3 biggest losers from Commanders OTAs and minicamp

1. Jack Del Rio

It’s tough to call any player the biggest “loser” during practices that lack intensity and are essentially used for incorporating new schemes. Luckily for Curtis Samuel (load management) and other worthy candidates for the top spot, the club’s defensive coordinator created a political firestorm just before camp.

Del Rio might not be a player, but he was without question Washington’s biggest loser from spring practices.

To provide a quick summary, Del Rio referred to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol as a mere “dust-up” and likened it to the countrywide Black Lives Matter demonstrations that followed the murder of George Floyd. When asked about the tweets following practice, Del Rio defended his polarizing stance.

The veteran coordinator later penned an apology and was fined $100,000 by the organization through Ron Rivera for what the head coach explained as causing a distraction to the team and unsettling the locker room … NOT Del Rio exercising his first amendment right, which somehow got twisted.

Del Rio addressed the team in a private meeting before minicamp and his apology was well received. That’s a positive step in the right direction, but the 59-year-old should consider himself lucky a fine was the extent of his punishment given the sheer uproar be caused on both a local and national level.