FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The Commanders have Friday off in New Jersey... Not really but the media isn’t allowed to be in on walk-throughs or meetings.
Despite the rain Thursday, the players felt pretty good hitting someone else besides themselves in the last two weeks. My eyes saw the defense struggle a little bit in the action I saw from one side of the field.
There are many rules when it comes to practice, and each team with different ones. For instance, at the Jets, the media could be behind the sidelines on only one of the two fields they were working on. On the other field, we had to be up on a balcony to watch. Meanwhile, Aaron Rodgers was not throwing, it was primarily Tyrod Taylor (Virginia Tech).
So as they get ready for their first preseason game Saturday at noon on WUSA9, I asked coach Quinn about what he might tell the rookies.
“You know they’ve been waiting their whole lives to play in the NFL, and my message to them is you’ve already been doing it every day in practice. They’ll be tight, on the opening day. I’ll probably have the veterans talk about their first preseason game, most everybody has a memory of that."
The bottom line is when you watch the game on WUSA9, watch knowing that a lot of veteran core guys won’t play so the coaches can look to see if some of the guys who have flashed in practice can do it when the bright lights come on. They will also look to see if someone can surprise them.
For a lot of these players, they already know they’re not making the squad just because of the reps they get in practice, but they will get the bulk of the action in the second half of the game, and put their resume on tape for the 31 other teams who will be watching.
See you at noon on WUSA9 for the dynamic kickoff (new kickoff).