Last year, as the 2008 season wound down and the Redskins seemed unable to get themselves back in the win column on a consistent basis, head coach Jim Zorn was emphatic about playing his starters to the very end. Every week, reporters (and emailers, and blog commenters) would ask about getting more playing time for the then-rookies, and every week Zorn stuck to his guns.

As Sunday's game against the Falcons approaches, it appears that this year will be different; this next game is shaping up to be a flashpoint for this year's rookie class AND the largely-underachieving crew from 2008.

In some cases, such as rookies CB Kevin Barnes, LB Robert Henson, and FB Eddie Williams, this is because of injury, not by design. With H.B. Blades and Byron Westbrook out this week following surgeries, Barnes and Henson are getting more work in practice, Zorn said yesterday.

"I know Henson and Barnes are both getting reps," he told the media after practice. "There is going to be a lot of conversation before I make the final decision on inactives this week. It will be because of Eddie [Williams] coming up, Quinton [Ganther] still developing ... Barnes, Henson, with two tight ends, less offensive linemen and more defensive linemen, I am not really sure where I am headed yet. I couldn't put it together for you but they will be under consideration for sure."

At this point, all of this year's draft picks that remain with the team are currently signed to the active roster, and they all have a chance to be active on Sunday. (And, before anyone asks, I haven't heard any news about more playing time for Marko Mitchell this week.)

But it's not just this year's rookies that find themselves at a potential crossroads; the big three from last year -- Fred Davis, Devin Thomas, and Malcolm Kelly -- also need to represent in Atlanta.

It's Red RIver Rivalry day, when the University of Texas Longhorn face off against the University of Oklahoma Sooners for control of the major water boundary between their respective states. Ordinarily, this would be of no concern to me whatsoever, as I spend college football Saturdays hoping (usually in vain) that the Maryland Terrapins can wrest control of the Potomac River from football powerhouse James Madison University.

But Redskins second-year wide receiver Malcolm Kelly is an Oklahoma guy, and first-round draft pick Brian Orakpo is one of several Texas products on the team, so I figured it would be worth seeing if they had any sort of friendly rivalry going today. For the most part, it wasn't.

Mike Sellers is a big dude, bigger even than his listed 6-foot-3, 273 pounds. Part of this is because, well, he's enormous; another part is probably his elaborate goatee; and the final part is his outsized personality. Which, in fact, is often misunderstood.

In his tongue-in-cheek guide to football fandom, author Michael Tunison classifies Sellers using words like snarling, intimidating, naturally terrifying, and oozing quiet intensity [while] coated in an enemy's blood, and all of that -- with the possible exception of the blood coating -- is an easy conclusion to reach. That's why Sellers now has his own segment on NBC-4's Inside The Redskins show Saturday mornings: not to intimidate and terrify, but, Sellers explains, "For me to be me. I get to let people know who I am and how I am and the type of dude I am on this team."

Malcolm Kelly didn't actually mean to be a part of today's Redskins Rides event. Sure, his H2 was on display -- clearly labeled, as all the Redskins' cars are, with his jersey number in the windshield -- but that wasn't what it was doing here in the first place.

This afternoon's special teams practice was unremarkable (to say the least). The high point was Keith Eloi nearly managing to catch six balls off the JUGS machine at once, and who knows -- if he had succeeded, it might've been worth writing about. As it stands, though, I'll just note that special teams practice happened and everyone made it off the field healthy.

In other news, we're coming up on the Welcome Home Luncheon, which I wrote about at length last year. It's a good event, and tickets are still available.

Last year's Welcome Home Luncheon was Malcolm Kelly's first, and he remembers being impressed by the crowd. "I remember how many people were there," he said yesterday, "just die hard fans. People that get excited over the smallest stuff just to be in the same vicinity with the Washington Redskins. It's really the fan base, more than anything. Those guys take a lot of pride in this team."

Just some last notes, links, pictures and what-not from today. Click to enlarge the pictures.


That's head coach Jim Zorn and running back Clinton Portis, hanging out talking before practice. I have no idea what they were discussing, but it went on for some time. Also, it looked perfectly normal and cordial. I put this up just because I don't think we hear nearly enough about the times that Zorn and CP just kinda shoot the breeze.

A few notes about morning practice. To follow things like this (and, in some cases, these actual items) in real time, be sure to follow me on Twitter. (In fact, due to some techinical stuff, all of these photos come via my Twitter.)

In any event, it appears that the ovation and name-chanting for Jason Campbell is going to be a daily event. I was disappointed that Charles Robinson left that out of his otherwise very good profile of Campbell over at Yahoo! Sports while still mentioning the fans with the pro-Vick signs. Because there seem to be a whole lot of people doing the former, and only a few of the latter.

Speaking of the Vick signs, a few fans drove in from Pennsylvania today to offer up this counter-protest:

Sure, it's exciting that Malcolm Kelly and Devin Thomas are both healthy and motivated heading into next year's training camp. I'm genuinely expecting big things from both of them.

And it's interesting to learn that NBC-4's Lindsay Czarniak used to work at Sweetwater Tavern, while Thomas used to work at Wendy's. But I think the most important takeaway from this video is that Malcolm Kelly actually orders a Shirley Temple, apparently without even a hint of irony. I didn't even think they still made those.

Plus, one more reason to look forward to Kelly's first NFL touchdown: more freestyling. All in all, an eminently watchable video, complete with a terrific headline: "Second-Year Skins Receivers a Fun, um, Bunch?"

Notable absentees at today's practice included -- in addition to the folks who haven't been here all week -- Devin Thomas, Albert Haynesworth, and DeAngelo Hall, who was out briefly before heading back into the building. Clinton Portis and Chris Cooley were taking "mental reps," but did not fully practice.


The weather today was drizzly on and off, but the real rain waited not only until the players were off the field but until Coach Zorn finished his post-mortem on these OTAs. Which was good, because that particular talk was taking place in the open, just on the edge of the artificial turf practice field.

Zorn on young players solidifying their positions:

Ethan Albright doesn't always love being the object of attention -- a fair bit of Casey Rabach's footage from being on the road sits largely unseen because Albright is sitting in the background making unkind gestures at the camera.

But this weekend, North Carolina advanced to the NCAA Final Four, so Albright was more than happy to stop and show off his gear. Rabach actually predicted this (once he got done asking me where my umbrella was). "Oh, yeah," he said. "Ethan'll definitely want his picture taken. Definitely."

And he did.