Full disclosure: We didn’t have boots on the ground in Ashburn, Va., for Tuesday’s OTA, so we’ll rely on Commanders beat reporters like Nicki Jhabvala, John Keim, JP Finlay, Zach Selby and Ben Standig to be our eyes, ears and question askers. Follow those respected reporters if you don’t already.
Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels has done whole lot right during his two NFL seasons. He’s a dynamic playmaker. He’s lightning quick and sports a canon arm. He thrives under pressure. He brought Washington
to the NFC title game in 2024 and won rookie of the year.
Injury’s all that has slowed him down to this point, as he operated well doing what he was asked to do.
Despite those facts, new coordinator David Blough believes Daniels can be even better.
“There’s so much more room for growth,” Blough said in a press conference with before Tuesday’s OTA session. “And that’s the fun challenge as the coach, getting to show him a different way to do things and he has responded really well.”
Change can be good, but it can also be scary. Daniels has immersed himself in this new system without fear, confident he can execute it well.
“We’re (just) trying to open his eyes maybe under center to some of the playaction concepts and different things we want to stretch, you know, stretch people horizontally and vertically and you know, we’re not creating essentially new concepts,” Blough said. “We’re just asking them to do different things and I think, at the end of the day, it’s about us trying to put our best players in positions to be successful. And, you know, we’ll evaluate that throughout the spring and in the training camp to do that.”
Blough’s offense will be rooted in principles of those he has worked with before, including now Bears head coach Ben Johnson, but this Commanders system is his own.
He started building it in January, shortly after being hired, creating new play designs while adding things he had worked on before getting the job. Then the coaching staff added some input over March and into the spring. Daniels was heavily consulted. He was sent video of others executing new Commanders concepts. He was involved in some terminology and gave feedback on what he thinks will work best.
Then it was ready for the players to see when the offseason program started in April.
“It has been a full process,” Blough said. “Call it from January until the players got their eyes on it for the first time on April 20th. And we kind of went from there and it’s still evolving, right? This is a work in progress. It’d be foolish to say, ‘Hey, this is, set in stone, what we do.’ So, we’re gonna continue to find the best avenues to put us in a position to succeed.”
The Commanders offense will prioritize three things above all else.
Protect the football. Be fundamentally sound. Play smart situational football.
Explosiveness will come from that.
“I think there’s an aspect of (that) with every snap, right?” Blough said. “As we’re building this thing, putting the optimal player in the optimal position to try to give us the best probability possible to achieve that.”
Blough will listen to any idea that could help this offense run well. He as an open-door policy, as Daniels puts it, and has let others put their stamp on the system.
“The thing I liked about what I’ve seen throughout the offseason is his collaboration,” head coach Dan Quinn said. “There’s a lot of experience on the staff and so using all that wisdom in different ways, I think that’s one of the things that I’ve been impressed by. But his ability to not just connect with quarterbacks, but with the entire offense as an entire group, he’s clearly laid out the vision. We kind of hit on these identities regularly.”
Despite doing things differently, Blough hasn’t met resistance instituting change. That’s a positive while installing a system, with the players and staff going all-in.
“I really do feel like no hesitation from anybody and not that that is surprising,” Blough said. “But I think everybody has just full steam ahead said, ‘Okay, we are, you know, we’re locking the gates, we’re going forward and we’re just going, to be about what the vision is for this new system and what the ‘26 Commanders offense will look like ’.”
