The Redskin Report

There’s been some developments in the Sean Taylor murder case this week.  Early this week, a fifth person was charged with murder.  Timothy Brown, who’s only 16, was charged with first degree murder and armed burglary.  Brown is the youngest person of the group to be charged.

Just after the new arrest was made, it was announced that one suspect has pled guilty.  Venjah Hunte pled guilty to 2nd degree murder and burglary.  Hunte was sentenced to 29 years in jail and has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the cases of the other suspects.

It continues to sound like these guys went to rob Taylor and expected the house to be empty and when confronted by Taylor they panicked and shot him.  Just a pointless murder.

Player moves may have been at a minimum this off-season, but the Redskins have still been wheeling and dealing reshaping a coaching staff and now shaking up the front-office structure.   News came down a few weeks back that the team had retained capologist Eric Schaffer, but the existing scouting staff wasn’t so lucky.

Louis Riddick, formerly the Redskins’ Pro Personnel Director, was informed that his contract will not renewed when it expires this summer.  Riddick has been with the team for seven seasons and was mainly dealing with pro scouting (i.e. providing scouting reports on future opponents).  The move had been anticipated as Scott Campbell had been promoted above Riddick earlier this offseason.  Campbell, formerly the Director of College Scouting, ascended to the position of Director of Player Personnel.  The move put Campbell just behind Vinny Cerrato in the organization’s power chart a spot formerly held by Riddick.

Today JLC reported that the Redskins have promoted Alex Santos to a pro scouting role, but the team still has various openings in the scouting ranks.  It’s nearly impossible for fans to evaluate these front office guys.  If the team falters, all the blame is going to be laid at the feet of Dan Snyder, Cerrato and Jim Zorn.  It can be argued that the college scouting unit has done a solid job in the last few years uncovering late round and undrafted players who’ve been able to contribute, so it isn’t a huge side that someone from that side would be promoted. 

Losing a job is part of life for someone who follows a career in sports.  Whenever there is a change at the top of an organization, in this case from Gibbs to Cerrato and from Gibbs to Zorn, they are going to want to bring in their own people.  Being a pro football scout or holding a position in the front office of an NFL team sounds like a glamorous job but the lack of stability must be taxing.  As fans of the Redskins all we can hope for is that the departing scouts land on their feet and these new guys can return the team to promised land.

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Well, it didn’t take long for the Return of the Hammies.  WaPo is reporting that Jason Campbell has a pulled Hamstring, and Clinton Portis has a hip injury.  With Antwuan Randle-El having had to have his knee scoped just two days ago, the Redskins have already been hit by the injury bug in three starting spots, and we haven’t even started training camp.

That said, Randle-El should be back when OTAs resume in June, Campbell doesn’t have a torn Hammie, and Portis’s injury is mild, probably just a mild hip flexor (oh, and Zorn says that it “probably occurred when he was racing LaRon Landry”…. something Coach Gibbs wouldn’t have allowed). 

So, are we snake bit?  Is this the beginning of Hammie from Hell V, the Revenge of the Revenge?  Or are we lucky that, perhaps, our quota of bad luck is happening NOW, and we’ll (hopefully, if Karma really works) be healthy this season.