Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Press release: Redskins claim WR Briscoe

We brought you the story of the Redskins claiming Dezmon Broscoe off of waivers from the Bucs earlier today, here is the official press release from Redskins PR:

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. – The Washington Redskins announced today that they have claimed wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe off waivers from Tampa Bay. The Redskins also waived wide receiver Brian Hernandez.

Briscoe (6-2, 210) was originally drafted out of Kansas by the Cincinnati Bengals in the sixth round (191^st overall) of the 2010 NFL Draft. He was released by the Bengals on Sept. 4, 2010, before joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ practice squad two days later. He was activated by the Buccaneers on Nov. 30, 2010. The team waived him on July 26, 2012.

The second-year receiver has played in 18 career games with two starts. He has 41 career receptions for 480 yards and seven receiving touchdowns.  Last season, he appeared in all 16 games with the Buccaneers, starting twice, including posting a career-high eight receptions and two touchdowns in the team’s season finale at Atlanta. His six receiving touchdowns with Tampa Bay led the Buccaneers in 2011.

Briscoe, 22, played collegiately at Kansas from 2007-09, appearing in 37 games with 33 starts. He ranks first in school history in career receiving yards (3,240) and receiving touchdowns (31), as well as ranks second in career receptions (219). He was a first-team All-Big 12 selection in his final year at Kansas as a junior in 2009.

Briscoe was born August 31, 1989, in Dallas. He attended Cedar Hill (Texas) H.S., where his 11 touchdowns as a senior helped guide the Longhorns to a Class 5A state title.

Hernandez (6-0, 183) was originally signed by the Redskins as a college free agent on May 6, 2012.

 

Need to Know: Sellers to retire

Here is what you need to know as Day 3 of Redskins training camp cranks up on Saturday:

Sellers hanging it up

Per Chick Hernandez, Mike Sellers is retiring from the NFL. He played 12 NFL seasons, 11 of them with the Redskins.

Sellers’ best season in terms of statistics came in 2005 when he caught 12 passes and scored seven touchdowns. But his real contributions came as a lead blocker and, especially, on special teams. Nobody wanted to see that 260-lb. body barreling towards him. Sellers also was a great locker room character and a fan favorite for his ability to bowl over defenders when he caught the ball in the open field.

Sellers will make his retirement official on Monday.

Brown MRI on Tuesday

Towards the end of last season, Mike Shanahan essentially fired a warning shot intended for Jammal Brown, saying that he needed to be confident that the right tackle needed to get and stay healthy.

Well, his good health lasted until a day before training camp. Now Brown wants to have his own doctor there for the MRI on his ailing hip. That’s fine, that’s his right, but it delays the MRI until Tuesday, when Brown’s doctor is available.

Shanahan did not convey any displeasure with the situation when he informed us of it after Friday’s practice. But he can’t be happy with the situation either.

So now the Redskins will wait until Tuesday to see how long they will have to wait for Brown to return. But will there be confidence that he’ll stay healthy if he gets healthy? The Redskins might be out of patience with a player who carries and $4.55 million cap number and has a $3.25 million salary.

Stay tuned.

Redskins make a move

The Redskins picked up a receiver who caught more touchdown passes last year than any player did last year. Here’s the story.

In case you missed it

If you were consumed at work yesterday, take some time to look at what we covered on Day 2 of training camp. In my camp report there was a lot of focus on Leonard Hankerson on what was a better day for RG3. We also looked at the new training camp schedule with the tougher practices coming in the afternoon heat, Jammal Brown’s injury, and the situations at running back and punt returner.

 

 

 

The Redskins make a move at WR

In Thursday’s training camp notes I had a couple of entries on wide receiver Brian Hernandez, a UFL veteran and NFL rookie free agent. He hustled down to the practice field but he later muffed a punt.

Apparently, the mishandled punt made a greater impression on the coaches. When the Redskins claimed wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe off of waivers from the Bucs on Friday they waived Hernandez.

Briscoe, 22, caught six touchdown passes for the Tampa Bay last year and it’s possible that Raheem Morris, his head coach the last two years and now the Redskins’ secondary coach, put in a good word for him.

But Briscoe does have some baggage. New Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano cut him because he couldn’t pass the team’s conditioning test after having missed most of the team’s offseason program. We know how Mike Shanahan feels about the importance of the “voluntary” offseason and ask Albert Haynesworth how seriously the coach takes the conditioning test.

Briscoe will face an uphill climb to make it here with a crowded depth cart at receiver. 

 

Shanahan: Brown injury on hold until Tuesday

Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan said Friday he did not have an update on ailing right tackle Jammal Brown, who is on the physically unable to perform list after aggravating a hip injury on Wednesday.

Shanahan said Brown has decided to see his personal doctor in New York, and the doctor is not available until Tuesday, which has holding up a diagnosis.

“I’ll be able to speak with you after that,” Shanahan said.

For the second consecutive day, Tyler Polumbus lined up with the first team and appears to be the leading candidate to replace Brown if the injury turns out to be serious.

