Are The Redskins the Team to Beat in the NFC?
August 18, 2008
Okay, everyone knows preseason means nothing. But if you were to discuss overall team depth and precision thus far, the Washington Redskins would have to command your attention.
They’ve got three quarterbacks ready for NFL contribution. Two with playoff experience, and one gunslingin’ rookie who is a favorite of gay Redskin fans. Their defense, which has been statistically in the top half of the league for several years now, got an upgrade with a Jason Taylor and healthy corners. For now.
And of course, they have a so-far competent, likable coach who spends his free time fancying mountain bikes.
This is not to mention the Redskins’ receiving corp, comprised of role players, Pro Bowlers, Super Bowl champions and rappin’ rookies.
From top to bottom, the Washington Redskins look good and don’t show any signs of crumbling in the first half of the season. The logical choices for NFC East dominance are the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants, but the Cowboys aren’t as deep as the Skins’ and the Giants aren’t as young as the Skins’.
This team has dark horse written all over it, wouldn’t you say?
Three-6 Mafia Interviewing Terrell Owens
August 8, 2008
The title alone should leave you hungry for more, but in case that doesn’t get you going, check out this footage of Juicy-J and DJ Paul’s all-access interview with Terrell Owens at Dallas Cowboys training camp.
I know its not D.C.-Maryland related, but hey, it may inspire Big Gee to interview Gilbert Arenas this winter.
Jim Zorn is: The Conditioner
August 6, 2008
Jim Zorn made his first negative comments not involving the Redskins’ team colors yesterday when he criticized rookies Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly for their lack of conditioning and resulting injuries.
“I’ve had this happen in other places I’ve coached, and it’s very difficult,” Zorn said of young wide receivers missing training camp time. “When you interview them, ‘It’s going to be easy.’ They’re going to walk around and go: ‘This is nothing. I’ll get this right away.’
“But once they get out there and they really see what they have to do and how exact they have to be and the speed at which they have to play and the intensity — then I think they’ll see. Now, can we get them in and work them in? Yes. Will they get up to speed? Yes. But this is valuable time.”
Both Thomas and Kelly have been out with hamstring injuries, and recent knee surgery will shelve Kelly for at least two weeks. Interestingly enough, Zorn’s comments have been the most coherent since his arrival in Washington, and his most dead on.
Its very possible that Thomas and Kelly relaxed a little in the days following the draft, and are now paying for it in the Washington humidity and newly discovered speed of NFL training camp. They will recover and be standout players, but their slowed progress might slow the progress of a team that is supposed to have the best receivers in the game this year.
But when all else fails, its good to have James Thrash on your side.
Five Things to Look Out for During Malcolm Kelly’s Two-Week Vacation
August 5, 2008
One of the hotshot receivers drafted by the Washington Redskins this year was Malcolm Kelly out of Oklahoma, but it looks like Mr. Hotness will be on the back burner for a little while, recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery.
With two weeks off, Kelly will have plenty of time to focus on things he enjoys outside of football. Here’s five that we all can look forward to.
5. Frequent commenting on the Official Washington Redskins Blog.
4. Development of a youtube version of “The Sports Machine,” focused solely on Redskins training camp.
3. A lot more chatter on NCAA 09′ for X-Box 360.
2. Shout outs to Rhett Bomar on Twitter.
1. Battling Big Tigger in freestyling sessions during afternoon drive time.
So, What To Make of Colt Brennan?
August 4, 2008
In the first professional football of the season, John Madden lavished all over him, the crowd cheered him on, and teammates laughed at and for him. Two touchdown passes, some crafty footwork, and intense staring by Jim Zorn were the highlights of Colt Brennan’s debut for the Washington Redskins.
If last night’s performance was any indication, the D.C. Dreamboat has certainly changed minds about his status as America’s favorite third-string quarterback.
Of course his body of work was against fellow third-stringers and practice squad heroes, but 9-10 for two TD’s is good on any level, not to mention in an NFL national television debut. In all, the Redskins’ QB’s completed 19-21 passes for 216 yards and three touchdowns, with most of that work being put in during Brennan’s comeback effort.
As for fan reaction? My homeboy from New Jersey sent this text immediately following Brennan’s second touchdown.
“The new Favre.”
With three more games to go in the preseason, Brennan is already pushing for a back-up QB controversy, a controversy that on the merit of football talent, is as important as the one brewing in Green Bay.
Darrell Green and Art Monk: Head of the Class
August 3, 2008
You would be hard pressed to find better stories of professionalism and talent for the Washington Redskins beyond Darrell Green and Art Monk. They are record setters, and community institutions.
And for now, they are the last representations of the great Redskins’ teams of the 80’s and 90’s.
You can blame it on free agency, the evolution of sports celebrity, and the de-evolution of society in general, but the Redskins and the Washington metro-area will never see a couple of guys who combined class and ability like Darrell Green and Art Monk. Ever.
Will there be nice guys to come through Washington? Absolutely. If you had to come up with some classic good guys currently on the squad, you’d likely pick Jason Campbell, Chris Cooley and London Fletcher. But today, are they Hall of Fame caliber players? Not quite.
If you had to pick someone on the Redskins with the numbers and talent that make legends out of mortal men, Jason Taylor would be a likely choice, as would Clinton Portis. And while they are nice guys in their own right, I wouldn’t exactly call them staples in Washington-area community service. Mostly because Taylor just got here, and Portis just isn’t mature enough.
