Redskins Training Camp Day 4: Special Teams – Buying In

Richmond, VA – It’s a horribly boring phenomenon, the beating of a dead horse. But sometimes it’s required to put some perspective on a given situation. There’s no doubt about it though, this horse is dead… the Washington Redskins’ special teams unit was awful last season. No other words describe it adequately. The squad lost the team games and it was obvious the players weren’t happy with the system and perhaps, to a certain extent, the coach. There was no doubt that the special teams needed a huge boost for 2014.

In 2014, however, along with a new head coach, came a new special teams coordinator, Ben Kotwica, ex-army Apache helicopter pilot and company commander. And he has brought in a new system and a new way of thinking to a squad sorely in need of these things. While there are new players on board to help make 2014 a successful year and who have bought into the system and the coach, more importantly, the players that had to deal with last season are impressed with the former Army linebacker.

“I’m a military brat,” quarterback Robert Griffin, III said today after morning practice, “and obviously he served. But I can tell you one thing about Coach Kotwica… when he came in and had his first special teams meeting, he had the attention of the whole team. And, he had us so pumped up in there from his speech… I mean, I raised my arm and I was ready to run down there on kick-offs.”

Kotwica has definitely gotten the attention of the special teams unit and two of the guys that were brought in this season to help fix that squad are linebackers Adam Hayward – an eight year veteran in the league from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; and Darryl Sharpton, a five-year veteran from the Houston Texans. Both of these players have excelled in special teams and both have high praise for Kotwica and his system.

“I’m definitely buying in because he’s a good coach,” Hayward said today. “I’ve known that through different coaches that I’ve had that know him. It’s easy to buy into to somebody that just wants to win. And his background is military so, with my father being in the military it’s like second nature to me.”

“He’s a great guy,” Sharpton said of his new coach. “He’s very detail oriented and serious about what he’s doing but he does a great job teaching and it’s a real pleasure to play for him.”

Also something to take note of is that both of these guys have had not only more than one special teams coach but both had new special teams coordinators last year and now, of course, having just come to Washington, they have new schemes and new coaches this season. But because they have so much experience on “Teams,” the transition, while requiring special attention, should not be too difficult.

Asked about getting used to the new scheme, Sharpton was at ease with it.

“It’s very similar,” he said. “I think, in the NFL everyone runs a lot of the same stuff so there’s a lot of carry-over so it’s been relatively easy to pick it up.”

While on the field, Hayward looks very much at ease but did admit the new scheme will take some study and time to master.

“It’s different,” Hayward said. “It was hard at first to grasp, coming from where I’ve been and the way he’s coaching but now… well, I won’t say I’ve got it but I have a better understanding so it’s getting easier to grasp what he wants to get done and the way he wants to accomplish things on special teams.”

The Redskins’ second-round draft pick, rookie linebacker Trent Murphy out of Stanford is working hard to make a name for himself, both on the special teams unit and with the defense. Asked about the Redskins’ special teams program this season, he was extremely complimentary.

“I think it’s phenomenal,” he said. “I mean, we had a huge emphasis in college at Stanford and it was as important as offense or defense for us. I think that’s the way it should be and I think that’s the way it is here… it’s where the emphasis has been. It’s very important and a crucial part of the game and can sometimes mean a win or loss.”

The Redskins are ready to move on from 2013 in a variety of ways even though the entire year wasn’t all bad… except perhaps for special teams. That is something they absolutely want to forget.

“I mean, we know about last season but we don’t harp on it,” Sharpton said. “We don’t focus on it. Basically, we know that this team didn’t play up to the standard that we wanted to last season but that, if anything, it encourages and motivates us to try even harder… to work hard and believe that we are one of the better units in the NFL.”

It’s early in training camp, of course. But half the battle in any unit is the players themselves buying into the system and believing in the coach. It certainly sounds as if that is a done deal for 2014.

Hail.