The Redskins Blog

Inside The Park: First Day Of Camp

Note: Each day during the team’s training camp, Washington Redskins’ outside linebacker Ryan Kerrigan will blog his insights about the team and his own life as he begins his second season in the NFL. To ask Ryan a question for the blog, you can leave a comment below, tweet your question to the Redskins’ account (@Redskins) with the hashtag #KerriganBlog, or leave a comment on the Redskins’ Facebook or Google+ pages.

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What’s up Redskins fans?? This is Ryan Kerrigan and I’ll be sharing my thoughts about training camp with you all for the next few weeks. I’m also excited to get the chance to answer your questions about training camp, my life and everything in-between.

Well, we got things started today! It was good to see all the guys again and start our preparation for what we believe will be a successful year for our squad. The first day of training camp is a lot like the first day of school (except it’s football so it’s a lot more exciting — at least to this guy).

But it’s like the first day of school because you outline the plan/schedule for the upcoming weeks. We also held a few meetings and did some conditioning — nothing too demanding. Tomorrow should be much more exciting though, the first day of practice! Can’t wait to get back out there.

I’m really looking forward to see how our new guys develop. On offense Pierre Garçon, Robert Griffin III and Josh Morgan have been some of the more highly publicized additions for any team around the league and my anticipation to watch them is as high as anyone’s.

In addition to those three, we added numerous other players through the draft/FA that you all should be excited about — hard-working, very skilled players.

After our first day of training camp, as you can see in the photo, I relaxed with an episode of Jeopardy. Jeopardy’s been one of my favorite TV shows for a long time. I love pretty much any kind of trivia show. It’s nice to take a few minutes after a day of camp and unwind with some TV, but those times are short-lived as it’s back to the playbook right after!

Anyway, here’s a couple of questions straight from the fans with my responses:

From ‘Tsunami’ on the Redskins Blog:
“What do YOU see as the major difference between those who have a “motor” to push to excel (regardless) of the record or game and those who simply go through the motions when it appears to be over?”

Football is a game of ‘want-to’ and character. You find out a lot about someone not when they are winning and things are going well but when they are struggling. That’s when their true character shows and that is the type of attitude that allows someone to succeed.

From ‘Nicholas J. Papanicolas’ on the Redskins Facebook:
“What’s the main focus on defense this year? Pass defense? More QB pressure? Stopping the run?!“

All the above! I think that any defense around the NFL would say the same thing. The most important thing for a defense to do is to stop the run because teams run the ball in order to set up the pass. However, the NFL is becoming a pass-happy league. Teams are relying more on the pass than ever before so getting pressure on the QB is vital. Being someone who rushes the passer, I see it as important as anything for the defensive side of the ball.

That’s all I have for you guys today. I’m pumped to be able to give you all a bit more insight about training camp from a player’s perspective. Keep the questions coming and I’ll be sure to answer as many as I can.

HTTR!!