ASHBURN, Va. -- The coaches will have plenty of time during the day to peek ahead if they want, considering the Washington Redskins don’t play until Sunday night. With an upcoming game Thursday, they could use that time to get started on preparation for a short week.

Except that doing so could lead to more trouble. Plans for different games start to clash.

“I tried getting ahead before and it screwed me up,” Redskins coach Jay Gruden said.

But Gruden has never faced a situation like this. Not only do the Redskins host Green Bay Sunday night, they play four days later at Dallas. Short weeks already force schedule changes; this one will produce even more because they’re coming off a night game.

Don't blame Jay Gruden and his staff if they look groggy next week. After a Sunday night game, Washington's coaches likely will get to bed well past midnight and wake up early Monday morning to prepare for their game at Dallas on Thursday. Todd Kirkland/Icon Sportswire

“I’m not sure anyone’s ever had to do this,” Gruden said. “The schedule-makers did us no favors.”

No, they did not. But offensive coordinator Sean McVay, for one, tried to find a silver lining in the loss of prep work.

“Sometimes it can end up being a benefit,” he said. “My tendency is to overwatch and overthink things, so it forces you to make faster decisions.”

Here’s a look at how they’ll handle an already-shortened week that is even more condensed:

Monday

Some of the work will have been done during the bye week, but the Cowboys have played three games in the interim and that means more work to be as updated as possible.

For a typical short week, the coaches would spend time with their families after a Sunday game and then some would head to Redskins Park that night to start working on the next game plan. This time, the offensive staff will wait until Monday morning to get started. They don’t want to detract from their focus on Green Bay at all.

But defensive coordinator Joe Barry said of his staff, “We are going to do a little bit of work at the hotel on Sunday. … But it’s hard, it’s a challenge.”

McVay said he’ll probably get to bed around 2 a.m. Monday after the Packers’ game. Then he’ll be in his office at Redskins Park approximately four hours later.

The first order of business: grade the Packers’ game. Because of the time crunch, though, they won’t meet as a staff and instead watch individually, just in case there’s anything to clean up for upcoming games. The beginning of a game plan follows as they hatch out their blueprint for first and second downs.

In a normal short week, the players would come in Monday, getting the first installment of a game plan.

“We can’t do that because of the night game,” Gruden said.

Instead, because players won’t get to bed until early in the morning -- most live a good 45 minutes to an hour from FedEx Field -- they will have the day off.

Some players will head to Redskins Park as they do after every game, home or away, and soak in the tub, arriving early Monday morning: linebackers Mason Foster, Houston Bates, Will Compton and Trent Murphy, tight end Vernon Davis, receiver Pierre Garcon and guard Shawn Lauvao. Then they’ll be done until Tuesday.

The coaches will work late into the night.

“I’ll probably sleep there,” McVay said.

Tuesday

In essence, the Redskins will have a two-a-day session: a morning walk-through to go over first- and second-down packages. Then comes lunch and another walk-through to install their third-down packages. And then film study. Some of this would have been done Monday had they not played Sunday night.

“We’ll be here for a long time,” Gruden said. “We’ll throw a lot at them.”

They’ll focus hard on core principles of their systems, not wanting to clutter their brains mentally. It helps that they’re playing a division opponent in Dallas, and that they already played the Cowboys in Week 2.

“We’ve already done a lot of work on them,” Gruden said. “That’s a good thing. But we’re talking about possibly playing a 9-1 team that we’ll get about 10 hours to work on.”

Wednesday

The Redskins will conduct another short walk-through when they’ll install their red zone, short-yardage and goal-line plan. They’re scheduled to fly to Dallas Wednesday mid-afternoon and will have a meeting that night at the team hotel in Texas.

At that point, the game plans will be done and there’s nothing to do but worry about how it will play out the next day.

But there is another worry for this week.

“What if we get a couple guys injured and have to promote a practice squad guy?” Gruden said. “How will he get work? Or if we sign someone off the street? It’s a major concern.”

Thursday

This will be the tough part for the players: playing the game. Veteran lineman Cullen Jenkins said he started preparing his body for this week before the Green Bay game. He tried to get more sleep, for example. Another time he was going to run for his usual 10 minutes on the treadmill but his body didn’t feel quite right. Rather than force it, he said, he opted for a hot tub and cold tub.

“You want your body to be rested and healed, so once it comes down,” he said, “you’re able to bounce back.”

The game will kick off at 4:30 p.m. ET, but the week will have taken a toll on the Redskins’ bodies. The good news is that they’ll have 10 days off until their next game. They’ll need it.

“After a game, your whole body is really in pain and you don’t start feeling normal, like being able to function and walk well, until Thursday,” Redskins end Chris Baker said. “Now we have to put our body through it all over again.”