It’s not like Washington is a team of record for the casual football fan, but having lived in the area all of my life, I can’t think of a player or players that have made themselves a larger part of the community’s profile and progress than Green and Monk. Not just with their consistently high-level of play, but through philanthropy and just showing up around town.
I can’t count how many times as a child I’d seen Darrell Green doing a signing somewhere, or how many times I’d seen Art Monk in the mall or at some random store like Radio Shack. As a fan, it means a lot for the athletes you root for to show their faces in more places than Love night club.
The rest of the world may look at Darrell Green and Art Monk’s induction into the Hall of Fame as two great players and two great guys getting to the pinnacle of their professional careers. But if they knew like we here in the Baltimore-Washington area know, then the rest of the world would realize just how much their careers symbolized what can be right with sports.
And how much we miss that kind of right being around.
Colt Brennan’s Blog of Humility
July 29, 2008
Colt Brennan has been blogging for Redskins.com for a little more than a week now. We can’t comment on it, but if we could, subjects such as his dreamboat status, playing dodgeball with Jason Campbell, and being the most popular third-string quarterback in the league would make it the Hot Topic of the blogosphere.
But Brennan won’t talk about that, because he’s just an all around smooth dude. He’d rather talk about things like his subconscious fear of the team veterans:
It’s cool to see the celebrity status of someone like Jason Taylor and what he brings to the team. It’s really neat when you get out to the practice field and you have Jason Taylor at defensive end, Clinton Portis as your running back and Santana Moss as your wide receiver. You kind of pinch yourself a couple times.
When I’m around those guys, I’m actually pretty quiet. I understand where I am on the pedestal.
I’ve never actually met Jason Taylor formally, but he has walked by me a couple times and said, ‘What’s up, Colt?’ It just shows you that he’s a really good guy.
Or maybe Colt is just so damn cool he doesn’t need to say what’s up. To anybody.
You be the judge. I’m going with the latter guess.
Why the Washington Redskins Will Miss Joe Gibbs
July 28, 2008
The Washington Redskins are going to miss Joe Gibbs. Jim Zorn is turning out to be one of the funniest head coaches in the league, what with his incoherent way of speaking and love of Washington rivers, but Gibbs had something few other coaches could claim.
Old school clout.
Bill Parcells and Joe Gibbs were and always will be NFC East football. They were the last of the the coaches tied to the football of the 60’s and 70’s, where missing an open field tackle on Sundays left you looking for a new team on Monday. Gibbs brought discipline and a low-tolerence for mistakes throughout his two tours in Washington, but last year’s coaching job might have been the most masterful.
The death of their best player, countless injuries, and the media circling FedEx Field waiting for a drastic move from Daniel Snyder could’ve decimated the franchise. Not just the season, but the scope of the franchise. Were it not for Joe Gibbs, players could’ve not only tanked their season in an emotional undertow, but they could have changed their focus and desire on football.
But Joe Gibbs’ faith and presence over the team held steady, and resulted in an emotional push throughout the final quarter of the regular season. While the end result was an emotionally and physically-spent Redskins club falling in the latter stages of its playoff game, the theme of perseverance was never as strong in any other sport.
All of that is what Joe Gibbs brought last year. And now, its gone.
The Redskins will be a decent offensive club this year, and if they come out with at least three wins in the first quarter of the season, they will be a favorite in the NFC. But the mental tenacity and grace under pressure that got them here has retired, and that may mean a lot in the latter stages of the season, and beyond.
Jim Zorn on a Mountain Bike
July 24, 2008
There’s a joke here somewhere for Redskins’ head coach Jim Zorn conducting an interview while atop a mountain bike, but my day job won’t allow me the time to properly address it. That will be left you.
In the meantime, enjoy the fact that Zorn says that Washington, like the mighty Mississippi, is ripe with rivers for people to float down.
Who is the Washington Redskins’ Best Defensive Player?
July 24, 2008
Two years ago, Skins’ fans would’ve viewed this as a ridiculous question. Two days ago, I bet a lot of Skins’ fans thought they had the answer.
But is it that cut and dry for a Redskins’ defensive unit that has been among the best in the league for the past three seasons?
A new defensive coordinator and new personnel might have changed the perspective on which individual player will have the most impact on the 2008 season. Sure, Greg Blache is familiar with the system, but as the defensive line coach in 2007, his front looked like shopping carts at times, ranking 16th in the league in total sacks. Defensive end Andre Carter had 10.5 last season, making him the first Redskins player with double-digit sacks since 2002.
Linebacker would be a logical place to look to find the team’s best defender. Marcus Washington was second on the team in sacks with five. London Fletcher was third on the team in interceptions with three, and first in total tackles with 128.
Or could the Redskins’ best defender be in the defensive secondary, where LaRon Landry was third overall in tackles and number one overall in scaring the crap out of opposing receivers?
As you can see, the Redskins are balanced throughout their starting defensive unit. But the tilt will have to start up front on the defensive line, and while it may not work in the long term for the Skins’, this year, Jason Taylor will prove to be the Skins’ best defender.
His speed on the outside and ability to drop into coverage will allow other members of the line free movement in the interior. It will position linebackers for more blitz schemes, and create bad throws for the secondary to capitalize on.
A lot of stuff for a guy that may not want to play more than a year or two.
