Redskins Training Camp Day Nine - HB Stands for How Bad?

Is there room on the John Deere for one more?

Monday 28 July 2008

WaPo training camp tracker: undrafted rookie TE Jason Goode, Jim Zorn shares

It's the last practice open to the public. Injuries are starting to mount.

In quarterback ville, Todd Collins seems to be having a hard time with the Jim Zorn offense, a really hard time, a really really hard time. Anecdotally from accounts of people witnessing camp, this is accurate. So while the Jason Campbell meme is that he has had seven different systems in eight seasons it is the opposite with Todd Collins, this is his second in nine years. I'll be looking at Todd and Colt Brennan at the Hall of Fame Game... Derek Devine is an ice guru, a skill that may come in handy after cuts.


In safety city add Stuart Schweigert to the list of the dinged, something about his right leg (op. cit.).


In linebacker town, HB Blades sprained his left knee in the morning practice and is... already scheduled for surgery (op. cit.)? Did I know he was hurt? Left knee? Boy they are coming so fast and furious that I cannot keep track of them. With Rian Wallace also injured this makes Khary Campbell and Matt Sinclair essentially the available middle linebackers. Hey, howcum I haven't read anything about Marcus Washington's performance in camp?


In the quaint hamlet of offensive line Jason Fabini apparently can cook pretty well (also here). He does all right as an offensive lineman as well, let's concentrate this year on keeping Randy Thomas in the game. And it was Chris Samuel's 31st birthday today. Randy Thomas got Chris in the face with cake (ibid.). Chad Rinehart is looking like a good pick (ibid.), Jason LaCa makes a good point about offensive line players, although there may be a good crop of younger players right now the age of the starting offensive line (average age 32 on opening day) means you need veteran backups, this complicates transitions.


In tailback grove Eric Shelton either injured his neck again or the original neck stinger he suffered yesterday turned out to be worse than expected, not sure yet (op. cit.).


For the next storyline I will suspend the use of the Burl Ives Toler device.

In receiver estates I learned from Mark Viera at the WaPo that Burl Toler (III)'s grandfather Burl (Sr.) was the first black NFL official. It's a great piece. Burl was cut and re signed three times by the Redskins last season as the team was desperate to find another receiving option, something the team wound up not needing. With the logjam at receiver this season I think it will be a tough climb for Burl, good luck.


Punter palisades has officially changed its name to punter blood sport. It sounds nasty too with rookie sixth round pick Durant Brooks discovering awkwardly what it's like to come to camp trying to take one of the others' teammates job. And Derrick Frost sounds like he is asking the team to release him earlier rather than later if that decision has already been made.


Tony Brown at Hog Heaven is still trying to Coltroll you, he also covers HB Blades' injury. Matt Terl at the ORB (Official Redskins Blog) is getting a whiff of my man Marcus Mason. CaptChaosSidekick at Hogs Haven is addicted to Zorn.

Will Allensworth at Hogs Haven looks at Kedric Golston versus Anthony Montgomery dueling for the second defensive tackle spot opposite Cornelius Griffin. Looks like Anthony may have lapped Kedric, I think both are quality young players taken in later rounds of the 2006 draft.

Dan Dan the Sports Bog Man wants pictures of your Redskins themed cars. I hope there are not really all that many out there. He's also obsessed with men but only the parts below the waist.

Matt Terl at the ORB (Official Redskins Blog) is doing some really cool things by presenting to us the readers the inner workings of the Redskins organization. I am a production values guy by trade (brief stint in the music business) and so highlighting the production side of things is cool, good work Matt. Here he resumes his discussion with equipment manager Brad Berlin. Nice spot too on the Redskins 1937 Ed Thorp NFL Championship Trophy replica.

Rich Tandler at Real Redskins has a wrap of the past couple of days of camp and said the traffic situation from yesterday's Fan Appreciation Day was totally avoidable.

Chris Cooley has more camp photos.


HB Blades as a rookie last season: Mitchell Layton / Getty Images from here.