I went to training camp

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

I went to training camp on Saturday afternoon. My impressions:

1. It was so frickin hot, every player earned their combat pay that day.

2. I thought there were 10,000 people there (Redskins.com is reporting that 5,000 showed for the am practice and another 5,000 showed for the pm practice).

3. The practice was MUCH shorter than I expected.

4. It was nice to see Chad Morton return a punt for a touchdown when I first came into camp. He is even faster in person than he looks on TV and I can see why he is such a return threat.

5. Chris Cooley isn't as big as I expected him to be.

6. James Thrash and Laveranues Coles have amazingly quick feet and if Coles' toe is bothering him, I couldn't tell one bit. I have never seen anyone juke left, right, left, right, and then zoom downfield as quickly as he does.

8. Clinton Portis made a few very nice moves. He looks like a slightly bigger Laveranues Coles in the backfield; if you blink, you're going to miss some moves that will make you ohh and ahhhh and want to laugh at how stupid he can make defensive players look. It is going to be fun watching him.

9. Tupa was booming a few punts yesterday, I didn't see one shank.

10. Special teams were practicing like crazy. Special teams were out there
80% of the time running drills. I saw 7-7 drills for about 30 minutes.

11. Brunell and Ramsey both have cannons for arms. Brunell threw a pass so hard to Clinton Portis, I was expecting Portis' hands to come off.

Brunell looked pretty good out there (not as much rust as Ramsey). It's funny, Brunell has got great touch but he couldn't throw as nice a deep ball as Ramsey. Ramsey was throwing nice deep balls, but wasn't throwing the greatest dump-off passes.

Also, Ramsey seemed to be holding onto the ball a bit too long.

Both QBs were throwing a disproportionate number of dump-off passes (I guess neither wanted to throw any picks).

12. Marcus Washington looks like he is going to be a beast.....he is fast as hell. He dropped back into coverage on this one play and looked more like a big safety when he almost picked one off.

13. Mike Barrow seemed to be on his toes and is definately faster than Trotter. I would have liked to have seen some serious hitting though.

14. Considering how quickly the season is approaching, I think it's better to risk some injuries at this point by engaging in some tackling drills than to risk looking as bad as we did last year with out tackling.

15. Arrington was getting a lot of penetration; he could have killed Brunell on a couples of plays. I doubt that he will completely satisfy our pass-rushing needs, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him get 10-15 sacks this year. It's his first year back at weakside since his PSU days and based on what I saw at practice, he could turn into a super-monster.

16. I'm pissed that the 'Skins cut S Dernard Wilson (a former Terp) after he broke his leg last week. Whether he would have made the squad or not, it's messed up that he is unemployed with a broken leg and he's a home-grown talent.

17. The catch that Darnerien made that Redskins.com says brought the most cheers was sweet. He leaped up into the air and caught the ball with two defensive players right on him. Yeah he ran it back for a TD, but every offensive player ran one back for a TD. The offensive players were told to keep running until they got to the endzone (and defensive players were not supposed to try to stop them after initial contact). It's too bad McCants is going to be our 4th wideout; it's going to be Coles, Gardner, Thrash, McCants, Jacobs, Russell. At some point however, I wouldn't be surprised to see Thrash beat Gardner for the #2 spot (yes, I said Thrash).


*Sorry everybody, I didn't get pics.

[That Guy]

thrash was really a monster out there in the am practices as well... not as flashy as coles, but definately a quality player...

[IowaSkinsFan]

Wilson should have received an injury settlement before being released, no?

[SKINSnCANES]

thanks for the report, i wish I could get out there. Its nice having this inside source to get all the info.

[Hogskin]

Originally Posted by Ramseyfan

17. The catch that Darnerien made that Redskins.com says brought the most cheers was sweet. He leaped up into the air and caught the ball with two defensive players right on him. Yeah he ran it back for a TD, but every offensive player ran one back for a TD. The offensive players were told to keep running until they got to the endzone (and defensive players were not supposed to try to stop them after initial contact). It's too bad McCants is going to be our 4th wideout; it's going to be Coles, Gardner, Thrash, McCants, Jacobs, Russell. At some point however, I wouldn't be surprised to see Thrash beat Gardner for the #2 spot (yes, I said Thrash).

Thanks for the GREAT report. Made very nice reading. But one comment about it. It is way, way, WAY to early to predict the season's WR depth. Don't be concerned - McCants will surely be in the top 3 by week 4, and probably by the opener. Gardner may well be OUT of the top three in that same timeframe.

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Thanks Hogskin.

It wasn't meant to be a report as much as a few brief comments. I'm not going to try to write a report; that's JoeCrisp's domain. His reports are always very well written, thoughtful, observant, and much more thorough than anything I could ever put together.

Since I've been so lately with work, I can just mimic Peter (The Village Idiot) King's "10 Things I Think."

[Daseal]

I predict Jacobs giving Gardner a run for his money above anyone else. It'll be interesting to watch for sure!

[offiss]

Originally Posted by Daseal

I predict Jacobs giving Gardner a run for his money above anyone else. It'll be interesting to watch for sure!

Agreed.

[Bergman14]

Its funny you mention Cooley (#5), I thought he looked really small as well, I never would have guessed he was a tight end. I also thought Brunell looked a lot better then Ramsey

[Daseal]

I thought Brunell looked horrible myself.

[huntz]

Great to hear alot of work being done on special teams, which we would have expected with Gibbs back. Can't get down to camp this year but keeping a close eye on the WR competition. Anyone think Jacobs could turn into the #3 or 4? As for the croud, Saturday's FA Day should be a zoo!

[Daseal]

He could turn into #2 and maybe a few years #1.

[SmootSmack]

I thought Brunell looked pretty sharp. In the 7 on 7 drills in seemed like he and Hasselbeck showed the most poise and made quick decisions. Ramsey looked too hesistant, but he'll learn.

Anyone else notice that when the receivers were hanging out off on their own, it looked like Gardner, Coles and Jacobs were hanging out together a lot? Actually, it looked like Gardner and Coles and Jacobs was like the kid brother who just wanted to be around them. Don't know if that's any indication of who are going to be the top 3 receivers

[joethiesmanfan]

I want to see waht Jacobs can do. Thrash is an inpiration atleast we got one of our players Marty threw away back. He took Raymer with him. but he is back too.