The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

skinpride1 wrote:It's fun to debate this topic without anyone blowing a gasket but one thing is for sure... it's nice to have some talent and depth at WR finally!!!

I think The Garcon deal will look good had me wondering back in the spring. Rg3 to Garcon i think we see a lot of this season. I can't wait for RG3 to hit him again Saturday night.

I still think Armstrong could be a deep threat like he was in 2010. RG3 should have no problem finding him.

Dezmon Briscoe is slowly starting to show up more in practice. He obviously plays with excellent size. I’m curious to see if he can become a solid target over the middle. He made a couple catches Monday, using his size to shield corner David Jones from one pass, and also had one leaping catch in the back of the end zone Saturday. However, Saturday’s practice was just a step above a walk-through.

WR Dezmon Briscoe is playing faster now that he has been in the Redskins’ system for more than two weeks. On Saturday, he made a leaping catch in the back of the end zone during red-zone drills.

He is beginning to separate more consistently from defensive backs, albeit second- and third-stringers. His size (6-2, 210) sets him apart from other receivers near the bottom of the depth chart. I’m eager to see him against better competition now that he’s more acclimated to the Redskins’ scheme. He’s an intriguing prospect, considering his six touchdown catches for Tampa Bay last season.

-Wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe appears to be gaining comfort in Washington’s offense after joining the team with training camp in progress. Briscoe, who led Tampa Bay with six touchdown catches last season, has good size at 6-2, 210 pounds, and is an intriguing prospect. The action had been rather limited for him while he learned the schemes, but today he made a nice catch over the middle while running with the second team.

Brandon Banks had a step, or two, on Brandon Meriweather on a deep post, but Kirk Cousins’ pass was overthrown. Cousins did have a good throw over the middle to Terrence Austin, coming off a play fake.

On Monday, Banks dropped a certain touchdown pass after he beat CB Josh Wilson on a double move. The ball hit his shoulder pads and bounced away. Banks also did not cleanly catch a throw to the sideline. He bobbled it first, and he was noticeably frustrated after the play.

The other day Shanahan yelled at Josh Morgan after a play; looked like he thought Morgan needed to hustle back a bit faster to the line of scrimmage. Morgan tried to explain (from a distance) what happened. Um, next time just nod and do what the coach says is my advice. Today, Shanahan got on receiver Leonard Hankerson for something similar, telling him to “Get up there!” It was from a distance so I couldn’t tell for sure what happened. Shanahan wasn’t happy.

Austin, meanwhile, successfully blocked SS Brandon Meriweather inside on one run and he beat CB DeAngelo Hall inside for a reception out of the slot.

If Austin doesn’t make the Redskins’ final roster, he should end up on somewhere. He’s smart, he’s quick and he’s got good hands. There’s a place for him on someone’s roster.

And SS Brandon Meriweather outjumped WR Terrence Austin to intercept Cousins, whose throwing motion was impeded by an offensive lineman that was pushed back into him.

WR Anthony Armstrong finished practice by reaching over his head to catch a touchdown from QB Kirk Cousins. That’s a sign his sprained right shoulder is almost back to full health.

-It was a rough day for young wide receivers. Terrence Austin lined up in the slot and ran an inside slant, looking for a pass from Cousins. The ball hit Austin’s hands, but the third-year pro couldn’t hang on as he stretched out for the catch. Later, Brandon Banks had an opportunity for a touchdown pass, and Cousins dropped it over his shoulder perfectly. But the ball fell through Banks’s hands. Later still, the Redskins were simulating having the ball around the 45-yard line with only five seconds on the clock. Leonard Hankerson ran an out route, and Griffin hit him in stride. Hankerson dropped the pass along the sideline. Shanahan, as fired up as I’ve seen him in three training camps, charged over to the receiver and yelled the importance of catching the ball in those crucial situations.

Red_One43 wrote:Brandon Banks Itching for More Opportunities

The video shows the poor technique by Brandon, but it also shows some very poor thrown balls by Rex.

I will admit that I was wrong on that first deep pass to Banks. I saw Banks about to go by the defender. The defender put an arm bar on Banks, but then Banks adjusted back to the underthrown ball, so to
CKR and CH1, I stand corrected.

Some Briscoe buzz
At 6-3 he is a legitimate red zone target. On Saturday, he ignored a crowd of defenders in the end zone reached up and snagged a Kirk Cousins pass for a touchdown. He routinely reaches up and makes nice grabs with his long arms and secure hands.

The Redskins aren’t the only team that wanted him when the Bucs cut him loose. The Bengals, Eagles, and Cowboys also put in waiver claims.