The prognosis for safety Tanard Jackson, meantime, was much clearer. Jackson, who is also on the PUP list, is expected to return to the field on Monday, Shanahan said. Jackson is sidelined with a calf strain he suffered during OTAs.

“With that calf -- it looked pretty good -- but the [trainers] just thought maybe 24 hours would help it a little more,” Shanahan said. “Hopefully Monday he’ll be able to go full speed.”

Some other items of interest from Shanahan’s news conference:

*The coach reiterated that he’s hoping to ease running back Tim Hightower back into the lineup. Hightower, who tore his ACL last October and missed the remainder of the season, is expected to battle second year players Roy Helu Jr. and Evan Royster for carries.

“He’s not even close to 100-percent,” Shanahan said of Hightower. “But I see improvement every day.”

*Speaking about the running backs, Shanahan insisted again that he does not who will emerge from the trio, or if he’ll adopt a by-committee approach.

“I really don’t know what’s going to happen to the tailback position,” Shanahan said. “I do know I’ve got three guys that I got a lot of confidence in that played last year.”

“But,” he added, “we’ll find out.”

*Asked about rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III’s progress, Shanahan said it’s going to take time. Griffin, however, was much more accurate with his passes on the second day of camp.

“You get better with every repetition you take,” Shanahan said. “The reason why it’s so hard the first year and not many quarterbacks have been very successful unless they’ve had a great supporting cast is because it does take time. It doesn’t happen overnight. You have to have the game slow down.”

*It began with Pierre Garçon tossing balls into the spectator area after nice catches. Then Anthony Armstrong and Aldrick Robinson joined the act.

After that, it was Shanahan’s turn to have some fun: he told the wide receivers he was going to fine them $2,000 per ball. As it turned out, though, the coach was only kidding.

“I said it’s going to cost each guy who did it – Pierre Garcon, he did it three times – it would cost him $2,000 a ball,” Shanahan said. “But more importantly, I said, ‘We only have six balls left.’”

“I like these guys being enthusiastic,” he added, “and they’re excited to see the fans out there and want to give them a souvenir, so it was great.” 

 

Friday practice report: RG3 improves to up and down

My observations from the Friday afternoon practice at Redskins Park.

—Say what you will about Chris Cooley’s fashion statement here but he is still very much a fan favorite. He slapped hands with fans along the fence as he made he way down to the field.

—There may be some setbacks in the future but for right now it looks like Josh Morgan’s leg is in good shape. He fractured it last year, an injury that ended his season after just five games. During a drill where the receivers were running a couple of figure eights around some cones before breaking into a hook, Morgan planted and cut at full speed with no apparent issues.

—Redskins nation will be much relieved to hear that after struggling yesterday, Robert Griffin III improved to being up and down today. In one of his up moments he threw a dart to Hankerson on an out pattern. It was well placed, down low where only the receiver could catch it. Hankerson made a nice grab on the sideline with two defenders near him.

—As was the case during most of the OTA’s and minicamp, DeAngelo Hall was lined up in the slot most of the time he was in. In today’s game the slot just might be where your best corner should be, it is tough working with no help from the sideline.

—Leonard Hankerson seemed to line up with the first team receivers a lot more today with Morgan “moving down” the depth chart. Things will change before Sept. 9 and they won’t stop changing then. The only sure thing is that Pierre Garçon will be on the field for almost every offensive play.

—Stephen Bowen, who had a procedure done on his knee in the spring, has a light wrap on the joint but he seems to be moving without any problems. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him get a light workload during the preseason but there seems to be no question that he’ll be ready to go when the season starts.

—We saw some high stepping by Tim Hightower after he broke through the line on a running play. His knee is still suspect but he has his moments.

—Brandon Banks made a good catch of an RG3 bullet near the sideline. He did let the ball get into his body instead of making the catch with his hands but it counts the same.

—Hankerson faked Travon Bellamy onto the ground after putting a move on to turn upfield after catching a quick out. No issue with the hip here.

—London Fletcher and Madieu Williams showed how you survive in the NFL after 30 years of age. It looked like RG3 was going to bust out for a long gain after the got loose around the left side. But Fletcher and Williams took good angles and were able to get him out of bounds after a decent gain, but one that was much less than it appeared to be initially. Smart fundamentals can counter superior athletic ability.

—On the day, Hankerson made some excellent catches while mixing in a few no-excuses drops. I think that you might be able to copy and paste that sentence for Hankerson’s entire NFL career.

—Rookie cornerback Richard Crawford fielded some punts today. He did some punt returning at SMU with 25 returns for a respectable 10.9-yard average with a touchdown. A dark horse to be sure, but a candidate nonetheless.

—There weren’t many long bombs thrown but on one of the last plays of the day Rex Grossman completed a beauty to Aldrick Robinson. Moments like that make you think that Rex can be a damn good QB in this league. But other moments . . .

 

Moss wants to tap the brakes on RG3-mania

By Tarik El-Bashir
CSNwashington.com 

While many of the Redskins have been eager to heap praise on rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III, veteran wide receiver Santana Moss has adopted a different approach.

Instead, Moss said he wants Griffin to be allowed to grow into his role at a comfortable pace, without veterans like himself adding to the media-fueled hype that was criticized by Giants tight end Osi Umenyiora earlier this week.

