Redskins Training Camp Day Seventeen - The Shitty Part of Being a Receiver In Jim Zorn's Offense

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Tuesday 5 August 2008

Coach Jim Zorn brought the hammer down, inasmuch as Jim Zorn will be bringing hammers down, on Malcolm Kelly and Devin Thomas for not coming to camp in the wrong shape, both have hamstring problems and Malcolm had knee surgery yesterday. Both strained their hammys early in camp and have seen no action for almost two weeks, Devin even admits quite sheepishly I would imagine that he hurt himself from failing adequately to stretch.

Further, neither player could pass the Redskins basic conditioning test at the start of camp. For receivers this test consists of twelve 25 yard dashes in less than a minute, then a minute rest, then another 12 dashes (do not know the time requirement of the second set). Twelve in one minute works out to five seconds start to finish for each. That's three football fields in one minute to give some perspective.

At this point Malcolm and Devin, who has owned up to being not in shape, are not really in the plans for the start of the season (op. cit.). Like any team that wants a shot at the postseason the Redskins need to come out of the gate hot, Malcolm and Devin will have to work their way into the game at this point, it's a good thing they were not first rounders. It's also a good thing the Redskins are not like the Bears or the Eagles with basically no receivers and in a position where they would have had to rely on those guys from day one. I love Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El anyway. There were concerns about Malcolm's and Devin's quote brittleness before the draft and I hope this is not a distant early sign that these guys are going to have injury problems longterm.

In other news there is one roster spot solidified, James Thrash is the number three receiver (ibid.). See also Ron Burgundy.


After a day off yesterday today the Redskins' coaching staff installed the gameplan for Saturday's preseason home opener against the Bills. I wonder if there were any installation problems, like a bad sector or BSOD.


In the quaint hamlet of offensive line second string tackles Stephon Heyer and Todd Wade aka Big Head Todd aka 8 Ball suffered relatively minor leg injuries in the Hall of Fame game, Stephon a stretched MCL and Todd a high ankle sprain. They are expected to be out of action for two weeks (op. cit.), that would project their return around 18 August. This will mean more playing time for rookie third round draft pick Chad Rinehart. Because the injured second stringers are tackles had will get more time at tackle and Jason Fabini will stay at guard where he did an admirable job filling in for Randy Thomas all season last year after playing tackle for nine seasons.


In tailback grove, damn we love Marcus Mason here at Curly R, coach Zorn is impressed and is looking for a way to keep Marcus on the roster (also ibid.). Eat it bitchass Marcus Mason haters.


In quarterback ville Colt Brennan strained his butt (also ibid.). This gives Jason Campbell a chance to gain on Colt in the race to be the Redskins starting quarterback.


In safety city LaRon Landry is getting frustrated and wants to get back, he is on the list of hammys (op. cit.). We also learned a little more about specifically why Stuart Schweigert was cut, he was unable to adjust to Greg Blache's system, Stuart had predefined ways of handling himself and it did not fit.


In punter province, Derrick Frost will get all the work in the next game (ibid.), Durant Brooks got all the work in the HoF Game.


A bunch of players on their way back from injuries (ibid.): DT Anthony Montgomery (broken hand), LB Rian Wallace, DE Chris Wilson (strained calf), WR Anthony Mix (hamstring) and TB Ladell Betts (kicked in the thigh again and again).


Matt Terl at the ORB (Official Redskins Blog) continues to use his awesome powers of near total access for good, he gets an exclusive with kicker Shaun Suisham about what makes a good hold, this is in the context of the punter duel, the punter is the holder on this team. The Redskins TV studio is finally getting an update.

I can't elaborate on Rich Tandler, the Zorn Identity is Emerging. Rich also spies the play that got Stuart Schweigert cut. This is good for Chris Horton, a seventh round draft pick, of which many have not made the team lately, only really Rock Cartwright and Nehemiah Broughton, which is still really kind of TBD.

Ron Burgundy at Bleeding Burgundy writes about how cutting Stuart Schweigert is a good sign.

Tight ends pick up slack. Lee Gibbons is starstruck by Colt Brennan, it's more beautiful than he evar could have imagined. Lee also spies a comment from Jim Zorn on Marcus Mason in the Washington Times (sorry Times guys, the Post syndicates on RSS so I can get it in a Google Reader, everything that is not deliverable in a reader is not read all that often by me), and I quote "I have never thought that he was not going to make the team."

Do the Redskins really need another receiver? I guess maybe this is a thing in the league, looking for inexpensive performance at WR spots 3, 4 and 5, with James Thrash, Anthony Mix, Billy McMullen, Maurice Mann, Horace Gant, Burl Ives Toler all competing for these spots why don't you just decide that's the pool and make sure whoever makes the final cut knows the offense. I think a foreshadowing for Jim Zorn as it was for Joe Gibbs and those before them, there really is only work for two receivers on this team regardless of system, Chris Cooley and the tailbacks catch a lot of passes. That said I'd love to see both Mike Espy and Jimmy Farris back in town.

Todd Yoder: scary looking | motherfuckler. Colt Brennan's nickname is McGarrett? Dan Dan the Sports Bog Man has a hilarious Lost in Translation meets Where the Buffalo Roam odyssey to try and find the Redskins on TV in Beijing. Todd Collins Blog lol. Ewww, Charles Haley beat off in the locker room with his teammates.



Malcolm Kelly and Devin Thomas at minicamp in May: John McDonnell / Washington Post from here.