ASHBURN, Va. — From Washington Commanders training camp Day No. 8, here are the day’s top quotes from head coach Dan Quinn, center Tyler Biadasz, and cornerback Emmanuel Forbes.
Opening Statement: “A good day again, man. Yesterday, I talked with you before practice about some of the competitions, what I was hoping to see, certainly some of the line of scrimmage. I thought of the big guys, some of the ones that stood out, I thought [T] Brandon Coleman and the offensive line, good rushers out, stayed square. And I thought the interior of the defensive line, [DT Jer’Zhan] Newton, JA [DT Jonathan Allen], [DT Daron] Payne, all in their own ways had good plays. And so, that’s what I’m looking for on these days. We have a big red zone emphasis today, big run game. Will also work some situations you’ll see at the end of the game. Four-minute, team ahead, trying to close it out. If they can, they will, if they don’t, punt, turn into a two-minute going back the other way. So, we’ll work some situations that’ll go and that’ll kind of lead into tomorrow, which has a lot of situations as part of a jog through. But a good day for us lined up and we’ll go battle forward again. Let’s get it rocking.”
On how he balances being ready to go and still going through the process of camp:
“That’s an easy one. We’re not ready to go, but what I can tell you is that we really want to learn to do this at a remarkable level. To push each other, to get ready, to get our skills right, to get the execution right. And in the first day of pads, I said, ‘We’ll be doing this together for the next six months together.’ And so knowing that push, that intensity, right on the line, never crossing it because at the end we’ve got to take care of one another. And that’s always the fine balance, especially during training camp. I thought so far the guy’s done a good job with that.”
On how he feels about the cornerbacks:
“As we’re going through, we’re rotating some guys. You’ll see [CB Benjamin] St. Juste some more in there. There’s been plays that I thought [he] really stayed aggressive and tight and some more that we need work on. So, like a lot of positions, I liked how we added one-on-ones. You’ll see that again today, just finding new matchups. And it also helps in the next three weeks, some against our own team, some against the [New York] Jets, some against Miami [Dolphins]. Just different looks, different speeds. And so, I’d say I’ll have a better sense for that in about 14-18 days.”
On what he’s practicing in the end of game situations and how they use timeouts:
“Yeah, and it also is for me, you’re exactly right. So that’s my version of calling plays, where we’re at the end of the game. So, it varies depending upon the day. For instance, today, the offense will be in a four-minute to start. So, defensively they have to use some timeouts. When the other two-minute goes on the other side, there may be zero [timeouts]. And so sometimes there’s one, sometimes there’s more. Usually, we give less just so you can make it a little more challenging. Sometimes zero, rarely two, but usually zero or one. ‘When do we use it? How do we use it?’ And it’s really the mechanics too. And that’s why you see the referees here, spotting the ball, the urgency to go do that. We almost continually work it on the time slots to say, ‘Can we do this in 15 seconds? What about 14? Nope, let’s try it again. 15 is the marker.’ Or ‘Can this be done in seven seconds? Can we get out of bounds in five?’ Those are the things you have to work at full speed, so when we do get in those environments, then we’re ready to really go execute it.”
On if he has an injury update on S Darrick Forrest:
“DFo will be out today, and we’ll see what it looks like moving forward as we’re getting into Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. But he could be limited as early as Monday.”
On if Forrest being out is injury related:
“Yes. It’s not a long-term one, so I think you’ll see him back working in the individual shortly. Not as in 30 minutes shortly, but sooner than later.”
On how much he paid attention to the Hall of Fame game to watch the new kickoff:
“I wasn’t, so I need to go watch it, but I like to watch as many of the preseason games as I can. I’ll likely watch it on the coaches film just as soon as that comes in. But yeah, I’m ready to explore about it and watch it and see. And so, I’ll do that not just for that play in the other preseason games, but I like watching around the league. You get a sense for your division games, the people, who’s new, who they added. So, I enjoy looking at the preseason games.”
On how beneficial competition is in training camp and on if he’s decided to add more throughout his career:
“Yeah, I think at the core of it that’s what these guys are, right? And they love to compete. So, if you can find as many opportunities for that as you can, we try to bring that out and that’s performing, that’s the competing. Some of it’s at the end of the game, some of it’s just a third down competition or a first down-and-10. And so the more we do it, I think the better because it’s really who they are at their core of competing and it makes the practice ramp up even higher. So yeah, it’s been something I’ve always been a big supporter of.
On if Wylie will move positions:
“He’ll be a tackle right now, yep. Yeah, he does have the flex, but we’re working some other guys inside.”
On if a starting rookie combination of T Brandon Coleman and QB Jayden Daniels would bring nerves for him:
“I think that’s really how you have to look at it, to say you want to make sure you’re putting the team and the roster in the best places to play well and to win. So, that competition will be ongoing. But yeah, there’s no hesitation as far as the best guy and how to go play with that.”