Briscoe is not an ideal player. He has had some personal issues that have played out on a public stage and his attention seems to wander sometimes when he’s not actually playing wide receiver.

But when he does play wide receiver, he plays it well, perhaps better than anyone on the roster outside of the top four. At age 22, he is the youngest receiver on the roster despite the fact that he has two years of NFL experience. If he gets some passes thrown his way on Saturday in Chicago, don’t be surprised if he become one of those surprise players.

Red_One43 wrote:I am not going to be surprised because I already put him in my 7.

Chris Luva Luva wrote:It's not saying too much to list him as the 7th WR... That's safe. I think what will be suprising is how high he ends up on the chart 6 games into the season. That potentially will be the shocker.

We are LOADED at WR, or so it seems.

Irn-Bru wrote:

Chris Luva Luva wrote:It's not saying too much to list him as the 7th WR... That's safe. I think what will be suprising is how high he ends up on the chart 6 games into the season. That potentially will be the shocker.

It looks like Raheem Morris being on staff may have put the Redskins in the right place at the right time for this kid. I didn't realize he was that young.

I suspect we will be seeing Briscoe's name come up a whole lot more over the next 4 weeks. I think Banks doesn't make our roster but Briscoe does.

We are LOADED at WR, or so it seems.

I disagree. We have good depth at WR and capable players. But we have yet to see whether Garcon is a true #1, and one or two of our other players have lots of potential but have yet to prove themselves. Moss is aging but will probably be effective for another 1-2 years.

If Garcon and Hank each have the year they are capable of having, then going into 2013 I'll agree with you that we are loaded.

Chris Luva Luva wrote:

Red_One43 wrote:I am not going to be surprised because I already put him in my 7.

It's not saying too much to list him as the 7th WR... That's safe. I think what will be suprising is how high he ends up on the chart 6 games into the season. That potentially will be the shocker. We are LOADED at WR, or so it seems.

Garcon
Hank
Moss
Josh
Briscoe...

If I had to make a bold prediction, Briscoe gets some playing time in the top 3 rotation halfway into the season. I wouldn't be shocked to see multiple WR sets within the 20 with him involved and Moss out...

My seven looks like this:
Garcon, Moss, Hank, Morgan, Briscoe, Robinson and Banks

Banks’ job with Redskins could hinge on adapting

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Talking to Brandon Banks, the travel-sized Washington Redskin, you can see the uncertainty in his face, hear it in his voice. He knows he has to contribute as a receiver this year if he wants earn a spot on the final roster. Being “just” a returner — a one-dimensional player — is no longer enough. It’s a luxury Mike Shanahan doesn’t feel he can afford, not when he’s worried about depth in so many places.

You can’t say the Redskins aren’t giving Banks a chance to show what he can do at wideout, either. In the preseason opener Thursday night at Buffalo, Rex Grossman and Kirk Cousins threw nine passes in his direction. To put this in perspective, only one receiver in the league had more balls tossed toward him last week than Brandon did. Alas, he caught just two of them — for a grand total of seven yards — and, frankly, didn’t do much to improve his stock.

Yes, some of the passes were off target, but there also were times when Banks didn’t create enough space for himself to make the grab. Clearly, his size (5-foot-7, 150 pounds), which can be an asset in the return game by rendering him almost invisible, works against him as a wideout because he’s invariably battling bigger defenders, guys with more reach.

“I had a lot of opportunities [against the Bills],” he said, “but I couldn’t make the best of some of them. Rex was kinda off a little bit. I feel like any time I get the ball in my hands I can help this team.”

You have to wonder if Banks’ best shot at making a case for himself already has come and gone. With all the other players the coaches have to look at, all the other things the offense has to work on, it’s hard to imagine the quarterbacks targeting him nine times (or anything close) in any of the remaining preseason games. Indeed, the only way for him to carve a roster spot for himself might be to do something spectacular in the return game, something that causes Shanahan to rethink his planning and say to himself, “I can’t cut this kid. He’s too much of a playmaker.”

That’s harder to do, though, since last year’s rule change, which — to address the concussion issue — moved up kickoffs to the 35-yard line. It’s no longer the Kick Returner’s World it was when the ball was booted from the 30. There are many more touchbacks now, many more “Should I or shouldn’t I?” decisions for returners standing deep in the end zone.

There’s no doubt about it, the new rule has diminished the importance of the kickoff return — and by extension, the importance of the returner. And few players have felt its impact more than Banks, whose contributions are essentially limited to special teams. In fact, it might ultimately be what costs him his job. Think about that: He might get driven out of the league by a rule change.

