Washington Commanders Practice Observations | Kliff Kingsbury Impact Being Felt | 3 Beneficiaries

Intro it's only been two practices but already you can feel the difference between this year's Washington commanders team versus the past and it's changing for the better that and more on today's episode of Locked on commanders you are locked on commanders your daily podcast on the Washington commanders part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday and welcome Show Open into this episode of Locked on commanders your daily podcast covering the Washington commanders part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day thanks so much for making locked on commanders your first listen of the day every day and don't forget that you can subscribe for free on YouTube or wherever you're listening to this podcast and you can continue this conversation with me by becoming a lockon commanders Insider go to join sub tex.com loock on commanders sign up today and from there you'll get news analysis insight and oneon-one conversations with me via text message become a locked on Commander's Insider today go to join text.com loock on commanders and shoot me a text I'm David Harrison credential member of the media covering the Washington commanders for commander game day.com a part of Sports Illustrated Fan Nation here with you every Monday through Friday along with our every dayers as always every dayers I appreciate your continued support for the show today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more right now new customers you get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that's 150 bucks with any winning $5 bet visit fanduel.com slocked on to get started today on today's episode we are going to talk Practice Observations about the top three beneficiaries of new offensive coordinator Cliff Kingsbury as I see it today we're going to talk about the impact that coach Cliff Kingsbury is already making on the practice field on the Washington commanders but first we're going to wrap up our rookie Camp observations and I'm going to give you four words to describe rookie Camp describe Washington commanders practice as I saw it this past weekend and those four words are competitive deliberate efficient and Up Tempo and up tempo's got a hyphen in there so it counts as one word just go with me on that so the first word competitive right and you've probably seen the videos um I've taken a couple myself I haven't sent them out I'll send them out on Twitter here after I record this episode in case you haven't seen it but when the when the team so every practice kind of starts the same for the most part around the NFL right players come out on their own ahead of the practice session they kind of warm up the coaches will be out there they'll warm up with them the quarterbacks will get some throws in the lineman might get some extra you know kickouts and and stuff like that and but then the group comes together to start the practice they stretch together unified it's kind of organized stretching and warming up to get ready for the practice well for the Washington commanders what they started doing is something that head coach Dan Quinn calls pads very simply just calls it pads and it's the pads that lay on the ground you see the running backs doing high knees over them and and it helps go keep the players make sure their feet are coming off the ground when they're running with the football stuff like that use them in a bu of different ways uh defensive lineman will do them use them for the some drills so there's a lot of different ways to see them but they're just load of the ground pads that lay on the ground they're isolated they're not connected so you can move them any way that you want to and what the coaching staff does is they line those pads up I think it's about five or six that they line up in two rows they line the players up in two columns and then they just get going man it's high energy the coaches are yelling the players are moving fast they're getting their feet up they're getting over the pads they're lining up they're coming back they're going back and forth multiple times just kind of doing this and the players have said is just a really good way to kind of get the competitive juices flowing get the energy High to start the practice and everybody's doing it quarterbacks are doing it lineman are doing it defensive players are doing it everybody is a part of it it's a team effort and it's a very competitive way to get the practices going but then you also go to the actual position breakouts and when they break out into their position groups the quarterbacks you know I mean they're throwing against each other they're throwing with each other and it's competitive right like when when when Jaden Daniels goes to throw a ball into the net the little three-hole net where you got a high middle and a low Target if he misses one he he doesn't like it he gets upset about it ah you know he kind of makes a noise like that and Sam Hartman comes back and maybe he Nails a throw and he kind of you know celebrates a little bit there's a competition it's friendly competition it's not like Sam is inting there going ah I should have been the number two overall pick you suck and and all that stuff but there's a competitive nature to it the coaches are are keeping the energy up when you watch the receivers run their routes they're precise there's a placement there that they have to hit and that comes into the second word that I can describe Washington commanders private right now which is deliberate everything has a purpose we're not just going through the motions here and as much as I would like to say that that's always the norm it's it's unfortunately not always the norm there were definitely times last season where you kind of see guys just kind of going through the motion not just last season but the last couple past couple of years that I've been on ground with the Washington commanders I've seen it in other locations I've seen it at Tampa Bay Buccaneers practices with coaching staffs previous but deliberate practice having a focus