Washington Commanders find edge as mandatory minicamp opens with a message

“It’s a mindset. It’s physicality. That’s really all it is," Kinlaw said following the practice when asked about how the team can improve its near-worst run defense from 2024. "Know your keys, but you got to have the will to not be blocked at all. And that’s all it comes down to. Not to, excuse my language, not taking no sh-- from nobody. That’s what it’s all about.”

The quote is great, but the spirit behind it is what the team is looking to lean on to make it happen.

“We’re really excited about the guys that we added," defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. said earlier this offseason. "We wanted to get bigger and longer. ...I think the additions, what you'll see with [DE Detrich] Wise and Kinlaw, [DT] Eddie [Goldman], we'll be bigger on first and second down. And we'll be bigger versus 12 personnel, 13 when people want to get big, we'll be able to get real big with them."

Those new additions are certainly going to help, Kinlaw agreed, and adding the size to players like defensive tackle Jer'Zhan Newton who is in his second year with the Commanders, is the key.

But that familiarity doesn't just stop at guys who have more than one season under their belts in Washington, because this league is all about relationships, and Kinlaw has one established already with defensive line coach Darryl Tapp.

“He knows what he’s getting when it comes to me," Kinlaw says. "He always brings a lot of juice, a lot of energy, and that’s what you need on them dog days.”

In a recent interview with WUSA9, Tapp also spoke about reuniting with Kinlaw from their days together with the San Francisco 49ers, among others.

"The addition of Kinlaw...big, violent dude, the addition of [defensive end] Dietrich Wise, who's been around the block a long time, big, long, athletic, stout guy, all of the above. And then a guy in Jacob Martin, who's a little bit compact, a little bit shorter, but he's rocked up too. So adding those guys to the mix with the guys we already have here...It is a really good mix of guys that have size, that are versatile, and that are smart. It's going to help us, put us in a good position to make some plays this year."

Head coach Dan Quinn also touched on the defensive front seven, and specifically how the defensive line group is meshing early in the offseason. Getting on the same page mentally, but also schematically.

While Kinlaw didn't have an active role in the first practice of minicamp, he wasn't unseen, and he certainly had an impact. And his words are just another sign that while the 'splash' move didn't come the way many hoped it would, the moves that did come are looking to make a splash of their own.