With Portis, Redskins cast vote for strong running game
The ball was snapped, the offensive line surged forward and a small crevice appeared between the right tackle and right guard.
Clinton Portis zipped through the hole in the fraction of a second it was open. He cut sharply to his right, forcing one potential tackler to stumble in his pursuit. Portis then shifted into a gear none of the defenders possessed, turned the corner and set sail up the field.
On that one play, in a matter of just a few seconds, Portis showed what he has that led the Washington Redskins to give up Champ Bailey, a second-round draft choice and $17 million in bonus money to acquire him.
"I think they gave up a good player to get a good player," Portis said after a practice at training camp. "That they included a second-round draft choice spoke volumes about me.
"But me and Champ haven't done anything for our teams yet. We've got to go out and make plays. Both teams made the trade hoping to better their team, and until the end of the season, we won't know if that has happened."
The Redskins have a pretty good idea that their offense received a significant upgrade when Portis, 5-11 and 205, joined the huddle. In his first two NFL seasons, playing for the Denver Broncos, Portis gained a total of 3,099 yards and averaged 5.5 yards a carry.
He was just the third running back in history to gain at least 1,500 yards in each of his first two seasons (Edgerrin James and Eric Dickerson are the oth ers). The Broncos, it seemed, had their franchise running back for the foreseeable future.
But Portis, a second-round draft choice out of Miami, made it clear that he was unhappy with his contract. The Broncos weren't interested in renegotiating the deal and weren't interested in the distraction of a training-camp holdout.
The Redskins had a similar problem with Bailey, on whom they had placed their "franchise" label.
The Broncos wanted a shut-down corner. The Redskins, with Joe Gibbs in charge, wanted a game-breaking running back. So a deal was struck.
So far, everyone is happy.
Given how much Gibbs relies on the running game, Portis seems certain to gain at least another 1,500 yards, unless his success was more a function of Denver's offense than his ability.
"I'm not even going to answer that," Portis said.
But Portis, 23, is well aware that avoiding the question will not make the question go away.
"He has quickness, acceleration and an undying belief that he's the best running back in the league," said running backs coach Earnest Byner. "He wants to go out and show everybody that it wasn't Denver.
"He feels like he's got something to prove. He's got to make a statement. His goals are high, his aspirations are strong."
Portis gained 100 or more yards in 10 of the 13 games in which he played last season (a bruised sternum and sprained ankle sidelined him for three games). But is he strong enough to endure in Gibbs' power offense? And how strong does Portis have to be?
Portis had 290 carries for 1,591 yards. In the 12 seasons Gibbs coached in his first tenure with the Redskins, the primary running back had more carries than that only four times.
Portis is capable of doing more than just running. He has excellent hands and is a threat to score or gain large chunks of yardage every time he has the ball. For that reason, he might catch four or five passes a game as well.
"The system will be the same, along with a few tweaks here and there," Byner said. "We've got to make adaptations for Clinton Portis. And coach Gibbs is adept at doing those types of things.
"I think we might use him on a couple of little checkdowns [short passes] and try to get him in space a little more often."
Portis is ready for the challenge. His formula for success includes his vast physical talent and one other factor he thinks people overlook about him.
"It's heart," he said. "Once you snap that helmet on and put those pads on, all of a sudden the heart kicks in. You can't have too much more heart than I have.
"A guy can be 6-3, 240 and have the nicest body in the world, but he's still missing something, and you've got to find his weaknesses. People's hearts wear out quicker than anything else. You can have all the strength in the world, but if somebody keeps challenging you, keeps challenging you, keeps challenging you, eventually it's going to be a mind game, and he's going to wear down."
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