Postcards from Camp
WASHINGTON REDSKINS
Asburn, Va. | Aug. 11
Where's Don Banks?
At Redskins camp, held again this year at the Redskins Park team complex in Asburn, Va. I'm still surprised retro head coach Joe Gibbs went along with the camp-at-home plan. Gibbs is old-school enough that I figured he would have favored heading off to Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., where he got his great Redskins teams of yesteryear ready every summer. I guess for $5 million a year in salary, Gibbs would be willing to let owner Daniel Snyder decree that training camp will be held on the back of a flat-bed truck, providing that Snyder could charge for parking.
Banks' Shots
The Redskins hope some of the shine on Joe Gibbs' sterling reputation rubs off on a team that hasn't seen the postseason since 1999.
AP
1. So this is what it'll be like when the Messiah returns. I didn't see Gibbs walk on any water as he was making his way to the Redskins' final public practice on Wednesday afternoon, but that's probably only because the fields have such good drainage. The Redskins Hall of Fame head coach, back after an 11-year pit stop, elicits ovations from Washington fans for everything but applying sunscreen to his neck.
Gibbs can do no wrong, and you get the feeling folks around here have forgotten that he somehow managed to lose 65 games during his original 12-year Washington tenure. Every new head coach deserves a honeymoon, but Gibbs is getting the mother of all welcomes from the team's victory-starved fans. It's kind of a shame he has to go and put that sterling reputation on the line 16 times this season.
2. I've lost track of who his agent is today, but that Sean Taylor is a beast. The Redskins rookie safety and first-round pick is a 6-foot-2, 231-pound playmaking force. He had two interceptions and a touchdown return in Washington's Hall of Fame game win against Denver on Monday night, and he was right back at it in Wednesday's practice, picking off Patrick Ramsey with ease over on the right sideline. He will find the football.
3. There's a quarterback competition going on all right in Redskins camp, but not the kind you really want to have. Neither Mark Brunell nor Ramsey have looked impressive thus far, and their combined numbers against the Broncos -- 7 for 16 for 30 yards with no picks and no touchdowns in eight series -- did nothing to sort things out.
Brunell's arm has looked weak at times, and he has showed little command of the offense. Ramsey's passes haven't been sharp either, and his confidence still appears to be lacking in the wake of Brunell's acquisition. Crazy as it sounds, Washington's best quarterback thus far has been third-teamer Tim Hasselbeck. You don't think for a minute that Gibbs would ... nah.
4. With stalwart right tackle Jon Jansen lost for the season with that ruptured Achilles' tendon, the Redskins are keeping their fingers crossed that ex-Patriot Kenyatta Jones can slide in and fill the vacancy. Jones started 11 games at right tackle for New England in 2002, and his being able to handle the job would be preferable to the other option, which would involve moving guard Derrick Dockery to right tackle, center Lennie Friedman to guard and inserting Cory Raymer at center.
Still, to give themselves more depth, the Redskins on Wednesday signed veteran guard Ray Brown, who was with Detroit the past two years. Brown is 41, and entering his 19th NFL season. Brown is so old he played four seasons for Washington during the first Gibbs administration, from 1989-92, and remained a Redskin until joining the 49ers in 1996.
5. Who said Gibbs runs a no-nonsense camp? In a moment of pre-practice levity on Wednesday, running back Clinton Portis sneaked up on the unsuspecting Ladell Betts and yanked down his shorts while Betts was being distracted by someone in the crowd. The assemblage of Redskins faithful loved it.
Fantasy Geek Note
The Redskins are going to have to hold their breath a little bit this season regarding the health of No. 1 receiver Laveranues Coles, who will play despite having a stress fracture in his right big toe. Coles elected to not have offseason surgery because he was told if the procedure did not go well, it could be a career-threatening injury. So for now, Coles is wearing an orthotic insert in his shoe, and the Redskins would like to get him regular days off in the preseason as a precaution.
More on the receiving front: Taylor Jacobs returned to practice this week after missing almost all of camp with an abdominal strain. Jacobs had strong offseason workouts, then picked up where he left off Wednesday, beating cornerback Fred Smoot down the left sideline on a pretty 50-yard diving catch from Brunell.
Factoid
In his 12 seasons in Washington, Gibbs won 124 regular season games, 16 more in the playoffs and went to the post-season eight times. In the 11 seasons after he left town, the Redskins won 75 games, 1 playoff game, and made the post-season just once, in 1999.
Dear NFL Junkie
If this is August, it must be time for the hype machine to crank to life in full force in Washington. The names change, but the pattern remains the same with the Redskins: Great expectations in the preseason give way to crushing disappointment in the regular season. From Deion Sanders and the big spending spree in 2000, to Marty Schottenheimer in 2001, to Steve Spurrier the past two years, Washington's bold new plans never seem to work out, do they?
Ah, but this time it's different. It's Gibbs. It's money in the bank. Print those playoff tickets.
"I trust this hype," said fourth-year Redskins cornerback Fred Smoot. "But this isn't really hype. Hype is a bunch of hot air. This is fact. He's a known winner. He knows how to win. We've always had the athletes. Nobody's ever had better athletes than us. But we didn't have the right general. You can't go to war without the right general. Now that we do, I do believe things are going to fall into place."
Really? When I look at the 2004 Redskins, I see an 8-8 team, maybe. And that's with only the Eagles looking like a sure-fire NFC East playoff qualifier. I say it takes Gibbs a year to get his mojo back.
"Every year I've been here we've had so much hype coming into the season," fifth-year offensive tackle Chris Samuels said. "The fans love us so much here, and we've been disappointing them for a while. I really don't want to get the big head and get the hype, because hype doesn't win games. I'm going to take a humble approach this year."
Now that's a change they haven't tried in Washington for a while.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/f ... index.html