Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Skins ’ punter battle remains close

There are those who think that Washington Redskins punter Derrick Frost saved his job on Saturday night by punting for a nice average in the Skins' dismal defeat at the hands of the Carolina Panthers. It appeared to them that he got a leg up, so to speak, on rookie Durant Brooks by averaging 51.3 yards on his eight punts.

Not so fast.

To be sure, Frosty boomed his kicks. They traveled 50, 65, 46, 46, 49, 50, 40, 56, and 58 yards. With a performance like that, you have to give the job to the veteran, don't you?

Something tells me that Danny Smith wasn't as impressed with Frost's performance as the casual TV viewer might have been. As far as Frost's kicks went in one direction, the Panthers negated much of the yardage with returns in the other direction.

Jason Carter, to be specific, ran back seven of Frost's eight punts. His runbacks covered 4, 18, 10, 5, 8, 18, and 30 yards. One punt, the 56-yarder, went into the end zone for a touchback. The Panthers started inside the 20 zero times after Frost's punts.

That all adds up to a very pedestrian net of 37.1 yards a kick. That's not awful, just mediocre. It's not the kind of performance that forces a team to jettison a draft pick and go with the veteran.

That said, it's not like Brooks has been lighting it up in the net yardage category either. He averaged 33.5 against the Colts and 33.8 against the Jets. That's at the bottom end of mediocre. It's not the kind of performance that will force a team to whack a veteran to keep a player just because he's a sixth-round draft pick.

The battle for the roster spot remains very close. I still have Brooks as a very slight favorite but it would not surprise me in the least if Frost remained the team's punter.

Neither punter has distinguished himself in the preseason games. It's said that if you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks. It's starting to look like the same deal for the Redskins with their punters.

Ranking the Redskins 11-20

I'm continuing here with my annual ranking of the Washington Redskins' front line players. It's purely subjective and it's based on my perception of each player's value to the team. To see what 30 positions are ranked, see the first installment, Ranking the Redskins 21-30. Here are the middle 10 players.

20. Mike Sellers, fullback—I'm not as big a Sellers fan as many are. Sure, he's a beast but he doesn't come close to utilizing his, well, beasthood. Look at the much-ballyhooed play where the he mows over Kenoy Kennedy of the Lions:

He doesn't pick up much additional yardage after contact. All Kennedy has to do is lift his legs and trip him up. Sellers might be a valuable short-yardage weapon if he knew how to find daylight instead of trying to power his way for the half yard.

19. Shaun Suisham, kicker—He was starting to become reliable, nearly automatic, until he missed the biggest kick of his life in Seattle. It will take a while before my confidence in him is restored.

18. Rock Cartwright, kickoff returner—He's a very disciplined returner, rarely going for the big runback but instead following his blockers to maximize each return.

17. Fred Smoot, nickel back—Smoot does an adequate job in coverage, although you'd like him to get back to the knack for making interceptions that he displayed prior to his two-year exodus to the tundra of Minnesota.

16. Jason Campbell, quarterback—So close and yet so far. If Campbell can get to be a fraction of a second quicker in making his decisions, he could well climb up to the coveted #1 spot on this list. Until that happens, he'll have flashes of brilliance followed up by the critical mistake.

15. Randy Thomas, right guard—He'll probably never regain the form that could have earned him Pro Bowl honors in 2003-2004 if not for the Skins' dismal record. Still, he's a very good performer, one of the best pulling guards in the league.

14. Cornelius Griffin, defensive tackle—The team's 2004 MVP seems to be fully healthy for the first time since that monster season. At 31, Griffin likely has one or two more good years left in the tank.

13. Casey Rabach, center—He's still at the point where he's getting better with age as opposed to just getting older.

12. Ladell Betts, relief running back—The best draft pick of the Spurrier era (not that there's much competition) is making a preseason statement that he deserves more carries in 2008 than the 93 he got last year.

11. Santana Moss, wide receiver—He has his bad moments (see the Green Bay game) and he'll disappear from the offense for weeks at a time. But when he's on, he's the team's one true home run threat and most feared offensive weapon.

Fox chased, two others cut

Vernon Fox became another victim of a strong Washington Redskins youth movement at the safety position.

Fox and former Oakland Raider Stu Schweigert were supposed to add veteran depth to a young and inexperienced Redskins safety corps. Instead, Schweigert was shown the door after the first preseason game and Fox was let go today.

Two defensive linemen also got the ax as end Dorian Smith and tackle Babatunde Oshinowo were released.

Fox has spent two of his seven NFL season with the Redskins. He made his living as a special teams ace who was an adequate fill in.

Although the Redskins drafted two safeties late, taking Kareem Moore in the sixth round and Chris Horton in the seventh, it still appeared that Fox was safe as one of the rookies was likely to end up on the practice squad.

However, Horton and Moore have impressed from the get-go. Horton posted two sacks in the first preseason game and Moore has started the last two games in place of the ailing LaRon Landry. Meanwhile, Fox missed one game due to a personal matter and he put on an awful display of tackling late in the Jets game.

