Commanders Seeing Long-Term Vision Pay Off Early With First Place Start

With a new owner, a new coach, a new GM and a new QB, Washington has a direction for its program and it’s becoming clearer and clearer.

Daniels, the second pick in the NFL draft, has the Commanders off to a 3-1 start and in first place in the NFC East. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Week 4 recap | What we learned in Week 4 | Vikings should extend Sam Darnold | Bucs look like contenders | Week 4 takeaways

Dan Quinn and Adam Peters initially went to the league office in the spring asking for their games in Dallas and Arizona to be clustered together, so they could turn the two into one long trip—like a lot of teams do—and minimize the travel toll on their players. The NFL responded by giving the Washington Commanders back-to-back trips to Cincinnati (Monday night) and Arizona (Sunday) in September when Metro Phoenix feels like the inside of an oven.

The plan wasn’t really the way they drew it up.

Little did they know, it would wind up being about perfect.

The team’s new coach and GM took their crew to Ohio eight days ago at 1–1, a group with some promise, coming off a tough, grinding, NFC East win over the New York Giants, and a lot to prove. The Commanders are returning to D.C. this Monday morning looking like a football rocket ship after outgunning the Cincinnati Bengals, 38–33, and blowing out the much-improved Arizona Cardinals, 42–13.

They also come back a little tighter, a little tougher, a little more connected, bringing the group a little closer to the vision they had not just for the trip, or for the season, but for the program that Quinn and Peters are trying to build.

“We were like f--- it, man, let’s find a space,” says Quinn, recalling the spring. “We thought flying back would be tough and then turning around and flying on a Friday right back to Arizona. We were fortunate—ASU [Arizona State], they took care of us. They had a bye this week. We were able to use their indoor facility. And when I say it was hot out here this week, like 114 hot. Out of hand.

“A lot of sacrifice for the guys. I told them, This will be worth it. It’ll hurt a little bit early in the week when we got there, because we arrived Tuesday at like 3 a.m., and then you got into Wednesday and Thursday. We said that by the time today hit [Sunday], you’ll be flying. That’s what we knew we were going to have to be able to do.”

They flew, all right. Rookie phenom Jayden Daniels was outrageously efficient, again, completing 26-of-30 throws for 233 yards and a touchdown. The run game churned out 216 yards. The defense sacked Kyler Murray four times. Washington scored 27 consecutive points after yielding a touchdown on the opening possession.

And you got to see a lot of those moments play out on your flat-screen TV Sunday. But there were so many more over the past few days you couldn’t see that paint a pretty vivid picture on where the 3–1 Commanders, now alone in first in the division, plan to go from here.

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We’ve got two more games in Week 4, and we’re ready to wrap up the other 14 right here. Over in the takeaways, you’ll find …

• Joe Flacco’s perspective, now that he’s back on the game field for the Indianapolis Colts.

• Kirk Cousins on Atlanta’s Cardiac Birds.

• Lavonte David on Tom Brady’s impact in Tampa, and how the Buccaneers have evolved.

And a whole lot more. But we’re starting with the Commanders, the week they just had in Arizona, and how it’s just another step for a team that seems to be getting turned around a lot faster than anyone could’ve expected.

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Phelps spoke to the Commanders during their week in Arizona. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

Twelfth-year tight end Zach Ertz was one of what seemed like a million guys in Washington’s organization to return to Arizona last week with a personal connection to the place—he spent pieces of three seasons there as a Cardinal, two of them playing for Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury. And before making the trip, Ertz pulled on another personal connection to get the team a special guest for its trip.

Twenty-three-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps, who ran in some of the same circles living in Arizona as Ertz and his wife, Julie (who is also an Olympian), stopped by the team’s walkthrough Saturday morning to address the group. And even though the Maryland native’s rooting interests are for the DMV’s other NFL team, he delivered a message that rang true with a group of players and coaches on the front of trying to build a champion.

Phelps wasn’t in front of the team for long, but he made his words count.

“For him to come by and spend 10 minutes with us and talk about mindset and sacrifice and what that looks like from his point of view, sometimes that just goes a long way for what it can be,” Quinn says. “I couldn’t be more impressed with him. He worked so hard that he trusted that work that he had put in. When it came time for these big moments, he knew how hard he had worked at it. It was a solid message at the right time for us.

“It’s all about the work and never back off of that. … His story of sacrifice, of how far you have to go for something is really remarkable.”

The sacrifice part of it, Quinn thought, showed up in a big way Sunday, in how the different phases of this Commanders team picked each other up. And especially with the rugged way the game started for the visitors.

