Commanders OTA Notebook: Team Work, Takeaways, and Ron Rivera Preaches Discipline

Overall a good day, but one costly mistake drew fire from the head coach

ASHBURN, Va. -- Two days before the Washington Commanders held their final practice in front of the media during this year's organized team activities (OTAs) period, defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio gave everyone plenty to talk about before even looking at his players on the field. 

He was of course asked about that now-infamous tweet, but he wasn't the only thing happening for the Commanders defense. In fact, most of it was actually positive. 

Kendall Fuller Gets Another Interception

Two weeks in a row now cornerback Kendall Fuller has gotten an interception off of a Carson Wentz pass. 

This time, Fuller broke on an out-breaking route Wentz was late to throw at and made a great play to bring in the takeaway. 

It was a good start to the day for the defense, and good to see the veteran getting active early in the turnover business.

The defense came away with another takeaway later when safety Darrick Forest deflected a pass into the waiting arms of linebacker, Cole Holcomb.

Reaves Gets Everyone In Trouble

Discipline doesn't live within one singular player, and safety is as much a team effort as winning games is. 

This is why after safety Jeremy Reaves leveled receiver Dyami Brown - leading to Brown leaving the field for the duration of the practice - coach Ron Rivera immediately went into correction mode. 

Dropping several emotion-filled expletives, Rivera got the point across to his players and everyone within a two-mile radius of the practice field, that accident or not, risking the safety of players unnecessarily would not be tolerated. 

Of course, anyone who saw Reaves' body language after the rep knew he immediately regretted his attempt to aggressively pursue a second interception for his squad.

It was good news to hear Rivera say outside of some shoulder pain that Brown should be okay. 

Jack Del Rio Doubles Down

The aforementioned tweet drew lots of attention, and knowing Washington defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio would be taking the podium on Wednesday, there was noticeable anticipation of how he would answer the questions waiting for him. 

Initially, Del Rio stood on his right as an American to speak his opinions, as did Rivera when asked about his coordinator's comments on the popular social media platform. 

Later on in the media session, however, the topic came up again, and this time Del Rio decided to not only stand on his freedoms but defend his actual comments. 

In the process, he referred to the January 6th Capitol Insurrection as a 'dust-up', something we knew right away would not be well received by the masses. 

Del Rio does in fact have freedom of speech, as does every American, rightly. But he is not free from consequences or reactions to that speech. And he's about to get a whole lot more of those than he'll probably appreciate. 

Never a dull day around the Washington Commanders, but on the football side of things - where Del Rio prefers we keep things, as do many of you I suspect - the unit is coming together nicely despite the continued absences of Chase Young (injury) and Daron Payne (non-participant during voluntary team drills). 

Next week's Mandatory Minicamp will shed more light on the unit as a whole as Payne is expected back according to Rivera. 

All leading up to training camp, where we'll really start to see what this year's squad is made of.