Commanders Training Camp Round Up: 5 Things We Learned on Day 1

Rounding up the various reports from the opening day of Commanders training camp

The Washington Commanders officially opened training camp on Wednesday with their first practice session. The team is still ramping up, so the first practice was in shorts, shirts and helmets and no other pads, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t things to be learnt from the opening day. As you all know, I’m not in the country so I wasn't at practice, but I thought I could do a round up of all the reports and tweets from the beat reporters that were there and give you the information that was most interesting to me.

1. Terry McLaurin officially holding out

This will be the main storyline of camp until a deal is done. The Commanders star receiver is still looking for a new contract and hasn’t been involved in offseason activities so far as a result. The way these long, drawn out contract negotiations have played out in recent years, I wondered if McLaurin might do what’s now known as a “hold in”, where he reports to camp to avoid being fined but declines to practice citing an injury. That was what Brandon Aiyuk did last summer with the 49ers. But McLaurin opted for the traditional hold out where he didn’t report for camp and thus, the Commanders placed him on the reserve/did not report list.

Head coach Dan Quinn didn’t seem overly concerned about the situation as camp opened. “It’s part of the business in the NFL. I don’t judge it or get too worked up about it. I know Adam [Peters] and his team are working as hard as they can, you know, with Terry.” Quinn said in his presser on Wednesday. “We love him, but it’s part of the business of our league. This happens on teams all over and so the longer you’ve been in it, the more you recognize that’s just how things go.”

The McLaurin contract debate is an interesting one and something I’ve not gone into a huge amount of detail so far this offseason. There’s some interesting and valid arguments on both sides regarding how much the Commanders should be paying McLaurin as he approaches age 30, where the majority of wide receivers do tend to fall off in terms of production. But on film, McLaurin hasn’t really shown any signs of dropping off. McLaurin will feel it’s right that he gets a contract that puts him near the top of the market, paying him more than $30million a year on average annual value.

Neil Greenberg of the Washington Post put out an interesting thread on twitter on Wednesday. He said that McLaurin will be looking to be in line with deals given out recently to DK Metcalf, Garrett Wilson and Tee Higgins. But the Commanders will argue that at his age, McLaurin should be more in line with players like Tyreek Hill, Stefon Diggs and Mike Evans.

You can see from this graphic, Tyreek Hill is the only receiver in this age range getting $30million a year and he’s a very unique player. The rest are all getting $23million or less. Neil went on to explain what a compromise could look like.

From this chart you can see why McLaurin will be arguing for over $30million a year because statistically, he’s just as productive as Metcalf, Wilson and Higgins. But you can also see the Commanders point of view due to his age, where receivers are much more in the $23million range, which is actually where McLaurin's current contract puts him. Splitting the difference would put him at between $27million and $28million on average annual value, which is where I guess this will likely end up, assuming both sides are willing to come to a compromise and neither holds too firm in their respective stances.

The good thing for the Commanders is they know McLaurin will be ready to go whenever a deal does get done. Both Jayden Daniels and Bobby Wagner expressed their support for McLaurin in press conferences on Wednesday and both stated they knew he’d be ready as soon as he’s back. Daniels and McLaurin already have an established relationship, so this hold out shouldn’t be too impactful from that point of view, and he’s a true professional that keeps his body ready. McLaurin was pictured with a fan near a yoga spot about 10 minutes away from the Commanders practice facility, so he’s still in town and ready to join up with the team as soon as a deal gets done, unlike Bengals pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, who flew to Florida after the Bengals sent him what he deemed to be insulting offers.

While McLaurin is away from the team, other receivers will get a chance to step up. Dan Quinn mentioned Chris Moore and K.J. Osborn as two receivers the Commanders signed during the season last year but didn’t see the field as guys with an opportunity to stake a claim. Moore was reportedly running with the starting unit quite a bit on Wednesday, which is interesting. Another option was undrafted free agent rookie Ja’Corey Brooks, who got some work with the starting group and caught a touchdown pass from Jayden Daniels, per Commanders senior writer Zach Selby.

2. Offensive line assembly

There were two main pieces of news regarding the offensive line. The first was a potentially huge positive regarding right guard Sam Cosmi. Cosmi tore his ACL in January, which typically would have meant he would miss the first few weeks of the season at least, if not more. But the Commanders put him on the active/physically unable to perform list, rather than the reserve/physically unable to perform list, which means he can return at any time instead of having to miss at least the first four games.

When asked if Cosmi could potentially play in the Commanders opening game of the season, Quinn responded “I think it’s on the table, for sure, but we won’t put that there until that.” Quinn continued “He’s hitting all the markers, but let’s find out. I think we’ll have a better answer on that as we get closer to the end of the preseason, but I’m very encouraged with the work he’s put in.”

Having Cosmi in the line up to start the season would indeed be a huge boost for the Commanders offensive line, but even if he only misses the first few games, it would still be a positive for the Commanders, given that back in January, it looked like he could have missed a significant chunk of the season.

But while Cosmi is still working on his recovery, the offensive line will have to practice without him. Team writer Zach Selby tweeted that the starting offensive line in team drills consisted of Laremy Tunsil at left tackle, Brandon Coleman at left guard, Tyler Biadasz at center, Nick Allegretti at right guard and Andrew Wylie at right tackle.

First round pick Josh Conerly Jr. was working with the second team unit, which is to be expected at this point in camp. Quinn wants the rookies to earn their spots, not just be handed them due to draft status. Last year, Jayden Daniels took reps in OTAs and mini camps as the second quarterback behind Marcus Mariota before earning the starting role in training camp. I expect Conerly to win that starting right tackle job before long, but for now he’s with the second group.