A long kickoff return from DeeJay Dallas gave the Cardinals a short field to start the game, and Kyler Murray drove them 55 yards in nine plays to give Arizona a 7–0 lead five minutes in. That, of course, is where the fatigue of the week, and the heat, might’ve set in. Instead, to borrow Quinn’s phrasing, the Commanders used that spot as a runway for takeoff.

Daniels and the offense responded with a nine-play, 70-yard march, behind a run game that churned out 48 of those yards. Washington scored again on its next possession, going 93 yards on 13 plays, as the defense got a chance to recharge before returning the favor.

Their chance came at the end of the half, with a fourth-and-1 stop—Dorrance Armstrong, who came with Quinn from Dallas, sacked Murray on the play—that gave the offense the ball back on the Washington 42 with 29 seconds left. Daniels & Co. then covered 31 yards in four plays to set up Austin Seibert for a 45-yard field goal with three seconds showing. The kick made it a two-possession game, at 17–7, going into halftime.

“That’s what I was fired up about, just seeing all three phases connecting and going,” Quinn says. “That’s what we’ve been digging in on.”

The sacrifice, to Quinn, also came to life with an offensive line group that’s been questioned since he arrived.

“For those guys to have 200 yards rushing and no sacks, that’s a big guy kind of day,” he continues. “That’s probably, I would say, the sacrifice within.”

Then, there was the work part of Phelps’s messaging that played out all through the trip.

While it was nice to have visitors such as the greatest swimmer ever and Suns star Kevin Durant—another DMV native, and one who was raised to root for this particular DMV team—over to say hello, the real impact of the week came with his players building connections with each other. It’s one part of his program, as we discussed in the spring, he wanted to import from Atlanta, and one that seemed to get wings in the desert last week.

One example was Ertz having a group dinner with the quarterbacks and tight ends Friday night. Another was Quinn noticing the light on in the makeshift quarterback room at the team hotel two doors down from his office. It was 9 p.m, and all the guys were still in there.

“It was cool to see all these small connections take place with the team,” Quinn says. “We’re putting one together here, and we need time together. A trip like this allows us to spend the extra time. We haven’t been together as an established team for three or four years. We had to cut through feeling each other out. To see some of them fast track that, to play unselfishly, leave their other agendas aside and really fight for one another?

“Weeks like this go a long way for that.”

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Kingsbury has Daniels playing at a high level and in the MVP conversation through the first month of the season. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Quinn first met Kingsbury at a college awards show over a decade ago. Quinn was the defensive coordinator for Will Muschamp at Florida, while Kingsbury was the offensive coordinator for Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M. The two hit it off, so Quinn resolved to keep an eye on him.

He eventually evaluated players coming out of Kingsbury’s program at Texas Tech, and then, when Kingsbury landed the Cardinals job, had to coach against him.

The truth: Kingsbury gave Quinn as much trouble as any offensive coach.

“That’s why I wanted to hire him so badly,” Quinn says. “Going against him has always been hard. It’s different tempos, different personnel groups, how you speed up, slow down. It made it really hard.”

So when Kingsbury’s negotiation to become Raiders OC in January was on shaky ground—Las Vegas offered a two-year deal, not the three years that have become customary on big OC deals, after the sides had committed to Kingsbury coming aboard—Quinn knew what he had to do. Quickly, the Commanders offered the contract the Raiders wouldn’t, and Kingsbury was headed east.

And, as it turns out, the offense, one that’s proven perfect for Daniels, is just the jumping-off point for how Kingsbury’s made a difference.

“The head coach in him, he sees around the corners,” Quinn says. “He’s always supportive—‘We need to get this Friday and get the speed right.’ ‘Yeah, you got it. No problem.’ He gets the big picture, which is nice for me. And his work ethic, he’ll dig in to find the right moments for Jayden and plays, and how to feature the players. Without Austin Ekeler today, that’s a harder day. You saw Olamide Zaccheaus, because Kliff’s working with him.

“We’ll find a way to dig for the right play, for the right moment, for the right player. I’ve been really impressed by that.”

All of it is why, at the end of the game, even if Quinn wanted to award a million game balls for the effort, he thought it appropriate to give just one in the moment—to the coach who was fired by the team the Commanders beat just 20 months earlier.

Kingsbury never made the week about him. Which was another reason to recognize him.

“I was really happy for Kliff, man,” Quinn says. “I’ve been in that spot when I was in Atlanta. You do have emotions. You never wear them any different. But I did want to recognize it, when you put your heart and soul into something and it doesn’t quite go right. It’s hard.”

Of course, Quinn also could have tossed a game ball to the quarterback that Kingsbury’s developing, who has changed so much about the outlook of the franchise. This was a homecoming for Daniels, too.

