The top player on the Washington Commanders’ locker room ping-pong leaderboard — the latest effort to instill a pervasive sense of competition throughout the organization — is punter Tress Way.
The second-best player is Way, playing left-handed.
“He’s ridiculous,” rookie kicker Drew Stevens said. “Yes, I have [played Way.] That’s all I’ve got to say there. He is that good.”
“I’ve got some game lefty,” Way said. “I’m pretty good.”
The trademark, onomatopoeic “ping” and “pong” of the locker room table tennis matches would be easily audible throughout the Commanders’ practice facility if it weren’t for the wire-to-wire trash talk that drowns out the sound of paddles and plastic balls.
Stevens was involved in a tight match with fellow rookie Antonio Williams when reporters arrived following Wednesday’s practice.
“I won,” Stevens said. “I whooped him. Ask him — Antonio Williams. He sucks.”
The kicker turned his attention to linebacker Jordan Magee moments later, though their match had to wait until the afternoon’s meetings ended.
Bringing the ping-pong table into the locker room was Way’s idea, but he wasn’t planning to run the table. He just wanted more space for the activity after it was relegated to the smaller players’ lounge for several years.
“The guys were starting to get really good,” the Pro Bowl punter said.
But Way suffered pectoral and shoulder injuries during the offseason. Playing with his right hand — as the left-footed punter had for his entire career — wasn’t an option.
“I promised the medical staff that I wouldn’t do any ping-pong,” he said Wednesday. “I was just, on a whim, playing with Drew and some of the guys. I was like, ‘Hey, let me just hit lefty and see how it goes.’ So, I started at the bottom of the leaderboard and worked my way up.”
He has spent the intervening weeks embarrassing any teammate foolish enough to challenge him.
To accompany the table’s new location, the Commanders had a custom-made dry-erase leaderboard hung in the locker room. It features a clear process for players to move up and down.
Any player can challenge another, provided that they’re similarly matched in skill. Warm-ups are allowed. The athlete with the faster serve opens the match. A win sends the victor up the leaderboard, while the loser drops down the list.
The specialists lead the group. Way tops the list — twice — with Stevens and long snapper Tyler Ott not far behind. Safety Jeremy Reaves, a former Pro Bowler on special teams, is also in the top five.
“They hate us specialists because we’ve got so much more free time than them,” Stevens said.
The special teams meetings are typically much quicker than the offensive and defensive sessions. Stevens, Way and Ott return to the locker room about an hour before their teammates. That’s an extra hour of ping-pong practice.
“Whenever they’re in meetings, I’m usually getting whooped by him,” the kicker said.
Iron sharpens iron, though.
“Drew’s getting really good, really fast. Ott has some serious game,” Way said. “We’ve got to keep our reputation up.”
Approving the locker-room addition appeared to be an easy one for coach Dan Quinn.
“I told him, ‘Guys are competing non-stop,’” Way noted. “He said, ‘If you guys are competing, I’m all in.’ We busted it back out, and it’s a hit.”
The pastime dovetails with a stated focus for Quinn as he enters a make-or-break third season in Washington: competition. Each day of practice and meetings starts with some form of contest. The form changes. It’s been ping-pong before. Video boards in the building showcased small-scale slam dunk antics. On Wednesday, players were asked to exercise their brains to pair NFL franchises with vague sets of emojis.
“It shows you where the headspace is,” Stevens said. “Everybody’s so eager to win.”
The ping-pong table has been a controversial item in Washington’s past.
It arrived more than 10 years ago, part of a locker room makeover to encourage bonding and relaxation among players. It was cited as evidence of a lackluster culture by radio hosts around the region during the team’s struggles under coach Jay Gruden. In 2020, then-coach Ron Rivera ripped it away as part of his effort to instill discipline in a long-floundering franchise.
It remained absent for Quinn’s first two years in Washington.
But 2026 is a season of change for the third-year coach. He named season-long captains — based on player votes — for the first time in Washington. First-year coordinators David Blough and Daronte Jones brought fresh playbooks.
They need to avoid a repeat of last season’s disappointing 5-12 finish.
Early signs inside the locker room are promising. New additions such as running back Rachaad White and veteran receiver Stefon Diggs quickly gelled. Returning players, including Daniels and linebacker Frankie Luvu, are accepting more leadership responsibilities.
And, in the intense ping-pong matches, new connections are forming.
“It’s been a fun bonding thing for Drew and I,” Way said. “He’s really loved playing, so me and him are playing a lot, talking a lot. It’s just been cool.”
Winning comes first — in ping-pong and on the gridiron. But Quinn isn’t Bill Belichick, and Daniels isn’t Tom Brady, the duo who created a machine-like atmosphere through “The Patriot Way” during New England’s dynastic run.
“I don’t think you balance fun; that’s just football,” Daniels said. “If you’re not having fun, then why are you doing it? It’s a kid’s game at the end of the day; we just get paid a lot of money to go out there and play it. For us, it’s just having fun when it’s time to joke around and do stuff like that. But when it’s time to work, we’ve got to go work.”
The expectations outside the organization are reaching new lows after a disappointing preseason. Washington was outclassed by Baltimore in a joint practice before the preseason finale. The exhibition — a 41-3 win for the Ravens — was ugly, like a ping-pong rookie challenging Way in the locker room.
Fortunately for the Commanders, preseason games don’t count in the standings. They — like every other team in the NFL — enter Sunday’s opener against the Philadelphia Eagles 0-0.
“A lot of excitement about what’s to come,” Quinn said. “There’s definitely, in the building, an energy that starts when the season begins. We certainly have that.”
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