Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Minicamp takeaways: Look out for Robinson

Before the Redskins’ offseason program gets too far in the rear view mirror, let’s take a look back at what we saw, which was three OTA’s and two minicamp practices, and see what we learned. 

Keep in mind the usual caveats here, that the workouts are held with no contact in helmets and shorts while the actual games are played in full pads with a lot of contact. And, because there are no pads and more contact you can tell a lot more about defensive backs and offensive skill positions than you can about other players, so 

Here are some takeaways, in no particular order.

The competition for backup cornerback spots will be fierce. I thought this going in but it became more apparent every day that there is some talent vying for jobs there. One day Richard Crawford was flying around knocking down passes, the next week it was Chase Minnifield. And it was apparent that Kevin Barnes isn’t going to give up his job without a fight. It looks like those players plus Brandyn Thompson and Morgan Trent will be battling it out for two, maybe three roster spots behind DeAngelo Hall, Josh Wilson, and Cedric Griffin.

The depth at running back is shaky. That is not so much in terms of talent but in terms of health. By the end of camp sixth-round pick Alfred Morris had to take a majority of the snaps as Tim Hightower, Roy Helu Jr., and Evan Royster all were spectators due to injuries. Perhaps this is one of those situations where they would have been in there if it was the regular season but there still is some concern. Availability will be the watchword at this position in 2012.

Robert Griffin III has a long way to go. He has come a long way but that is just a start. It takes time, reps and more reps until the mind believes and can break down what the eyes see. Until what takes place in the classroom meshes with what he sees on the field, RG3 will have good and bad plays and good and bad days. He had his share of both in May and June.

Pierre Garçon will make your jaw drop several times this season. The Redskins really haven’t had a receiver who can make one-handed stabs of the ball on a regular basis in quite some time. Garçon is one of those guys who can do that. His one-handed grab in the end zone during minicamp was the highlight play of the spring. Certainly, it is much more important for Garçon to be productive from play to play than it is for him to make circus catches. Still, fans should get some thrills along the way in any case. 

Don’t be surprised if Aldrick Robinson is a surprise player. Or something like that. With no offseason program to prepare last year, Robinson looked overwhelmed in training camp. He was so unsure of himself that his speed never was on display. That changed this year and Robinson has a good shot at making the roster and contributing. 

Neil Rackers and Graham Gano will battle for the kicker spot until the final cuts. It looks like Rackers is better from short distance and gets good height on his kicks. Gano can hit from a longer distant but he is inconsistent from short range and his low kicks are prone to being blocked. The early prediction here is that Gano hangs on but I wouldn’t bet a dime on it.

 

Report: Atogwe signs with Eagles

It looks like former Redskins safety O. J. Atogwe has found a new home, not very far from his old one.

Chris Russell of ESPN 980 said via Twitter that Atogwe has signed with the Eagles. The source for the story was Atogwe himself via text message. 

The Redskins signed Atogwe last spring, thinking that he could create some turnovers and solidify the safety position for a few years. But he suffered from knee and other injuries starting in training camp and never lived up to expectations. In 13 games (8 starts) he intercepted three passes and did not force or recover a fumble. He was released shortly before the start of free agency in March.

With the Eagles, Atogwe will back up safeties Kurt Coleman and Nate Allen.

 

Early power ranking has Redskins near bottom

OK, who’s up for a breakdown of a mid-July NFL power poll?

Uh, anybody?

Ah, I see a few hands there in the back of the room. I promise I’ll keep it quick.

Gil Brandt of NFL.com cranked out his initial power poll of 2012 and it immediately gained some credibility with me because he didn’t automatically put the Super Bowl champion Giants in the top spot. They weren’t close to being the best team over 16 games last year. They got hot at the right time and they are worthy champions but that means little now in terms of who the best teams are in 2012. 

Brandt has the Packers on top, the Patriots second, and the Eagles third with the Giants coming in sixth. You have to go down to 16^th to find the Cowboys.

After that, keep scrolling down to the 26^th spot to find your Washington Redskins. Brandt is bullish on the chances of Robert Griffin III being an impact player, saying that the rookie QB is “the real deal.” However, Brandt says that the defense “is only middle of the pack” which is hard to argue with until they start getting more takeaways. 

If these power ranking really mattered I suppose you could the fact that four of the six teams ranked below Washington–the Bucs, Vikings, Rams, and Browns–are all on the Redskins’ 2012 schedule. 

What do you think? Is 26^th about right for a team with a rookie quarterback coming off of a 5-11 season? Or are Brandt’s old Cowboys roots showing? 

