Rich Tandler’s five things possibly related to the Washington Redskins and other matters.
5. There will be a three-hour special on ESPN tonight to talk about the NFL schedule. We already knew who was playing who and where and tonight just answers when. Three hours seems a bit excessive. No, make that it’s a lot excessive. Not only that, but in a tweet yesterday afternoon Adam Schefter promised that the four-letter network would have “coverage throughout the day.” Seriously? Coverage of a schedule not yet released? We’re all for saturation coverage of the NFL and then some. But there are limits.
4. We still don’t have many details on London Fletcher’s contract except that it’s a two-year deal and he will receive $10.75 million. The contract is actually for five years but it will void after two, allowing them to spread out the hit from the $5.25 million in guaranteed money over a longer time frame and then they will just take a bigger hit in 2014 when the salary cap penalties are gone. There is no word on how much salary cap space remains after the deal.
3. For the past two seasons, the Redskins have carried two fullbacks on the 53-man roster. Darrel Young will remain but Mike Sellers has been released. There are no other fullbacks on the roster and you have to wonder if the Redskins plan on finding another one. They could take one sometime in the latter stages of the draft with Evan Rodriguez of Temple and Emil Igwenagu of Massachusetts there as two of the top prospects. Ex-Eagle Owen Schmitt is among the free agents who are still out there. Or, they could go with just Young. They only use a fullback on about a third of their snaps so they could find it hard to justify keeping a second fullback. They could use the extra roster spot to carry a third quarterback, a fourth running back, or a tenth offensive lineman.
2. There are currently 63 players on the Redskins’ roster and the team reported via its official Twitter account that 57 players reported for the first day of voluntary workouts on Monday. That is not 100 percent but it is probably as good as most teams around the NFL. Remember that the players are just pumping iron and doing other conditioning at this point anyway and players can do that wherever they are. Actually, quarterbacks can throw to uncovered receivers. But the quarterback who will be doing most of the throwing this year is still in Waco, Texas for another couple of weeks so nobody is really missing much of anything. Attendance will matter more in two weeks when some on-field activities can start to take place.
1. Many Redskins fans are concerned about which wide receivers are going to play where and how much they are going to play. Don’t worry. Your favorite receiver will have a chance to earn plenty of playing time. Last year the wide receivers played a combined 2,764 snaps. If they can control the ball a little better and go with a few more three- and four-wide receiver sets there will be about 3,000 snaps to go around. That is a lot of playing time to be earned.
Days until: NFL draft, 9; First Sunday of NFL season, 145
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