Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn wasn’t happy after Saturday’s 17-13 preseason loss to the Detroit Lions. It wasn’t the result, as much as it was the way in which his team played. Quinn uncharacteristically mentioned one position publicly as a position of concern.
“So, we got work to do to figure out where we want to get to at center,” Quinn said after Saturday’s game.
For fans and anyone who has followed the team, this was not news. Everyone except Quinn and GM Adam Peters seemed concerned about the center position with a healthy Nick Allegretti. Well, Allegretti hasn’t been healthy all training camp, leaving the Commanders with Julian Good-Jones and rookie Matt Gulbin as the primary centers. The duo has a combined two career NFL snaps.
On Sunday, Quinn was expected to meet with the media via Zoom, like he does every game, but that was canceled, as the Commanders changed plans. Instead of a Monday walkthrough, Washington would hold a regular practice.
Quinn elaborated on that decision.
“I didn’t love all that I saw from an identity standpoint, but it wasn’t like a knee jerk reaction to that, but just kinda of where I wanna keep working with the guys, some new people in a couple locations, so I thought it was important to rep those if we could today, rep it again tomorrow, and then work it into practice Wednesday and into the game.”
Two days after his postgame comments regarding the center position, how did Quinn handle it on Monday?
“We do, but we still have work to do there, honestly,” he said "[We] wanna see where Matt is, get him some more snaps. He played a little bit of guard this week, and we worked him some there in the game. I’m sure you saw that. And we'll work him back exclusively at center into this game and this practice this week. We’re still working with Nick. He's not there yet, coming back from his injury. Between the three of them, we’re still in the process of evaluating what the best way for us to go is. That’d be one of the spots that I’m still digging in on and still looking.”
Gulbin did indeed get more reps at center during Monday’s practice, and that should continue in this week’s joint practice with the Ravens and preseason game. In fact, Washington should give Gulbin the entire game on Friday at center. The game reps are most valuable.
Last week, Quinn complimented Gulbin, saying he wanted to see him get more work at guard. He did against the Lions, but wasn’t as comfortable as he was the prior week against Miami, when he played center.
Quinn said he felt comfortable with Washington’s centers, but he also said the Commanders still need to figure the position out. In other words, he’s concerned, while Peters is busy looking around the league to see if any centers could be available via trade ahead of cutdown day.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: What did Dan Quinn say about the Commanders' most worrisome position?
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