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John Keim, ESPN Staff Writer
ASHBURN, Va., — The Washington Commanders’ hype drill is a minute of pure energy. Coaches shout encouragement as players run over bags spread out over approximately 20 yards.
On this day, bent at the waist and using his fists to urge them on, new offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury is right in the middle of the action, which is an appropriate place for him to be. If Washington is going to have any success this season, Kingsbury will be in the middle of that, too, as the former Arizona Cardinals coach is now in charge of trying to resurrect an offense that has been one of the NFL’s worst for a decade.
“He’s one of the best offensive minds that I’ve been around,” said Washington tight end Zach Ertz, who played two seasons for Kingsbury in Arizona.
Turning Washington around won’t be easy. The Commanders’ returning players will be learning a new offense for the second time in two seasons, going from the West Coast system used by Eric Bieniemy to Kingsbury’s version of the Air Raid. They’ll also have to learn new assistants, namely former Eagles offensive coordinator Brian Johnson (pass-game coordinator) and former Los Angeles Chargers coach Anthony Lynn (run-game coordinator).
Also, in case you haven’t heard, Washington has a rookie quarterback in Jayden Daniels and will have at least six new starters on offense.
When Kingsbury was hired, while many praised his offensive acumen, others were skeptical. However, the Commanders’ players have liked what they’ve seen from the installation of this offense and what they’ve heard from their new OC.
“I don’t think you can put labels on it,” Washington quarterback Marcus Mariota said. “I think that’s what’s the beautiful thing about it. For us [the offense is] fun to play in. There’s so many different aspects that you can get into. But to label it something I think does it a disservice.”
Washington’s offense could use a jolt. The team has not finished in the top 10 in yards per game since 2016 and it hasn’t been top 10 in points since 2015. In fact, Washington has not even finished in the top half in either category since 2017. Worse, since 2000 there have only been four seasons when the team ranked in the top 10 in yards or points per game.
When Quinn hired Kingsbury, he said his offensive approach reminded him of Kyle Shanahan’s. They’re not the same, but Quinn said Kingsbury and Shanahan (who was Quinn’s offensive coordinator for two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons) run offenses that share similar tenets — stretching the field horizontally and vertically.
“Going against Kliff, those same feelings you had, this is going to be tough, matchups, formations, speed, shots down the field, aggressiveness, boldness,” Quinn said.
One coach who has faced Kingsbury multiple times said he likes how Kingsbury has evolved as an offensive coach in the NFL. The coach said early in his Arizona career, Kingsbury did not throw enough between the hashes — they were 25th in his first two seasons. But in his final two seasons, Arizona ranked 13th.
“It looks like he’s gotten a better feel for it,” the coach said.
The coach also said he likes how Kingsbury incorporated the tight end more, something that likely will take place in Washington. The Cardinals were 12th in his first year and 10th in his final three years combined using two-tight end sets. Arizona also ranked 30th in his first two seasons and 15th in his final two years in passes to the tight end.
Some of that will be incorporated in Washington. The Commanders used more three-receiver sets than the Cardinals season. The Commanders also used less no huddle compared to the Kingsbury’s Cardinals. During Kingsbury’s four seasons in Arizona, the Cardinals ran no huddle on 1,491 plays; no other team ran more than 865. Washington used it 328 times in that span, including 49 times last season.
For his part, Daniels said he likes “the creative mind that he has, how he can attack defenses. Obviously, what he was doing with Arizona, with Kyler and having success.”
“If there’s a better way to do it, I’m all about it,” Kingsbury said. “We will continue to take ideas and there’s stuff that [Daniels] was really good at in college. That’s a good starting point to build off that and get that comfort level going early and taking it from there.”
Like Murray, Daniels is a quarterback who can run, though he has a different style. But Kingsbury knows he’s starting from square one with his personnel in Washington.
“Every stop it’s been different,” Kingsbury said about his offense. “The one major thing I try to do is make sure this was Year 1 of the Commanders’ offense, not year five of the Arizona Cardinals. You want to start back with a real base install and then build it and grow it and go from there.
“[In Arizona] we did things that we felt he could be really successful at and then tried to build and let [Murray] grow and us grow together. And we wanted to make sure I didn’t start at some point that would overwhelm anybody.”
And solely focusing on the offense for the first time in his NFL coaching career will .
“Being able to just focus on the offense will be great,” Kingsbury said after he was hired in February. “Dan has a bunch on his plate. I’ve sat in that seat and so you’re dealing with the entire picture. With me now, it’s focusing on that group and trying to maximize who we are.”
If Kingsbury excels in Washington, the energy he shows during that pre-practice hype drill will help invigorate the franchise. But, Ertz said, it extends beyond the energy.
“It’s just how…he calls plays during the game,” Ertz said. “How he gets new ideas. He’s at the cutting edge of a lot of different things.”