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JP and BMitch discuss what they learned from Washington's week of practice.
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00:00we spent the last few days in ashburn and the commanders will be on the field today briefly
00:04to wrap up mini camp um the first two days were where they got the bulk of the work done
00:09today's session will be very short followed by a family barbecue so it's kind of like a send-off
00:15for the summer for the nfl yeah and one thing i applaud with quinn is that he's very intentional
00:23in what he does and this mini camp was really pretty different than anything i had seen
00:29in that the starters just did walkthroughs it was like maybe you could call it a jog through
00:35maybe it was a little more than a walkthrough but it wasn't much and it was the twos and threes
00:40on
00:40the other field going you know full speed for june no contact 11 on 11s and quinn explained why he's
00:49like we had so many injuries last year i need to know that these guys can go i need to
00:53know what
00:54they can give me i think there's some amount of i need to know if i need to look for
00:58other people
00:58down the roster and it was just an interesting intentional decision by quinn and quinn has said
01:07over and over and over again that he wants to have the most competitive training camp he's ever had
01:13and certainly in washington and then i saw this this morning evan washburn is a friend of the program
01:19um evan we all used to work together back in the csn days evan is now with cbs sports and
01:25had an
01:25interview with dan quinn where quinn talked about how bad everything was last year i thought this
01:33was quite interesting
01:36pulled out some tape from a random 2024 ota practice and one from a 25 ota practice and i showed
01:46some of the players this off season to say this was a team desperate and this one wasn't as desperate
01:56and so we're a great example sometimes you might just be one degree off and then in july you're this
02:03far august a little further further and by october what the hell you know and it was such a hard
02:10lesson um to go through and to learn but it's also one that like i wanted to take the lessons
02:16from
02:1625 learn them and then burn you know all the others like in fact before the new coaches came in
02:25here
02:25for 26 i took everybody else outside we wrote some things down on a piece of paper a couple big
02:33like paint stirs wrote down some stuff lit a big fire and one of those big cans like said all
02:40right
02:40we're the things we're leaving behind you know there's got to be the lessons that we're taking
02:43from this past season because it wasn't all injury related we weren't as connected we weren't as tough
02:49we weren't as clutch and so some of that's practice some of that's connection some of that's
02:57you know the scheme the coaching all of it you know you can put everything into one big
03:01you know pot but and you you guys literally did that you put things that you wanted to burn yes
03:09from the 25 experience and it wasn't fair for any of these new coaches coming in for them to have
03:15any
03:15other baggage that we're bringing into this season there was no chance for that and so i like developing
03:20the coaches so let's talk about what we didn't like how we're going to fix it but like we're not
03:25bringing this old from 25 into this season with these new coaches that are being a part of this so
03:31the day before they arrived i did that exercise with the coaches that you know were with us the
03:38season prior and i also showed that video that i spoke to you about i didn't show this year's players
03:44they had nothing to do with that but i wanted the other players to see let's make sure that practice
03:51here the competitive nature that's our standard
03:56so b you've been part of good teams you've been part of bad teams how important is it
04:01for a coach for a head coach and i think it takes some level of guts for quinn to say
04:07you know we didn't have the same edge in 25 we had in 24 um how important is it to
04:14recognize that
04:15and then you know the actual symbolic act of burning that season or whatever you want to say
04:21maybe that works maybe that doesn't but i think it it's very important because so many times you
04:28end a season and you see people saying well i did my job he didn't or the coaches go well
04:33we we coached
04:34they didn't they didn't get it players go well you know they let us down but if everybody could come
04:39to
04:39it on the same notion and have that belief that's cool but you have to be intentional about it and
04:47every day think like that to remember that because the first day we the act of burning the stuff
04:53means nothing the every day after it and being consistent with the things you need to do to make
05:00it to leave it behind that's what's most important and if they do that because i i like you said
05:05you and
05:06i discussed intensity from last year how easy we thought stuff looked yeah even in these little
05:13minicabs once they get out there they they're they're going at a quicker pace it's a much much
05:18more rapid pace when you're so i i like that you know because i listen bro that 2024 they had
05:26something
05:26to prove 2025 as they say they were smelling themselves well and i think like that's the whole building
05:36right that's peters yeah bringing in debo and tonsil like they made plays for these vets
05:42rather than continuing to build like you saw it happen and the thing i'm most curious for
05:48is where is the physicality in camp like is that noticeably different and i don't know we don't know
05:57yet right we'll have to see they can't probably put pads on until mid until like the first week of
06:04august yeah but i think you have to up that intensity as well you have to up it and and
06:09up in that intensity doesn't mean people have to be on the ground and i think that's the ultimate
06:14thing where these guys have to have to learn how to practice fast practice hard but take care of each
06:21other and and i keep going back because i know people are all back in the day we didn't tackle
