Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Portis was what is wrong and right about the Redskins

In some ways, Clinton Portis was all that was wrong with the Redskins in recent years. He got paid a bunch of money, more than any other team would have paid him. His productivity in the rare postseason appearances was unimpressive as he averaged 54 yards rushing in three playoff games. And he was not the disciplined sort, making all manner of remarks that showed that his mouth was moving without his brain fully engaged and being casual about both attending practice and participating in offseason workouts. He was good, sometimes very good, but never great, never one considered to be one of the best in the game. But, truth be told, the Redskins might have been a lot better off if they had employed about half a dozen more players just like him. Well, players like the on-field Portis. A PR department can only handle so many players who defend Michael Vick's dogfighting ring or sarcastically call their coaches "a genius". But if every player on the team had Portis' heart, his willingness to throw his body in front of onrushing defenders who outweighed him by up to 100 pounds, his desire to win, they might have been better off these past seven years. On CSNwashington.com, Portis' good run is over  

NFL Combine underway, I am there

The combine is off, well, not yet running, at least not from a Redskins-oriented perspective. Offensive linemen, tight ends, and specialists are getting weighed and measured and they will be up to speak with us before too long. We've had a string of coaches and executives including Chan Gailey, Steve Spagnuolo, and Ron Rivera. Regarding O. J. Atogwe, Spagnuolo did say that the Rams are still speaking with him and he would not rule out the safety returning to St. Louis. I do have a Combine blog running on CSNwashington.com and I'll hit here with some updates as well. As always, you can hit me up on Twitter with any questions or comments @RealRedskins.

Chat starts at 6:00

Here's the link, come on by and join in the fun.

Tuesdays With Tandler Special Combine Edition

Pre-Combine chat tonight

We're cranking up the chat machine in advance of the NFL draft. Drop on by here starting at 6:00 PM and we will talk about the NFL Scouting Combine, which I will be covering for this site and for CSNwashington.com. And, of course, we'll go over the Redskins draft, free agency (whenever that may happen) and the state of the team in general. Check back here at 6:00 sharp and join in the fun.

Real Redskins Combine coverage--input needed

I'm getting ready to head to Indianapolis to provide you with the best Redskins-oriented coverage of the NFL Combine you'll find anywhere. Between here and CSNwashington.com I'll be passing along nuggets of information and analysis as we talk to the upcoming players and decision makers. CSN is bringing resources to do some videos with some analysts you probably have heard of and maybe some others of note and I'll be shooting some You Tube videos of my own as well (if I can figure out how to use Final Cut Express 4 by the time I go).

The heart of the coverage will be a running live blog that I'll have set up at CSNwashington.com and that I will link here. That will be a constant flow of information, news, quotes, and the latest rumors. I'll also be putting up content on Facebook and Twitter.

If you want to be totally wired into the coverage, you should be subscribed to the following resources.

• The Real Redskins RSS feed
• "Like" the Facebook pages for Real Redskins and CSN Washington
• Follow @RealRedskins and @CSNwashington on Twitter

I'll get things rolling with a two-part series based on my talk yesterday with Charley Casserly. Look for that starting Monday on CSNwashington.com. OK, enough plugging my various platforms. I want to hear from you. The thing I learned about the Combine when I went for the first time last year was that you can't do everything. At one time you can have a team executive at one podium, two players speaking at other podiums and three or four other players conducting interview sessions sitting down at tables. I am in the process of narrowing down the list of 329 players who are attending down to those who will be of most interest to the Redskins. Of course, I'll make sure I catch all of the top dozen or so players. I'm also going to talk to the players from Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Maryland as part of my duties as CSN's ACC football correspondent. But please give me your input. If you have a feeling about someone who the Redskins might be targeting in the later rounds, let me know and I'll make an effort to get to him. You can find a list of players who were invited here. Let me know who your Redskins targets are in the comments here.

Banks appears OK after stabbing

It appears that Brandon Banks was an innocent bystander as his friend was involved in an altercation outside of a downtown DC nightclub. One old adage, however, was proven once again to be true--not much good happens when you're out at 3 AM. Following is a statement issued by James Gould, Banks' agent:

“Early this morning, Brandon Banks was injured outside of a nightclub in Washington D.C. while coming to the aid of a life-long friend, who was attacked by an assailant who was wielding a knife. His friend was critically wounded and was taken to a local hospital where surgery was performed. Brandon was injured by the assailant with a surface knife wound on his side which will require stitches. He is recovering in a local hospital and is expected to be released within 24 hours. “Brandon was not involved in any wrongdoing and was not implicated in any way. “Brandon’s immediate concern is for his life-long friend who is like a brother to him.  He would like to thank everyone for their prayers and well wishes for him and his life-long friend.”

