Redskins: Notes from Week One Regular Season Practice (Finally)

The 2015 NFL regular season has been a long time coming in the District of Columbia. Through surprising Combine announcements about starting quarterbacks in February to neuropsychologists changing their minds right before games and a different starting QB announced, the Washington Redskins have had one of them most tumultuous off seasons in their history. There have been many times when this team did its “winning off the field” in the offseason and the drama came after Week one… not so this year.

The good news about that is that the Redskins first game of the regular season is now just four days away and, at least for right this minute, all is fairly quiet on the homefront. Head Coach Jay Gruden announced that OL/TE Tom Compton (calf) did not participate, DL Frank Kearse (shoulder) practiced fully and QB Robert Griffin III was limited (concussion).

Asked today whether Griffin’s concussion re-evaluation result was known yet, Gruden said that the team had received a verbal report. He would not make an announcement about what that result was until he received the results in writing.

“He has had a test,” Gruden said during his meeting with reporters today. “We’ve had a verbal but I am not going to talk about the verbal. You know what happened last time so… We’ll wait and see what happens with the written and we’ll make it official.”
That’s certainly understandable.

But things move are moving along as well as they can in light of what’s gone on so far. The team practiced today and, as we’ve grown used to seeing, offensive line coach Bill Callahan worked with his unit long after the rest of the team had gone up to the locker room. With the Miami Dolphins and defensive line star Ndamukong Suh coming to town, that’s a good thing. Young right tackle Morgan Moses and rookie Brandon Scherff are going to have their hands full with this man as will the rest of the offensive line.

“It’s Suh, it’s [Cameron] Wake, it’s [Olivier] Vernon… they have a great front,” Gruden said in answer to how to help that young right side handle guys like Suh. “[Earl] Mitchell’s doing a great job so I think just trying to keep them off balance. You know… quick passing game obviously. We’ll try to give them some help if we can but there’s going to be a lot of plays where he’s going to have to block him one-on-one. And it’ll be a great test for him. We’re confident that he’ll compete and do as good a job as he can.”

As the team finally gets to some real game-planning for a real opponent — unlike in the preseason when they’re mostly evaluating players — things like Jordan Reed staying healthy are going to become more important. Washington did sign four-year tight end Derek Carrier from the San Francisco 49ers and six-year tight end Anthony McCoy from the Seattle Seahawks (GM Scot McCloughan continues to draw on his knowledge of players he knows) and we will see how they do as relief for Reed. Carrier was pretty highly thought of coming out of Beloit College and not long ago Gruden made the comment that he wished he’d had him sooner.

McCoy, only signed a couple of days ago with the team, must get up speed before he’ll be much help. Unfortunately, he’s suffered torn Achilles’ two years in a row but he and Carrier are both big (Carrier is 6’4” and McCoy is 6’5”) and will likely be used a lot in the blocking game… at least at first or unless they show signs of being as dangerous to opposing defenses as Reed is.

“He looked like a true tight end, a true Y… a blocking tight end,” Gruden said about signing McCoy. “He’s obviously got great length which you’re looking for at the point of attack and he can run good enough. He’s had a couple injuries like you said but watching him on tape, he looked he’s a good, long strider down the field. But mainly we’re looking for him in the core, blocking for the running game. He looked like he was very good at that and now it’s just a matter of getting him acclimated to the terminology. It’s a totally different language for him so he’s got to learn it and as soon as he gets ready he’ll be out there.”

The atmosphere was businesslike but upbeat today — at least for the time the media was allowed to watch practice — in this first week of real game-time planning. At one point cornerback DeAngelo Hall intercepted a pass and yelled something back to starting QB Kirk Cousins about the tell… it’s that kind of “team-mate-ship” that can help this franchise move forward in the wake of all of the offseason drama. Cousins, by the way, did not look like he’d lost his puppy after the interception. He probably got all of the information he could from Hall why he moved on the play the way he did. And of course, everything he said was just right.

“Yea, you’re always trying to learn,” Cousins said today. “It’s so important to pick the brain of players… especially a guy like DeAngelo who’s played 12 years, has a ton of experience, has seen a lot. So, I go around the building and try to pick as many people’s brains as I can and especially, when you get someone like [quarterbacks] Coach [Matt] Cavanaugh from Chicago who’s been around the block it’s ‘What was this guy like? What did he do? What made him successful? How did he prepare?’ I try to be a great question-asker and I feel like if I’m a great question-asker, then I’m going to learn a lot. And that’s something I’ll always carry with me when I’m in this league.”

After ESPN and Pro Football Talk ranked Redskins dead last in the league this week mostly because Cousins was the newly named starter, it was interesting to hear Miami head coach Joe Philbin speak so complimentarily about Washington — the offense and Cousins in particular. It’s hard to swallow that there are people in the world that swear that the Redskins are the absolute worst team in the league. They may not be good yet but how good or bad they are remains to be seen. It’s hard to think with the upgrades on the defense and Cousins running the offense they are the worst.

Obviously as a head coach studying serious film, he’s going to know more than some national analysts and reporters what to look for and what’s important.

“I think he has a good command of what they’re doing,” Philbin said during a conference call. “I remember, again, I’ll go back to the interview in Indianapolis, we thought he was a real bright guy. Thought he really understood the game of football, understood protections, new how to move guys around, make adjustments and so forth in the brief time that we spent with him. I think you see some of that on tape. I think he’s intelligent, a good decision-maker. Like I said… he’s a good football player.”

As Philbin was complimentary of the Cousins, Miami QB Ryan Tannehill isn’t underestimating the defense.

“Yeah, they have some talented guys,” he said today. “They are kind of flying under the radar at this point. Obviously, they’ve got [Terrance] Knighton up front who’s a huge guy. He’s tough to move, definitely a big player in the run game and with the style of defense Washington plays. He’s going to be a key factor for them. He’s a point of emphasis for us. Also [Ryan] Kerrigan has had an awesome career up to this point so he’s a guy that we’re expected to play and definitely have to have a plan for him. With the secondary, [DeAngelo] Hall in the secondary… he’s a  veteran player who has a great resume and can still make plays so we have a lot of respect for these guys and what they can do. You look at a new coach [Joe Barry], a new defense and I think there’s a lot of excitement there.”

No doubt, when Gruden receives the written report about Griffin’s concussion tests and announces the findings, unless it says that the quarterback did not pass them, there will be some drama and some speculation about what the team does next… depending on what the team does next.
Despite that, there is, in fact, a game on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins and it is nice for a change to be able to focus on that. Look for a pre-game analysis and prediction next. Now that will be novel.