Less than a month after helping the Detroit Lions prepare for the NFC Championship as a member of the team's practice squad, quarterback David Blough is now an NFL coach, joining the Washington Commanders on Thursday as a newly hired assistant.
Blough, 28, will officially serve as the assistant QBs coach in Washington. He'll work under new head coach Dan Quinn, as well as new QBs coach Tavita Pritchard, who held the same position at Stanford University from 2018-2022.
The transition to the sidelines comes after Blough spent five seasons playing in the NFL. Undrafted out of Purdue in 2019, he spent all of last season on Detroit's scout team, offering emergency insurance behind Jared Goff, Teddy Bridgewater and Hendon Hooker. He is perhaps best known for a previous three-year stint with the Lions, who acquired him via trade prior to the start of his rookie season. He notably started five games in place of an injured Matthew Stafford late that year.
Blough also made an appearance for the Arizona Cardinals in 2022, with both Kyler Murray and Colt McCoy sidelined due to injury. He went 0-2 in consecutive starts but completed 65.5% of his passes with an 82.7 QB rating before his release last summer.
Now in Washington, he could be tasked with helping develop a new starting QB, as the Commanders are expected to pursue a signal-caller near the top of the 2024 NFL Draft.
