On the Field for Morning Practice – 8/12

Players were lively and enthusiastic at practice today, which essentially means that there was a LOT of jawing going on. Maybe it’s the nice weather — cool breeze, warm sun — or the impending end of two-a-days or just guys feeling good, but this was fun to watch. In the one-on-one lineman drills, it was [...]

On the Field for Morning Practice – 8/11

Nice to see Devin Thomas and Erasmus James practicing today. Thomas in particular looked good, making a couple of nice catches and showing flashes of his speed, and it was especially nice to see him bounce right back up from a slip that looked potentially painful. “We tried to pull him out,” Coach Zorn said [...]

Last Facet of the Punter Battle: Ethan Albright

As my obsession with the position battle at punter has grown, I’ve spoken to just about everyone involved — both punters, their position coach, and even ten year old Jaxon Jordan, who worked the Jugs machine yesterday. When you watch the kickers around practice, though, they’re always accompanied by one other guy: long snapper Ethan [...]

Friday, August 8: Rock On Gold Dust Woman

There’s always music in the weight room, and it’s usually pretty much what you’d expect. A lot of rap, a lot of rock, a surprising amount of classic rock. On Tuesday, it was Metallica, which seemed about right to me. And then, Wednesday morning … Fleetwood Mac. Lots and lots of Fleetwood Mac. Landslide, The [...]

Watching Practice With Scott Campbell

The morning session starts with special teams practice, large groups of guys working on covering punts. It’s exactly the kind of thing that can be overwhelming if you try to take it all in, so I ask Scott what he watches during special teams practice. “Right now, I focus on the punter that we drafted. [...]

Today’s Position Battle Update: Talking to Derrick Frost

So I’ve spoken to rookie punter Durant Brooks, special teams coach Danny Smith, and yesterday I talked to Shaun Suisham. But I hadn’t had a chance yet to catch up with the guy who’s been the main punter for the Redskins for the last three seasons, Derrick Frost. Today I was able to fix that [...]

On the Field at Morning Practice: 8/1

The main thing I noticed about practice today is that it was very, very short. More than half of the session was taken up with what amounted to a walkthrough for Sunday’s game, and two separate runs through the two-minute drill provided most of the excitement. The first ended with a Todd Collins scramble-and-slide for [...]

Friday, August 1: Getting Ready For the Hall of Fame Game

Everyone around Redskins Park seems excited for this weekend’s trip to Canton, not just because two team legends are being enshrined in the Hall, and not even just because it’s the team’s first chance to see some action against an opponent wearing a different helmet. People also seem excited because it’s the first major shift [...]

On the Field at Morning Practice

Cooler weather today, the front edge of the rain that just started up, led to an energetic morning practice. A few observations: No dramatic gimmicks or photogenic accessories, but some lively QB drills today. Highlight was an evasion drill in which the QBs had to roll out of the grasp of a rusher — played [...]

ZornToys: So Very Close to Slip-n-Slide

It was the first thing I saw when I went out to practice today: the legendary Coach Jim Zorn QB Training Slip-n-Slide.