ASHBURN, Va. — There are differing opinions around the Commanders’ facility about the rejuvenating power of Los Angeles.
The 80-degree weather, the sunny skies, the entertainment. For Jayden Daniels’ money, there’s no better destination.
“Some people around here would disagree,” the Commanders quarterback quipped. “But there’s a lot to do out there. Great weather. So what better place to go than Southern California?”
Daniels might be a little biased. He grew up there.
But Washington’s coaching staff is more than happy to acknowledge the good vibes that come with a trip to the West Coast.
When the Commanders’ franchise star departed from Ashburn last month for his annual homecoming trip, he left feeling less than ideal about his new offense. He planned on taking a few receivers to L.A., hunkering down and trying a hard reset.
The early returns seem positive. As Washington opened training camp Wednesday, Daniels felt more upbeat about the new system.
A little work in Southern California did the trick.
“I’m more comfortable than I was in the spring,” he said. “Just comfortable with reps over time. In the summer, you’ve got more of a grasp and concept of how you want to do things. How you want to accomplish things, stuff like that.”
After Washington crashed to a 5-12 record last season, the front office overhauled the coaching staff. The Commanders fired offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and replaced him with David Blough.
A first-time play caller, Blough promised to give Washington a new look. He wanted to put Daniels under center more, making the offense less predictable and unlocking the run game. There was only one problem: Daniels has run fewer than 40 snaps under center in his NFL career.
But Washington felt it was the right move, growing pains be damned.
“We have a lot of different personnel groupings and a lot of different ways to attack you,” general manager Adam Peters said. “I think it’s more quarterback friendly in a way, and I think that’ll really help Jayden.”
Daniels could understand the rationale, but he was still uncomfortable. He won a Heisman Trophy and the NFC Offensive Rookie of the Year operating exclusively out of the shotgun. Kingsbury was his coordinator in 2024, when the Commanders went to the NFC championship game and Daniels threw for over 3,568 yards and 25 touchdowns.
With Blough, some called it a fresh start. He felt it was just starting over.
“I still got a long way to go,” Daniels said after minicamp.
But Daniels is beginning to look at some of the offense’s new features as positives.
“Now that we’re in camp, turning my back to defenses [under center] isn’t a problem,” he said. “It is a weapon for me.”
He added that he is familiar with Blough’s entire system. It will be installed in increments during camp, but he knows the general concepts better than he did in the spring.
“I like to get everything at once [with the system] and then break it down to see what questions I have for Blough,” he said. “What questions does he have for me to answer? After that, we walk through it and I try to make sense of it in my head in different ways.”
Blough added a GoPro camera to Daniels’ helmet to help him better understand what his quarterback was seeing. In theory, it could help Blough provide answers to Daniels’ questions.
Daniels is using it more as a tool to hear himself call plays in the huddle, working on the system’s new language. He’s also trying to find touchpoints to connect Blough’s system to anything he’s run in college.
“I try to correlate this stuff to what I’ve done in the past,” Daniels said. “Blough’s been doing a great job of breaking it down for me in that sense.”
The first week of training camp will mostly be devoted to red-zone work. The full flight of plays won’t be available to Daniels until deeper into next week.
But, for Day 1, Daniels feels better than he did before he left for Los Angeles. The Commanders will take that as a win. And Daniels will take it as another notch in L.A.’s favor.
“What better place to go?” he said, laughing.
Plays of the day
In a wide-open competition to line up at wide receiver opposite Terry McLaurin, two players made a strong impression for a spot on the roster: Dyami Brown and Treylon Burks.
Both are fighting to keep their careers alive. Brown was a former Washington draft pick who is returning to D.C. Burks is a former first-rounder who didn’t pan out in Tennessee and is looking to establish himself after playing eight games for the Commanders last season.
They both helped their cases Wednesday. Burks grabbed a touchdown over cornerback Amik Robertson in the corner of the end zone. His 6-foot-2, 225-pound frame — which made him a matchup nightmare for defenses in college — is effective in the red zone. Brown made a similar grab over veteran corner Rasul Douglas on a fade-route touchdown.
Rookie Antonio Williams was also effective getting open in tight quarters, hauling in a score. Washington drafted him in the third round, mainly for his route-running ability. It showed up Wednesday.
Trends of the day
Running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt had an unexpectedly productive rookie season in 2025. The former seventh-round pick led the team in rushing yards and emerged as a potential lead back in 2026. But Washington wants to see more out of him as a pass catcher.
It was on display to start training camp. Daniels targeted his running back a few times for big gains.
As for the defense, Odafe Oweh showed glimpses of why Washington signed him to a four-year deal. The former Raven batted down a Daniels pass and disrupted plays.
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