The Redskins Blog

Redskins Riding High After Win

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With a win last night, the Redskins secured their first winning preseason since 2008, finishing 3-1.

Exactly zero of those wins will translate over to the regular season, but it’s short-sighted to call the preseason meaningless.  For a young team with dozens of unknown entities entering training camp, this team certainly has a clearer picture of what they can do now.

For players with secured roster spots, last night was a feel-good win going into next week’s battle with the Giants.  But for players fighting for a spot, this is hardly a relaxing day off.  Players tweeted a range of emotion after the game:

Good win tonight. The next time we take the field it will finally be for real!—
Adam Carriker (@AdamCarriker) September 02, 2011

Got the win! Felt good to start off the game even if it was in preseason…—
Niles Paul (@Niles_Paul) September 02, 2011

Proud of all the players on the redskins 90 man roster. We have alot of talent. Everyone will be somewhere—
Darrel Young (@darrelyoung) September 02, 2011

Felt pretty good tonight, now the chips will fall where they fall…—
DeJon Gomes (@HuskerHybrid_7) September 02, 2011

and now we wait… ~$HOWTIME—
Reggie Jones (@RegJones29) September 02, 2011

Darrel Young summed up the emotion pretty well in his latest blog post:

Being with the players for so long through the offseason and training camp and then things change. People get cut or traded and it is tough because of the memories you build up with those players that you will never forget and then they are gone.

Carriker and Young appear to have a good chance to start this season, but Paul, Jones, and Gomes did a lot to help themselves last night and throughout the preseason.

This will be a stressful 24 hours for a lot of players.

Young Defenders Rising To The Occasion

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Much of what the defense does on a daily basis in practice is hard to track in terms of progression and regression.  Games are the only real indication of who is a defender, and who is a pretender.

But with that in mind, here are a few observations about young players finding their form:

1. Ryan Kerrigan is making up for lost time

The knee injury that sidelined him early in camp isn’t fully healed, but he looks comfortable playing in the brace for now.  Kerrigan is going through an adjustment period to the pros, on top of a change of position and responsibility.

Kerrigan was a down lineman in college and didn’t play many snaps in coverage.  He said that he’s been working hard with linebackers coach Lou Spanos to learn his responsibilities in coverage, but it’s still going to take some time to feel natural.  Probably at this point, he’s best suited as a blitzing specialist from the linebacker position, or an extra man with his hand in the dirt.

Today during blitzing drills, Kerrigan was lined up against rookie running back Shaun Draughn.  While there were times that Draughn was able to contain him, there were other times when Kerrigan mauled him en route to the quarterback.

The last play of the drill is one that Draughn won, and is shown below.  In between the players, you can see the battle raging on: Read more »

Reggie Jones Saw Opportunity With The Redskins

Heading into the last weeks of the 2010 regular season, Reggie Jones seemed to be in a pretty good spot. He was on the practice squad of the New Orleans Saints, a playoff team that everyone assumed would be poised to make a Super Bowl run. His wife had recently given birth to his first kid, a son. He even had a Super Bowl ring from his time on the Saints’ injured reserve the season before.

Then the Redskins called and wanted to sign him to their active roster, which put Jones in an interesting quandary.

“It was tough,” he told me shortly after he arrived here. “Should I stay in New Orleans, be comfortable, ride through the playoffs, maybe get another Super Bowl Ring? You know, have the chance to be known as two-time champion Reggie Jones. Or I could go to a team that wants to play me and have an opportunity to turn the program around. To help turn a program around.” Read more »

The Triumphant Return Of Doug Dutch (And The Signing Of Two Other Guys)

When the Redskins traded cornerback Doug Dutch to the Ravens for current #2 quarterback John Beck, it seemed likely that we had seen the last of the D.C. native (and Gonzaga grad) as well as his impressive cheering section. But Dutch never caught on in Baltimore, and — as the Redskins find themselves thin in the defensive backfield following injuries to Carlos Rogers and every safety on the team — Dutch was signed to the practice squad yesterday. The cheering section hasn’t returned yet, but I’m sure they’ll be here if Dutch is still on the roster when training camp rolls around.

(This signing also means that John Beck was acquired for absolutely nothing. Coincidentally, that’s the same thing he’s done on the field this season. But the coaching staff seems to be pretty high on him, so I suppose you could now officially chalk up the John Beck trade as an umitigated win for the Redskins. The way this season’s gone, I’ll take whatever wins I can find.)

Dutch wasn’t the only signing, though, and he probably wasn’t the most significant either — cornerback Reggie Jones was signed from the Saints practice squad straight to the Redskins active roster.

Read more »