ASHBURN, Va. -- As soon as Washington Commanders coach Dan Quinn introduced the topic, one player began to feel the heat.
Long-snapper Tyler Ott dreaded what would happen next on a spring morning before the team meeting began. And that's what Quinn wanted: to put his players under pressure, especially after a disastrous season that invited speculation about his own job stability.
Within a minute, Ott was headed to the front of the room.
For a spelling bee.
"I had a feeling he'd pull up the Harvard guy," Ott said. "I probably felt more pressure doing that than coming out here to snap."
For the next 20 minutes, the environment in the team auditorium shifted between tense silences and excitement. When Ott paused in the middle of spelling a word, teammates and coaches, watching intently, began to stir and murmur. At other times, the quiet was broken when he or coaching analyst Travis Ho, his spelling bee opponent on the day, spelled a word correctly -- the room erupting in applause and cheers.
The pre-practice scene highlighted the mindset Quinn is trying to cultivate heading into the 2026 season. After a 5-12 campaign that followed a surprising run to the NFC Championship Game the previous year, Quinn spent the offseason searching for ways to sharpen a Washington team he felt had lost some of its edge last year. Through coaching changes, roster moves and an increased emphasis on competition in nearly every aspect of his program, Quinn has tried to inject more urgency into a franchise looking to rebound from one of the NFL's steepest year-to-year declines.
This January, Quinn moved on from both coordinators, citing a lack of production on defense and a need for a change in philosophy on offense. In the offseason, Washington made scores of personnel changes, injecting youth and athleticism into what had been the NFL's oldest roster with the likes of edge rusher Odafe Oweh and top draft pick Sonny Styles, while also upgrading talent at positions of need, like the signing of Stefon Diggs to partner with No. 1 receiver Terry McLaurin last week.
Despite the changes, Quinn heads into Year 3 leading a team projected by ESPN's Mike Clay to win 6.4 games and finish last in the NFC East. And that was prior to losing All-Pro left tackle Laremy Tunsil to a torn pectoral injury Saturday. But Quinn insists his focus is not on outside expectations, but on rebuilding the standards he felt had slipped a season ago.
"I don't feel under pressure," Quinn said. "I don't think in that kind of way."
That's clear to those around him, whether it's players, coaches or acquaintances. Instead, one person who knows him well said Quinn, who hasn't had conversations about his job with team owner Josh Harris heading into this season, according to sources with knowledge of his situation, seems to have been invigorated by 2025's downturn. And he is focused on returning the Commanders to where they were entering last season, in part, by doubling down on the details and ramping up the energy levels in the building.
Part of his plan has involved adding more competition to team meetings. At times that could mean having a basketball shooting contest between a player and a coach. It also could mean a table tennis match or even a friendship quiz -- when two sets of two players must answer questions about how well they know the other. One time two players competed to see who could finish song lyrics. Another time they played the trivia game Kahoot!, asking questions based on Washington's offensive and defensive systems.
But, on the same spring day the National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, D.C., it was Ott vs. Ho -- Harvard vs. Vanderbilt. Ott misspelled "etcetera" and "miscellaneous" -- the word that made him pause -- and lost by one.
"I don't know the last time I actually spelled miscellaneous," Ott said, shrugging his shoulders. "I was an Econ major."
Regardless of the winner, the result was the same as every other competition this offseason: a team focused and full of energy as it prepares to take the field -- something, Quinn said, he didn't see enough of in 2025.
"It gets you going," said safety Jeremy Reaves. "If you start the day with competition then the precedent is set."
That, Quinn hopes, is the point.
"There's something on the line all the time," Ott said.
IN JUNE, QUINN said he spent time this offseason rewatching practices from 2025. He compared a practice from a 2024 OTA session with one at the exact same point in 2025.
"I didn't love the urgency that I saw," Quinn said of last year's work.
Coaches, players and others in the organization said they never sensed any big, noticeable slippage in the team's preparation last season that they feel directly led to their 5-12 record. Certainly, injuries played a major factor. But Quinn said, looking back, there were subtle signs that things were slightly off.
"I could see in the spring, a little bit in the summer where all of a sudden you're just a little bit off," Quinn said. "And then you're a little more off and you're a little more and pretty soon you're like 10 degrees off and you're like, 'Why can't we swing this back?'"
Quinn then showed his video findings to his coaches, then to the players who participated in both seasons.
The offseason self-review stems from Quinn's longtime interest in introspection. In 2020, he underwent a 360 review that focused on his blind spots as a coach after being fired in Atlanta. When he examined last season, he arrived at the conclusion that little details slipped. In hindsight, the players agree.
Sometimes the issues were seemingly minor. But looking back, the players knew they were telling, such as offensive linemen not always chasing the ball down the field after a running back broke through the line, or when a catch was made. Or when fellow offensive players didn't rush to defend Luke McCaffrey after the wideout was bumped hard to the ground by cornerback Mike Sainristil during an intrasquad scrimmage.
On the first day of 2026 training camp, one defensive coach could be heard shouting at the players to get off the field faster. Before one practice in the spring, Quinn didn't like the energy as players broke a team huddle following their stretching -- and brought them together to voice his displeasure.
