Wednesday, August 6th, 2008...10:41 am by Lee Gibbons
Redskins News Wrap-Up – Aug 6, 2008
A quick wrap-up of the stories making news in Redskin land today:
Thrash named #3 Wide Receiver
The news that Jim Zorn named James Thrash as his #3 receiver was lost in the shuffle of the story below, but it was significantly more important for the upcoming year. Many felt Thrash was in trouble of losing his roster spot as he was a Joe Gibbs favorite, but he quickly impressed Zorn with his work ethic and skills. With the Redskins moving to a more pass heavy offense, Thrash’s numbers should improve substationally from last year.
Zorn rips Thomas and Kelly’s Conditioning
Any thoughts of Jim Zorn being a push-over are quickly being erased. During yesterday’s press conference Zorn mentioned that the injuries to Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly were caused by their lack of conditioning when they reported to camp. Both rookies failed the team’s conditioning tests early in training camp. Zorn said both players have fallen behind and will be hard pressed to get caught up before the season opener.
Horton, Moore Move up the Depth Chart
Yesterday’s release of Stuart Schweigert was in part caused by his bad performance but also due to the impressive work of rookies Chris Horton and Kareem Moore in training camp. Horton and Moore are currently working with the 2nd unit in practice while LaRon Landry sits out with an injury. Reed Doughty and Vernon Fox are handling the duties for the top unit. UPDATE: Horton is not practicing today due to illness.
Quick Hits
- Zorn on Marcus Mason: “I have never thought that he was not going to make the team”
- After a verbal shouting confrontation between an undisclosed player and defensive coordinator Greg Blache, Zorn huddled the entire team for some time discussing showing proper respect.
- No new kicking competitors being brought to camp to battle with Shaun Suisham.
- I mentioned this in yesterday’s update but in case you missed it Todd Wade and Stephan Heyer are both out for 2 weeks.
1 Comment
August 6th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Heyer and Wade being out for two weeks is precaution; both are probably only injured in the “take it easy” range.
No competition for Shaun Suisham is a bit surprising; however, with roster spots the way they are, the battle over the punter may have put the kibosh on that. However, you have to believe that there is at least a critical look being made at that spot on the roster.
Mason is on the squad; there isn’t much doubt of that, as the Redskins need at least three RBs week-to-week, and need a fourth for injury; with Cartwright being a special teams ace, Mason may actually see more line of scrimmage duties if Portis or Betts is injured during the season.
Horton had my game ball Sunday; I guess I made that clear enough, but he was the star from what I saw (yes, others had good games… but he’s the one who seemingly came out of nowhere in the game, even if he had been a draft pick). I can see that with what we’re now hearing is a strong performance in camp, too, that Sweigert was expendable. With young talent, that bodes well for Cap numbers down the road, too. At the moment, even though it’s WAY early, it’s looking like we did well in the later rounds of the draft… at least four potentially long term players, three of which could be starters in two years (one could be by opening day….), and all of the picks who played Sunday had at least a reasonable night for a rookie… but that leave the early returns on the two wideouts, which haven’t been as good. Poor conditioning? Sounds like that maturity issue cropping up. OTOH, reports of actual in camp performance says that they’ve occasionally dazzled before their injuries….
Man, I can’t wait to see games that are meaningful!
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