Veteran TE Zach Ertz warns Commanders: continuity is asset—stagnation is a failure.

The Washington Commanders have a good amount of key players back from the team that ran all the way to the NFC Championship Game in 2024.

More importantly, potentially, is the return of the coaching staff with a few new faces added to the mix for good measure. With continuity a constant challenge in the NFL, the Commanders appreciate the unique advantage on their side this season and have no plans to waste it.

“I think it is very rare to have the success that we had last year and that the whole entire coaching staff stays the same,” Washington tight end Zach Ertz says. “But at the end of the day, we are very fortunate as players to be in the same system a second year.”

Washington Commanders tight end Zach Ertz (86). / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Of course, most of us are focused on the potential benefit of the returning staff on quarterback Jayden Daniels, who not only embraced the system under offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury last season, but elevated it with smart decisions and sometimes alarmingly accurate throws.

But that benefit spreads to everyone, including Ertz, who has had years of experience playing under Kingsbury’s guidance, and sees a great opportunity entering his second year with Daniels.

“I think just the comfort level... I think everyone just knows it's his ship... He is talking to guys how he sees it, making sure everyone's on his page and not necessarily just how each individual sees the game. So yeah, I think he's taken even more ownership of this thing as he should,” Ertz says of Daniels.

The Commanders not only introduced a new quarterback in 2024, but they also completely reinvented their franchise. While the shells may look familiar, at least as far back as the current uniform scheme goes, the organization itself couldn’t be any more different if it were an expansion team.

Establishing a standard of team above all else, the brotherhood in Washington shocked the NFL world by eclipsing every preseason projection and nearly making it all the way to the Super Bowl. The scary part is, they are just getting started building off of that wondrous success one year ago.

“Obviously, going into last year, everyone was learning the system, so it was very vanilla,” Ertz says of 2024. “Now you really want to take the next step in terms of improving the details. We're not starting on first base per se. We're starting maybe on second base in terms of the details and guys knowing the plays”.

The mad scientist behind a lot of what Washington does offensively is coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who mixes an intense work ethic with football creativity to really steer and motivate his unit.

“He kind of gives this persona of the cool guy, he wears the hat, he's always in all black, but in reality, the guy's here at three in the morning every day. He's always the first one in the building, and he is always just grinding film,” the veteran tight end says of his coach.

Because of that desire to grind, don’t forget that Daniels himself lights the daily candle early in the morning as well. Attacking the grind with purpose instead of relying on comfort to fuel their fire has Washington looking like a different team just six days into training camp, despite the amount of returning personnel.

So if you think you know this Commanders team, and the offense specifically, think again. Because they have no intention of being the same team we saw last season, just because the unit looks similar to what we saw in 2024, or will once receiver Terry McLaurin gets back on the field.

On that topic, Ertz says, “If we're the same team we were last year, we've let ourselves down enormously.”