It’s Sunday, an off day at Redskins training camp, but we’re still here to tell you what you need to know today:
Can Briscoe help?
It looked like Dezmond Briscoe had a good chance to get a solid NFL career started when he caught six touchdown passes for the Bucs last year, his second in the league. But he apparently had some drama at home this past offseason, events that are apparently best left to TMZ to cover. And the dominos fell. Here is what he told us after yesterday morning’s practice.
I had some personal stuff going on at the house so I missed some voluntary workouts. I missed the test, everyone didn’t pass. I feel like that was a big reason why. It stuck out with me not passing because I wasn’t there in the offseason training so, you know, it made it seem like I was out of condition, which I’m not. I have to take advantage of the opportunity now.
It would be easy to reject him as camp fodder since he jumps into a pool of wide receivers that already had eight legitimate candidates for probably six roster spots. However, at age 22, Briscoe becomes the youngest wide receiver on the Redskins’ roster despite the fact that he has two NFL seasons under his belt. And his six touchdown receptions last year were more than any Redskins receiver had.
On top of that, Briscoe was a wanted man when the Bucs released him. According to Ian Rappaport of NFL.com the Bengals, Eagles, and Cowboys also put in waiver claims on him.
He still is a longshot to make it but his age and demonstrated ability make it hard to write off his chances completely.
Waiting out a diagnosis on Brown
As my colleague Tarik El-Bashir noted yesterday, Mike Shanahan sounded somewhat annoyed when talking about the schedule for the MRI on Jammal Brown’s injured hip. Brown’s doctor was on vacation last week and is conducting surgery on Monday. The player wanted his doctor present for the procedure thus the delay.
Football coaches can deal with almost anything but waiting almost a week (Brown tweaked his hip while running sprints last Wednesday) for information about the injury status of a starting player is not something most coaches would take in stride.
Brown could have just a “little” injury as Shanahan said on Thursday when he announced that the starting right tackle would be starting training camp on the PUP list. Or it could be something more serious, an injury that will cause the team to have to reevaluate the depth chart at the position going into the season. The sooner Shanahan knows this the better and it is hard to blame him for being a bit impatient.
In case you missed it
Speaking of Brown, I took a look at the salary cap implications of various roster scenarios if they were to make a roster move. Tarik had a look at the kicking competition and had an article on why Lorenzo Alexander figures he can fill all of his various roles as the team’s “One Man Gang” at a lighter weight. And my practice report focuses on Brandon Banks making a run at holding on to his job.
The week ahead
The routine sets in as the 10:40 walkthrough in the bubble and the 3:00 full practice in front of the fans will be the schedule Monday through Friday. Our friends at NBC 4 say that the extreme heat is gone for now. It will still be quite toasty with highs ranging from 88 on Tuesday to 93 on Friday.
Days until: Preseason opener @ Bills 11; RG3 vs. Luck @ FedEx Field 27; final cuts 34; Redskins @ Saints 42; home opener vs. Bengals 56
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