"This year you can really tell they are being intentional with the work and it's being called out if we're not," offensive lineman Andrew Wylie said.
To combat the complacency, Quinn placed extra emphasis on competition. He also installed a video leaderboard -- visible from the moment you walk into the facility -- that tracks categories such as ball security and takeaways, completion percentages, preparation and engagement in the meeting rooms. There's even a category for linebackers dubbed "intensity yards."
"This is my first time letting my eyes and the numbers dictate, 'Hey, this is what I think excellent looks like. This is what I think below the line looks like.' And then I show them that."
Every player is posted, not only the leaders, which leads to players getting loud, whether pointing out where they're at on the board or where a teammate stands.
"I'm trying to see who's winning and who's not," Reaves said. "That's the nature of the business."
All of this is meant to help produce a sharper and hungrier Commanders team in 2026. The team acknowledges slipping on the details wasn't the reason for last season's collapse. But Quinn and others believed those small lapses reflected a team that had grown too complacent.
"We were just comfortable with what we did the year before. We thought we had arrived," said Reaves.
QUINN KNOWS WHAT happens to coaches who don't win in the NFL.
As the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 2015 to 2020, he guided the Falcons to the Super Bowl in 2017, where they famously blew a 28-3 lead in a loss to the New England Patriots. A 10-6 season followed, but then came consecutive losing years. When Atlanta started 0-5 in 2020, Quinn was fired.
In Washington, Quinn said he has not been given an ultimatum leading into the 2026 season, according to multiple sources. Multiple people who have worked for Harris said that's not how he has operated in Washington or with his other pro teams, the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL's New Jersey Devils.
In 2023, his first full season as Washington's owner, he gave fourth-year coach Ron Rivera the entire season to show what he could do before making a move. The Commanders finished 4-13 and Rivera was fired after the season.
But Quinn knows and multiple people in the organization have uttered the line "it's a results business" when it comes to an NFL coach's job security. According to one team source familiar with management's thinking, the owners love the culture in the building and the direction Quinn has provided.
But, of course, they also want to see success. They want to see quarterback Jayden Daniels regain the path he was on as a rookie. They want to see the defense improve. They want the organization to have sustained success for the first time in decades. If they're healthy and struggle? That's when problems could occur and changes could result.
But none of the people who were asked said there was a win total Quinn needed to reach. No one would say Quinn's seat is hot entering the season, and one source said any pressure Quinn feels is self-induced.
"I think I would have been more worried in my earlier time as a head coach," Quinn said, "where you're like, 'What are they saying?'"
But now, he said, his focus isn't on the result but, rather, on the coaches and the players.
"I've been doing it a long time, so I have a lot of confidence in what we're doing and how we're doing it," said Quinn, who is entering his ninth season as a head coach. "You were asking about the pressure earlier. I do love it. I don't think of it any different when we're hitting all the marks and I don't think of it any different when we're not.
"I just want to do a really good job for the coaches. I want to do a really good job for the players, and if I do that, man, I can put my head on the pillow knowing that like, man, I had really high standards. That's why last year bothered me so much when we didn't meet our standards of what we wanted to do."
One longtime acquaintance said that perhaps Quinn didn't allow himself in Atlanta to think about what could happen. But, this person said, he understands what could happen -- but that last year "didn't change his demeanor. ... He was and still is an optimist. You can be aware of it, but what he's exceptional at is not letting it change his demeanor, not letting it change who he is."
"You've been through hard things, you've been through it and I haven't wavered," Quinn said. "It was a very frustrating year and offseason, but I've got a lot of resolve. I like the energy and edge of the players."
THE ENERGY WASN'T the only thing Quinn changed this offseason. In January, Washington parted ways with offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr.
As one former member of the organization said, if Quinn felt like it wasn't working, he needed to make tough decisions -- or face regret for doing nothing and still getting fired if the season went south.
"Two guys I regard a lot so it's definitely hard," Quinn said. "Making the hard calls is part of the gig. You don't like it, but if you have a big vision of what's going to be best then I do what I think is best for our team."
Their replacements offer different visions and schemes. Defensive coordinator Daronte Jones represents a departure from what Quinn has typically run in his career, using more three-man fronts and different pressure packages.
"I like that he's on the front edge of some things," Quinn said.
New offensive coordinator David Blough will run a more traditional offense than Kingsbury, with the quarterback more under center and with heavier emphasis on play-action passes.
Multiple front office and coaching sources said Quinn would often talk in meetings about running the ball more often and having a better run-pass ratio. Another word used often this offseason by many in the organization was "collaboration." Several coaches said they have more of that on offense now. To help, Quinn organized coaching retreats in the offseason during which they'd listen to talks from leaders of various industries that focused on training people under pressure.
Quinn's willingness to move on from both coordinators after two seasons together reflects the same mindset as the spelling bees, the leaderboards and the self-scouting in the offseason. He's unafraid to address any and every aspect that will help Washington win now.
"When it's time for a change," Quinn said, "whatever the reason might be, you do what's best for the team at the moment."