Tuesday practice report: Rak on the attack

Practice notes and observations from Tuesday’s half outside, half inside training camp practice.

—Darrel Young, who left early yesterday with a hamstring strain, and Josh Morgan (who Shanahan said also has a hamstring) are both in their jerseys with no pads or helmets.

—Leonard Hankerson looks like a different player than he did a year ago. Not only is he holding onto the ball better, he looks more fluid as he runs his routes. He was a college kid at this time last year, he’s learning how to be a pro now.

—Brandon Banks made a Tyree-style catch, pinning the ball to his helmet with one hand as he ran down the sideline.

—Then, a few plays later, Banks dropped an easy one. He kicked the ball into the crowd in disgust, drawing an admonishment from Brandon Meriweather. “Control your emotions, that’s 15 yards.”

—Tim Hightower looked like he was moving pretty well while participating in individual drills but he did not get any work in 11 on 11. (Note: Shanahan said after practice that they will wait until the knee is about 95 percent healed before he gives Hightower any extensive team work. He did not know when that might be.)

—Anthony Armstrong, in a battle for a roster spot, made a nice one-hand catch of deep pass but he was out of bounds. Soon after that he toasted Josh Wilson deep and RG3 delivered a strike.

—Reed Doughty, who needs a good camp to stick after the team brought in three veteran safeties and drafted another, had a potential interception clank off of his hands. Not an easy catch but one a team looking for takeaways wants him to catch.

—Chris Cooley caught a pass, took a few steps, and got the ball stripped away. That’s two fumbles in two days for him.

—Brian Orakpo is all over the place. He read a bubble screen to Pierre Garçon and was right on top of the receiver just as he made the catch.

—Alfred Morris twice found the opening on the outside zone play and cut into the hole for a nice gain. It was classic one-cut, zone blocking scheme running.

—Kirk Cousins is looking like a talented rookie. He fired three darts in a row. Two of them went right to receivers and the other went towards an empty area.

—A flash of lightning followed by a crack of thunder just a couple of seconds later ended the outdoor portion of practice. As the wind started to pick up, the players went into the back door of the main building at Redskins Park, up the stairs, and out the front door to the practice bubble.

—The defense got loud after making a few stops. Maybe they do that normally but it was amplified inside. The most audible voice was that of Raheem Morris yelling “Yes, sir! Yes, sir!”

—Terrence Austin quieted the defense with a nice jumping touchdown catch on a good throw from Rex Grossman.

—Stop me if you’ve heard this—the bad Rex then put on the yellow No. 8 jersey. He didn’t see Kevin Barnes as he threw an out pattern and the cornerback easily grabbed the ball and sailed into the end zone.

—In the latest edition of the battle of the kickers (should that be capitalized?), Neil Rackers and Graham Gano both went six for seven with both of them having a miss from over 50 yards.

 

Comments

[Btcracing]

How's Jordan Bernstine looking? I'm hoping he's one of those late round steals when everything's said and done.

[Btcracing]

And how bout a Dezmon Briscoe update! lol

[Borlu002]

Can we get more updates on Alfred Morris? I've only seen / heard good things about him so far, and now that Darrell Young may have a hammy issue who knows what role Morris could play.