“I don’t want to every day be asked that question and have to say something,” Moss said.  “I don’t want to get into all that every day, telling you, ‘He’s this, he’s that.’”

“I just feel like every day we’re going to have a chance to get better with him,” Moss continued. “You all have seen him play in college. You know what he can do. I feel like on this pro level, he’s going to have to prove himself, and he knows that.”

Moss said Griffin already has enough pressure without having those at Redskins Park putting more on him.

“I don’t want to be that guy talking about him and putting too much pressure on him, because I know I wouldn’t want that on myself,” Moss added. “Until he goes out there and plays a game, then we can talk about it. Right now we’re practicing.”

RGIII's 'customized' HTTR cleats

What do you think of these kicks?

New practice schedule favors early risers

By Tarik El-Bashir
CSNwashington.com 

In his first two seasons as the Redskins’ coach, Mike Shanahan held training camp practices in the morning and walkthroughs in the afternoon.

This summer, however, Shanahan has flipped that familiar schedule.

“I haven’t worked it this way before,” he said this week. “But with the new rules [in the collective bargaining agreement], we are getting a good lift in the morning from 7:30 to and 8 to 8:30 with the rookies and the vets. So I think that you feel very good about that.”

“At least,” the coach cracked, “the guys who like to wake up early, obviously, they are enjoying it.”

Following the early weight lifting sessions, the coaches meet with the players to review the playbook. Then the team heads to the practice bubble for an uptempo walkthrough.

Long snapper Nick Sundberg said he was told by team officials that studies show the learning process, information retention specifically, is better in the morning.

“We’ve got a good meeting in the morning, then we get a walkthrough so different things we walk through are things we put in right before the walkthrough and before we hit the field,” Shanahan added. “I like it thus far.”

The only downside to the new schedule was realized only minutes into the opening practice of camp on Thursday: the temperature in Ashburn soared near 100 degrees with a heat index of 105-110.

“The sun punked me a little bit,” Santana Moss said. “But, hey, I made it through. It was a tough one, especially for some of us who haven’t been practicing here.”

Shanahan said if the heat gets too extreme, he could opt to move practices indoors.

“The nice thing about the bubble, we have the opportunity to go in there if it does get too hot,” he said.

Veteran Chris Cooley said he’s undecided on the new routine at Redskins Park.

“I don’t know if I like the new practice schedule yet,” Cooley said. “To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of morning practice and waking up at 6 a.m. and starting my physical activity. We’ll see how it goes.”

“It would be nice if it’s not 100 every day,” Cooley added. “But maybe it will make us tough, huh? Joe Gibbs weather.”

Brown's 'little' injury could be a big problem for the Redskins

Even though Jammal Brown looked healthy during OTA’s and minicamp, it was not shocking when Mike Shanahan announced that he would be on the physically unable to perform list to start training camp. Shanahan said that the team’s starting right tackle’s hip “felt a little bit tight” after running some conditioning sprints on Wednesday and that the hip was “a little bit sore” on Thursday morning.

Even though it may be just a “little” problem with the hip, the fact that there is an issue at all is alarming. Issues with the hip, which appear to trace back to a sports hernia injury that cost him the entire 2009 season in New Orleans, have sidelined him four games in his two seasons with the Redskins and have limited his effectiveness in most other games.

Through the offseason, Shanahan and Brown talked about his rehab regime which including doing yoga. While there was some skepticism about whether this would be enough to cure what was becoming a chronic problem. While we don’t know for sure yet, this latest setback indicates that perhaps the yoga didn’t do the trick.

For right now, the Redskins will deal with Brown’s absence in house. Tyler Polumbus took most of the first-team snaps in practice yesterday. Shanahan said that Polumbus, Maurice Hurt, and Willie Smith will fill in for Brown for as long as he is out. The coach had no indication of how long Brown might be out.

If it turns out to be a long-term issue—and even if Brown gets back on the field there is no telling when the issue might pop up again—the team might not have many other options. There are a few free agent starting tackles with some starting experience out there like Kareem McKenzie and Marcus McNeill but neither is a good zone scheme fit.

The best option for the Redskins at right tackle this year is a healthy Jammal Brown. If Brown can’t go, it looks like the starter will be someone who is already on the roster.

 

A trio of punt returner candidates

Something I left out of Thursday’s training camp notes:

The Redskins had just three players fielding punts during the special teams portion of yesterday’s practice. Actually, four players were gathered near where the JUGS machine was sending punts. Incumbent Brandon Banks, second-year receiver Aldrick Robinson and rookie free agent receiver Brian Hernandez actually fielded punts while veteran Santana Moss watched.

The punts were fielded flawlessly with the exception of one muffed Hernandez, the player who can least afford a gaffe. He dropped and did some pushups after the miscue but that won’t erase the fumble from the eye in the sky.

This is something that I’ll be sure to monitor from day to day. Banks has been told that the team will not keep him as just a return specialist, that he must be able to contribute at wide receiver to stay on the roster. Since that is problematic, the competition at the position is very real. We will see how it turns out.