It appears now that four safeties are locks to make the team—Horton, Moore, Landry, and Reed Doughty. Should the Redskins decide to keep five safeties, Justin Hamilton could sneak into the picture. The team may decide to save a roster spot here as cornerback Shawn Springs can fill in at safety if necessary.

The Redskins must release two more players to meet the NFL limit of 75 by Tuesday.

Two seasons turn on hinges

Two plays in the second quarter of two preseason games, taking place at roughly the same time, one in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the other in Charlotte, North Carolina and both involving famous defensive ends.

The seasons of the New York Giants and Washington Redskins hinged on hinge joints.

In Charlotte, Washington's Jason Taylor got pushed backwards on a running play. About five yards downfield he turned just in time to see Reed Doughty tackling the ball carrier. With his right foot planted, a player fell on Taylor's shin just as the other side of the pile hit him from behind.

It looked bad on TV and the reaction of the players on the field as they urged the Washington medical staff to hurry to tend to Taylor, who had screamed in pain when the knee bent the wrong way, seemed to confirm a grim prognosis. Although Taylor did leave the field under his own power, he was limping badly.

In Jersey, Osi Umenyiora lined up wide on a third-down play. He took an outside rush to try to go around tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson to get to Brett Favre. About five yards into the backfield, Ferguson gave Umenyiora a little shove to make the outside rush an even longer route to the quarterback. Umenyiora lost his balance slightly, fell to the ground, and started limping as he got back up to see Favre's pass fall incomplete. At the end of the play, he went back to the ground and the training staff came out.

Both injuries were described as knee sprains and initial examinations revealed no ligament damage. In both cases, the prognosis was preliminary pending an MRI examination.

Today, the MRI's were done. Taylor does indeed have a knee sprain. While he may or may not be available for the regular season opener, he will be back within two weeks.

That opener is against the Giants. Umenyiora will not be playing in that game, nor will he line up for New York at all this season. The pictures revealed a torn MCL and he will have season-ending surgery.

And so it goes. The incident in which Taylor was hurt was looked extremely dangerous. The knee appeared to be bent severely. But for whatever reason—good training, flexibility gained by dancing with stars or, most likely, plain dumb luck—the injury was relatively minor.

Umenyiora appeared simply to stumble. But exactly the wrong combination of forces acted on his knee joint in exactly the wrong way and a ligament popped.

The Redskins survived their moment of truth. They still have active visions of Taylor and fellow end Andre Carter providing a pass rush the likes of which hasn't been seen in a couple of decades in DC.

The Giants, on the other hand, suffered a key loss. Umenyiora's injury comes in the wake of the retirement of his bookend partner Michael Strahan. Suddenly, the New York pass rush, the key to their advance through the playoffs and their upset win over the Patriots in the Super Bowl, has gone from an exclamation point to a question mark.

In a fraction of a second, an unforeseen and unpredictable pivotal moment, each team's season came to a sudden turning point. Thousands of man hours and hundreds of millions of dollars that each team spent in planning the 2008 season came down to a few strands of sinewy material in a hinge joint.

Taylor injury worse than indicated?

This is just reporting some third hand information here, but I've heard that the Redskins are concerned that Jason Taylor's injury may be somewhat serious.

Not serious as in season-ending, but serious as in missing some of the regular season is a distinct possibility.

The famed Dr. Andrews was there and he concurred that is seemed to be a sprain, meaning that ligaments were stretched but not broken.

Actually, the way that his leg got caught up in that pile, it will be amazing if a sprain is all it turns out to be.

Skins vs. Panthers Live blog finish

The first one crashed. It's continued here.

RealRedskins.com Live Blog Redskins vs. Panthers

Thanks for joining in for the Real Redskins live blog of the Washington Redskins preseason game against the Carolina Panthers. Things will get started about about 6:30 and kickoff is at 7:30.

Your comments are most welcome, but please be advised that this is a blog and not a chat. Relevant comments and questions that help deliver the narrative of the game will be posted; not all of them will be.

Flashback Friday: Redskins vs. Panthers timeline

Here's a look at some of the history between the Washington Redskins and the Carolina Panthers.

Owned

The Redskins and Panthers have played just eight times with the Redskins holding a 7-1 series advantage. Carolina was a team that—brace yourself—Norv Turner owned. Norval had his ups and downs in Washington, mostly the latter. But when he needed a win all he had to do was see when the Panthers were coming up on the schedule.

It wasn't looking so good for Turner and the Redskins in 1999. The Redskins spent the first quarter trying and failing to catch Carolina's Tim Biakabutuka. The RB scored on runs of 60, 1, and 45 yards as Carolina built a 21-0 lead in the first nine minutes of the game.

The Redskins recovered nicely, taking a 28-24 lead before halftime on Brad Johnson's third TD pass of the second quarter, a 62-yard bomb to a wide-open Albert Connell. After another Johnson-to-Connell scoring connection pushed the lead to 35-24, Carolina clawed back into the lead. A pair of field goals and a touchdown pass gave the Panthers a 1-point lead halfway through the fourth quarter.

