Austin Ekeler tells G&D how the establishment of culture early on is spurring Commanders' surge

Austin Ekeler had over 100 all-purpose yards in his return to the field Sunday, and he had a little bit of deserved humble-brag about it in his return to the Grant & Danny Show on Tuesday to talk about the now 4-1 Commanders.

“I think there's been a reason that I've been playing in this league for eight years now, and apparently it’s because I can be efficient but also be exciting on the field as well,” Ekeler said. “When you can put those two together, you usually hang around a little bit longer, so I’m glad I can continue to share some of my work on the field with the DMV area.”

Ekeler has indeed been a big piece of the Commanders’ puzzle, as they’ve gotten to 4-1 for the first time since 2008 and look to get to 5-1 for the first time since 1996 – something maybe no one, and not many at best, expected to see this soon.

“An important message that Dan Quinn told us when we came into the building back in OTAs was we are not here to rebuild, that’s not even in the vocabulary; a lot of us are new, but he mentioned we are here to win right now, because that is what the NFL demands,” Ekeler said. “We put together a team that they feel can win right now, and we didn't know how that was gonna play out. You kind of go through that culture and chemistry change, there’s a lot of new things you kind of are anticipating, but don't really know until you start getting into regular season. We got a good group, and it’s been coming together for us; it’s a journey that was not to be expected, but not unexpected as well, because we expect to win games, right? We don’t expect to always win, but we expect to win games and so it's been what we've wanted. However we can get a win, we're gonna continue to just keep scrapping it out.”

Rookie quarterback, all new administration, more than 50 percent roster turnover…wait, they really expected to be a re-load, not a rebuild?

“I was on a team last year where we had high hopes for us to go to the playoffs, because we did it the year before, and we came out and won five games; we had all the talent we and everything we thought we needed. and it didn't happen,” Ekeler said. “So now, I'm in a new environment where there's a lot of veterans around that have won a lot of games, a lot of new coaches, and we have a brotherly-type environment where we're talking culture, and culture is being coached where it's hey, I love working here, getting up and going to work and seeing the bots and competing together.”

Quinn’s calling card was that he was a leader of men, and truly, that is showing through in DC.

“When you start to build that culture, you start to really buy into like, yeah, I think we got something special here,” Ekeler said. “We hadn't played at that point yet, but we were talking like it when we were having those conversations, and you could really feel like this was just a great place to come in and work, and it was really an environment that was inviting. When you have that type of environment and some players to go along with it, and a rookie quarterback that's been playing like he's been playing, it's combination for a lot of good things. So I definitely believed it, but you gotta build it. It’s not something that just happens, but I think we did just that during the off-season.”

Take a listen to Ekeler’s entire visit above, which sees him go into his strong game and the Commanders’ humming offense, their fourth-down prowess, and more!