Fox says Portis up; Defense down

[BigSKINBauer]

Aaaarg there be another redskin hater

http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW...holm070605.htm

It being early July and all, a dead time for the NFL, and with nothing too big going on, column-worthy, I thought I would just take a look at a few odds and ends going on around the league:

The Redskins are on the verge of capping one of the roughest offseasons in recent memory. Of course, in retrospect, most Redskins offseasons are bad; they just usually look good as they are happening. Maybe change is good, but in this case, most people agreed that the team suffered some key losses and was unable to get much immediate help. And trumping everything has been the Sean Taylor saga, which will continue to haunt the club through the season.

Now first-round pick CB Carlos Rogers was discovered to have a stress fracture in his right foot and a bone bruise in his right ankle — injuries that will force the Redskins’ top pick to miss the start of camp. The injury likely will set him back from challenging for a starting spot, meaning Walt Harris and Artrell Hawkins are the team’s Nos. 2 and 3 corners for now.

With Taylor’s status up in the air and Rogers out of the picture for the start of camp, a secondary that was an underrated and vital piece of the team’s defensive success last season will be knocked down a peg or two. And this is on a unit that also lost CB Fred Smoot and MLB Antonio Pierce and failed to acquire another defensive lineman. One Redskins defensive coach swears this offseason that Phillip Daniels is going to have a great year, but that’s far from a certainty, seeing as how he missed 11 games last season and hasn’t had more than 5½ sacks in a season since 2001.