Official 2012 Training Camp and Pre-Season Thread

[LyricalRico]

Now that RG3 is officially signed, we're looking good for the start of camp. Feel free to post your thoughts about training camp and/or the preseason here.

Go Skins!

[LyricalRico]

Washington Redskins starting right tackle Jammal Brown will open training camp on the Redskins’ Physically Unable to Perform list, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Brown wasn’t onhand for his team’s first walkthrough and practice sessions of training camp Thursday.

PUP list delegation means a player didn’t pass his training camp physical and hasn’t received clearance to practice. Brown can be activated off the PUP list at any time, as long as he passes his physical.

Read the rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/foo ... _blog.html

They are really banking on him being healthy. If he's not, I don't really like any of the other options.

[LyricalRico]

The Washington Redskins appear to be in the market to add a veteran player to their backfield.

Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com reported Thursday the team has held internal talks about signing a running back. Cedric Benson and Ryan Grant reportedly are among the candidates.

The Redskins don't have a clear front-runner at starting tailback as training camp begins

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8 ... line_stack

Wow, I wasn't expecting this. Would have thought Shanny was looking at developing one of Helu/Royster. Benson has some miles and also doesn't strike me as a zone-running type of back. And isn't Grant coming off an injury?

[LyricalRico]

I think we all felt that we needed more personnel upgrades in the secondary, but the biggest upgrade might be the new secondary coach, Raheem Morris. Here's a snippet from an article about D.Hall trying to rebound from last season:

Hall already has watched film of those missed chances with Morris. And the former Tampa Bay head coach has encouraged Hall to try new coverage techniques that he believes will help improve the cornerback’s effectiveness.

“Raheem’s brought a fresh, new approach on some things we were doing in the past that I was kind of one-sided to, like, ‘I don’t wanna do that, and da-da-da-da,’ and he’s like, ‘No, well if you look at from this standpoint, and da-da-da-da, then late in the game…’ It’s just a fresh outlook, and I feel like we in the secondary will be able to make a lot of plays.”

Read the rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/foo ... _blog.html

[W. Unseld]

The Skins are getting killed on injuries already, especially among the O-line. The one sport I'm not a fan of is baseball and of course that's the one sport that DC is good at...

[LyricalRico]

Alright, preseason game one is about to start. A few notes:

- RG3 is reportedly expected to play 12-20 snaps
- Lots of holes on the O-line, so let's hope our "Ferrari" doesn't get dented
- Evan Royster will start at RB
- This is Jarvis Jenkins' first action since last preseason
- The FS and K battles are ones to watch

Go Skins!

[LyricalRico]

Not a bad debut for the young man. Also, Garcon looks like the big+fast receiver we've been looking for. And having Santana in the slot will only give him more opportunities. They also clearly want to see what Banks can to at WR, and so far it hasn't been much.

[Rafael122]

I stopped watching as soon as Grossman came in, I wasn't going to do that to myself. I thought RG 3 looked good, poised in the pocket, read the field well. Trent Williams looked like an absolute monster tonight. He was looking like a pro bowler last year before the suspension so maybe the light went on for this kid.

Our front 7 looks absolutely nasty.

[Higga]

RG3 looked damn good. Yeah I know it's early but he just looked so natural back there in the pocket. And I love how he got the D to jump offsides before hitting them with a downfield play action(with a good fake).

[W. Unseld]

Unsung hero ='s back up right tackle Palumbo who kept Mario Williams in check.

[pancakes3]

Fun factoid, grossman is also RG3.

[LyricalRico]

Definitely tough to see RG3 running for his life against the Bears. Granted, we won't be facing that front four every week. But the O-line continues to be this team's biggest concern IMO. Maybe we can turn some of our excess WR/TE guys into OL via trade?

At least we got some good news that apparently the injuries to Orakpo and Merriweather aren't serious.

[sfam]

Definitely tough to see RG3 running for his life against the Bears. Granted, we won't be facing that front four every week. But the O-line continues to be this team's biggest concern IMO. Maybe we can turn some of our excess WR/TE guys into OL via trade?

At least we got some good news that apparently the injuries to Orakpo and Merriweather aren't serious.

My real fear is that's what we see for the regular season. Nothing would be worse than RG3 spending all game running for his life before finally blowing out a knee. Then our 42 first round picks for him will all be for naught. We REALLY need a professional level Oline.

[verbal8]

I never think there was any QB "controversy" in Washington. I think the game against the Colts should convince everyone there isn't one. Not because of anything RG3 did(although he did well), but Grossman going 8 of 8 for 2 TDs. That illustrates the drop-off once the starters have been removed for the game. Maybe we have a "controversy" for the back-up QB

[LyricalRico]

Our front 7 looks absolutely nasty.

And through the third preseason game, this is still the case. Very excited to see lots of sacks and QB pressure. Let's see if it bumps up the turnover numbers. That would help a lot.

[verbal8]

Roster has been cut to 75. Other than the kicker spot being awarded to Gano, there didn't appear to be any real noteworthy moves. Mostly cutting rookie FAs.

[wermolwermol777]

Captain Chaos released

Watching the short press conference by him made feel really sad. Someone else posted somewhere that this just doesn't feel fair, the guy bleeds burgundy and gold, the guy was a bright spot through a pretty "meh" era. A super easy guy to root for, one of the good guys. And he doesn't get to be a part of the rebuild around Griffin. It's sad, just very sad.

I hope he'll be able to make it to a the roster of a title contender, actually not a contender, but I hope that wherever he ends up he'll get a ring even if in a diminished role on the field. As long as it's not in the NFCEast, but with Cooley I don't think that's even an option anyway.

It's understandable why the team did it, his salary, especially now that we've been hit hard with penalties, is just too big to continue holding on, yet inside I still wish that we would have swallowed it so that he could have been a Redskin for all his career.

[W. Unseld]

That was a tough conference, they might bring him back at a lesser salary. In terms of merit both Davis & Logan Paulson have shown more but I think Cooley has been better than Niles Paul--but Paul is good on special teams.

[LyricalRico]

Cousins looked really good against the Bucs last night and the backup D-Line was awesome.

Of course, it was against the Bucs......but still nice to finally see some depth.

[wermolwermol777]

As for the Bucs game, even though it was just a showcase of backups, it's good to know that our backups were good enough this time around to completely dominate someone. That poor QB never stood a chance in the first half.

Hightower cut, I was actually expecting that, given his injury and the emergence of Morris, but it's still perhaps the biggest news of our preseason apart from Cooley being released. Not sure what to make of Slaton, I don't expect him to really be a huge part in our running game, he supposedly wasn't going to make the Dolphins 53 anyway. How's his pass blocking if anyone knows because I'd imagine that's the biggest blow after letting Hightower go.
Still excited about our RBs going into the season, between Morris, Royster and Helu we seem to have a great bunch for a Shanahan offense.

Also, puzzled at best about signing Cundiff in favour of Gano/Rackers, my big concern is that he isn't reliable beyond 50 at all. I know Gano was inconsistent with or without counting the 5 blocked kicks last season, but at least he was a potential threat all the way to 60 and almost a guaranteed touchback on kickoffs given the new rules.