Commanders season preview: How young ex-NFL players-turned-coaches hope to lift Washington’s young roster |Max Sporty|

There’s something beautiful — something pure — about five different footballs cutting through the air at once, each finding a different route runner. The buzzing, due to the rotations, followed by the hits the pigskin finding its target. It’s controlled chaos, somehow everywhere and incredibly precise, especially when NFL quarterbacks do it. For the Commanders, there’s prized rookie Jayden Daniels, backup Marcus Mariota, backups Jeff Driskel and Sam Hartman and … wait, who’s that guy not in uniform? He sure looks like he can throw it too.

That’s because he can. That’s David Blough, Washington’s new assistant coach, decked out in all-black Commanders gear and layering in short, medium and long throws. He is just months removed from retirement after spending the 2023 season on the Lions’ practice squad. During a five-year career, Blough played for the Lions and Cardinals and spent time with the Browns and Vikings as well. At 28, he is younger than both Mariota and Driskel, now his students.

“What could it be!” Driskel yells jokingly after zipping one to Terry McLaurin in the end zone, a comment that draws laughter and a big smile from Washington’s top wide receiver.

“I would say, outside of my dad, the most important men in my life have been coaches,” Blough told CBS Sports. “People who challenged me, took me under their wing from middle school, high school, college, people who helped me reach my full potential and push me. When I was in high school, I wanted to be a high school coach, in college I wanted to be a college coach, and now here I feel I can add something to the game of football at the highest level and be one of the good guys doing it.”

Blough is one of several recent former NFL players on Dan Quinn’s new-look staff, and his addition makes sense in many ways, including his previous relationship with offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury in Arizona. Kingsbury brought in Blough late in the 2022 season after Kyler Murray’s injury, and two weeks, Blough started and played well, almost beating the Falcons.

“I just watched the way he worked and practiced and studied, and you could tell if he wanted to coach, he had a bright future,” Kingsbury said. “The sky’s the limit. He has a great relationship with the players. Jayden really trusts him. The other quarterbacks really trust him because he lived those experiences and he maximized himself as a player. He got every ounce out of himself, and that’s it. through studying and understanding defenses and coverages, and all the nuances of playing the position So he was amazing in this game.

Blough spent time with several picks #1: Baker Mayfield in Cleveland, Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff in Detroit and Murray in Arizona. Daniels, the No. 2 overall pick and Heisman Trophy winner, is next.

Blough is one of several voices in Daniels’ ear, along with Kingsbury and quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard. Although they all deliver the same message, Blough has the advantage of having faced opposing coaches as a player.

“Just to experience it man, ‘This is what defense they run, look for things like that,’ you know,” Daniels said. “Blough is very smart, so to be able to just pick his brain on different things, like, ‘Oh, this [defensive coordinator] maybe feel like doing it at 1:10 after you get past the 50’ and things like that.”

It’s these little insights that make Blough and the four other coaches who have played in the last decade especially valuable. Also on staff are defensive line coach Darryl Tapp, assistant defensive line coach Sharrif Floyd, assistant linebackers/pass specialist coach Ryan Kerrigan (the franchise’s all-time sack leader) and assistant defensive backs coach William Gay.

They bring so much more than the little edges, the things we can’t see. You can see the energy. On a scorching day, running back Chris Rodriguez Jr. is wrapped up after a short gain during a team drill, but since it’s the last play of the session, he keeps going to the end zone and the whole team follows him. Lead the charge down the defensive side? A gay man who is decked out in long sleeves and a hat — “my work hat!” he says excitedly — despite the weather, and he smiles and shouts all the way.

“I can’t keep quiet,” Gaja said. “If I’m quiet when I’m in the building, please ask if there’s something wrong with William, because I’m always talking. And that’s just my daily approach to life. I never use the word ‘stress.’ Every day, when I wakes up, I’m happy because my grandmother always told me, ‘You should be happy because you’re on this side of the dirt.’

“So every time I wake up, there’s always juice in me, I’m ready to roll, and then we’re out here doing something we love to do.”

There was a lot of juice in the commanders training camp. The team opened each practice with offense-versus-defense races through pass rushers, and the young assistants often brought the noise. Tapp, Floyd and Gay were especially vocal during team drills, both hyping up their players and playfully trash-talking the offense.

It’s all part of what Quinn hopes is a rejuvenated Washington franchise. He’s also an energy coach who comes from the training tree of upbeat Energizer bunny Pete Carroll in Seattle. And as Quinn hopes to bring the Commanders back to relevance, he tries to build every facet.

“We’re not just developing players,” Quinn said. “We are also developing trainers, and we will not miss a single step.”

Blough greatly appreciates the approach.

“He’s one of the most intentional people I’ve ever been around [to] finding someone’s superpower and trying to bring that out of them as best as possible,” Blough said. “For me, it looked like ‘How do we help develop these young kids as soon as possible?’

“There are opportunities for me to develop my philosophy and how I’m going to teach things. It’s just a really intentional gift from DQ to me.”

Kerrigan is trying to balance being a former player, a player’s coach and trainer, period.

“Having coaches who have played before, it’s always been great to be able to connect their experience as a player,” Kerrigan said. “I try to convey what I know as a player without being like, ‘Oh, in my day,’ because I know that can be a little uncomfortable sometimes… Not everyone is the same, and so I think. there’s a line where you have to take advantage of your experience, take advantage of what you’ve been able to accomplish in the league, while also not being like ‘Look at me’.”

They may not lace up the cleats to play anymore, but they still wear them so they can deliver hands-on instruction. They may not be able to foul opponents or hype up their teammates, but they can still tweet, still cheer, still bring the juice.

When Blough isn’t working with Kingsbury and Pritchard, or watching film, or coaching, or filling one of several roles (passer, fake pass, receiver) during practice, he gets to air it when the signal callers target dumps. , a fun competition for everyone involved.

How is he doing in that competition?

“Maybe you should ask the QBs about that,” he replies with a wry smile. “We get fined if we toot our own horn a little bit in the QB room.”

Once a player. Now a coach. Always a competitor.