Craig Hoffman's big takeaways from Dan Quinn's first Commanders training camp practice

The Dan Quinn era officially got underway on the practice fields of training camp on Wednesday as the Washington Commanders began their preparations for the 2024 NFL season, the first under the new regime installed by new owner Josh Harris and new GM Adam Peters.

So, are things different? Are there changes to the ways things were in the past? And, of course, do we think that is a good thing?

Craig Hoffman said a post-practice conversation with Benjamin St-Juste, the defensive back said something that "highlighted the difference with two main things between the new regime and the old regime."

"I think a lot of times, especially on day one it's really easy to say, 'oh this is better,'" Hoffman said, speaking for himself. "But, if you listen to guys talk about Dan Quinn and about this staff and about how everybody and everything is operating. It comes down to a couple of key things: 1) is the mentality and 2) is the execution.

"You need both to be able to win in this league. And Jon Allen, who spoke after practice today, talked about one word that has come up in just about every single conversation that I've had with anybody in Burgundy and Gold at any rank at any level since Dan Quinn and Adam Peters took over."

Here's what Allen had to say: "I think he brings a lot of competition amongst the guys, he's gonna challenge us every day and he brings a lot of energy. So... when he first came I asked a lot of guys around the league about him and I haven't had one bad thing said about him. Everyone who's ever played for him has loved it and so far I've been loving it."

The word competition comes up a lot, Hoffman said. "And it is how you get the best out of highly competitive people, you have to do it in a healthy way, you have to make sure it's channeled properly, you have to make sure that it's constructive, but they do that, they find ways to make drills competitive whether it's with yourself or with each other," he continued.

The other word that Hoffman has been hearing is intent/intention, and coaches being very clear with players about what they want them to achieve with a given drill or exercise.

Hoffman said that St-Juste relied that coaches are "very specific with what they want him to do and what they want him to do might be different than what Michael Davis to do."

"That individuality, that attention to detail, that intention, that competition all comes together in a better place for everyone to operate that will, yes, in the meantime probably just be a better place to work that's more fun and creates a competitive football team," he continued. "But eventually, when combined with the right amount of talent, will win games. And I think that's the kinda thing I think about for this year in Washington."