BruceRader's Blog

This post has been edited by an administrator

OK guys, I spent my Sunday night watching the Redskins vs the Colts, the first pre-season game of the Jim Zorn era.

Here are my observations.

Redskins looked sharp from the get go, excellent special teams plays, Danny Smith in my opinion one of the best special teams coaches in the country. The Colts try the onside kick and the Redskins kid from UCLA is there to recover.

First play from scrimmage, Jason Campbell with a good pass to tight end Chris Cooley, then an 18 yard gain by Rock Cartwright the Skins number 3 running back, Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts didn't even play and then on the third play, a touchdown pass from Campbell to Antwon Randel - in go the Washington Redskins. It was a perfect beginning for the Jim Zorn era, what I liked was the fact that it only took 77 second to score a touchdown, something the Redskins had trouble doing in the Joe Gibbs era, scoring touchdowns.

Redskins on defense, first play, Sean Springs with a big tackle for a loss. But the Redskins did not play Andre Carter or Jason Taylor their starting defensive ends or linebacker London Fletcher so it is hard to really tell how good that defensive line or linebacking corps is going to play. And he Colts quarterback Payton Manning, I don't even think he has been to training camp left, he had an operation back on July 14th to remove a Bursa sack in his left knee, ther was some infection, that has since cleared and Tony Dungee is hoping Payton will be able to play in the Colts 4th preseason game on Aug 24th. So some kid name jim Sore-gee was at quaerback, so who knows how good gthat offense was.

The Colts really dominated their drive Fred Smoot almost had an interception at the goal line, he just plain dropped it, you can't just drop passes like that. The Colts had to settle for a field goal, Adam Venateri hit a 26 yard attempt, Venateri should join Jon Stenerud as only the second kicker in the hall of fame some day.

I was very impressed with running back Rock Cartwright, he certinaly took advantage of his oppertunity. It was good to see Santa Moss out there, Campbell hit Moss for a 16 yard pass and boy did Campbell fall back dep before he threw, and then on the very next play he got sacked. Jason Campbell played only 2 sets, he was 5 for 5 for 61 yards one touchdowns and no interceptions, and everybody should be pleased about that.

I was very impressed with the way Jason Campbell carried himself last night and that was the whole idea about hiring Jim Zorn as head coach of the Redskins was to make Jason Campbell a big time quarterback, and boy it seems to be working at least if you look at the first two series, but of course there is sitll a full pre season left before the first game.

By the way, the first guy to score a touchdown against the Jim Zorn Redskins, On-ree Jones a first year player out of Hampton University who played at Bruton High School in Williamsburg, Williamsburg, and he was wide open a nice pass from Qunt Gray.

After that it was halftime the Colts led 13 to 9, and after that it was practice.

Rookie quarterback Colt Brennon finally got in the game in the 3rd quarter, and Colt threw a be;autiful touchdown pass to Mason a 20 yard pass on a 3rd down and six, very impressive and then a bullet down the middle with a free safety sitting there, and he got it in there, threw it sidearm. Looked like Rich Gannon out there. Jim Zorn's quarterbacks did very well. Colt Brennon on third down and 4 at the six, scrambled out of trouble and waited to hit Mason who was all alone on the right, the 15th play of the drive, Mason fell in for the touchdown, all the Redskins players, the starters came off the bench they were impressed, Colt Brennon led two touchdown drives up to that point, He was 9 out of 10 for 123 yards and two touchdowns. Late in the game the Redskins came with the safety blitz the Redskins intercepted and ran it back for a touchdown, and the Redskins won the Hall of Fame game 30 to 16, very impressive.

        Good news from Redskins training camp, rookie wide reciever Malcom Kelly was back on the practice field, he pulled a hamstring late last week.  

 

        You might see him Sunday night when the Redskins open the pre-season on national TV against the Colts in the Hall of Fame game. 

 

        You can see that game on WAVY-TV 10.  

 

        More good news, cornerback Carlos Rogers participated in full practice today.  

 

        Rogers is coming back from a knee ligament injury that forced him to miss the last night games last year.  

 

        Rogers says he would like to be ready for the team’s opener against the Giants on Sept. 4th.  

 

        Chris Samuels celebrated his 31st birthday yesterday, and his fellow offensive linemen brought him a cake and sang happy birthday. 

 

        There was a picture of a Seal on the cake, a lot of guys think Samuels looks like the singer Seal who's married to Heidi Klum. 