06:27in
06:27practice we had a period where we would do some nine on nines where it'd be about five plays
06:33sometimes six at the most goal line type situation short yard type situation where you would but
06:39that's only like one day out of what 12 13 of them but you would always be going fast and
06:47butt ups you heard the shoulder pass hit you let the guy go you didn't wrap him up and take
06:53him to
06:53the ground they can still do that all of those things that they did back then that joe gibbs did
06:58all the things that the 49ers did they didn't have on pads but they're one of the best teams in
07:02the
07:02league because they did everything at a full speed pace and they knew how to take care of each other
07:07they got to get to that point if you walk around in practice and you go slow in practice you
07:13are not
07:13going to be able to go full speed for a whole football game it ain't gonna happen agree it's not
07:18about getting hurt in practice right but it is about upping that intensity and then so jayden
07:25yesterday jayden spoke at length and got asked about you know the struggles from last year what
07:34does that mean for this year and jayden's like last year is last year i'm done talking about last year
07:38i'm focused on this year i'm focused on getting better and i guess some people like kind of took issue
07:44with it that you know you you should have some focus and thought on what went wrong last year
07:50to improve it this year i i didn't have any issue with what jayden said because i was also there
07:57and
07:57understood kind of the context of it what he did wrong last year he could improve this year he could
08:01be a better player this year right what happens has happened and i also think if anybody believes
08:07that he's not taking lessons from last year i think that's incredibly naive no he he's looked at it
08:14he saw it he's been he goes to practice and he tries to be more intentional like something i might
08:21have done last year caused some issues i'm not gonna do that anymore but i think a lot of times
08:25people have to understand that because you haven't gotten past it don't mean that players not passed it
08:30and just because you want to write that story don't mean they're gonna keep answering your questions
08:33right and like answering the question versus taking from the experience are very separate things yeah
08:43yeah you know what i mean totally i it did did you take stuff from previous seasons every year of
08:49your career i if if it was something that was totally wrong i would by the time i got back
08:57to
08:57actual practices i had already gone through read it and tried to correct it when i got to practice
09:03it's over now i'm trying to get i'm trying to work on the things that i think is going to
09:07help me
09:07that year you get what i'm saying the thing about players like you know is i read this book called
09:13the the uh the present and i think that's how players have to think in football for the most
09:17part yeah something happened last year but you can't let it wear you down today and yeah you want
09:22to be somewhere tomorrow but you can't be worried about that you got to be right in the present
09:25taking care of what the hell you can handle today and if you do it every time like that learn
09:30from
09:30what you went through and try to make sure that it's not repeated by focusing on now so i can
09:36be
09:36what i want to be later on if they do stuff like that that's how they're gonna get better
09:39but if they if media people think players have to always be focused on the past or what happened
09:46then no you let it go you got to let it go eventually you'll never be able to move forward
09:51von miller said something to me last year that stuck with me and he said the key to play in
09:56professional football is you have to be a prisoner of the present there you go you can't be looking
10:01ahead two or three games like if they're playing tampa this week but they know the nfc east showdown
10:07with the eagles is three weeks out you can't be thinking about that man and for these dudes at
10:13june minicamp to be thinking about week 10 of the previous season it's just it's not how it functions
10:20and i think for for dq to do the symbolism of burning the notes from last year cool and and
10:28because you
10:28have overhauled this staff it's not fair to the it's not fair to david blau to relitigate the struggles
10:36of cliff's offense last year or like it's certainly not fair to dorante jones to discuss how awful the
10:44defense was last year he wasn't a part of that and it's gonna look different and so i think for
10:50jayden
10:51to be like dude last year's last year we're moving forward i i think it's a bridge too far to
10:58suggest
10:58he hasn't learned stuff from last year he probably learned from last year but he's in a totally different
11:04offense right now so what i mean i'll ask the question to any media person that got mad and
11:09look yourself in the mirror and i ask you this question you want him to worry about last year
11:13you want him to learn this goddamn offense which one you want you want to be better this year you
11:17want to keep worried about last year okay because you wrote a bad article last year you did a bad
11:22report are you still thinking about it gonna be better this year you know that's the question i would
11:26ask anybody that was upset because like the thing of it is you can't want respect and don't give it
11:32that's that's where it gets to the point and i also didn't think it was like an aggressive answer
11:36no i'm just saying i've been on multiple sides on this thing and i understand the player side
11:41understand the media side but media you can't expect respect if you don't give the same level
11:47of respect you're here to write a story and yes you need me to help you write your story
11:51but if you already got your story in mind and i am not on that mindset rewrite the story change
11:58up the
12:00approach one thing i really liked from jayden yesterday is he was asked you know how's it
12:04going with the new offense and he made a point he repeated this i've got a long ways to go
