3 concerning developments at Commanders training camp

1. The health of Curtis Samuel

This may be low-hanging fruit, but this is clearly the most concerning and noteworthy news from training camp. Since signing his contract in the 2021 offseason, Samuel has struggled to stay on the field following his groin surgery, and this offseason hasn’t strung together multiple practices together.

Ron Rivera said Samuel missing practices “has nothing to do with last year,” instead it is “his football conditioning” and later noting it is “all part of the plan.” Rivera also noted that Samuel is having some hamstring and back tightness following practices, which is why they continue to ramp up, then ramp down the speedy wideout.

We’ll take Rivera’s word for it, Samuel is struggling most with football conditioning. And that makes some sense. He hasn’t been full-go in football in almost 18 months. In some good news, Samuel has taken some 11v11 snaps in the full-padded practices but still spends most of his time on the side field.

Curtis Samuel, unless an unforeseen injury pops up in training camp, should be active in Week 1. That is not the concern. The concern is that Samuel still cannot string together multiple practices in a row without having to be sidelined for a few days.

This calls into question whether or not Samuel will be able to stack weeks in the season if he is struggling to stack days in training camp.

The former Ohio State standout is a ceiling-raiser for the Commanders’ offense. With his ability to be a do-it-all swiss-army knife, with over 400 career snaps at both slot and outside WR and his ability to line up in the backfield, he can serve as a connector for the rest of the offense; the missing piece to a potential scary trio at wide receiver.

He has shown that in practice, too, looking quick and nimble with the ball in his hands. For the Commanders to unlock that ceiling, they will need Samuel to become a staple rather than a luxury within the offense.

As Week 1 begins to draw closer, the health of Curtis Samuel is something to keep a very close eye on. Hopefully, there will be more days with him in full pads than him on the side field.