 

Minicamp was an eye opener for RG3

Click here if you can't view this video on your device.

Is the left tackle position still important?

The first draft pick Mike Shanahan made with the Redskins was left tackle Trent Williams. The Redskins took the Oklahoma product with the fourth pick of the 2010 draft. 

Williams was not necessarily the best player available to the Redskins with that pick but he was, in the eyes of Shanahan, the best left tackle available. The organization knew that he would command a hefty salary, given his position in the draft in what turned out to be the last year of the old system of crazy rookie deals. 

Williams signed a six-year, $60 million deal. His salary spikes at $11 million this year and then dips to $5 million this year, $7.25 million in 2014 and $10.25 million in 2015.

Under the traditional way of thinking in the NFL, the salaries are worth it if Williams plays at even an above-average level. Left tackle is supposed to be one of the cornerstones of an NFL franchise. Bill Parcells called the position a part of his “holy trinity” of building a team, along with quarterback and left cornerback. 

But times may be changing. The left tackle position may not be as valuable as it used to be.

Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports flat out said it in an article: “The left tackle’s importance is decreasing.”

“[Left tackle] has become like lighter fluid ad an barbecue,” Cole wrote. “You could use it, but you can get by without it.”

The reasoning is that today’s passing attacks feature quarterbacks who either get rid of the ball quickly or are mobile enough to scramble away from pressure coming from his blind side. Cole points out that of the top four scoring teams in the NFL last year, the Packers, Saints, Patriots, and Lions, only Detroit had first-round pick at left tackle. That was Jeff Backus, who is much closer to average than elite. 

Cole goes into more detail on the subject in his interesting piece but let’s bring this back to Williams and the Redskins. If the importance of Williams’ position is diminished can the team afford to continue to have him as one of the highest paid player on the team?

They don’t have much choice but to keep him this year despite the salary and his $13.5 million total cap hit. Assuming that he is at least competent it makes sense to keep him around at his $5 million salary in 2013. But should they keep him after that if the importance of the position continues to lessen while his salary escalates in seasons where the cap is expected to remain essentially flat.  

Robert Griffin III comes into play in making these decisions. Griffin could be just the kind of quarterback who is helping to make the left tackle position less important. We know about his mobility and his ability to scramble away from trouble could mean that the Redskins could be just fine with an average left tackle with a cap hit of several million dollars per year instead of the eight-figure cap hits that Williams commands.

The change in the rookie contract system means that the contracts of Griffin and Williams both will expire after the 2015 season. It would be difficult to give both of them large deals. If Griffin even comes close to meeting expectations, the potential either-or decision would be easy. The QB would get the big bucks and the left tackle would either have to settle for less or go elsewhere.

Then again, if the importance of the position has indeed diminished perhaps Williams won’t command a big salary elsewhere and things will be worked out. 

This is all a few years down the road but for now it’s worth considering that the Redskins may be paying premium dollars for a position that should not command them.

Rich Tandler blogs about the Redskins at www.RealRedskins.com. You can reach him by email here and follow him on Twitter @Rich_Tandler. 

Days until: Rookies report 27; training camp 37; preseason opener @ Bills 51; Redskins @ Saints 82; home opener vs. Bengals 96

Projecting 2012 starts by Redskins draft picks--defense

Last week I wrote that the Redskins had fewer starts by their own draft picks in 2011 than any other NFL team. Of a total of 352 starts (22 starters times 16 games), draft picks made 121 of them. 

With a great emphasis being put on the draft by Mike Shanahan than we saw in the past in Washington, one would expect the Redskins to have more starts by home-grown talent in 2012 than they did last year. Now we’ll look at how many draft pick starts they might have in 2012. Last week we looked at the offense Today, the defense.

Defense

It is a good bet that the Redskins are planning on starting the three linebackers drafted by the Redskins for all 16 games this year. Brian Orakpo, Perry Riley, and Ryan Kerrigan are mainstays on the defense and are set in the starting lineup.

Along the line, Jarvis Jenkins will fight it out with Adam Carriker for the starting job at left defensive end. Both will play a lot but the question here is who gets how many starts. It says here that earlier in the years Carriker’s experience will have him on the field first earlier in the years but when Jenkins’ knee if fully healthy and he gets familiar with the defense, he will get the nod. Give Jenkins, who was drafted in the second round last year, 10 starts in 2012.