All seemed lost when Brian Mitchell fumbled after fielding a punt and Carolina recovered. However, the Redskins retained possession when replays revealed the Mitchell's knee had hit the ground prior to the fumble. The Redskins took full advantage of their second life. Soon after Stephen Davis converted a fourth and one near midfield at the two-minute warning, Johnson found Michael Westbrook for 19 yards to the Carolina 12. Brett Conway's game-winning 31-yard FG came with six seconds left and the Redskins walked off with a 38-36 win.

The rally from a 21-point deficit matched the biggest comeback in team history.

Season Saver

Marty Schottenheimer's 2001 Redskins were 0-5 going into this one and the prospects for that first win were bleak midway through the fourth quarter as Carolina led 14-0 and was driving for the clinching score.

It wasn't a particularly risky play that Carolina called, a little toss in the flat to Chris Hetherington. Arrington was nearby and zeroed in on the fullback as the ball came into his hands. The ball bounced out, though and, in a flash, Arrington went from tackler to pass defender, snatching the ball out of the air and taking off for the goal line. He cruised the 68 yards unchallenged and the game, perhaps the season, took on a new complexion.

After a Carolina put, the Redskins had the ball at their own 15. On first down, Tony Banks, who had been booed lustily for most of the game, saw that rookie receiver Rod Gardner had worked his way past the Carolina zone. The quarterback delivered the ball on target and the receiver easily coasted into the end zone to tie it up midway through the fourth quarter.

Another pass from Banks to Gardner set up Conway's game-winning field goal in overtime and the Redskins had their first win 17-14.

Trade Heist

Defensive tackle Sean Gilbert held out for the entire 1997 season and the Redskins kept the franchise tag on him for 1998. The compensation for another team to sign Gilbert was set at two first-round draft picks. The Panthers foolishly bit and got Gilbert—a good player, but not an impact performer—in exchange for their first picks in 1999 and 2000. Although the picks were used in various trades, they gave the Redskins the buying power needed to draft Champ Bailey, Jon Jansen, and Chris Samuels.

Report: Gene Upshaw dies at 63

Reports at filtering in that Gene Upshaw, a Hall of Fame offensive lineman and President of the NFL Players Association, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 63.

The illness was unreported and his death was entirely unexpected.

As a player, he was a career-long Oakland/LA Raider and played in three Super Bowls for the Silver and Black.

As head of the NFLPA, he has presided over 20 years of relative labor peace in pro football. There has been a movement afoot to replace him.

Ranking the Redskins 21-30

It's time for my annual, purely subjective ranking of the Washington Redskins' 30 front-line players. The lists consists of the 22 offensive and defensive starters, four special teams positions (place kicker, punter, snapper, and kick returner) and a relief running back, third wide receiver, rotational defensive lineman, and nickel defensive back. The list starts with the worst and counts down to the Redskins' best player. Today, in the first installment, here are players 30 through 21:

30. Kedric Golston, defensive tackle—He had something of a sophomore slump last year, losing the starting job he claimed as a rookie in 2006. It looks like he has taken the first-team spot back from Anthony Montgomery, but he'll have to do a better job of holding his ground in the middle in order to keep it.

29. Durant Brooks, punter—Right now he's the favorite to beat out Derrick Frost for the punting job but he will be a rookie and he will have his struggles.

28. Pete Kendall, right guard—Kendall is about at the end of a good NFL career, look for Chad Reinhardt to hold down this spot next season.

27. Demetric Evans, rotational defensive lineman—He can play end or tackle and his versatility should make him the first man off the bench.

26. Rocky McIntosh, linebacker—After the first half of last season, some were talking about a Pro Bowl berth for McIntosh. Even before his season-ending knee injury, that talk had gone away. We need to see a full season out of Rocky before handing out any more accolades.

25. Jon Jansen, right offensive tackle—It would be great to be able to rank him higher. I don't necessarily doubt Joe Bugel when he says that Jansen is having a great camp, but it would be nice to see the fruits of that camp on the field. So far, that hasn't happened.

24. Reed Doughty, safety—He's a heady player who has underrated athletic ability. It will be interesting to see what effect being the starter all the way through OTA's and training camp will have on his game.

23. James Thrash, third wide receiver—Every training camp since he's been back with the Redskins there has been talk of getting Thrash more involved with the offense. Every season, that talk turns out to be just talk as he excels on special teams and catches a few passes here and there. We'll see if that expanded role will come to fruition in Jim Zorn's offense.

22. Antwaan Randle El, wide receiver—ARE can't quite seem to have a breakout season, or even a breakout month. It would help if he stopped all of the dancing on punt returns.

21. Carlos Rogers, cornerback—His play was competent last year until the knee injury ended his year. Rogers' challenge is to continue to improve while keeping himself off of the injury list.