

s

Nice tidbit.

Apparently, the coaches have been blowing the play dead when JD5 starts to scramble. They make him go back and go through his progressions. They are trying to break the habit of him bailing out if he doesn't see a receiver break open immediately.

Cool. They should modify it further to break his habit. Don’t blow the play dead… but keep the play going but he cant cross the LOS or he has to pass or get sacked. Discourage the possibility of taking the easy way out and taking free yards and risking the hit.

And then having him practicing rolling to his left to pass… and like the other drill he HAS to pass scrambling to his left.

The whole league knows he won’t pass if he’s scrambling left. He needs to break that pattern.

 

[Primus Porcus]

s

Cool. They should modify it further to break his habit. Don’t blow the play dead… but keep the play going but he cant cross the LOS or he has to pass or get sacked. Discourage the possibility of taking the easy way out and taking free yards and risking the hit.

And then having him practicing rolling to his left to pass… and like the other drill he HAS to pass scrambling to his left.

The whole league knows he won’t pass if he’s scrambling left. He needs to break that pattern.

That could be coming. It's day 3 of camp.

I like the idea of development in stages. Stage 1. Stand tall and find a guy, you're allowed to run. As that vision continues to develop, you evolve it like you mentioned. Get used to the idea that from the pocket, you still have the whole field at your disposal, breaking the pocket and heading toward a sideline takes away a large part of the field to be able to read / throw to.

 

[burgold]

It may also signal another reason to be discontent with Kliff.

Year One: Design an offense Jayden is comfortable with and can excel at quick.
Year Two: Start blending in more pro concepts and force the kid to grow.

Our year two looked way too much like year one. In fact, one of my complaints was that Kliff seemed to call a different game for Mariotta than he did for Daniels. Daniels is a smart QB and a hard worker. Let him grow and figure it out.

 

[Simeon]

If Allegretti is healthy, I think they're going to be fine.

If he's not, then I have major question marks. They need a 6th round rookie to develop into a competent backup in a month, or they need to go sign a guy at cutdown day.

I will also say, if they have to cut 2 draft picks (QB and C), and get them to the PS, that's not going to be a good look. I can't see how they can keep 3 QBs, so that's one draft pick which is ending up on the PS.

Totally agree. I think center is his more natural position and I think the team knows what he can do there in this offense better than us. But will he last the season?

He has only been asked to start a full season once in his career and that was as a Commander guard in 2024, when he finished all 17 games. The one major injury he’s had was the torn UCL in Super Bowl LVIII which he finished the last 3 quarters with anyhow, so he’s proven pretty tough.

On the other hand that’s not an impressive sample size given the length of his career. Unless the rookie proves himself during camp we are going to need a reliable veteran backup before the season gets going.

 

[Conn]

The committee at work, who needs WR help when you’ve got these behemoths

 

[burgold]

We laugh, but wait 'til the eligible play forty yards down the field.

 

[bowhunter]

The committee at work, who needs WR help when you’ve got these behemoths

Trent Scott ain't got nothin' on this group

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I love Riggo being at camp & the overdue honor this year. So happy it wasn’t done during the previous regime, which got nothing right. Very excited for this year and the new faces. We had an extreme overhaul this year and need to gel quickly with our early schedule. Training camp and preseason hold much more importance, for a variety of reasons. Let’s get after it today & please, no significant injuries! Hail

Nobody would have ever guessed your a Riggo fan. Like, totally unforseen....

 

[DWinzit]

(This is a bit they do on the Finlay podcast. Who's the first player on the field)

Good sign, he needs to step it the f up!

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

s

Cool. They should modify it further to break his habit. Don’t blow the play dead… but keep the play going but he cant cross the LOS or he has to pass or get sacked. Discourage the possibility of taking the easy way out and taking free yards and risking the hit.

And then having him practicing rolling to his left to pass… and like the other drill he HAS to pass scrambling to his left.

The whole league knows he won’t pass if he’s scrambling left. He needs to break that pattern.

I kindof disagree. I don't want the habit broken, I want the habit modified. We drafted a dual threat QB. If you don't use the dual threatness of it all, then what's the point.

What separates Daniels are his legs. What you want to groom him to be in an absolute ideal world is Drew Brees passing + additional dimension with his legs. You want both. So if nothing is open, he needs to know when and how to go through the progression, come back to where the checkdown its, and all that. But if that's not open, kill them with your legs.

And there should be plays where he IS the designed checkdown. Not all of them. But some. It allows you to get 5 receivers out in the route down the field, and if the defense commits 7 defenders to defend that, the QB getting yards underneath with his legs is brutal for a defense and gold for an offense.

It's some of everything.

I also don't want him to be so cautious about leaving the pocket that he ends up trying to be Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. He isn't either of those guys. He has the added dimension to his game, use it.

I do like they are working on him working within the design of the play more. And yeah, they need to get him to throw on the run going left. It's hard, but he can do it.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Good sign, he needs to step it the f up!

Quinn said early in the off-season that he was really impressed with Newton through the early part of the offseason program.

At that point, it was all hopes and dreams because they hadn't taken the field yet. (Thank you Conn for that description.)

But if he is putting in the work, and first in, last out, man, that would really help the DL group. In the typical 3-4 style defense, the 3 down linemen basically are supposed to build the great wall of China and not move, and the pressure and tacking comes from the LBs and Safeties. However, Newton has the ability to penetrate from the inside, and that would add a really tough to handle component if he can get good at it.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

The committee at work, who needs WR help when you’ve got these behemoths

Chris Paul (75) made a pretty good move to catch the ball over his head.

Actually, all those guys showed pretty soft hands for OL. It's amazing how professional athletes can make things which are not super easy look easy, even if it's not what they are really trained to do.

At a really, really different level, one of the guys I knew who played HS football, a RB who was also on the Basketball team, had never played tennis before, but was trying to impress his girlfriend who was on the tennis team. So he started hitting with her, and in like 3-4 days, he might not have been able to make the men's tennis team, but he was competent. If he gave up his primary sports, he would have been a hell of a good tennis player. The body control just led him to be able to pick up new athletic technique really easily.

They were a mad fit HS couple.

 

[Conn]

Chris Paul (75) made a pretty good move to catch the ball over his head.

Actually, all those guys showed pretty soft hands for OL. It's amazing how professional athletes can make things which are not super easy look easy, even if it's not what they are really trained to do.

At a really, really different level, one of the guys I knew who played HS football, a RB who was also on the Basketball team, had never played tennis before, but was trying to impress his girlfriend who was on the tennis team. So he started hitting with her, and in like 3-4 days, he might not have been able to make the men's tennis team, but he was competent. If he gave up his primary sports, he would have been a hell of a good tennis player. The body control just led him to be able to pick up new athletic technique really easily.

They were a mad fit HS couple.

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.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

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.