Commanders Nation is about to embark on a wild ride, and Josh Harris is taking the wheel. He is not just another deep-pocketed owner. Rather, Harris is shaking things up by involving himself at core with everything NFL related. And Logan Paulsen can’t help but notice the positive vibes.
As Paulsen expressed it on the Washington Commanders podcast, “Josh Harris comes in, he’s got the new ownership experience, right? And you’re already seeing the effects of that.” From renovations to the cafeteria revamp, Harris is leaving an eminent mark.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Harris is also gearing up for the 2024 NFL Draft, and he’s not just a passive observer. As reported by Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio he’s been more involved in the draft decisions than anyone expected. He even sat in on interviews with top quarterback prospects at the NFL Combine, according to Adam Schefter’s reports.
“Yeah look at Dan and the culture that he’s bringing in…Adam Peters just the level of professionalism that he brought like I was expecting you know…I’m somewhat familiar…when I was in I knew he [Josh] was going to be good at this but I didn’t know he was going to be like this”, revealed Paulsen.
Now, some might argue that an owner meddling too much could hamstring the hired guns like Dan Quinn and Adam Peters. But with Harris’s track record of making savvy investments across multiple sports franchises, his instincts might come handy.
As Paulsen eloquently added, “It just seems like a great opportunity kind to your point, saying not only is everything new, but they’re doing such a great job yeah of at every at every marker.” Thus, evidently, Harris is bringing a fresh perspective, and he’s ready to lead this team to massive glory.
Speaking of glory let’s get into Bill Belichick’s failed pursuit of the Commanders’ head coaching gig. While Logan Paulsen applauded Harris, Quinn, and Peters for their exceptional efforts, there’s no denying the allure of having a legend like Belichick with 6 SuperBowl rings at the helm.
An in-depth report from ESPN uncovered intriguing details about Bill Belichick’s pursuit of the Washington Commanders’ head coaching position and the factors that ultimately led to his candidacy being rejected. As per the report, “Belichick was very interested. He grew up in Annapolis, Maryland, and the combination of his hometown ties and football acumen might have helped the Commanders win”. According to the report Belichick also had some insider support. “Commanders minority owner Magic Johnson lobbied hard for Belichick to be the team’s new head coach,” sources said.
Alas, despite the support, the veteran coach couldn’t find a destination for himself and is still teamless. Now, whether Belichick’s absence might impact Commanders chances or not remain to be seem. Nonetheless, the upcoming 2024 draft will prove to be an important variable for the same.
Dan Quinn took the extra two weeks the NFL affords to new coaches at the start of the offseason program, kicking off his first one in Washington on April 2. Over the years, those have generally been used to get a jump on players lifting together, meeting with new coaches, and getting a jumpstart on installing new schemes.
And all of that has been mixed into the Washington Commanders’ past two weeks in Ashburn.
But the more important stuff, as Quinn sees it, had nothing to do with X’s and O’s.
To kick off the offseason program, he gave his assistant coaches and players a homework assignment, asking them to put together their version of “My Story.” Each would be a PowerPoint presentation, with pictures, to show teammates and colleagues their why.
“In the first couple weeks, I really just want the connection—player to player, coaches with players,” Quinn says. “That’s at the top of the pile. I’ve always felt like you can coach people to the depth of that relationship. The better you know somebody, the harder and deeper that coaching can go. If it’s just surface level, it’ll be surface-level coaching. As we’re building these relationships from coaches to coaches and players to players, and there’s a lot of new players in the locker room, we’ll get good, but we have to get good in the locker rooms and the meeting rooms first.
“That connection and the way we talk, and past that, the spirit of competition, whether it’s in the weight room, doing workouts, talking s–t, having fun, pushing each other to see where it can get to, that’s where the real competition is. It’s you and me going out to train or run and pushing one another to see how good we can get.”
That ties the two baseline tentpoles of Quinn’s new program—connection and competition.
Truth is that’s not much different than what he’d emphasized in Atlanta over five-plus seasons, including three trips to the playoffs and a Super Bowl appearance. The competition piece is, in part, borrowed from the Pete Carroll program that Quinn worked in twice. The connection element is something that’s always been Quinn’s own. So, the Commanders aren’t getting a totally different guy that the Falcons got nine years ago.
That said, if the bones are the same, the body around them has changed. Quinn was fired about a month after his 50th birthday—back in October 2020—and rather than wallow, the ever-positive coach took the spot he was in and turned it into a pivot point. He learned more about himself, and what he did well and didn’t in his first shot at being an NFL head coach, to prepare himself to be better, and especially if a second chance came along.
That second chance is here. He’s arrived with a new owner, and, alongside new GM Adam Peters, has been armed with the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft to address his new franchise’s decades-long quarterback need. As such, he’ll attack this one a bit differently—and with lessons learned informing the differences in who he is now as a coach.
We’re down to 10 days before the draft, and I’m on my last little break before the storm. Here’s what we have coming your way in this week’s takeaways …
• A look into the financial challenges three teams face at quarterback.
• Why franchise-tagged guys are getting paid now, at a rate unlike ever before.
• Georgia’s makeup pro day was a mixed bag for two prospective first-rounders.
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