The 5 O’Clock Club: Commanders offense was very good & very bad on Wednesday

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…

The 5 o’clock club is published from time to time during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.

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Here’s Dan Quinn on Wednesday, talking about what he hopes wants to accomplish at OTAs in May:

First thing, man, what a time to either sharpen your skills or develop them! So I think, number one, top of the pile, that’s really important in our game. Even if you’re already great at something, like, ‘Can I be the best at it?’ So I’m saying, it’s important for Terry McLaurin—and he’s an excellent player already—but it’s still important to sharpen his skills. Certain things, the running, training on your own, lifting, that doesn’t do it for these specific football skills.

And then, two, no team is the same year to year. This is not the NBA, where you get to keep a team. So that chemistry, the connection, gets really important because you don’t start at the same spot every single year. This team here, we’ve got a lot of new faces that we’re adding. So that connection, that chemistry, to get to speed it up, that’s good.”

Lots of people were excited about a clip of Jayden Daniels hitting Jahan Dotson perfectly in stride way downfield; it was posted by the team and shared widely among Commanders fans on the internet.

Here’s a description from Ben Standig of a 7-on-7 session at Wednesday’s OTAs.

Daniels began with three incompletions. Receiving targets had issues remaining upright in spots, but Daniels was searching for an opening against a shape-shifting zone defense that effectively disguised its true intentions.

The fourth pass ended with Daniels rolling right and throwing to the front corner of the end zone, where cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly jumped the route. An official at practice ruled that Kelly only got one foot down before stepping out of bounds. The defense snagged a clean interception two snaps later when linebacker Anthony Pittman caught a deflected pass intended for tight end Zach Ertz in the end zone.

That sounds like a particularly brutal stretch.

There were similar reports out of OTAs in Chicago this week, with reports that the No. 1 overall pick from April’s draft, Caleb Williams, had a rough outing. Here’s what was reported in the aftermath by Pro Football Talk:

Wide receiver DJ Moore called it a “frustrating” day as the Bears defense consistently got the better of Williams and the offense. Veteran safety Kevin Byard said “that’s what it is supposed to look like” when a rookie quarterback faces a talented defense and shared some advice he gave to Williams after the practice wrapped up.

“I said something to him at the end of practice like, ‘Keep it going. We’re going to keep making you better,’” Byard said, via Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com. “And not necessarily saying he had a terrible day, but days like this are going to make you better.”

Byard said he liked that Williams said “of course I will” have better days in the future and no one will be remembering May practices as anything but a positive if things go well on the field for Williams and the Bears come the fall.