On the goal of the hour break for the players and on how it helps recovery:
“It’s designed just for the recovery piece of that. It was designed as there’s a time limit for the guys for each day, 11 hours or 10 hours depending on vet or rookie. And so that’s more than enough time for us as coaches to get in what we need to get in. If we were going to go and really empty it out and practice really hard, the message was going to be, we have to recover really hard too. To make sure that your bodies are coming back to go after it yesterday and come back after it again today. And so, putting those sessions in the bank, it’s also training of what it needs to be as you’re going in through the season. It was by design, it’s something that I hadn’t done before, but it was one thing that I had on my radar to say, ‘How can we do this part better?’ So often it’s you hear people say, ‘Hey, I need recovery.’ It might be at the end of the day or the beginning of the day, but this one makes sure that it happens. It was easy because the tradeoff was more meeting time with the coaches. I said the coaches are chomping at the bit, they’d love to have more meetings with you. There has been very little pushback.”
On if there’s a player who hasn’t been flashy but has shown consistency:
“I would say it may come from the offensive line. [G] Sam Cosmi has shown really consistent play. You would’ve thought he’d been a guard for a really long time and in fact he wasn’t, from moving from tackle to guard. I would say his ability to stay square, to pull. He’s an athlete that’s inside. He’s somebody that has impressed me by the size of him, his movement to go. That would be one that jumped out to me. [CB] Mike Sainristil has been somebody that’s been really, consistently strong. It’s run fits, it’s coverage, it’s all of it that goes into that position. Playing nickel is a lot like playing safety. There’s run fits, there’s calls, there’s checks and things happen quickly, and Mikey has certainly shown he’s up for the task to be into that spot.”
READ MORE: Commanders Notebook: Brandon Coleman Dominates Lineman 1-on-1 Drills
On how the team is jelling: “Yeah, I mean, camp’s been great. We’ve been hanging out. We had a lot of time together. Obviously, camp you spend a good amount of hours in the building. Obviously, having practice first thing in the morning and getting out late at night or if you’re having extra meetings or whatever that may be. But no, we’re doing a hell of a job of just becoming the best team we can be as a unit. I’m on offense, so I’m more in those meetings and everything like that. We’re all coming from different places and we’re starting to gel in regards of the timing and the chemistry and even the bonding outside the building. That’s a huge asset to us and we’re doing a heck of a job with that.”
On how physical he sees the offense being this season: “We’re going to be physical. That’s the name of the game. And that’s how you put pressure on defenses, when you have a great run game. The O-line unit, we take great pride in the run game and that’s on us too with our tight ends. And even our wide outs too, blocking down field. We make a great emphasis of, all 11 of us are extensions of one another and who’s ever getting that ball, whether we’re on offense and defense, we’re all connected as one. So, DQ [Head Coach Dan Quinn] has had awesome presentations of becoming the best team that we can be, but also raising the bar and raising our standards to a champion standard that we set. How we raise the bar every practice and taking ownership of that.”
On having C Mike Deiter here with him: “It’s definitely great. Shoot, we played for four years together in Madison in college. So, just knowing where he’s at, but also again, we’re coming from different backgrounds, and he’s been on two other football teams too other than this one in the league. But also, just knowing the chemistry of how blocking schemes, that’s definitely an advantage for sure. But at the same time, it’s obviously different in each and every place you go to. And we want to do it the commander way of, whether it’s blocking in pass pro or run game or play extra pass, whatever that is. But the chemistry of the for brotherhood for sure.”
On reminiscing on college with G Nick Allegretti: “Yeah, it’s been great, man. For real, we definitely have talked about the rivalry that we had in college and stuff like that. It’s like how we said before, the chemistry in the room, we’re always talking, we’re always building, but we’re having fun doing it for sure.”
On changes from last year and how the added weight can help him:“Oh, it’s making me more explosive, more fast. And honestly, just maturing is going to help my game this year. I matured a lot over the offseason. Found out a lot about myself, and just looking forward to it.”
On how the defense is coming along:“Oh, yeah it’s all about second days. We’re getting where we want to be. We’re not where we want to be right now, but we getting there and that’s going to take time and a lot of practice.
On what he did to gain weight:“Honestly, just eating more healthily and lifting a lot of weights and that’s it.”
On what Head Coach Dan Quinn and Defensive Coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. are doing to emphasize “Ball is life”:“We always doing ball drills, and it means we always just going over plays, going over the playbook. Just to put ourself in position to make a play on the ball.”
On if the coaches give immediate feedback on potential takeaways:“Oh, yeah. They always go through the film and let us know what plays we should have made or what plays we can make. And they feel like if we can put our hand on the ball, we can pick it.”
On how it feels having a clean slate with a new coaching staff:“I have to prove that I’m worthy to play for these coaches, they didn’t draft me. Like you said, everybody in the locker room feels like they have something to prove and feel like we have a lot of talent, so we just got to put it to use.”
On if he sees anything new defensively that Quinn brought with him:“I would say, we’re getting a lot of pressure on our quarterbacks. So, offensive, [defensive] line, they go at it every day, and that helps out the secondary a lot. And we’re playing fast in the secondary and just looking to make plays on the ball.”
On what S Michael Davis and CB Noah Igbinoghene have taught him:“They’re older guys, so they’ve played a lot of football and we honestly just feed off each other. Just try to talk to each other about things that we’ve seen and just feed off each other.”
On what he’s learned from Assistant Defensive Backs Coach William Gay:“Yeah, he’s always bringing the energy. He’s going to always keep it real with the DB’s and just let us know what we need to work on and what we’re doing well, so he’s a big part of our defensive room.”
READ MORE: Best Quotes from Day 7 of Commanders Training Camp
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