A realistic view on the Commanders’ recent offensive struggles in training camp

Everyone knows the Washington Commanders have a good defense. Almost by any metric you use, Washington’s defense was ranked inside the top 10 last season.

The Commanders could be even better on defense in 2023, with the return of defensive end Chase Young and the additions of linebacker Cody Barton and cornerback Emmanuel Forbes.

As for the offense, it’s a work in progress. New offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is installing a new offense with a quarterback who has thrown 19 career passes and four new starters on the offensive line.

No surprise, the defense is ahead of the offense. That’s often the case early in training camp around the NFL. Washington’s defense has been together for four seasons, comprising mostly of players the Commanders have drafted.

This week, Washington put pads on for the first time this summer, and it didn’t go too well for the offense. Head coach Ron Rivera spoke after Friday’s practice about the defense’s dominance over the offense. Rivera offered perspective for anyone with concerns.

“Again, we’ve got the same defense system for four years,” Rivera said. “We’ve got a brand-new offensive system, so I would expect ’em to be slightly ahead, and if not, I’d been a little disappointed in the defense and be real thrilled about the offense. Offense is where I think it needs to be in terms of its growth and development.”

This is correct. Rivera also noted how things will change once you can start game planning. There is no game planning on Day 9 of training camp.

“Yeah, when you start game planning, you know, you start preparing, I think that’s what’s more important,” Rivera stated. “I mean, right now, there’s no game planning out there, you know what I’m saying? There’s just learning your base fundamentals, learning the foundation of what you’re going to do and then you got to go out there and use your tools and react to it.”

Washington legend Brian Mitchell, on his radio show “BMitch and…

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