Update: Mike Jones has some more details on the incident in the Washington Post

Cam Newton dominates vs. air

Here is video of Cam Newton's workout in San Diego in front of the media on Thursday (no embedding so you have to hit the link). It starts with a Q&A session then it goes to the actual workout at about the 7:03 mark. I'm certainly not going to argue with the evaluation of Trent Dilfer, the former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst, who said, "That was phenomenal . . . The ball just jumps off his hands.  He made 30 big-time throws.” Well, as big time as a throw can be against an uncovered receiver with no pass rush (although someone did run in with his hands up from time to time). The NFL roadside is littered with the bodies of quarterbacks who looked great in shorts but couldn't get it done in pads. That Newton's publicity stunt is getting such a slack-jawed response from a normally cool and sober analyst such as Dilfer is borderline comical.

Contrasting views on QB Ryan Mallett

For much of December, there was a lot of talk about Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett going to the Washington Redskins with the tenth pick of the draft. He seemed to be an ideal NFL quarterback, 6-6 with a big, accurate arm. But then, after closer review, some glaring flaws in his game were identified. Primarily, he lacks, as Doug Farrar said in a pre-combine evaluation of Mallett, "functional mobility":

Conclusion: If there's one thing the two quarterbacks in Super Bowl XLV showed is, it's that the ability to beat pressure in a productive fashion is more important that it has ever been. In a lot of ways, Mallett is the anti-version of Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger, two star quarterbacks who have built estimable careers on their abilities to frustrate defenses no end by evading hits and hurries and consistently throwing for killer downfield gains. He's more the older-style quarterback (think Drew Bledsoe) with a great arm and a lack of modern-day skills around it.

Think of him as a statue with a cannon attached, and then ask yourself how well such a player would do against the 2010 defenses of Dick Lebeau and Rex Ryan. To be an elite NFL quarterback, Mallett will need a top-5 pass-blocking line, and there isn't much room for error there.

So much for Mallett being one of the top quarterbacks in the draft, right? Maybe, or maybe not. Sporting News Radio late-night host Todd Wright had draft scout Russ Lande as a guest earlier this week. In a series of tweets, Wright related what Lande told him about Mallett:

Our Sporting News NFL Draft scout Russ Lande told me this about Ryan Mallett, "People wonder about the maturity level, inconsistent play as well as his accuracy and decision making. Mallett makes bad decisions when you watch him on film. However, when he works out and showcases that big arm and physical ability, somebody's going to fall in love with him as their future NFL starting QB."

This does not necessarily mean, of course, that the Redskins would be interested. However, Mike Shanahan is known for drafting players based on their highlight reels, figuring that he and his coaches can fix any flaws in his game. At this point, I'd be very surprised if the Redskins take Mallett at No. 10. But things can change in a hurry. It's something that bears watching.

Who ' s not coming back in 2011--offense

Fellow CSN-er Ryan O'Halloran and I debate who will be back in 2011 and who will be hitting the road. We came up with somewhat different results, take a look:

Receivers Who’s here now: Anthony Armstrong, Terrence Austin, Brandon Banks, Malcolm Kelly, Santana Moss, Roydell Williams Tandler: Williams and Moss will be gone. Williams is an easy one; even for a third or fourth receiver, eight receptions in 16 games is unacceptable production. Moss is a tougher call. We will see how committed the organization is to a youth movement by how big a contract they are willing to give a speed receiver who will be 32 when the season starts. Kelly appears to have the right mindset now and if he can stay healthy he will get his shot in 2011. O’Halloran: I’ll go with Williams and Kelly. Moss is a free agent and is coming off a career-best 93 catches. He wouldn’t be a No. 1 receiver on a majority of NFL teams but the Redskins should make him a priority because who else in-house could take over that role? I didn’t have Kelly making the team last year and he ended up on injured reserve before a preseason game was played. He goes to camp again, but he’s in total show-it mode and the guess is he’ll come up short.

Go here to read the rest of the article on CSN Washington

Somebody says something good about Dan Snyder

With all of the long knives out for Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder in reaction to the whole Washington City Paper lawsuit issue, it should be pointed out that not everyone hates Snyder. His approval rating may be down there with that of Congress but he still has his defenders. I heard Ross Tucker talking about Snyder a few weeks ago and he said essentially what I'm about to quote below. I didn't have a recorder handy at the time so I didn't write about it at the time. But thanks to The Great Transcriber, Dan Steinberg, here is a snip of a larger article that he posted on last week. This is from Tucker, an offensive lineman who made the Redskins in 2001 as an undrafted free agent out of Princeton before going on to play for a total of five NFL teams in six seasons,

I played for five teams, including the Redskins twice and the thing I always tell people is it's the really easy thing to do to rag on Mr. Snyder. And I know that some of the signings have not panned out, there's no question about that. But at least when you're a player for the Redskins, you know that your owner is completely consumed by winning, and you know that all he wants to do is win, and he'll do whatever it takes. Now sometimes that might be misguided, but he'll do whatever he thinks it takes to win.

As Tucker points out, Snyder doesn't necessarily have the skill, knowing how to go about building a winning team, to go with the will to do so. You hear current player saying similar things all the time but this is coming from someone whose check Snyder does not sign. Tucker has no reason to pump up Snyder. This is not presented here to be a Snyder apologist although I know that some out there think that any writer who has anything but the more vile, negative things about the man is a sellout. But Tucker said it, here it is, think what you will of it.