Commanders coach Dan Quinn doesn’t typically name season-long team captains. But this year’s roster forced his hand, the third-year coach said Monday.
On offense, quarterback Jayden Daniels and receiver Terry McLaurin will lead the group. Linebacker Frankie Luvu and safety Jeremy Reaves will represent the defense, while punter Tress Way will anchor the special teams unit.
“There’s a lot of leaders here. That was probably the thing that prompted us to say, ‘This is probably the right time,’” Quinn said. “These are five really heavy hitters as leaders here.”
Reaves has often been described as a coach’s dream. The defensive back was an undrafted free agent who worked his way up from the practice squad to special teams, culminating in a role with the first-team defense this season. Daniels is the face of the franchise, an easy choice after stringing together an electric offseason following a sophomore slump defined by injuries.
“For Jayden, to see all the stuff he went through and put the work in. To know, people see that, all the work he’s put in there,” Quinn said. “And all the joy that Terry’s bringing; I could go on and on. It was the group that made us say this is the right time.”
It’s a shift in philosophy for Quinn. He assigned captains on a week-to-week basis throughout most of his head coaching career, often spotlighting players who were showing improvement or returning to their hometowns during away games.
That won’t go away, the coach said. One captain spot will still rotate each week. But the remaining five are set in stone.
“There’s something rewarding about that, especially for the guys that were selected,” Quinn said of the player-chosen captains. “That’s a big deal. I couldn’t be more thrilled to see these guys lead us.”
The Commanders organization — from the players to the coaches and executives — reassessed how they handle business during the offseason. The soaring highs of a playoff run in 2024 were replaced by the doldrums of an injury-riddled 5-12 campaign.
General manager Adam Peters added depth throughout the roster, a contingency in case injuries strike again.
Quinn brought in new coordinators who tout schemes that differ greatly from the playbooks Washington used last year. The players were ordered to return in “crazy good shape” to hit the ground running in training camp.
The captains are the latest evidence of a shift in focus.
“I changed up a number of things this year,” Quinn said. “I thought this was another one that would be in a good space.”
Voting for the captains occurred last week, before the players left the Ashburn, Virginia, training facility for a long weekend before the grind of the NFL season.
Their return on Monday brought good news: a clean bill of health for players who dealt with nagging injuries through the final weeks of training camp. Starters like edge rusher Odafe Oweh, running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt and center Nick Allegretti were limited last week as they completed a return-to-play process.
They each participated in Monday’s walkthrough, as the Commanders locked their attention onto the season opener against the rival Philadelphia Eagles.
Quinn asked his players to “lock in” during last week’s practices. He needed to see how ready they were for regular-season football, how well they clued into the minutiae of the new playbooks.
“The first day of it today was kind of the same thing,” he noted. “I’m looking for absolute lock-in, the details of it, eliminating the mistakes. When you do that, practices are pretty sharp. They go quickly.”
Washington began its regular-season cadence with walkthroughs on Monday. They’ll host a trio of practices this week before traveling to Philadelphia for the first game of the season, which kicks off at 4:25 p.m. on Sunday.
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