 

        Anyway Chris' buddy Randy Thomas shoved the cake into Samuels' face.  

 

        It takes guts to do that to a 6 foot 5, 315 pound football star.

 

 

 

 

 

This post has been edited by an administrator

I don’t know if you missed me, but I did take a couple of days off from blogging after a long week last week at Redskins Park.

On Saturday, more than 28,000 people converged on Redskins Park to attend the team's Fan Appreciation Day, shattering the previous training camp attendance record of 25,000 fans in 2004.

Parking lots for the event opened at 11:30 a.m., but lines of cars began forming before sunrise and were backed up from Redskins Park to Waxpool Road. If you are familier with Redskins Park you know what I mean, if not, trust me that was a long way.

The Redskins signed defensive tackle Zarnell Fitch and guard Fred Matua.

In addition, the team waived/injured guard Kerry Brown and defensive end J.T. Mapu.

The 6-foot-3, 320-pound Fitch spent two games on Baltimore's active roster in 2007, where he was inactive for one contest and did not play in the other.

He also spent 13 weeks on the Ravens' practice squad, where he finished the season. Fitch will wear jersey number 75R.

Fitch originally signed with the New York Jets' practice squad on December 27, 2006 and was allocated by the club to NFL Europa that spring.
Playing for Frankfurt, Fitch participated in all 10 games with five starts, finishing with 23 tackles and aiding the Galaxy to their fifth World Bowl appearance.

Defensive lineman Anthony Montgomery, had surgery on his broken hand today, he will be out of action anywhere from 2 weeks to a month.

In the meantime Kedric Golston is going to try and show defensive coach Greg Blache he should be the other starting defensive tackle along with Cornelius Griffin.

The Redskins open the exhibition season on Sunday when they take on the Indianapolis Colts in the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio.

You can see that game live on WAVY-TV 10 starting at 8pm.

This post has been edited by an administrator

It is Thursday afternoon, and some bad news. Another injury for the Redskins, their third big injury in the first five days. But at least this player won’t be out for the season.

Rookie wide receiver Devin Thomas suffered a hamstring injury, and could miss a couple of weeks. He hurt himself running a pass play during practice.

You know when Coach Jim Zorn and his staff saw that it brought back nightmares of Sunday’s first practice when starting defensive end Phillip Daniels was hurt and lost for the season.

Of course this was nothing as serious as that, but you don’t want to lose a rookie who might start for you this early in training camp.

I hope this guy has a lot of natural talent.

Also, it’s a good thing the Redskins are playing the Colts in the Hall of Fame game, because the NFL gave them an extra week of practice.

It was not nearly as hot at practice today, the players seemed to really be happy about that.

There was a good crowd of fans there to watch the action. If you are a diehard Redskins fan, you might want to drive up to Redskins Park on Saturday for fan appreciation day. It’s a good chance to see the team up close, and the players do stop and sign a lot of autographs.

Saturday, they’ll have the cheerleaders and band out there and they will really make a big deal of it all.

They say if you go to wavy.com and click on sports you can get all the info you need.

I am going to take a break, tonight on WAVY News 10 at 5, I’ll visit with backup quarterback Todd Collins, at 6 I’ll visit with cornerback Fred Smoot. You can see both of those stories at 10:45 tonight on the FOX 43 Sportswrap.

And tomorrow I’ll visit with Redskins running back Clinton Portis.

I hope you have enjoyed these training camp blogs.

More to come next week.

 

 

 

 

    This is day four of Redskins training camp, I was doing an interview after this morning’s practice with back up quarterback Todd Collins and mentioned to him that it was day three of camp and I thought he was going to bite my head off.  

He said don’t take away one of these days.  

For a player, training camp is chore, nothing at all like the regular season. Once the season starts everything is pretty routine, but not this time of year.  You sleep in a dorm type situation, eat meals with your teammates, go to practice, eat lunch, go to meetings, practice again, eat dinner, go to meetings and then maybe have an hour or two before you have to hit the 11pm curfew.

       That would be midnight tonight.  Coach Jim Zorn decided to liven things up at practice today.  When it was over he told the offense and defense to pick one big lineman who they thought had great hand and send them 40 yards down field to catch a punt.

       If they caught the punt, curfew would be extended by an hour, if they missed the punt, curfew would remain at 11.

       Justin Geiser, a 6-2, 315-pound lineman cought Durant Brook’s punt and was mobbed by his fellow teammates.

