Commanders

Commanders WR Terry McLaurin is entering the final year of his contract, leading to him requesting a trade and not participating in practice as negotiations play out. Washington OC Kliff Kingsbury said McLaurin is missing an important jelling period for their offense.

“I don’t know exactly how much you can get out of that,” Kingsbury said, via the team’s YouTube. “I think we’re kind of at that point to where we need to start getting those guys, when they’re available, out there and jelling to see where we are as an offense.”

• Commanders WR Noah Brown also isn’t practicing because of an undisclosed injury. Kingsbury said some players are taking advantage of the reps McLaurin and Brown are missing: “Some guys are taking advantage of the opportunities and some guys are not…The competition has been good but there’s a lot to show over the next 3 weeks.” (JP Finlay)
• Kingsbury praised RB Brian Robinson following their joint practice against the Patriots: “He’s a guy that when you put the pads on and you really practice full speed is when he really shows up. I thought he had his best practice against New England when we did the competition versus them before the game.” (Finlay)
• The Commanders acquired OT Laremy Tunsil in a headline trade with the Texans this offseason. Tunsil said he’s already established a “special” relationship with second-year QB Jayden Daniels: “He makes my job easy. Hopefully he says the same about me. Our relationship is special. Everybody in the locker room, our relationship is special. This is a tight group, a tight team. I’m glad to be here, honestly.” (Ethan Cadeaux)

Cowboys

Veteran OL La’el Collins is back with the Cowboys after starting his career in Dallas from 2015 to 2021. Collins reflected on suffering a torn ACL and MCL in 2022 with the Bengals and how it impacted his career.

“Anytime you’re fighting to get healthy, especially with the injury I had late in 2022, a lot of people don’t even get a chance to even think about coming back,” Collins said, via Todd Archer of ESPN. “But I just had faith, man. I had faith and I trusted the process. I knew if I did my part in staying prepared that an opportunity would come along.”

Collins said playing for the Cowboys, once again, is the “best-case scenario” for the years of his career.

“I mean obviously the best-case scenario was to go back where it all started and that’s to be here. I mean it’s nowhere [else] I’d rather be, that’s 100% a fact. Even when I left, it was nothing like home. So this is what I know. This is where my heart is, so I want to continue to finish off strong here.”

Collins attended the retirement ceremonies for two of his former teammates, Zack Martin and Tyron Smith. He told both former offensive linemen that he’s not done with his career yet.

*“I told them coming...