As someone who has covered every NFL season in our nation’s capital since 2005, I pride myself on managing expectations. Too many training camp heroes have come and gone over the years — Taylor Jacobs, Marcus Mason, Colt Brennan and so many others who shined most when it mattered least — for me to rush to conclusions when players are in shorts and no pads.
So rather than gushing over players who, at best, will be inactive on Sundays, my focus during training camp is on areas that actually matter: like the offensive line, where two new guards become starters after Erick Flowers and Brandon Scherff moved on. Or tight end, where Logan Thomas is still recovering from knee injuries that will likely prevent him from being ready for Week 1 of the upcoming season. Or defensive line, which should absolutely be the strength of this team, but vastly underperformed a season ago.
And, of course, there are a few new faces at the game’s most important position — Carson Wentz comes to town via Indianapolis by way of Philadelphia, and Sam Howell, a rookie out of North Carolina. The hope locally is Wentz can provide stability for a franchise that hasn’t had a top-tier quarterback in … well … let’s not even go there. But that seems like a big ask for a guy with accuracy issues who finds himself on his third team in three seasons.
Regardless of how successful the Wentz era ultimately is, hope springs eternal for most fanbases during the dog days of summer. With that in mind, here are some of my favorite images from the opening week of the 2022 Washington Commanders training camp.