There is a possibility that no Redskins draft picks will get starts in the backfield. DeAngelo Hall and Josh Wilson are set as the starters at cornerback and Tanard Jackson and Brandon Meriweather are penciled in as the starting safeties. It would not be surprising to see DeJon Gomes match the five starts he got as a rookie in 2011. If Kevin Barnes can beat out Cedric Griffin for the nickel back job he may get a few starts. Beyond that, it is hard to see Brandyn Thompson getting a start and 2012 draft picks Richard Crawford and Jordan Bernstine are probably a year away from contributing at all.

With 48 combined starts for the linebackers, 10 for Jenkins and five for Gomes, that projects to 63 starts for the defense. We’ll add in 10 more for unexpected developments for a total of 73.

If you add that to the 78 starts projected for the offense, that makes 161 starts by team draft picks for the Redskins. In 2011, that still would have had them near the bottom of the NFL. Only the Rams (125) and Bills (155) had fewer that 161 starts by their draft picks.

The Redskins’ recent focus on building the team through the draft is, as Shanahan likes to say, a process. Indications are that it it will be a very long process.

In 2011, the Redskins had 72 starts by their own draft picks on defense: 

• S Reed Doughty 11
• S DeJon Gomes 5
• OLB Ryan Kerrigan 16
• S LaRon Landry 8
• ILB Rocky McIntosh 8
• OLB Brian Orakpo 16
• ILB Perry Riley 8

 

Lawmakers question Virginia-Redskins deal

The Redskins’ deal with Virginia to move training camp to Richmond and to keep Redskins Park in the state is getting the attention of some state lawmakers.

As part of the agreement, the team is getting a total of $6 million in government grants, $4 million of which was a grant from the state. A legislative budget oversight panel questioned senior aides from the administration of Governor Bob McDonnell for an hour on Monday. According to the AP story, the grilling was bipartisan.

The questioning centered on whether or not the Redskins would have moved had the state not come up with the $4 million. McDonnell justified the expenditure by saying that Virginia would lose some $9.8 million in tax revenue if the team headquarters was located elsewhere. 

There were reports that both the District of Columbia and Maryland were preparing bids to have the Redskins move their facility into their jurisdictions. It is unclear how attractive or serious those bids were. 

The panel also said that McDonnell proceeded with the Redskins deal unilaterally while knowing that the legislature was opposed to giving any taxpayer money to the highly profitable business. 

 

Young: Shanny wanted to keep throwing in Super Bowl rout

In Washington, we haven’t yet seen what Mike Shanahan would do if he had the chance to run up the score on another team. Most of the 11 wins in his two seasons have been decided either in the final seconds or in overtime. The need for Shanahan to decide if he should sit on the ball or continue to pile up points has not come up.

That has not always been the case. He was the offensive coordinator for the 49ers in their 49-24 pasting of the Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX. During that game, Steve Young threw a Super Bowl record six touchdown passes. 

But according to Young, Shanahan didn’t want him to stop there. During a charity event over the weekend the Hall of Fame quarterback said that Shanahan wanted him to keep throwing for touchdowns after he had reached six.

Young’s last touchdown pass, a seven-yarder to Jerry Rice, gave the Niners a 49-18 lead in the fourth quarter. Why might Shanahan have wanted to run up the score? For one thing, a seventh touchdown pass for Young would have tied the mark for most TD passes in any NFL game, regular season or playoffs. That has been accomplished five times but not since Joe Kapp did it for the Vikings in 1969.

There also might have been a self-serving reason why Shanahan wanted to have the points soar that day. He wanted to be a head coach again and for all he knew at the time this may have been his last good chance to get a gig. Perhaps he wanted to run up some more points to make it absolutely impossible for the NFL owners looking to hire a new head coach to ignore. 

As it turns out, the six Young TD passes were plenty. Shanahan was hired by the Broncos a few days after the Super Bowl. 

 

Ex-Redskins not thriving elsewhere

Many Redskins fans live in fear of their team letting go of a player and having him go on to play well for another team. Meanwhile, their team struggles to replace the player they let walk. 

This not an irrational fear. The Redskins’ trash has turned into another team’s treasure on a regular basis. In the past decade we’ve seen the likes of Antonio Pierce, Ryan Clark, and Stephen Davis make the Redskins look bad by playing well on Super Bowl teams after being shown the door in Ashburn.

But check out this nugget from Dan Graziano of ESPN. “Since [Mike] Shanahan took over before the 2010 season, the Redskins have cut 150 players, and only one of those players -- San Francisco's Carlos Rogers -- is currently starting for another team.”

It appears that Graziano misspoke a bit; Rogers, like some others of the players who were on the roster when Shanahan got here and are playing for other teams now, wasn’t cut.; he signed elsewhere as a free agent. Still, the point is that, other than Rogers, ex-Redskins are not thriving around the league.