What will be interesting to see is what happens at right guard if/when Conerly does take over at right tackle. Will Allegretti hold onto that spot or will Wylie kick inside? The team loves the leadership both bring, especially Allegretti, but for me, Wylie is the slightly better player with more athleticism, which could fit better with the athletic profiles of the rest of the group. It could all be irrelevant anyway if Cosmi is back by the opening game, but it’s an interesting one to keep an eye on as camp develops.

3. Pass rush unit flexibility could open path for Jordan Magee

We know this defense has a lot of flexible pieces, especially along the defensive front. Guys like Dorance Armstrong and Deatrich Wise have the versatility to play both on the edge and shift inside, while defensive tackles like Johnny Newton and Javon Kinlaw have the athleticism to kick outside too. Last year we saw Frankie Luvu line up on the edge routinely, instead of his normal linebacker spot. All of this flexibility gives the Commanders a lot of options when it comes to rush packages.

We saw some of this from the opening practice on Wednesday. Per Lynnell Willingham of 106.7 The Fan, the Commanders had a rush unit consisting of Von Miller and Frankie Luvu on the edge, with Daron Payne and Dorance Armstrong inside at one point during practice. With all the flexible defensive ends that can move inside, Luvu working on the edge more often would make plenty of sense. It could also make room for second year linebacker Jordan Magee to get on the field more often. Magee was subject of praise from fellow linebacker Bobby Wagner in his press conference after practice too.

“He’s a guy that everybody is watching and seeing his growth and understanding of the defense.” Wagner explained. “I think the biggest step for a younger guy, you know, when you first come into the league, you don’t know what to expect. You don’t know the plays, you don’t know how the league is, things of that nature. When you get a full season, you get to come in and just focus on being the best linebacker, not everything else that comes with the game. So I think that’s been the biggest thing, watching him prepare, watching him really get comfortable and confident within the defense, so I’m excited to see where he’s going to take it.”

4. Trey Amos already starting at cornerback, Sainristil back in the slot

We all suspected the way this would play out would be that second round rookie corner Trey Amos would win the starting outside cornerback job opposite Marshon Lattimore, moving second year corner Mike Sainristil back into the slot. But I assumed Amos would start camp with the second unit, much like Josh Conerly has with the offensive line. However, it was widely reported by various beat reporters that Amos was running with the starting group, suggesting he already did enough in mini camps and OTAs to earn that starting role.

That’s obviously an encouraging sign for the Commanders that Amos is on track to be a starting corner on the outside. His experience in college at various schools will have prepared him well for the NFL so there’s no reason he can’t hit the ground running, but it’s still good to see he’s doing well already. The knock on effect of that is that Sainristil can move back into the slot straight away. He started in the slot in practices on Wednesday. When speaking with Scott Abraham of 7 News DC, Sainristil explained he’s happy to play either spot, he just wants to be on the field. I broke down the challenges facing Sainristil as he moves back into the slot a few weeks ago, but I’m backing him to make that transition pretty smoothly.

Having a starting cornerback group of Lattimore and Amos outside with Sainristil in the slot being settled already is a big positive. This time last year, the Commanders had a lot of questions regarding who could start outside and inside, with various guys rotating and being tried out in each spot. That led to some communication issues early in the season and the coverage unit as a whole struggled, forcing the defense to strip back what they did and make things simpler. If Lattimore, Amos and Sainristil can all stay healthy and consistent, then they can start to build a chemistry in the secondary that should put them in a much better position to start the year compared to last year.

5. Tyler Owens working with the starting secondary

The final note of intrigue for me was the reports that Tyler Owens was working with the starting defense in team drills. In my State of the Roster piece on Tuesday, I speculated that the starting strong safety role could be up for grabs and that Owens was someone I was keeping an eye on to see if he could claim more playing time. It appears as though he has impressed in the offseason and has earned a shot.

He wasn’t just rotating in with the starting unit either. Jayden Daniels first completion of camp was a touchdown pass to Deebo Samuel on a slot fade, which the team tweeted out a clip of, which I’ve embedded below.

It’s a great training camp clip because you see Deebo Samuel looking fast as he fakes a choice route from the slot with a quick stutter before taking off on a slot fade down the sideline. This could be a route we see a lot from Samuel this year. He ran a lot of choice routes in San Francisco as he has the quickness to win out of breaks, but also the ability after the catch to take a quick five yard route and turn it into a 50-yard touchdown. Having a variation of that choice route where Samuel takes off on a slot fade is a nice complement to those choice routes, but also suits Jayden Daniels’ game. One of his best throws in college was the slot fade and he used them regularly at LSU.

But the overlooked detail in this clip is that Tyler Owens was the man in coverage. Now you can’t see the overall coverage structure here, so we don’t know if Owens was the nickel corner playing in the slot, or was a safety that rotated down to the slot due to a motion. Either way though, in one of the first reps of camp, Owens was with the starting defense and covering the Commanders biggest threat without McLaurin at practice. The coverage wasn’t terrible either, he ran stride for stride with Samuel, the pass was just perfect from Jayden Daniels.

In his practice report, team writer Zach Selby mentioned Owens was running with the starters a lot and lined up at nickel, which is a very interesting development. Sainristil is meant to be the nickel, but if Owens has the coverage ability to play that role as well, that would give them a bigger body to match up in certain packages. It also speaks to his potential as a strong safety that could match up against tight ends in man coverage too. It’s obviously very early and too early to draw any conclusions, but Owens snaps with the starting unit, and his role within those snaps, is definitely something to keep an eye on going forward.