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Quinn on his Commanders: “We’re still just starting to build our story, and not looking much past that. Make sure over and over again, this s--- stays consistent about how we fight.” / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Quinn was happy, but not really surprised, to see the light on in that quarterbacks room during the week. Daniels’s reputation preceded him when he arrived in D.C. in April.

It’s part of how he transformed himself from the prospective Day 3 pick (if that) in the transfer portal after the COVID-19-impacted Pac-12 seasons of 2020 and ’21 to what he is now. Before Daniels became the LSU Heisman winner/supernova, he was the prodigy that won the starting job as a true freshman at Arizona State.

After an incredibly promising debut in 2019, the pandemic cut his sophomore year to four starts, and an uneven junior season (only further destabilized by an NCAA investigation that led to the ouster of the coaching staff) pushed him to look around. He chose LSU, and the rest is history. In his third college season, he had a 10–10 TD–INT ratio. In his fifth, that ratio was 40–4 at LSU.

That doesn’t happen without work.

So on top of all of the rare physical traits, and the natural ability to spin it, the Commanders knew he had that kind of drive—to push himself and take everyone with him. But since OTAs kicked off in May, they’ve learned a lot more.

“I definitely heard about the work ethic,” Quinn says. “What I didn’t know was about this really unique blend of confidence and humility as a young player. He was just not rattled in the biggest moments, that Monday night game on the road, these different times that he just stays really level-headed. I’d heard about the work ethic, and the arm talent and athletic ability was there.

“I didn’t know of this blend of confidence and humility that can get people to want to fight for him. That’s what I’ve seen from his teammates here.”

So even if Daniels, like Kingsbury, was going to play his homecoming cool—he spent the whole week on his old campus—his teammates and coaches knew there was a little extra there for the quarterback who’s won over just about everyone in the building.

Which added up to those guys playing for him, even if he wasn’t ever going to make being back in Arizona about anything but the team.

“I knew there could be some emotions coming back here, people trying to pick at that,” Quinn says. “He and Kliff just stayed as steady as you can be. Going into the game, a great example, he threw his first interception, didn’t get sideways, looked at it on the bench. The defense had his back, created a three-and-out. He stayed aggressive. He has a really good way about him. He’s still growing.

“There’s a lot where he would say in a game like this, We can get better at this or this. The cool part is that he really wants to put the work in to get really good.”

Indeed, Daniels’s first throw after the pick, a shot down the field to Terry McLaurin, was another deep ball to … McLaurin. The two didn’t connect the way they did twice in Cincinnati, but the symbolism of the sequence sure seems to signal a new day in D.C.

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So the temptation after a feel-good trip such as this one would be to stamp the arrival of the new Commanders. New owner. New GM. New coach. New QB.

Quinn, of course, knows better. He loves the direction of his team, but knows how far they have to go.

“Adam [Peters] and I, in the spring, came up with a term of guys ‘Being Commanders.’ What did that look like and feel like and sound like? There’s a number of guys here who are really fighting for it.”

- Dan Quinn

“Adam [Peters] and I had a lot of belief in the people here, and we knew we had a lot of things to do,” Quinn says. “More than anything, you’re trying to get an identity, and a team together that stands for what we stand for. We want to be tough. Adam and I, in the spring, came up with a term of guys ‘Being Commanders.’ What did that look like and feel like and sound like? There’s a number of guys here who are really fighting for it.

“We’re still just starting to build our story, and not looking much past that. Make sure over and over again, this s--- stays consistent about how we fight.”

The good news is Quinn and Peters already have guys living up to that slogan.

Zaccheaus was one, who had six catches for 85 yards, with the Cardinals determined not to let McLaurin do to them what he did to the Bengals. Jeremy McNichols was another, churning out 68 yards on eight carries, with Ekeler down, and the team needing a sidecar to workhorse Brian Robinson Jr. (who had 101 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries) in the backfield.

But more than just the yards, and catches, and carries they ate up, those guys chewed through the dirty work as blockers and decoys, which is what the coach and GM are looking for in manifesting the idea that the slogan carries.

“That means a lot to me, to say that the running, the hitting, a play style is there,” he says. “It just takes a while to get to that. I’m pleased that the team has fast-tracked some things, feeling it out and what we need to do. It’s a pretty cool group, to see them support one another. That type of connection carries over into the game, onto the sideline. I wish you could be on the sideline, feel how they’re pulling for one another. It’s a cool thing.”

There are a lot of cool things happening in Washington right now. And while Quinn himself will tell you that alone assures nothing, if you pay attention to how the last week played out, both behind the scenes and under the lights, it sure looks like the best is yet to come.