Four position groups have had a new face in the coaching mix during Washington's training camp. After being hand-picked following an intense application process, Bill Walsh fellows Chris Chester (offensive line), Ashley Cornwell (tight ends), Jason Nikolao (linebackers) and Jason Washington (defensive backs) have been immersed in the day-to-day life of an NFL coach and expanded their skill sets on a number of different levels.
"We help prepare these young men and women for future opportunities by giving them exposure to this league and what we're doing, but also giving them an opportunity to study what we're doing and how we're doing it," said run game coordinator/running backs coach Anthony Lynn whose deeply passionate about the fellowship and helped choose this group. "I think we expose them more here than any place I've been, which I think is great. It's all about sharing information."
This group of Bill Walsh fellows have attacked the opportunity with fervor and hard work. Their personal journeys influence how they've approached their time here and learn. The way they have felt seen by this staff has been galvanizing, and there is much gratitude for and excitement around the tools gathered to help their growth as coaches.
Stories Shape Motivation
Chester loves to do hard things. It's a big reason why he was able to maintain a career in the NFL for 11 years. That was a driver again in the now-football performance coach's decision to apply for the Bill Walsh fellowship in Washington.
"Having an easy path may on the surface seem like a nice thing, but we, especially as athletes and everyone at this level, there's something different about grinding and working hard to get to something, and then you can enjoy it together with your teammates and with your coaches," Chester said.
That ideology overlaps a ton with that of Dan Quinn, a man who repeatedly voices a love for "doing hard shit with good people," and that is likely not a coincidence. Chester finished up his playing career in Atlanta with Quinn. The chance to reunite with a great mentor and coach in this post-playing chapter was exciting, particularly as the new Commanders head coach is trying to set a different tone for the franchise.
"He's working to create a culture of embracing the struggle for greatness," Chester said. "He makes it fun to come to work."
Few coaches may be able to say that so explicitly with their body language than Washington. A San Antonio native with an infectious enthusiasm, he calls this fellowship a "dream" of his. Washington works as the Director of Life Skills and is the NFL liaison for Mississippi State football, roles that challenge him to help his collegiate athletes on physical, emotional and mental fronts.
"As you know, in today's world with our young people, there's a lot of things that are going on in their lives," Washington said. "I'm just an individual to be able to help and mentor those guys and hopefully lead them in the right path to them becoming successful individuals, human beings, co-workers, fathers. And on football side, I've been able to learn what goes on behind the scenes … I tell our people around there all the time that I have grown an even bigger appreciation for what they do."
His current work and his future goals have guided the way he's sought to maximize the fellowship with Washington.
"I'm a people person, and it's just been a big thing on my list to make sure that I get an opportunity to interact with everybody in the organization and be a sponge," he said.
A similar mentality has also benefited Cornwell, a young coach on the rise. Though her full-time job is at the college level right now (currently at Bucknell), some of the most special experiences in her budding career have already come in the NFL. A favorite has been her work with the International Player Pathway.
"Knowing that we have two and a half months to get guys ready to play in the NFL, and some of them have never touched a football before, that's maybe the biggest challenge a coach can have," Cornwell said. "It's really cool to give people an opportunity for people to chase their dreams… there's a lot of people that don't think they should have a spot or that they can't achieve the spot."
Cornwell enjoys working with underdogs. It's a soft spot she admits stems from her own story playing football as a teenager.
"How my football career ended was somebody telling me that he didn't believe women should be in football" she recalled. "He told me, 'Football is over for, 'You're never going to be with a football program ever again.' I always knew I was going to coach football, but you don't forget it when someone tries to dictate your life … It's why I relate to people who've had to earn everything or who have been told 'no' a lot."
A similar kind of grittiness runs through Nikolao's work. He is the head football coach at Clover Park High School in Lakewood, Washington, one of the most underserved schools in the state, made up of kids from very low-income families and many first-generation families. Teaching football in this environment – where it's mostly about instilling the fundamentals – constantly reminds him of and roots him in the transformative, powerful lessons of the game.
"What I like is not only teaching them the game, but everything, all the extra, that comes with playing the game of football -- teamwork, sacrifices, accountability for one another," he said. "Learning all those beautiful life lessons while playing is what I really enjoy … If I get caught up in teaching the game too much, I'll lose sight of what's important to those guys."