for what you're kind of doing I kind of always go into task and I kind of tell people go in there like you're doing it on purpose don't just go in there because just check the block oh it's time to practice let's get out there and go do some stuff no there's a purpose and a reason for every single thing that's going on on the field whether it's the stretching whether it's the pads drill to start the whole thing whether it's the position drills whether it's the seven on seven nobody's just out there running routes or or throwing passes or or hitting pads just for the sake of hitting the pads there's a specific reason why they're doing all of it in fact there's actually this new addition to the practice field this year that I thought was really interesting when we went outside on Saturday cuz Friday we were inside so we didn't get to see the outside field but Saturday we go back outside and you kind of have the normal lines right like there's if you ever seen an NFL practice squad there's usually a right a red line on the left and right kind of quarter margins of the field and those are kind of guidelines for wide receivers to run their deep routes and stuff like that but there was also kind of a diagram of an offensive line group and you kind of see it formed this kind of pocket it's like this funnel kind of forms this pocket and you've got five squares actually you might have six or or seven squares but You' got these squares we're basically where the lineman are going to line up in and even though they don't have a full offensive line unit at the rookie mini camps you saw the offensive line coach Bobby Johnson working with Brandon Coleman and he's in his box and he's you know he's kind of using these lines and these guidelines as a way to show him hey here's where I need you to be here's where I need you to get to here's why I need you to get there very deliberate even though there's only two offensive lineman out there this last week or two or three offensive lineman out there this last week everything had its purpose takes me to the next word very efficient practices what really stood out to me in the past couple of Seasons with Washington commanders practices is when special teams drills were going on when when if you weren't a part of the Special Teams drills a lot of times those players were kind of doing their own thing now the quarterbacks typically were working with quarterback coach tavita Pritchard last year they were taking dropbacks they were throwing passes doing things like that but some of the other position groups were kind of left to their own I'm going to put it to to put it the best way I possibly can kind of left to their own devices and specifically I remember seeing some receivers who weren't part of the Special Teams drills weren't part of those practices really not doing a whole heck of a lot kind of standing around kind of mosing around maybe they would run a couple of routes but again it was kind of just more going through the motion there really wasn't a lot of precision to what they were doing when they were doing that kind of stuff now a lot of times you know you see your your veterans like Terry mclen are over there working maybe they're doing some footwork stuff maybe they're getting some uh some cardio and maybe they're doing some other things but it wasn't so much a controlled environment as much as it was just kind of on your own to do your own thing whereas with this group no matter what is happening when it's special teams times if you're not part of the Special Teams drills you're doing other things there's coaching happening there's development development happening throughout the entire practice and all that stuff the competition the deliberate practicing efforts the efficiency leads to your uptempo type of practice I even saw Anthony Lynn former NFL head coach one of the most experienced head coaches not an assistant group coach not an assistant position rout coach working with undrafted free agent and try out running backs during special teams portions those running backs weren't part of the Special Teams portion so Anthony Lynn literally a guy who has walked the sidelines as an NFL head coach is over there working with running backs who quite honestly probably aren't even going to make the roster every single coach is engaged and all of that kind of keeps the practices very uptempo very Lively very energetic and very effective it's a very welcome change to the Washington commanders I'm very interested to see how of the veterans who maybe aren't no aren't so much used to this type of practice environment how how they get involved how they get in the mix I'm really interested to see guys like Jonathan Allen Don Payne Terry mclen get involved in this bags drill when we go out to mini camp again on Tuesday so that's kind of my final over overarching thoughts on rookie mini camp from last weekend now I want to kind of hone in and focus in on offensive coordinator cliff kingsbery and what I've already seen from his presence on the practice field and how I think it's going to impact specific parts of the team specific players coming up next on this episode of lockon commanders part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day and today's episode of Locked on Episode Sponsor commanders is brought to you by eBay Motors who brings the passion the drive and the patience that is necessary to bring home winning trophies because it's also what is necessary to keep your ride or dive vehicle alive and eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and even level it up to Peak Performance from superchargers to roof racks EX exhaust kits LED headlights and more whether you're looking for more speed more power or just more style for your vehicle eBay Motors has got you covered with over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die you're always going to find exactly what you're 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programmed for you every single day to bring you the biggest stories without all of the screaming locked on sports today brings you can't miss analysis opinions and