Granted, he was slowed by a knee injury last season, but he also had trouble — as a lot of returners did — adjusting to the New Order. Consider: Sixteen times, an average of once a game, he ran a kickoff out of the end zone and didn’t make it to the 20-yard line. Five times he didn’t make it past the 15.

Danny Smith, the special teams coach, talked about that last week, about how return guys have had to develop a different mindset. A 25-yard runback, for instance, might sound good, but if it only gets you to the 18, wouldn’t you have been better off taking a knee? Players, Smith said, sometimes get preoccupied with their own stats and forget that “ultimately it’s about field position and where you put the ball in play. It’s the decision-making: when to bring it [out] and when not to.

“There are a lot of things that go into that. It’s not [just] a matter of if the ball is seven yards deep [in the end zone], eight yards deep. Who are you playing? What’s the situation? Are you home or away?”

After all, when you’re on the road, the crowd can come into play if a return leaves you backed up in your own end. Suddenly it’s harder to hear signals and “damn if we don’t get a tackle that jumps early,” Smith said. “So it’s important whether it’s home or away. I thought at times we did a good job at that last year, and I thought at times we did a bad job.”

In 2010, as an undrafted rookie, Banks was one of only two players in the NFL with 1,000 yards on kickoff returns and 400 on punt returns. He made big plays. He was a revelation, one of the best stories in an otherwise forgettable season. But last year, his kickoff-return average dropped from 25.1 to 23.8, which didn’t even put him in the top 20, and his punt-return average fell off, too (11.3/9.1). It was the kind of dime-a-dozen season that makes a fellow expendable.

“I’m hoping there’s a chance they change the rule back [to what it was],” he said. “I want there to be a chance.”

In the meantime, though, he has to reinvent himself as a returner-receiver, no easy task. And that time may be running short.

You have to wonder if Banks’ best shot at making a case for himself already has come and gone. With all the other players the coaches have to look at, all the other things the offense has to work on, it’s hard to imagine the quarterbacks targeting him nine times (or anything close) in any of the remaining preseason games. Indeed, the only way for him to carve a roster spot for himself might be to do something spectacular in the return game, something that causes Shanahan to rethink his planning and say to himself, “I can’t cut this kid. He’s too much of a playmaker.”

Yes, some of the passes were off target, but there also were times when Banks didn’t create enough space for himself to make the grab. Clearly, his size (5-foot-7, 150 pounds), which can be an asset in the return game by rendering him almost invisible, works against him as a wideout because he’s invariably battling bigger defenders, guys with more reach.

Chris Luva Luva wrote:

Red_One43 wrote:I am not going to be surprised because I already put him in my 7.

It's not saying too much to list him as the 7th WR... That's safe. I think what will be suprising is how high he ends up on the chart 6 games into the season. That potentially will be the shocker. We are LOADED at WR, or so it seems.

Garcon
Hank
Moss
Josh
Briscoe...

If I had to make a bold prediction, Briscoe gets some playing time in the top 3 rotation halfway into the season. I wouldn't be shocked to see multiple WR sets within the 20 with him involved and Moss out...

skinpride1 wrote:

Chris Luva Luva wrote:

Red_One43 wrote:I am not going to be surprised because I already put him in my 7.

It's not saying too much to list him as the 7th WR... That's safe. I think what will be suprising is how high he ends up on the chart 6 games into the season. That potentially will be the shocker. We are LOADED at WR, or so it seems.

Garcon
Hank
Moss
Josh
Briscoe...

If I had to make a bold prediction, Briscoe gets some playing time in the top 3 rotation halfway into the season. I wouldn't be shocked to see multiple WR sets within the 20 with him involved and Moss out...

I wouldnt be surprised at all to see Briscoe rotated in when we get into the red zone after a long drive. I said Briscoe was an average NFL WR but that is not a bad thing . Below average WR now that is a bad thing. I see Briscoe being ahead of Aldrick and Banks. I think Banks got his shot in the last game wouldnt surprise me to see some other WR getting more balls thrown there way Sat. night.

The only player who looks be a main contributor and doesn't fit the new mold in Washington is the beloved Santana Moss.

At just 5'10" and 189 pounds, Moss release on his quickness and route running to rack up yardage, but requires a more accurate pass. He can only adjust to a ball so much. That's been Brandon Banks biggest obstacle in making the team as well.

Robinson's speed is no joke either. The Redskins bumped him up from the practice squad at the end of last season to keep other teams from signing him. They loved his speed, but with the shortened rookie offseason, they thought he needed a little more time to learn the system and work on his route running.