Part of The Group
There are no guidelines that say how teams must incorporate Bill Walsh fellows into their processes. The fellowship is taken with a range of "seriousness" and intentionality across the league. For the Commanders, steered by the vision of head coach Dan Quinn, chief of staff Sarah Hogan and others, the Bill Walsh fellowship is handled with a lot of care and passion for making the experience as valuable as possible for participants. Key to that is making the fellows feel authentically included.
"The biggest thing for me is that DQ makes everyone feel seen. I mean someone like me, a fellow. Everyone has a voice. Everyone has a place of importance," Nikolao said. "He added something to one of his team meetings. It's a Samoan phrase (Nikolao is Samoan). That was like, 'Man, okay. He's trying to see everybody in the room, everybody in the building' … He wants everyone to feel connected."
With everyone feeling connected and included comes more comfortability in the coaching role. That, in turn, multiplies the sense of connection in the building.
"They'll listen to my opinion, and I get I'm kind of new here, but I do think they consider my input, and I appreciate that really," Chester said.
No doubt relevant to this appreciation is the fact that nine full-time coaches on the current Commanders staff were once Bill Walsh fellows.
"It's really great being here especially surrounded by coaches who have gone through the program before so they understand what's like, maybe where the anxieties might come in and also, digging from a part where, if they were treated in a good way, they want to do the same or if they thought something could have been better, then they're going to try to make it better," Cornwell said.
While they may only be here for a couple weeks, that kind of attention has made a profound impact.
"I can't thank them enough, just what they've been able to provide me with. I really feel like I'm part of the organization," Washington said. "They've treated me like gold."
Lessons For the Road
Bill Walsh fellows in Washington learn a ton. By the end of their time here, they will have a whole backpack of new ideas and different ways of thinking about the game to consider. Some is the "X and O knowledge" to use the words of Chris Chester -- elements such as scheme and technique – that he is trying to "soak up as much as possible."
Cornwell, for example, has loved her interactions with tight ends coach David Raih for this reason. Some of her favorite conversations have been about how to simplify the messages they are trying to get across to the guys.
"He's coached O-line, so me transitioning right now [from O-line] to tight ends, he's giving me a great crash course on what skills I can bring as an O-line coach into the tight end room," Cornwell said. "Our coaching philosophies are similar, but it's great to see someone execute it as well as he does and at the highest level. So, he's somebody I've been learning from every day."
Then, there are the other lessons -- the ones that are harder to quantify, that don't even require a football. These are the leadership skills and the ways of building a family that have the power to touch whole groups right away.
"It's refreshing being in team meetings and just seeing the emphasis that goes into building a culture of genuine love and respect for each other," Washington said. "It's about trying to build this thing from the ground up and saying, 'This is how we're going to win ballgames,' 'We need to rely on each other' and 'The only way for us to be able to do that is to compete hard, hug on each other, love on each other and have each other's back.'"
Moving with that "sponge" mentality, Washington has learned a ton from players that he's excited to bring to the guys at Mississippi State.
"It's been awesome talking to the vets, Bobby Wagner and those guys that have been in the league for a while," Washington said. "What I'm taking back is, 'This is how you sustain your body.' 'This is what you do to be a pro if you have dreams and aspirations of playing for a long time.'"
Nikolao has also been picking up all sorts of valuable tidbits that can help him with the different groups he works with in his role. For one, there's his coaches.
"On my coach's chat, I've already been telling guys, 'We're gonna have some meetings when I get back.' We've had some Zoom meetings already, some emergency Zoom meetings," Nikolao said. "I had to call them like, 'Hey let's talk about this now. I haven't done this well. We'll fix it when we get back.'"
And then, of course, there are the players. Striking a chord, finding different methods for breaking through and helping the guys on the field, has been maybe the most important lesson of all.
"The things I can do at the high school level I see coming from just watching the way that DQ works with his coaches on how to connect to the players, the people in the room," Nikolao said. "A lot of times coaches get stuck in their own way like, 'This is how I did it' and 'This is how we need to teach it' instead of saying, 'Who's in the room' and 'How can I talk to that person.
"He's got such an intuition about him about to read a room and how to communicate to a room, and so I feel like I want to take that back with me."
