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."
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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.