news streaming 247 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app part of the locked on podcast Network your team every single day thank you again everybody out there for riding with me uh my voice is continuing to be a work in progress the the last run of the illness that took me out for a part of a week a couple weeks ago just can't get this thing all the way back but we're working on it I got tea sitting right next to me taking drinks here every once in a while trying to keep the voice fresh we'll get there uh eventually speaking of getting there Cliff Kingsbury took a little bit of time to go from being a college head or college coach College head coach to being an NFL head coach and when he did there were a lot of expectations when he got the job in Arizona that he was going to usher in kind of a new era of NFL football kind of really kind of capitalized on the new uh you know pass happy NFL that we've seen develop over the last decade or two and kind of bring a a more air raid style of offense into the NFL well it kind of worked and then it kind of didn't work we'll talk more about that a little bit here in our next segment but in this segment we want to talk about his now if you want to call it Redemption story I don't know if that's really the right way uh to put it it's not like he was run out of the league for you know crimes or something illegal or or anything like that it just didn't work out in Arizona ultimately he moved on ended up at USC last year coaching along with that staff coaching along with Caleb Williams uh the number one overall pick that end up with Chicago Bears and now he's here in Washington and quarterback Jaden Daniels comes in from LSU and when I'm watching these practices over rookie mini camp along with those four things that I really kind of identified and honed in on uh that the big differences between Washington commanders practices of old and now I really kind of paid attention to Cliff Kingsbury for one no no disrespect to Joe Wi Jr but right now it's kind of hard to see really what the defense is going to look like really what the defensive Tempo is going to look like but on the offense we can kind of see some things for one all eyes are on the quarterback right and I think that's where we're going to kind of start this thing was really refreshing about what I think we can expect from a cliff Kingsbury offense here in Washington especially with quarterback jayen Daniels Sam Hartman you know Marcus Mariota all these guys is moving the quarterback with purpose and using it as a weapon and go back man if if you're an everyday that who's been here for a while you're going to remember how many times would just kind of just just almost beg man just beg Scott Turner like bro you have a quarterback in Taylor hinei who is electric he puts it on the field every single snap he puts it on the line and the dude knows how to move and honestly he looks his best when he's moving when he's sitting back there in the pocket he's got time to think he's got time to kind of Wonder and wait and overanalyze and overthink things that's typically when when people when he got into trouble but when when he's playing fast when he's playing quick that's when he was at his best moving him just made the most sense and it happened very very little and it was just so incredibly frustrating to see a quarterback like Taylor haniki really be coralled inside the pocket and kind of get told don't use one of your biggest strengths your legs your Mobility your athleticism all of the time really kind of limited and again it was just really frustrating so one of the things I was really excited to see as sad as it was to see early on in rookie mini camp was the drills where Jaden Daniels and Sam Hartman are stepping over those same pads that they use for the pad drill they're moving back and forth they're shuffling in and out they're getting their footwork down they're keeping their legs active and then they're rolling out and they're throwing a pass into the net it was incredibly exciting because what does that me and honestly guys that is a drill that I can honestly tell you I have never seen run at a Washington Commander practice with Taylor hinei with Sam Howell who Again Sam how is not Patrick Mahomes Lamar Jackson Jane Daniels level of athletic but Sam how has some Mobility to him those are drills that we didn't see I can't imagine not seeing Patrick Mahomes run those kinds of drills like I have to imagine in Kansas City Patrick Mahomes is running that type of a drill I sent the Tweet out over the weekend got a lot of traction so if you haven't seen it go ahead and go over to my Twitter account D Harrison 82 on Twitter and check it out but it's a Mobility drill right get the quarterback moving Shuffle back and forth climb the pocket drop back in the pocket roll left roll right roll out throw the ball deliver the ball it's a very simple drill but it's so exciting to see it because you have a quarterback and you just have to kind of think man if Jaden Dames was a quarterback under some of the previous offensive coordinators is he doing this kind of drill is this going to be incorporated as part of the game plan on how we attack our opponents I don't think it is but Jane Daniels with Cliff Kingsbury it's going to be a part of the attack you see it already even Sam Hartman who certainly has his own level of athleticism and mo ability I probably put him right there around the Sam how type of level right where it's not going to be his primary weapon but it's certainly something he can do going through these drills looking fluid looking smooth you know Marcus Mariota is going to run through them so I mean again it's just a sign that Cliff Kingsbury is going to actually use his quarterback's athleticism to his benefit so you really like that another part of it that honestly kind of gets lost in Personality the watchh a little bit but I think actually does make an impact is his Swagger Cliff Kingsbury is a cool dude like he's just he's kind of just this cool almost kind of laidback type of guy but he's also very focused and intent on what he