This week, Washington isn’t waiting for opponents to bring the challenge. Dan Quinn is splitting the roster and coaching staff into two squads, Burgundy vs. Gold, for an intrasquad test run designed to crank up intensity and expose leaders under pressure.
Quinn wants second- and fourth-quarter simulations, end-of-half and end-of-game scenarios, different play-callers, and matchups that force answers across the depth chart, a camp wrinkle he ideated over the summer to break the monotony and build a real succession plan on the headset as much as the huddle. “We have a burgundy team, a gold team, football players, coaches, staff… And tomorrow we’ll have a Burgundy and Gold Game,” Quinn said, framing it as both competition and leadership development after a sloppy preseason opener that “burned” him with penalties and errors. The stage is set. Now the question is: what fills the spotlight?
He acknowledged an unintended benefit from Terry McLaurin not being on the field: more meaningful time on task between Deebo Samuel and Jayden Daniels, a “silver lining” for an offense that needs chemistry between its new WR1 skill set and its QB1’s timing windows. That connectivity takes on added weight given McLaurin’s contract standoff and the possibility of roster machinations stretching into September, where availability and reliability drive target distribution and situational trust on money downs. In other words, while the Burgundy vs. Gold “game” hardwires urgency, the offense is quietly building a contingency rhythm.
Quinn said one unintended consequence of not having McLaurin on the field is that it’s meant more time for Deebo Samuel and Jayden Daniels to connect. Quinn called it a “silver lining.”
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Quinn’s context makes the angle sharper. He’s been explicit about structure: endgame script work, alternate play-callers, and “different looks, different matchups,” all to speed up decision-making and reveal who claims roles when the clock compresses. “Part of it is developing leaders,” Quinn said. “There’ll be different play callers as we’re going through it, but it’s also about competing against different looks, different matchups,” and when the head coach pairs that with a “silver lining” of extra Daniels–Deebo reps, the connective tissue is obvious: calibrate a new core battery while the locker room is literally split to surface communicators and closers. That’s how you protect a young quarterback, stabilize a new featured weapon, and hedge against uncertainty.
Lynnell Willingham has been blunt about the pressure point: cut-down day could tell the league everything about where Washington and McLaurin truly stand, from PUP mechanics to the 21-day activation window and the leverage of game checks in-season if a deal lingers. “Cut-down day is going to tell us everything we need to know,” Willingham argued, outlining how a PUP start could mean weeks of pay without snaps if timelines stretch.
There’s also a standard being set that travels. After the Foxborough flop, Quinn didn’t hide from the tape. “All three phases I thought it was sloppy… they stacked,” he said, a pointed reminder that penalties and hidden-yardage disasters flip field position and bury young offenses behind the sticks. That’s why Tuesday’s script simulates second and fourth quarters: the two situational buckets where discipline, cadence control, and substitution urgency fail first when fatigue and noise creep in.
What could be the impact of Dan Quinn’s Burgundy vs. Gold ‘Game’?
Quinn’s twist includes more than players; he’s placing staffers and coordinators on opposite sidelines with different play-callers to stress-test the operation, from red-zone calls to two-minute procedure, the kind of live-fire that prevents deer-in-headlights moments on an actual Monday night. Washington will specifically rep second and fourth quarters to embed clock, timeout, and hash awareness, a detail that aligns with Quinn’s camp-long emphasis on end-of-half and end-of-game reps dating back to his first day on campus.
The benefit is twofold: Daniels gets situational volume with Deebo in multiple roles, and the defensive staff sees how coverage rotations handle motion and backfield alignments when Samuel toggles between slot, backfield, and boundary looks in Cliff Kingsbury’s matchup engine.
One practice can’t fix a negotiation or erase Week 1 unknowns, but it can harden the process. If the Commanders emerge from Burgundy vs. Gold with sharper late-game mechanics and a visibly tighter Daniels–Deebo connection, the “silver lining” becomes something sturdier, a steel cable running through the offense until No.17 is back in the huddle. The bet is that when the real fourth quarter arrives, Washington won’t be searching for answers. It’ll be running plays it already trusts.
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