ASHBURN, Va. -- The Washington Commanders needed to change.
A 2024 run to the NFC Championship Game was followed by a disappointing season that resulted in the draft's seventh pick. The team went from 12-5 to 5-12 in one year.
Injuries punctuated Washington's 2025 with numerous players on offense missing multiple games, from quarterback Jayden Daniels to receiver Terry McLaurin . But one person close to coach Dan Quinn said during conversations with him he never mentioned the injuries -- instead looking ahead to what must change.
So, as he enters Year 3 in Washington -- and while no one in the organization is saying he's on any hot seat yet -- the Commanders look different, underscoring the urgency behind Washington's offseason moves. "The changes that are required, those are hard, and that pushes that [urgency] some," Quinn said.
"But yeah, I would say it's heightened for sure. And there's also an energy that comes with that, and I'm leaning into that hard too." Here are the changes Washington has made so far this offseason.
New coordinators The biggest changes occurred shortly after the season ended, when Washington fired defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. and mutually parted ways with offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury.
That led to the hiring of DC Daronte Jones, a first-time coordinator in the NFL, and David Blough, an assistant quarterbacks coach the past two seasons after playing in the NFL for the previous five years. "I can say it's as focused as I've seen a coaching group together, working at it together, and that is something that's really lit me up," Quinn, who took the new staff on a retreat earlier this offseason, said in March.
He made it clear during meetings last season that he wanted to run the ball more, according to multiple team sources. And he discussed it after the season as well.
It'll take time to determine if Quinn's decision to use two first-time coordinators leads to success. But he likes the early returns.
"I wanted to see big collaboration, their communication," Quinn said of the offensive coaches. "Our offensive staff has got a lot of experience; use those guys in different ways.
That's what I've seen so far." As for Jones: "I have been impressed by Daronte's teaching," Quinn said. "He's thoughtful about it." New philosophies Washington didn't just switch coordinators, it changed philosophies on both sides of the ball.
The Commanders will play a different style on defense -- at times using a 3-4 look and playing far more zone than the past two years. On offense, they returned to what guard Sam Cosmi called a more "traditional NFL offense" under Blough.
Kingsbury favored a more no-huddle approach with almost all plays out of shotgun or pistol formation. The Commanders ran 1,279 plays out of no-huddle under Kingsbury -- that was 815 more than the No.
2 team, Philadelphia. Blough won't ditch the tactic but told ESPN earlier this offseason that they'd use no-huddle around 20% of the time.
Under Kingsbury, Washington also ran the fewest snaps from under center -- 157 fewer than the Cincinnati Bengals, the No. 31 team.
During an OTA practice Wednesday open to the media, the Commanders ran a lot more snaps from under center, using play-action out of this look as well. "I really do like our offense a lot," Cosmi said.
"The style we are presenting is very beneficial to us, especially in the run game -- and the play-action was brought back. ...
Being under center helps a lot, just not being one-dimensional than j