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.”
Comments