ASHBURN, Va. — The first day of training camp brings high expectations for teams around the league, but this season there's a new sense of optimism from the national media for the Commanders, coming off their first NFC Championship appearance in over three decades.
Head coach Dan Quinn is focusing on internal standards rather than external pressure.
"Internally in our standards of what we want to do and how we want to get down, that's way more powerful and we're fortunate that we're able to rely on those standards as opposed to an expectation which comes from the outside," Quinn said.
As the team took the field, they were missing a couple of key pieces from last year's playoff run.
The most notable absence is wide receiver Terry McLaurin, who's holding out for the first time as he looks for a contract extension.
McLaurin's absence at training camp will be costly. The All-Pro wide receiver will be fined over $50,000 for each day he does not report to camp, on top of the more than $100,000 he was fined for missing all of mandatory mini camp in June.
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