Commanders Training Camp Round Up: Day 5

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

On day five of training camp practice, the Washington Commanders put on pads for the first time. Head coach Dan Quinn has stressed it’s toughest to evaluate offensive and defensive line play, along with running backs, without the pads being on. With the pads now on, hopefully we’ll get some more updates and clips of the guys up front and how they’re doing. However, it’s worth noting that Quinn gave a bunch of veterans a day off on the first day of pads. Left tackle Laremy Tunsil, edge rusher Von Miller. tight end Zach Ertz, cornerback Marshon Lattimore and defensive end Clelin Ferrell all had the practice off, protecting their bodies from any unnecessary wear and tear on a day when other players might be slightly too eager for contact on the first day of padded practice.

Here’s a few takeaways and notes from reports and tweets of day five of practice.

1. Jayden Daniels best day so far

As we saw last year, when the intensity ramped up, Daniels performed at his best. He thrives in those moments, so it shouldn’t be any surprise that on the first day of padded practice, when the intensity ramps up, Daniels reportedly had his best day of camp so far. The past few days we’d heard about a few interceptions and the defense being ahead, but not today. NBC Sport’s JP Finlay tweeted about a laser from Daniels to Ben Sinnott over the middle. Lynell Willingham of 106.7 The Fan tweeted about Daniels hitting John Bates for a big gain off play-action. Ben Standig mentioned Daniels finding Deebo Samuel in the end zone for a touchdown in 11-on-11 drills. The Commanders official account did tweet a clip of that touchdown to Samuel too.

The Commanders photographers are seemingly very well trained on focusing their cameras on the football in the air and thus not showing us any of the receivers routes or line play upfront. But what we can see from this clip is a beautiful throw from Jayden Daniels, hitting Deebo Samuel nearly the sideline of the end zone. Samuel does bobble it slightly, but he does secure the pass and makes sure to get both feet down in bounds to complete the touchdown.

All of these positive plays led to JP Finlay tweeting that Daniels was locked in and it might be his best day of camp so far. Again, based on everything we saw from Daniels last year, as the intensity goes up, Daniels gets better, so this shouldn’t be a surprise, but it’s still good to see.

2. Jacory Croskey-Merritt generating some buzz

Many fans and media alike are excited to see what seventh round rookie running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt can do this preseason, with some going as far as tipping him to earn significant playing time this season. I’m not ready to go there yet, especially not after one padded practice, but it’s still fun to see the buzz around a rookie running back. Dan Quinn has spent the past few days mentioning that it’s tough to evaluate running backs until the pads come on, and even then it’s better to use the preseason games because that’s when teams are really tackling. But he has praised Croskey-Merritt’s vision, decision making and violence of cuts so far.

On Monday, we saw one of those violent, explosive cuts from Croskey-Merritt. A number of writers and reporters noted a specific run from the rookie, including Ben Standig and team writer Zach Selby. Fortunately, the team tweeted out a clip of the play.

This play is a good example of Croskey-Merritt’s skillset. He initially takes his run up the middle but spots a lane to the right side. He makes a cut to the right side, but the lane starts to close on the edge. So Croskey-Merritt shows his dynamic and explosive cutting ability, making a sharp cut to get vertical and burst through the hole. He runs through a few arm tackles, but is then met by safety Tyler Owens and the pair have a big collision. Owens wasn’t allowed to make a full tackle due to the nature of practice, so he just made a strong impact, but Croskey-Merritt showed the ability to be physical, absorb that contact and bounce off it while maintaining his balance.

It was seemingly the most physical play of practice, which is good to see from the young running back. We’ll get a better sense of where Croskey-Merritt is at during joint practices and especially the preseason games, where tackling will be live. But the early indications are positive for the late round rookie.

3. Defensive line strong against the run