what it is that he needs to do I was talking to a member of the organization and it's kind of funny because they said like he's he's almost got like these split personalities where like you know when he's just kind of walking down the hallway or something like that like he's just a really cool really chill guy to talk to really personable and all that stuff but if he's talking ball or if he's watching film like he's just like laser focus and you don't want to interrupt him uh because it's almost like the the vibe I got was almost like waking a sleepwalker right like you don't want to wake a sleepwalker well when he's in his Zone kind of just on ball you don't want to break that stride and you don't want to do that but I think that that it's a personality type and it's an approach that a lot of players especially younger players can kind of really kind of vibe with and really get on and so again it's not going to be something that I think is overly harped on and it shouldn't be overly harped on necessarily but I do think it has an impact kind of his Swagger and his just kind of coolness to him but also the demonstrated football knowledge that he delivers with that personality type and then finally the fact that he's not a me first leader and some of this is kind of hard to see on the practice field because everything's kind of regimented right the schedule kind of is what is we're going to do this and we're going to do this and we're going to do this and we're going to go here but in between there in the meeting rooms and stuff like that already hearing from members of the organization that he's a very open coach he's very much open to input he's open to ideas and he definitely wants to make sure that everybody feels a sense of ownership over what is happening on the offense so when you talk about a young quarterback like Jaden Daniels who's already shown the ability to kind of take command really be in control of what he's doing on the practice field as he's talking with Cliff Kingsbury Cliff Kingsbury is talking to him you just kind of get this sense of there's going to be this shared ownership of the offense and again to me that's the best way to do it anyway um but it's not the way that it's done everywhere you kind of think back to like Shawn pton in New Orleans where him and Drew Brees really kind of constructed that Saints offense together there was a shared ownership but then after the fact after the fact jamus Winston you know uh Tamm Hill and then in Denver Russell Wilson it's more so it's Shawn Payton's offense now you're going to do it my way and I just again to me whenever your people who are operating the the the function of whatever job it is I don't care where you're at if you're in a warehouse when the people operating the warehouse operating the offense operating the defense feel a sense of ownership to a certain extent always have to understand who the boss is who's got the final decision fine but when they have a sense of ownership over what they're doing you're always going to have it better so Cliff Kingsbury again just hearing very early on very much a guy who's open to his coach's opinions open to listening to his players he's going to control things he's going to make the ultimate decision but those input are taken seriously they are valued and I think that's a very important part of what Cliff Kingsbury is bringing to the Washington commanders overall those stylistically who is going to benefit the most I've got three not really names but three guys groups that are going to benefit the most I believe from the arrival of Cliff Kingsbury that's coming up next on today's episode of lockon commanders part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day it's winter take time winter take FanDuel all time in the NBA and the NHL and FanDuel is giv you a shot to bring home a big win of your own today's episode of lockon commanders brought to you by FanDuel right now new customers you get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that's 150 bucks to bet on spreads money lines player props and more since the last time we smoke my Denver Nuggets have tied up their series with the Minnesota Timberwolves at two games a piece and are now minus 176 favorites to win that series outright their odds of winning the NBA Finals have also risen back up to Plus 360 and they are once again in the second best odd position behind the Boston Celtics Who currently have a minus 140 odd line of winning the NBA Finals the Florida Panthers are plus 250 favorites to win the Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars sitting at plus 310 as the second favorites behind them so visit fanduel.com locked on today make every playoff shot count FanDuel America's number one Sportsbook wrapping up today's episode of lock on command thanks again for making lock on commanders your first listen first View today and every day who is going to benefit the most from the arrival of Cliff Kingsbury as the offensive coordinator in 2024 that is a question I kind of want to answer now and again we'll revisit this topic as we progress through the offseason and training camp and all stuff of course but I want to kind of get an early opinion early analysis out there and to me the three that are going to benefit the most are the slot receivers Brian Robinson Jr and the offensive line so I've got two groups of players and one specific player but I want start with the slot receivers right and this could be Jan Dodson who played more snaps in the slot last year than he did his rookie year and I think that there is a use certainly for him in the slot Luke mcaffrey the rookie out of rice who's expected to kind of be that big slot but also guys like alom zakus Jameson Crowder who's ever on the roster that could potentially bring themselves into the slot conversation and rotation when you look at the 2021 Arizona Cardinals which was Cliff Kingsbury's most successful year as an NFL head coach off as a play caller so so far in the league in 2021 the Cardinal leading receiver was Christian Kirk and he spent most of his time in the slot in fact in 2021 Kirk