Let’s look at some of 2011’s high profile departures. Clinton Portis was cut in February. He has had some tryouts but he has not signed with a team and appears to be headed towards retirement. Albert Haynesworth was traded right after the lockout ended and after an underachieving year in New England and Tampa Bay he is unsigned. Another post-lockout deal sent Donovan McNabb to Minnesota; since then he has made bigger headlines by taking shots at Shanahan than he made for the Vikings, who benched him after six starts and then cut him. Like Haynesworth, he is unsigned.

The Redskins may not be so lucky this time around. If LaRon Landry can get healthy (he says he is but he didn’t show for at least some of the Jets’ OTA’s and was present for minicamp and sat out) he could play well for the Jets. It would not be surprising if Rocky McIntosh winds up starting for the Rams.

It should be noted that not every player who has been released or traded has necessarily been replaced by a superior player. But teams used to getting fat off of the Redskins’ castaways now have to look elsewhere for help.

Note: A few have pointed out that Andre Carter started 14 games and got 10 sacks for the Patriots last year prior to sustaining a season-ending knee injury. He is currently unsigned but he does deserve a mention as a player cut loose by Shanahan who did well elsewhere. 

Days until: Rookies report 28; training camp 38; preseason opener @ Bills; #Redskins @ Saints 83; home opener vs. Bengals 97

Rich Tandler blogs about the Redskins at www.RealRedskins.com. You can reach him by email here and follow him on Twitter @Rich_Tandler. 

 

Will RG3 be running into danger?

When Robert Griffin III said earlier this week that he will not slide if he runs late in games brought a collective gulp to many Redskins fans and perhaps some coaches, too. “He can’t do that, he’s going to get killed if he runs” was a typical comment.

A look at recent history, however, shows that such fears may be unfounded. The pocket could well be a more dangerous place for a quarterback to be than running downfield. Here are the most notable injuries that caused starting quarterbacks to miss games in 2011 and how they happened.

• Ben Roethlisberger, Steelers, sprained ankle--He got this while being sacked in the pocket. Big Ben missed one game and was limited in others.
• Colt McCoy, Browns, concussion--This is the injury that probably is the closest to the nightmare scenario envisioned for Griffin as McCoy was scrambling and was illegally hit helmet to helmet by James Harrison. He missed the last three games of the season
• Matt Schaub, Texans, Lisfranc--He was injured in a very dangerous place, in a pile of players during a quarterback sneak. Schaub missed the final six games and the playoffs.
• Peyton Manning, Colts, neck--There was no specific play that caused Manning’s injury, although Tony Dungy said that the issues may have started when he was hit in the pocket by the Redskins’ Phillip Daniels and Andre Carter. Regardless, we know it wasn’t caused when he was scrambling downfield because he didn’t do that. 
• Mike Vick, Eagles, broken ribs--While Vick has been banged up while scrambling in the past, this particular injury came when he was hit in the pocket while completing a pass. He missed three games.
• Jay Cutler, Bears, broken thumb--This happened while Cutler was trying to get in on making the tackle after throwing an interception. 
• Sam Bradford, Rams, high ankle sprain--The injury took place late in a blowout loss to the Packers while Bradford was getting hit in the pocket. Bradford was never right all year and missed a total of six games.

The previous few years provide anecdotal evidence that danger lurks in the pocket. A low hit after throwing a pass caused Tom Brady’s torn ACL that cost him the 2008 season. In 2010, Tony Romo missed about half of the season after breaking his collarbone while getting sacked in the pocket.

The last time a Redskins quarterback missed games due to an injury was in 2007 when Jason Campbell suffered a dislocated kneecap while getting sacked by the Bears. And the most famous QB injury in Redskins history, perhaps in NFL history, came when Joe Theismann was hanging in the pocket in a 1985 game against the Giants and Harry Carson and Lawrence Taylor combined to snap his leg in two.

This is not a comprehensive study and the obvious caveat is that it is logical that quarterbacks get injured more in the pocket than they do running downfield because the spend much more time in the pocket than they do scrambling. 

Still, there is a tendency to look at isolated incidents like Vick getting knocked out for a few weeks after two Redskins defenders sandwiched the Eagles QB as he was trying to run in for a score in Philly and say that it is dangerous to run if you’re a quarterback.

And it is dangerous. But staying behind the line can be, too. There is no evidence that facing a one-on-one tackle in the open field is any more dangerous than holding on to the ball in the pocket looking, looking, looking for an open receiver.