12:10we've got
12:10a long ways to go i know i'm going to be in southern california for the summer break here but
12:15i'm going
12:15to be in the playbook i'm going to be watching film i'm going to continue to immerse myself in this
12:20new offense and i think just to my eye having watched them throughout the summer when jayden
12:28is in the huddle and then going to the line of scrimmage he's locked in yeah like they're not
12:34having to re-huddle that the routes look sharp like it looks like they're running this well i would
12:39argue and i've talked to people privately jayden has really taken this offense fast strong but saying
12:48that saying that if if our number one guy if our top dog is like we got a long ways
12:55to go i'm still
12:56studying i'm still learning you're you you for sure if you're the fourth tight end or the sixth
13:03running back or the fifth wide receiver or the eighth offensive lineman it's like damn jayden says
13:09he's got a long ways to go i better stay in this thing too yeah yeah and i thought that
13:12was we've heard
13:13about his leadership his increased vote you know yeah like role i thought that was indicative of it
13:19but the thing the way i look at that is this if jayden says that what if i am a
13:25player in another
13:26position that i jump into my stuff and i have less to learn than jayden see jayden has to know
13:33what the offensive lines concepts are he has to know where the tight end uh what they're looking
13:37for this that and the other break down all the defense as a running back i need to know bliss
13:41pickups my routes i don't have to learn all the stuff he learns what if i am a guy just
13:46like him
13:47and i am on point i'm ready to go still don't mean i got nothing i there's nothing else i
13:52can't learn
13:53to make me even better but i may not be at his point like jayden may have let's say a
14:00ton of stuff
14:00to learn i only have 200 pounds of that to learn i may learn mine quicker than he than he
14:06does this
14:06ton and that's not a knock on either person you know what i mean right and but i will say
14:13i look at michael jordan i look at tom brady i think two of the best to ever play their
14:18position
14:18in their sport sure what were they doing there last year grinding still learning right yeah still
14:25still trying to figure out stuff about people what makes you think a guy in his third year is not
14:30still trying to learn still not trying to be better if those guys were doing it when they had
14:34already proven how good they are if he were to tell me oh yeah i already got all this stuff
14:39down
14:40i don't need to learn anything else that would concern me but he understands how this thing is
14:44going to be totally man um it was interesting to hear jayden talk about the offense and where he is
14:52i i didn't make much of the last year was last year but it was it was last year well
15:00and i think
15:01what's forgotten is jayden daniels locker clean out day is when guys kind of assess the year they've
15:08had yeah and jayden talked about it then and talked about his struggles his frustrations
15:15staying healthy like what he has to do differently to make everything work he's addressed that and so
15:21to be asked about in june i i don't think there was any you know what but there was no
15:26there was no
15:27like malice in his statement yeah i i didn't i agree with you on that because this is what gets
15:31me after 2024 you know what everybody to a man was saying in our side of this thing the media
15:37side
15:38oh we got to forget about that and try to repeat this next year but you gotta forget about it
15:42so if you're going to want to forget about the good stuff they did damn sure we're going to forget
15:46about the bad stuff they did right right so you can't be two-faced one year you want them to
15:51forget
15:51about stuff to try to move on the next year you want them to keep remembering it
15:55no i don't want to remember the bad things i did what do you know what do you think about
15:59the way dq ran minicamp with the starters really getting it easy and the twos and threes getting
16:06the action i think he understands that the starters catch on a lot quicker than the the backups and
16:11new people that are coming in and when everything starts up again guess we're going to be getting
16:15all the plays the starters right the backups now are not going to be getting them as much so
16:22that experience right there give them a better feel of it when they come back into it i'm cool
16:27with that i also think throughout otas throughout the majority of the off-season workouts it's been
16:34the starters getting the work and so for i'll tell you the real problem with it
16:43when you have sam hartman and you have aathan kaliak manis running the offenses for these 11 on 11s
16:50where you're trying to see good work the the level of quarterback play from those two is not
16:56allowing for a lot of functioning offense there's some but it it's been subpar quarterbacking from
17:03from those two and i'm not trying to take shots i'm not saying like specifically they have a lot to
17:08learn all that stuff but the problem with trying to run that with those guys is that like i'm not
17:15sure
17:16how good and how real the work is but i maybe that's good for the defense i'll tell you for
17:21me
17:21in college when our third fourth fifth string quarterbacks were running stuff and me and my boy
17:28clint rich pineal had to watch it and then when they come back and i get to talk to them
17:32about what
17:33that what's going on you know what they gave me a better understanding of the offense i am breaking
17:37it down to them about hey man you gotta look at this this and this and not only was i
17:42wasn't helping
17:43them as much as i was helping myself you get what i'm saying yeah at the moment when it was
17:47happening
17:48i thought i was teaching them coaching them which in turn now when i got up there what i told
17:55them was
17:55was stuck here and i was able to read it based off of what i told them that may be
18:00a part of it as well
18:01so
18:01you
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