ranked 11th in catches from the slot 12th in yards and 21st in touchdowns so he was a wide receiver One Across The League top 32 out of the slot from from from an NFL perspective but it was more about how well they use the slot not how much they use the slot right so you you talk about volume or you talk about efficiency because even though Kirk ranked all those areas the Cardinals were actually only 21st in slot pass attempts they were only 17th in completions and they were only 12th in touchdowns or actually 12th in touchdowns is really good so when you look at it only 21st in slot pass attempts so only they only passed the ball to the slot more than 11 teams in the National Football League yet they completed passes to the slot almost in the upper half of the league and they were in the upper half of the league the top 12 and pass touchdown so again the way they Ed the slot not how much they use the slot really impacted the Ben benefits there 38% of Kyler Murray's pass attempts in 2021 went to the slot however which were the largest single share for him as an individual quarterback when you look across the league they weren't throwing to the slot as much as even most of the NFL teams were so again it was just really about how well they used their slot receivers and part of that was because of how well they used the running game in 2021 I know Cliff Kingsbury's got a big you know air raid kind of reputation but really if you look at his most successful season they ran the ball a heck of a lot and that's why Brian Robinson Jr I think is going to be a beneficiary of the cliff Kingsbury offense the ability to use the slot hinges largely a lot of times on the threat of the running game the ability to use play action to kind of clear out the areas around the hashes also use that tight end to clear out Crossing patterns all that stuff in 2021 James Conor made the Pro Bowl he had over 202 carries in the process Connor only had 752 yards rushing however but he added another 328 in receiving yard so again the way the Arizona Cardinals use James Connor really helped obviously James Conor himself which is where I think the Brian Robinson comp comes in but also helped open things up around the middle of the field for Kyler Murray to use that slot receiver very very effective the Cardinals were in the upper half of the league using play action in 2021 as well which is again the direct benefit of the Run game also benefiting the slot receivers and then finally the offensive line one of the best ways to help the offensive line is movement and again I go back to the times with Taylor hecki even Sam how last year the offensive line struggling and the lack of rolling Pockets the lack of of bootlegs the lack of play action effectively being used the lack of motion being used effectively to help the offensive line I feel like we're going to see more of that from Cliff Kingsbury so even though this version of the offensive line doesn't look dramatically improved over last season's offensive line I think schematically and stylistically there are things that Cliff Kingsbury is going to do that are going to help this unit look better and statistically protect better than maybe the years past uh motion also helps expose blitzes as much as it helps expose coverage and effective Run games make the play action more effective by delaying pass rushes that's going to help your quarterback and then moving the pocket if you make a defensive end run left to right right to left you make those defens of tackles Chase quarterbacks Chase Pockets out to the perimeter it wears them out it gets them tired down and it allows your play calling to negate the team's best pass rushers if you've got Mah Parsons lined up on the defensive right side the offensive left side boot leg right make Michael parsons's run all the way from his right side all the way to his left side while you're moving your quarterback away from him just helps the protection by space create that space create that standoff distance for your quarterback and then at the same time you're making a guy like Michael Parson's run all over the football field eventually he's going to tire out doing those kinds of things will help your quarterback will help your offensive line Kyler Murray in 2021 again that best year so we're talking about ideal situations but the best year that the wash or the Arizona Cardinals had under Cliff Kingsbury Kyler Murray was top 10 in throws on the move again coming in 2021 so I think that's something that we can expect to see from Cliff Kingsbury and we can expect from to see from this Washington commanders offense in 2021 so again just kind of recap here guys four words that I describ rookie or Washington commanders practice now under the new regime competitive deliberate efficient uptempo Cliff Kingsbury bringing a lot of in a lot of energy Swagger looking like he's going to use Mobility as a weapon thank goodness finally and then I think the slot receivers Brian Robinson Jr specifically and the offensive line are going to be your biggest beneficiaries obviously your quarterback as well but I think those three guys outside the quarterback are going to be your three biggest beneficiaries from the arrival of Cliff Kingsbury coming up tomorrow we are going to talk about some of the biggest questions facing the Washington commanders as they get set for their first mini camp with rookies and Veterans on on ground that's coming up tomorrow in the meantime if you got questions or comments throw them down in the YouTube comment section or text me directly by becoming a locked on Commander Insider go to sub tex.com lockon commanders to do that today don't forget to check out locked on sports today the first ever 247 live stream Sports channel on YouTube as always thank you for making lock on commanders your first listen or your first View today and every day every dayers thanks for coming through on a regular basis like you do until we speak again if you're on about please be safe be kind I'll see you next time for another episode of lockon commanders part of lockson podcast Network your team every day