Here are five players who are locks to make the final roster to watch when the Redskins take on the Bears.
1. RG3—OK, you didn’t have to click on this to learn that, so I’ll give you five more after this one. But it will be interesting to see how he plays in a more extended time frame. Against Buffalo, he had success going to Pierre Garçon down the middle and then he went out of the game. If he has similar success in Chicago, the Bears will take measures to take those plays away. How Griffin adjusts then will be the key to keeping the offense moving. Oh, and one other thing—will he take off and run?
2. Niles Paul—The blocking aspect of his conversion from wide receiver to tight end was a success last Thursday but he dropped some passes against the Bills and he went back to basics in an effort to solve the problem. We’ll see if his extra time spent on the field catching passes pays off.
3. Leonard Hankerson—Garçon caught three of Griffin’s four completions last week; Hankerson caught the other one. There are some who think that Hankerson, not Garçon, will be the Redskins No. 1 receiver, or at least 1-A to Garçon’s 1. If he gets a lot of snaps on Saturday, which he should, he will have a shot to show what he can do.
4. Jarvis Jenkins—He has yet to fully regain the form he was showing before the injury last year. Jenkins still needs to use proper technique to fend off opposing linemen instead of relying on his power. Don’t necessarily look for him to have a breakout game or anything but his play should start to get more and more noticeable as the preseason goes on.
5. Tanard Jackson—He got some time with the first team this week both in place of Madieu Williams and alongside Williams in a nickel set that essentially had two free safeties. Watch how much he plays in the first half, that will be an indication of how much of an opportunity the coaches think he earned in practice.
6. Cedric Griffin—He had some trouble keeping close to Buffalo receivers last week. If DeAngelo Hall moves into covering the slot receiver against three-wide sets, Griffin will need to pull his weight against a team’s No. 1 or No. 2 receiver. If he can’t, he could eventually give way to Kevin Barnes or maybe even rookie Richard Crawford.
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