Commanders Training Camp Round Up: Day 3

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

The Commanders had their third practice of training camp on Friday. It was their third consecutive day of practice and their third day of no pads as the team continues to ramp up slowly ahead of a long season. The pads will be coming on soon and we’ll see more intense practices as a result, especially among the offensive and defensive lines. But for now, there are still things to be taken away from the third day of training camp.

1. Defense won the day

It was clear from all accounts that on Friday, the Commanders defense far outperformed the Commanders offense. Dan Quinn started his press conference on Friday morning explaining they would be focusing on more red zone work, as they had the first few days, and while the offense might have had the advantage the first two days, the defense turned it up on Froday.

The defense had multiple interceptions throughout practice. Per Commanders writer Zach Selby, the first came from Mike Sainristil on a play where Jayden Daniels was targeting Zach Ertz. Safety Quan Martin tipped the pass before Sainristil reacted quickly and caught it off the tip. Selby then tweeted a second interception came shortly after, when Tyler Owens intercepted a pass from Marcus Mariota.

The interceptions didn’t stop there. Later on during seven-on-sevens, Bobby Wagner intercepted a pass from Jayden Daniels. Rookie Trey Amos joined the party with another interception on Jayden Daniels, but this one came on an apparent miscommunication. The Commanders tweeted out a clip, which I’ll embed below.

You can see how Amos has nobody around him for an easy interception. The only receiver you can see in the shot is Ertz, who is near the goal line. If I had to guess, there was a miscommunication between Daniels and Ertz, with Daniels expecting Ertz to break more towards the back pylon in the back corner of the end zone, while Ertz made his cut flatter, near the front pylon. If that is the case, it reminds me of a play last season, where Daniels and Ertz had a miscommunication on a similar type of route.

You can see on this play that Ertz sets his angle of break different from what Daniels expects. Ertz doesn’t quite break it off quite as flat as a normal out route, but he also doesn’t keep his route as vertical as Daniels expects. That leads to Daniels’ throw falling out of Ertz’ reach, despite his attempts to track the ball in the air and adjust his path to the flight of the ball.

If that was the case on the Amos interception on Friday, then I’m not overly concerned about it. I’d back Daniels and Ertz to get that route sorted. But we also see a very limited amount of the play from the clip shown, so there could well have been another receiver in the back of the end zone that we didn’t see and it had nothing to do with Ertz.

Regardless, it was clearly the defense’s day. Multiple interceptions off Jayden Daniels doesn’t happen often, especially in the red zone. It’s good to see the defense have a strong day. If one unit is consistently dominating the other, that’s a sign of an unbalanced team. Team writer Zach Selby tweeted that the defense was full of energy and hyping each other up after every play. That’s good, you want them to get hyped and be energetic. That will challenge the offense to bounce back stronger in the next practice. That is the competition that Dan Quinn preaches.

2. Zach Ertz shows his value

I think everyone outside of the Commanders facility was surprised by just how well tight end Zach Ertz played last year. He was a key component of the offense, immediately striking up a strong relationship with Jayden Daniels and becoming a valuable and trusted target in must-have situations like third and fourth downs and in the red zone. The Commanders made a point to prioritize re-signing Ertz this offseason, and his impact is clear to see.