ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Commanders turned the pressure up a bit on Day 2 of training camp as they continued red zone work from Day 1 and added the wrinkle of time management.
Head coach Dan Quinn said he saw good energy, focus, and intent in the first practice so he was looking forward to keeping that level up with his Commanders roster and increasing it even with the new challenge of working against the clock.
When it came time for the drill, it was rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and the second-team offense that got first crack at it. That leads off our training camp notebook for Day 2 of Washington training camp.
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With roughly 1:25 on the clock needing a touchdown to take the lead the Commanders offense took the field in their own end of the field with at least a couple of timeouts at their disposal.
It took seven pass attempts and a somewhat surprising rush attempt on 3rd and 1 to get it done, but with nine seconds left on the clock Daniels found running back Jeremy McNichols out of the backfield for a touchdown.
If that’s an end of game scenario then it leaves the opponent little time to mount their own comeback and the poise and lack of hurry while playing with urgency that Daniels presented was impressive.
Another good day for the rookie, and more good vibes to feed into the future of the organization.
We’re going to do our best to give Washington fans a holistic look at their favorite team throughout training camp and today felt like a good day to talk special teams.
As the Commanders continue forming their special teams strategy in light of some new rule developments that involve the kickoff game specifically, they’re also working hard to figure out their punt return formula as well.
On Thursday, we saw a fun wrinkle there as the team conducted a drill featuring gunners racing down the field to force return men into making an initial move to avoid the first – and hopefully – the second wave of defenders.
Another interesting feature of that drill was the presence of rookie cornerback Mike Sainristil who looked quick and agile while dodging his teammates to find space to run.
There are two candidates and we’ve already touched on one. The touchdown pass from Daniels to McNichols is certainly a candidate, but so too is a deep ball completed from quarterback Marcus Mariota to receiver Terry McLaurin.
In the first-team’s chance at the clock management drill Mariota found McLaurin down the left sideline after he got behind and separated from second-year cornerback Emmanuel Forbes.
Once he found him, the pass Mariota sent downfield was perfectly placed and put his unit in great position to score the go ahead touchdown, which they did just a couple plays later.
One is more impactful from a game sense, the other the more impressive play in a vaccuum. Both are welcome arrivals to the second day of training camp after seeing so many red zone struggles from this offense in 2023.
READ MORE: Jayden Daniels Makes Play of the Day During Washington Commanders Training Camp
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