The Redskin Report

Jump to Comments

We’ll look at these battles after every pre-season game, but I figured I might as well go on the record with my thoughts before the games start.  So here are the training camp battles and my thoughts:

Starting Strong Safety: Reed Doughty vs. Stuart Schweigert

This is the battle that’s drawn the most headlines so far this year.  Doughty is the spunky fan favorite who took over as a starter for the Redskins after the injury and subsequent murder of Sean Taylor.  He struggled tremendously at free safety but was solid after switching position with Laron Landry.  Doughty’s easy to cheer for, he’s a guy who’s never gotten a break with his child’s illness and now his hearing loss.  Schweigert is a free agent signee formerly with the Oakland Raiders.  Schweigert was a starter at free safety for the Raiders but was benched for missing tackles.  To say Schweigert wasn’t beloved by the always friendly Raider nation would be an understatement:

Cutting a back up who was due 2.5 million dollars wasn’t a hard decision. I do have a few words of advice for you Stuart. First off, it’s called a curl. You do curls (with weights btw) to get bigger and stronger biceps. Biceps are what help you wrap up and hold onto things, like running backs. You, Mr. Schweigart have the biceps of Dave Dravecky. Second of all, badmouthing the organization that paid you millions of dollars to be average on a good day is a bit classless. Why don’t you have some balls to say something about the defense when you were gainfully employed? You were the whipping boy of the Raiders defense? Well duh. I didn’t see anyone whiffing on so many piss poor attempts at tackles like you did.

Either way, Doughty has the edge going in.  Perhaps Schweigert can excel at the strong safety spot and challenge him, but for now Doughty’s got the edge (Blache yesterday pretty much confirmed that Doughty’s got the job).

Odds of Winning: Doughty 85% Schweigert 15% 

Starting Defensive Tackle: Kedric Golston vs. Anthony Montgomery

It was assumed that this was Montgomery’s job but yesterday Greg Blache said these two guys were battling for the position (he also said that Golston would have played the next game had the Redskins beaten Seattle in the playoffs, I find that hard to believe).  I suspect this was just told to them both so Montgomery would keep working hard and not be the lazy guy he’s reputed to be at times but who knows. 

I always looked at Golston as the eventual successor to Cornelius Griffin, more a pass rushing type DT versus the brick wall approach of Montgomery.  Golston’s going to have to steal the job from Montgomery and I’d rate his chances as very slim.

Odds of Winning: Montgomery 90% Golston 10%

3rd Wide Receiver: Devin Thomas vs. Malcolm Kelly vs. James Thrash vs. Anthony Mix

In all likelihood this will boil down to the two rookies, but as usual Thrash is impressing with his all-out work-ethic and sticking his nose into this battle.  Mix is listed mainly due to my man-crush on him and at this point he’s more likely to be cut than win this battle (so sad).

Both Thomas and Kelly are currently injured which has to improve Thrash’s chances.  Before camp I would have given Thomas the edge due to his higher draft position, but his hamstring injury is more serious than Kelly’s so Kelly is now my slight favorite.

Odds of Winning: Kelly 40% Thomas 35% Thrash 24% Mix 1%

Punter: Derrick Frost vs. Durant Brooks

Frost is the veteran trying to hold off the young prospect Brooks.  Frost is average at best, but did find some type of consistency last year although his numbers did fade as the year went on.  Brooks has a big leg; the question marks with him will be consistency and hang time.

Frost performance in the playoff game last year in Seattle seemed to really annoy the coaching staff.  They were more than willing to let him go to anyone who’d offer more than minimum and then they drafted a punter, a rare move these days.  Brooks has to be considered the favorite at this point

Odds of Winning: Brooks 65% Frost 35%