Things I Think I Think I Know

Does my title confuse you? I am calling this things that I think I think I know, because they are preseason lamentations, and reaching solid conclusions from such vanilla observances, can often be sticky. They are things that I know that I saw, I just don’t know how much weight that can be granted, given the overall practice nature of the NFL’s preseason.

1) Kirk Cousins has a future in the NFL. He put on an impressive performance on Saturday night against the Bears, tossing three touchdowns, and shredding the Chicago defense time after time in the second half. Pretty impressive for a guy seeing his first real NFL game action. He looked poised and comfortable, and really seemed to have a firm grasp of his reads, and the Redskins offense.

Read more

Game Thoughts: Bears

I absolutely hate preseason – I tweeted as much during the game – it’s like watching four Injury Bowls in a row. Unfortunately for the Redskins, their 33-31 loss to the Bears was no exception – Brian Orakpo and Brandon Meriweather left the game with first half injuries. MRIs for both players will likely tell a better story this week. Other than that, it was a typical preseason game – filled with highlights and lowlights. Here are some observations:

A lot of people were excited by Brandon Banks 91-yard punt return for a touchdown, and rightfully so, it was an exciting play. But many people in Redskins Nation seemed to believe that him doing so, guaranteed himself a roster spot. I don’t think so. Obviously, the return won’t hurt his claim any, but the Redskins already know that Banks can be a great return man – after all, it’s his third consecutive preseason with a return TD. The Redskins coaching staff told Banks he would have to take a wide receiver spot if he was going to make this team – returning a punt doesn’t do that. Banks definitely flashes brilliant play-making abilities at times, but will it be enough to make this team in 2012?

Read more

Twitter Contest: Redskins Rides

Well Redskins fans, it’s that time of year again – time for Redskins Rides! What an uber-cool thing for Redskins fans to do!

We wanted to make sure that everybody knew about the event this Sunday at Redskins Park from 12pm-5pm, so we’re having a contest!!

Redskins Rides were kind enough to give us two tickets to give away for the event, where you will meet up with THN’s own Jake Russell, and pick up your tickets!! (Would it be too much to ask that we take a picture when that happens please!)

So what do you have to do to enter the contest?

Read more

Neild Lost For Season

Mike Shanahan announced today, that Washington Redskins defensive tackle Chris Neild, has a torn ACL and will be done for the season.

After a Cinderella rookie campaign that saw the West Virginia product get drafted with the next-to-last pick in the NFL Draft, only to not only make the Redskins final 53-man roster, but make a considerable and valuable contribution in his first year. He appeared in 15 games (162 plays), registering 10 tackles, and two sacks.

Read more

Back to Camp

As the Redskins return to practice in Ashburn after their 7-6 win over the Buffalo Bills, I will be doing the same for the final time this summer. I plan on providing quality updates for everybody during practice.

Read more

Who Popped, Who Dropped?

The Washington Redskins kicked off their 2012 season last night, with a 7-6 victory over the Buffalo Bills in Buffalo. Pre-season games are usually littered with vanilla play-calling, and vanilla packages, but that doesn’t mean that players can’t help or hurt their chances of making a football team. Here are some guys that may have tipped the scale in one direction or another last night.

Popped

Robert Griffin III

Hard to believe that a guy riding the top of a see saw could actually raise his value even more, but the kid from Baylor just continues to prove that he truly has what it takes to not only play in this league, but perhaps one day be special. It isn’t that he did anything physically that blew the doors off or anything, but he most certainly did not look like some rookie tossed into the fire either. It’s hard to peg whether his poise, or his leadership was more impressive, but there is absolutely nothing about the number 10 to suggest that this is his first year in the league – other than public record of course.

Read more

Tonight’s Top 5 Watch List

Everybody likes to watch different elements in the preseason. Here are the top 5 guys that I’ll have my eye on tonight:

RGIII

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He won’t play much… it might be vanilla… he might hand the ball off half the time or more. Does any of that really matter?

Absolutely not. A new era begins for Washington tonight. Regardless of the lack of importance of the performance or the results, don’t try to tell me that Robert Griffin III isn’t the numero uno thing to watch tonight.

I’ll be watching him even when he’s done playing and just standing on the sidelines. So will you.

Read more

Cheap Seats: It’s getting closer…

It’s getting closer with every breath we take.  With every article we read, or interview we hear.  Every day it grows stronger in more than thirty locations around the nation.  It’s almost palpable.  Like a living breathing entity that needs time to grow and take shape, it has times of frustration and times of excitement, albeit in small amounts.  To some, it’s like the Loch Ness Monster in that it isn’t even a real thing.  To others, it’s as real as life itself.

Football season.

Read more