Ryan Boschetti, a 6-4, 311-pound defensive tackle made the catch for the “D”.

      I’m guessing neither one of these guys are buying drinks tonight.

            Day three of Redskins Training camp in the bag and it crazier every day.  Normally we expect thunderstorms in the afternoon, but not in the morning.  Thousands of fans showed up at Redskins Park this morning to watch practice, especially since former Dolphin Jason Taylor showed up (wearing his old Miami Dolphins football shoes because Nike couldn’t make him new Redskins shoes fast enough).

 

            Anyway, at about 10am, (keep in mind Coach Jim starts practice at 8am) there was lightning and the local police made all the fans leave the Park.  For their safety.  There was no mention to me to leave the Park.  Obviously nobody cared if I was struck by lightning. 

 

            Coach Zorn took some time after practice to say that he was happy so far with everything, but wasn’t so sure about the crazy weather.  What?  Didn’t Jim Zorn come here from Seattle, where it rains all the time? 

 

            Then Jason Taylor came out and said he felt kind of funny when he got to Redskins Park today because it was the first time he was on a new team in over a decade.  He said at breakfast this morning the only guy he knew was Todd Wade because they used to play together so he sat with him.

 

            It sounds like a bad Disney movie where the new kid was the most popular guy at his old school, but his parents moved and he had to start a new school and nobody talked to him.

 

            Don’t feel too sorry for Jason Taylor, he makes 8 million dollars year.

 

            Jason said he was surprised at the crazy weather.  Wait, didn’t this guy play in Miami for 12 years where it rains every day?

 

            Wait till they move training camp to Virginia Beach, then they’ll find out what it’s like to sweat all day and then get rained on all afternoon.  And they’ll find out that the local TV stations do 25 minutes of weather, 4 minutes of news and one minute of training camp reports, so they can tell people it is going to be hot during the day and rain in the evening.

 

            Day after day.  Sorry Don.

 

            By the way, something I did not mention on the news tonight, defensive captain and star linebacker London Fletcher was not at practice this morning because his wife had a little boy at 3am and he was up all night at the hospital.  His wife was at practice yesterday in the heat.  I don’t know who is tougher, Mr. or Mrs. Fletcher.  Congrats to them though.

 

            I had a nice visit with star wide receiver Santana Moss that will be on the Fox SportsWrap Tuesday at 10:45.  Tomorrow I think I am going to skip Jason Taylor for a day and talk about the Redskins offense.

 

            Unless Jason starts dancing or something.

 

            See ya tomorrow.

This post has been edited by an administrator

Another early day in the world of new Redskins Coach Jim Zorn. At Redskins Park at 8am, practice starts early. A good crowd of fans on hand to see the debut of the newest Redskins star Jason Taylor. He will be wearing number 55, which is usually worn by linebackers, but the Redskins other defensive end Andre Carter wears Jason's old number 99, and I don't think Jason wanted to have to deal with the whole number thing. Although he did say he talked to his wife about it last night before he made his decision.

Practice was cut short this morning because of an big rain storm with a lot of lightning. The fans were hustled out of Redskins Park by the police and the players ran into the locker room. I did manage to get some comments from Coach Zorn and Jason Taylor and you can see them at 5 and 6 on WAVY News 10, and even more tonight at 10:45 on the Fox 43 Sportswrap.

Day two of Redskins Training Camp is over, finally.  The players are already in bed, but I want to at least share with you the highlight of the day, the introduction of the Redskins newest star, Jason Taylor.

Jason represents the type of player the Redskins have long coveted but rarely possessed -- a pass rushing defensive end who can elevate an entire defense.

Taylor fell out of favor with new Dolphins president Bill Parcells when he decided to skip off season workouts so he could participate in the ABC show Dancing With the Stars. 

Taylor has played his entire 11-year NFL career with the Miami Dolphins.

His contract runs through the 2009 season, but there has been some speculation that he would retire after 2008 to pursue that Hollywood career.

But he says he wants to play for the Redskins for awhile.

"I'll be here for more than one year, God willing, unless something bad happens [with his health]," Taylor said. "I'm here to play ball--and play as long as I can."
We'll see.

We'll also see Jason in a Redskins uniform tomorrow.  And you can see him on the Sportswrap on WAVY News 10 at six and at 10:45 on the FOX 43 Sportswrap.

