SNIDER: Commanders need chemistry for winning formula

Talent and desire won't decide the Washington Commanders' fate this season. With the franchise's highest roster turnover since World War II, chemistry is most needed to win close games.

More than 30 new players join Washington in coach Dan Quinn's first season. Along with a coaching staff that largely hasn't worked together before, it's a lot to ask for so many new faces to rely on each other.

But the offensive line spends nights eating at a veteran's home or watching a UFC fight to kindle relationships. With new starters at left tackle and guard plus center, carryover right guard Sam Cosmi knows it's critical for the line to find continuity for protecting rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels.

"This training camp, we spend so much time together and we go through a grind and we're going through it," Cosmi said. "Your blood, sweat and tears out there. I have connections with guys that I played with since I've been at this organization that I still call [up] to this day, and we have moments that we went through and that only our relationship knows. We have that brotherhood, and so it doesn't only just carry right now, it carries forever."

Linebackers Frankie Luvu and Bobby Wagner are critical to the defense's success, but Luvu was in Carolina last season while Wagner played for Seattle. They're also working on chemistry.

"Sometimes we don't say anything," Luvu said, "but we just feel each other, and it just connects man. Like we just kind of play off each other. The communication level between me and him is on point so it's moving forward and the process is to keep it like that."

That Quinn seeks players who can play multiple positions forces players to truly understand what's happening around them as much as their role.

"One thing that's evolved probably for me is multi-positional players," Quinn said. "And there's real value to that to where a wideout who can take snaps, a linebacker who can play defensive end and a safety that can play down to linebacker. So, not everyone can do that, but for the people that can, you've added value and there could be a new look or a new scheme to work.

"Different combinations of players will be necessary over the course of the next four or five weeks to find what's the best winning combinations. So often a guard or a center has to work together or a tackle or a guard have to work together. So, they'll need time, but we will mix and match until we find that right balance."

Yet, everything starts from scratch. Players remaining from last year's 4-13 team that lost eight straight to end the season know they're being judged by a new staff where player history, even good ones, means nothing.

"I come out each and every day and I just prove to them that I am the player and the caliber player I am," Cosmi said. "And so doing that, just coming out to practice proving that is a huge thing. I think everybody on the team should do that.

"It's kind of like a clean slate, but at the same time we still have tape. Everybody has tape. That's how they evaluate us, and they've definitely looked at that tape and see what type of caliber players they have. I got to prove that every day, every single day."