ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — Wes Welker will coach tight ends for the Washington Commanders after the team moved on from position coach Ben Steele this week.
General manager Adam Peters and coach Dan Quinn held their pre-training camp news conference Tuesday and addressed the move. A day earlier, the Commanders said they were parting ways with Steele, who was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated last month.
“Really wish the best for Ben and his
family," Peters said. "A lot of thought was put in that decision, and it was unfortunate.”
Welker, a standout receiver for the New England Patriots in his playing days, spent 2025 as a personnel analyst for Washington. He's been a wide receivers coach for Miami and San Francisco.
The Commanders open practice Wednesday. Peters said punter Tress Way (pectoral) and linebacker Kain Medrano (hamstring) are dealing with injuries but shouldn't be out too long.
Washington went to the NFC title game two seasons ago when quarterback Jayden Daniels was a star rookie. Then the Commanders went 5-12 in 2025 when he was limited to seven games by injuries.
“You felt his hunger from the beginning of the offseason, the way he went after it,” Quinn said. “Just his ability to understand this scheme that quickly. It's not easy for anybody to do, and he often makes the difficult things look easy.”
Washington brought in David Blough to replace Kliff Kingsbury as offensive coordinator, and Daniels' health and performance will presumably determine a lot about how this team fares. The receivers are a bit of a question mark beyond Terry McLaurin, but Peters was upbeat about that position.
“Really happy with who's in that room. Really happy with how the guys progressed in the offseason and stepped up,” Peters said.
One of the most amusing moments of the news conference came when Peters was asked how much a player's social media activity matters when the team is deciding whether to acquire him. It was an apparent reference to 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who has blasted his team on social media and said he would sign with Washington if San Francisco released him.
Aiyuk and Daniels played together at Arizona State in 2019.
“We do look at everything,” Peters said. "We want to make sure it's the right player to be in our locker room, in our blood stream and in our culture. We look at that stuff. It's not always the first thing we look at. Obviously you're looking at the tape and you talk to the teams the players have been on and how they were in the locker room — the players that played with them.
“That's not usually a huge part of it. Usually.”
Aiyuk has been on San Francisco's reserve/left squad list.
Elsewhere on the Commanders' offense, the center position is one to watch this season. Nick Allegretti is an option there after playing guard previously.
“Interior, that's his space. He has played center, he has played guard, even though you may not have seen him in some of the games, every week he was repping inside,” Quinn said. “We've got a lot of faith and confidence in him. It's another one of the positions that we do have competition. ... This is one of the smartest guys on our team. You talk about putting it under control, that's part of playing center.”
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