ASHBURN, VA (WTKR)- Everybody in the team headquarters knows the Commanders fell short of expectations in 2025. Now the burgundy and gold are focused on fixing the issues that plagued them last season.
"Trust me when I say we learned every lesson from last season and took it," head coach Dan Quinn said Tuesday during his pre-training camp press conference. "Every one that we could find from last season, we're ready to apply them. But, honestly, it is about the now."
One of the problems from a season ago was health. Injuries hurt Washington's ability to keep some of their top talent on the field, which included quarterback Jayden Daniels, who battled a myriad of ailments. Now entering his third NFL campaign, Daniels has been focusing on making noise in 2026.
"As soon as he got healthy, he's been working his tail off, working on his body, working on his throwing, working with his teammates, even before he got here, working with his teammates after we left out in LA," Commanders' general manger Adam Peters said of Daniels. "He's shown a great leadership, picked up the offense really well."
"You felt his hunger from the beginning of the offseason the way he went after it," Quinn added. "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."
Quinn has said he wants to execute the most competitive camp he's run in 2026. That includes putting his team in competitive and stressful situations. Washington plans to build during training camp in hopes of being successful come the fall as a critical campaign nears kickoff.
"It is about the here, the now," Quinn said. "I'm excited for you guys to feel the energy of the team, their readiness, their swagger, so as we get started into this, I'm excited for you guys to feel that."
"I'm as excited as I've ever been," added Peters. "There's a ton of great energy here from all aspects of the building to really see how this is going to unfold and I'm excited to see it so I feel really good about it."
Washington is coming off a 5-12 campaign, following a memorable 2024 season in which the Commanders made a run to the NFC Championship.
Some other notes from Tuesday's press conference:
Wes Welker is working with the tight ends after the team announced the firing of Ben Steele earlier this week, though Quinn stopped short of calling him the new tight ends coach.
Punter Tress Way is dealing with a pectoral injury, but Peters says he doesn't expect it to sideline him for an extended period of time. Linebacker Kain Medrano is also nursing a minor hamstring injury, but should return shortly.
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