The Redskins Blog

Coach Zorn On Going To Watch The Caps

At any given Washington Capitals game, it seems like there are apt to be as many members of the Redskins as there are of the Caps. Jason Campbell, Chris Cooley, Colt Brennan, and Lorenzo Alexander have all been spotted at Verizon Center recently, and Fred Smoot and Rock Cartwright — among others — consider themselves fans. Heck, a bunch of those guys — plus Clinton Portis — even show up in a Rock The Red video.

Tonight, though, the Redskins/Capitals connection moves up a DEFCON level: head coach Jim Zorn will be attending tonight’s Game 2 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. And after today’s low-intensity practice, I was able to ask him a few questions about it. As you’d expect, the conversation turned to speed-skating and broomball. But it started with the basics of his hockey fanhood.

“When we were in Detroit,” he said, “we were certainly Red Wings fans, and really enjoyed many hockey games, actually. We enjoy it, and we’re gonna go try to support the Capitals.”

Have you been out to the Verizon Center yet? Read more »

Monday Afternoon Roster Moves

A flurry of roster moves this Monday afternoon, including a goodbye to a blog favorite.

The Redskins signed two wide receivers, although — bizarrely, to me — neither of them was actually involved in this past weekend’s minicamp. Roydell Williams was out of football last year, but spent the three years prior with the Tennesse Titans, where he enjoyed a fair amount of success — 55 catches for 719 yards and four touchdowns in 2007.

Trent Shelton, meanwhile, spent 2008′s training camp with the Indianapolis Colts before heading to the Seahawks’ practice squad. Here’s an excerpt from a blog post that ran on the Seattle Post Intelligencer’s blog in June after running on the Colts’ website in the preceding August. (It felt appropriate to use it, as if it’s following Shelton from stop to stop.) Read more »

On The Field For Practice – 5/4

After three straight days of fairly intense practices, Coach Zorn elected to slow things up a bit today, so this workout was deliberately lower-speed, lower-intensity stuff. Given the lousy weather — the rain continually ranged from light to heavy and back throughout the session — this was probably for the best.

There were no rookies in attendance today, per league rules, and all the tryout guys were (of course) gone as well. Of existing Redskins, Clinton Portis, Santana Moss, Mike Sellers, London Fletcher, and Hunter Smith weren’t there. “This is a voluntary deal,” Zorn said. “I know that a lot of guys got a lot out of what we did, so we’re gonna continue on.” Read more »

Monday, May 4: Minicamp Recap

For those of you who don’t live on the internet over the weekend — and who could resist going outside in yesterday’s torrential downpour — here’s what you missed over the three days of the first 2009 Washington Redskins minicamp, along with six word summaries of each.

• Friday’s morning practice. Six word summary: Keith Eloi exists. Tommy Breaux tall.
• Friday’s afternoon practice. Six word summary: Throwing into net, Jason Campbell excels.
• Saturday’s morning practice. Six word summary: Yes! Triumphant return of quarterback dodgeball!
• Saturday’s afternoon practice. Six word summary: Kelley Washington chats with defensive backs. (See also: a younger Kelley Washington’s celebratory touchdown dance on the Washington Times Redskins 360 Blog.)
• Sunday’s practice. Six word summary: Rain rain rain rain rain rain.

Also, I’ve been keeping an eye on undrafted free agent center Edwin Williams out of Maryland — here’s parts 1 and 2 of my talks with him, with more to come. Six word summary: Promising nice guy at need position.

I talked to Fred Smoot about training camp. Six word summary: OMG! Potential Fred Smoot radio show!

And Ethan Albright finally collects on the whole NCAA basketball championship back-and-forth with Devin Thomas. Six word summary is right there in the title: Devin Thomas wears Carolina Blue shoes.

Oh, and one other thing: we’re on Twitter now. Still working out how best to use it, but feel free to follow me there. Read more »