When the season starts, don't be surprised to see four physical, fast, six-foot plus receivers on the field for the Skins. After all, size does matter–in the NFL at least.

Receiver Aldrick Robinson caught a pass down the left seam from Kirk Cousins. A nice play, right? Except that safety Tanard Jackson would have laid out Robinson had it been a real game. Jackson, who has a reputation as a bit of a head hunter, pulled up at the last second. Robinson had dropped a pass on a previous play.

Before Leonard Hankerson exited with heat-related issues (and had three liters of an IV), he made a nice grab over the middle where, again, his size was evident. Griffin threw a perfect pass, out in front, with Josh Wilson trailing. It’s nice to have big targets when making those passes over the middle; a bigger window for the quarterback, obviously.

Brandon Banks had a pass slide through his outstretched hands along the sideline on a pass from Rex Grossman. It was a good ball and a receiver who was 5-foot-10 would likely have made the grab. It’s tough for Banks because there are times when you see advantages that he has with his quickness. But if they truly want him to contribute at receiver then it’s going to be difficult. Otherwise, they were just saying these things to get him to train better.

Corner Richard Crawford showed good patience and technique vs. Terrence Austin in the slot. While in press coverage, Crawford let Austin make his move and mirrored him. Crawford stayed balanced; Austin couldn’t get free.

Liked a pass that Kirk Cousins threw to Samuel Kirkland. Crawford was inside Kirkland, but Cousins threw the ball low and a bit wide where only Kirkland could make the grab. He did.

Otherwise, they were just saying these things to get him to train better.

Grant Paulsen‏@granthpaulsen

Mike Shanahan: Brandon Banks was banged up last year "he didn't know how to be a pro player." Says he matured and is healthier.

—Aldrick Robinson is still very much in a battle for one of the wide receiver spots that are up for grabs. He has been spotty throughout camp and appeared to be in danger of falling out of the picture. But the second-year player has been doing better lately, running and catching the ball with more authority. It’s hard to put a finger on it but it just seems like he’s starting to believe he belongs there. It’s still an uphill battle.

there’s also a noticeable difference between how fast WR Dezmon Briscoe is playing now and when he first joined the team two weeks ago. Initially he was not explosive in his routes and didn’t finish his run blocks, but he’s had a string of solid practices. On Tuesday, he broke open across the field early in team drills and caught a pass for a long gain.

“I feel very confident going to the huddle now,” he said after practice. “I got real deep in the playbook and dedicated myself to know everything, so the coaches can trust me and depend on me when they have to put me in.

”I notice myself making more plays,” he continued. “The quarterback has more confidence in me. First couple days I didn’t really know what I was doing. Now that I’m into the groove, they’re trying to give me more balls.”

Briscoe believes three more preseason games is enough time to earn a spot. Perhaps he’ll begin facing better competition soon, now that he’s showing his readiness to succeed.

Just before WR Leonard Hankerson left practice with heat illness, he caught a pass across the middle, using his body to shield CB Josh Wilson behind him. QB Robert Griffin III hit him in stride; no need for Hankerson to showcase his wide catching radius.

Goal line work during team drills is always intense and colorful, and that was the case Tuesday with high energy on the last day of camp. When WR Santana Moss caught Griffin’s pass short of the goal line, DE Kedric Golston hollered at Griffin: “He didn’t get in! You’re worried about celebrating!”

Josh Morgan replaced Hankerson with the first string. It was his opportunity to get back in with that group after missing practice time earlier in camp with a strained left hamstring, but he, too, fell ill at the end of practice.

CB DeAngelo Hall blanketed WR Terrence Austin on a pass play on which Austin tried to run Hall inside and break out. Hall stayed very low and was able to match Austin’s quick-twitch movements. If Hall consistently plays man coverage like that, his move inside will be a great success.

WR Brandon Banks failed to catch a throw that hit him in the helmet. QB Rex Grossman threw on time and accurately to Banks on an out route near the left sideline. The ball went through Banks’ hands and hit him in the headWhatever the football equivalent of a hitting slump is, Banks is going through that now. His frustration is clear in his facial expressions after some of these drops and negative plays. He offers straight line speed, but he’s inconsistent in other areas. His size was a liability against Buffalo, and he has started to drop passes. It’s a losing formula.

Banks has to make the team as a receiver, coach Mike Shanahan said during the spring. If Banks does make it, he could be the last receiver active on game days, so he might never need to play on offense. That said, Shanahan is out to pick the to 53 players, and if a player such as Aldrick Robinson could contribute more on offense and maintain the status quo in the return game, the choice between them would be easy.