New Commanders offensive coordinator David Blough is asking Jayden Daniels to do some different things this year. His new scheme requires Washington to huddle. Daniels will largely start under center, using a system predicated on a strong zone rushing attack and playaction concepts. There’s a ton of pre-snap motions and checks to work through before actually receiving the ball.
There’s plenty for the third-year quarterback to handle as compared to Kliff Kingsbury’s system, a fast-paced orchestration
that essentially lived in the shotgun.
Mistakes are expected with so much new. While growing pains have been experienced, Blough said that Daniels’ transition as been smooth.
The results tell him so.
“He hasn’t missed a beat,” Blough said during a press conference after Monday’s training-camp practice. “We track everything. We’ve tracked every throw he has made over the last three years. We have metrics to measure all of those statistics. He’s as accurate as he has ever been. He has completed as many passes as he ever has. It’s a testament to asking him to do something different and him wanting to grow and evolve. That’s what this is all about for our whole group.”
Blough’s full of ideas and concepts he’d like to explore, with more of them than he has time to install. Adjusting to real-time changes might be his biggest challenge to this point, with head coach Dan Quinn keeping Blough and new defensive coordinator Daronte Jones on their toes with unscripted periods of practice that puts play callers under pressure.
What Blough does with the time allotted will be key to what the Commanders do this season.
“I have a lot of ideas and things that I would love to do, but this time is about finding out who we are,” Blough said. “This is about finding out what we do well, what Jayden does well, what the skill guys do, what we can and can’t do up front. There are times where I’m like, ‘Man, I’d like to have a bunch of things in,’ but we’ve gotta pull back and work on the fundamentals and find out who this Commanders offense is.
“That has been a process. And we’ve done a lot of call-it periods. There are times when you walk out of practice thinking you were going to get through everything on the sheet and you don’t. Do you go back to it or do you keep pushing ahead? Those are the things I’ve navigated over the last 10 or 11 practices. A lot of lessons, but it has been really good.”
Blough also complimented Jones’ attacking defense for “making it as hard as possible,” forcing his players, including Daniels, to think, process and adjust on the fly.
“With some of the practices unscripted, we’re seeing some of the creativity come through,” Quinn said in his Monday presser. “I think what you’ll find through his weekly visits is that this is a really good competitor. He’s sharp. He can think quickly. Those are things, as a play caller, that you want to see. If defenses attack a certain way, how are you going to counter punch?”
Daniels is most important in those moments, and Blough sees the behind-the-scenes work from this offseason helping the quarterback put the offense in position to succeed. Daniels has the mental acumen to absorb and apply what Blough is teaching and to help the system grow from what it is today.
“The version of what you see here won’t be the same offense you see next year,” Blough said. “Everywhere you go, we’ll continue to evolve. I’m proud of him and the worst he has put into it to this point, and he hasn’t missed a beat.”
David Blough on Stefon Diggs
Blough was given another offensive weapon last week in receiver Stefon Diggs, a veteran receiver who instantly upgrades his position group and allows Blough to call some creative things with Diggs on the field.
Here are his early impressions of Diggs:
“Stefon has played a lot of meaningful football and produced a lot of yards. Through three practices you feel his leadership, too. You feel him bringing the guys together, challenging everybody to keep pushing forward. In just a couple days – he had four catches the other day, at least 2-3 today – the ball finds him because he finds space.”
