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Training Camp Daily 8/13: Attitude, Preparation, Effort

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Training camp is here, and we have you covered as the Washington Football Team prepares for the 2020 campaign.

Stay up to date with "Training Camp Daily," which comes out every weekday evening.

Also be sure to check out "Washington Football Live 2020" every weekday from 9 - 9:45 a.m. and "Virtual Happy Hour" from 2:30 - 3 p.m. Both shows will be streamed on all of the team's social media platforms.

Here's what you need to know:

The Washington Football team conducts training camp at the Inova Sports Performance Center in Ashburn, Virginia, on Aug. 13, 2020.

THE LATEST

With exactly one month until the Washington Football Team's season opener, head coach Ron Rivera held his first full, in-person team meeting Thursday morning.

While Rivera has been in Washington for more than seven months, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the NFL to implement a fully virtual offseason, revamp training camps and eliminate preseason games. For the past two weeks, players have participated in glorified offseason training activities to gear up for the most unusual season in league history.

The ramp-up period began Thursday, marking the first time players could practice in helmets. It was also the first time Rivera had the chance to address his players and coaches both face-to-face and all at once.

According to wide receiver Terry McLaurin, he delivered.

"He hit us with a pretty big message this morning," McLaurin told reporters Thursday. "Not to get all the way into it, but just the way that we come out onto the field every day is something that we can control. Our attitude, our preparation and our effort are some things we can control on a day-to-day basis, and we're going to be a physical football team that attacks people on both sides of the ball, and it starts out front with our offensive and defensive line."

Speaking before McLaurin, defensive end Montez Sweat mentioned the same three words: attitude, preparation and effort. Rivera reiterates them daily, Sweat said, in addition to preaching about the importance of becoming a family.

An unprecedented offseason has complicated Rivera's first season in Washington, but his principles to create a sustainable, winning culture have remained the same.

"That's what you want to hear out of a coach," McLaurin said. "That's kind of what I've been accustomed to with my background with football, just that attack style of play. I think it's going to suit us well as long as everyone continues to do what we've been doing so far, allowing ourselves to be coached and continue working to be better. I feel like we can make the strides necessary to be ready for Week 1."

QUICK HITS

McLaurin zeros in on foot and ankle flexibility: When asked offseason improvements, wide receivers typically reply with general answers. Maybe they sharpened their route running, delved into the playbook, practiced making contested catches or enhanced their initial burst off the line of scrimmage. McLaurin's response was much more specific, and it reflects his attention to detail entering his second NFL season. "I was in Miami, Florida, at Bommarito [Performance Systems] working on a lot of foot, ankle mobility things that can help me get out of my routes a lot cleaner, a lot quicker," McLaurin said. "That really helped me improve a lot."

Sweat highlights the mental focus of Dwayne Haskins Jr.: Sweat has noticed the physical transformation of his fellow 2019 first-round pick, but it's Haskins' mental fortitude that has stood out to Sweat the most. "He's focusing more. He's in the building a lot earlier, more than he used to be. I just see his mental growth more than anything."

Chase Young squashes Hall of Fame Talk: Young's NFL debut is still a month away, but that has not stopped people from proclaiming him as a Pro Football Hall of Famer. And while Young is one of of the best defensive prospects in recent memory, he believes those claims should be saved for after he takes the field. "I feel like that's a word you can't really touch yet. It's crazy that they would put that on any guy coming out of college just because they haven't played yet. Stuff like that, it goes in one ear and right out the other. I try not to pay attention to the outside noise."

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