Sorry it took so long for me to get to you but internet connection here at Redskins Park is not very good.  I send a blog update after the morning practice, but it is still flying around in internet space somewhere.

OK, where to start?  It all started yesterday, the first practice for new Coach Jim Zorn and pow.  Starting defensive end Phillip Daniels blows out his ACL, has an MRI and the doctor breaks the news, he is out for the year.  Poor guys has been working hard all year and this.  Then a few minutes later, just hanging around, second string defense end Alan Buzbee gets hurt and he is out for the year.

The coaches are stunned.  The Redskins  act quickloy and agreed to a blockbuster trade on Sunday evening, acquiring defensive end Jason Taylor in a trade with the Miami Dolphins.

In exchange for Taylor, the Redskins sent a 2009 second-round pick and a 2010 sixth-round pick to the Dolphins.

Taylor, 6-6 and 255 pounds, has been one of the premiere defensive linemen in the NFL since he entered the league in 1995. He has made the Pro Bowl six times, including the last four years.

We expect Taylor to arrive at Redskins Park at around 6pm for a news confrence, right when I am doing the 6 o'clock news in HD out on the field.  Perfect timing.

I have to go and work on the TV stuff will give you another update later tonight.

 

 

 

All signed up.

All draft choices are signed, that has to make new coach Jim Zorn happy as players report to training camp.

The Washington Redskins say second-round draft pick Fred Davis of Southern California agreed to a $3.5 million, 4-year contract on Saturday, a day before training camp opens.

The deal includes a $1.8 million signing bonus for Davis, a 6-foot-4, 247-pound tight end who was the 48th overall pick in April's NFL draft.

The Redskins now have deals with all 10 of their picks.

Also Saturday, Washington released tight end Tyler Ecker, a 2007 seventh-round draft pick who spent all of last season on injured reserve.

Odds and ends as I pack for Redskins Training Camp.  The players don't have to report until tonight, I get another day and don't have to report until Sunday night.

Is there a chance this could be the last year of the Redskins Radio Play by Play team?

DCRTV hears rumblings that this could be the last year for the Redskins game-day radio team of Sonny Jurgensen, Sam Huff, and play-by-play man Larry Michael. Next year it could be Mike Patrick doing play-by-play, with Joe Theismann and John Riggins adding color. At least that's what a reliable local radio source tells us. You'll recall that Jurgensen and Huff have been calling Skins' games for several decades, having previously been paired with play-by-play man Frank Herzog.....

I'll see if I can get to the bottom of this while I'm at training camp.

What do you think about the current broadcast?

The Washington Redskins announced today that they have signed Devin Thomas, the team’s top choice in the 2008 National Football League Draft. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. In addition, the Redskins released fullback Pete Schmitt. 

The Redskins have now signed nine of their 10 draft choices. Thomas was the 34th overall selection and second wide receiver chosen, immediately following Donnie Avery, who St. Louis tabbed at No. 33.  

At Michigan State, Thomas played in 23 games, with 13 starts, and blossomed into one of the nation’s most productive pass catchers in 2007, coinciding with the arrival of new Spartans Head Coach Mark Dantonio. Last year, the 6-foot-2, 218-pound target racked up a school-record 79 receptions for a Big Ten-leading 1,260 receiving yards and a team-high eight touchdowns.

 

Thomas also established a conference record in 2007 for kickoff return yards in a season with 1,135. His 2,590 all-purpose yards led the Big Ten as well, and the total is the second-highest in the league’s history, behind only current Kansas City Chiefs running back and former Penn State Nittany Lion Larry Johnson’s 2,655 yards in 2002. Thomas received second-team All-Big Ten accolades as a wide receiver in 2007, from both the league’s coaches and media. 

 

As a sophomore in 2006, Thomas played in 10 games, with one start, and recorded six catches for 90 yards and a touchdown. He transferred to Michigan State after spending two seasons at Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College, where he earned second-team All-Jayhawk Conference honors in 2005, when he caught 33 passes for 674 yards and five touchdowns. Thomas redshirted in 2004. 

Thomas, born on November 15, 1986 in Ann Arbor, Mich., was an all-state selection at Canton (Mich.) High School. 

 

Schmitt, who was originally signed as a college free agent in 2007, was in training camp with the Redskins last year before being released prior to the start of the regular season. He was re-signed on March 27, 2008.

 

Getting ready to head to Redskins Training Camp this weekend.

Stay tuned!