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Cowboys add another criminal to the lineup
By Spence | August 28, 2008
Professional criminal/cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones has been cleared to play in regular season games this season by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Jones, who has been arrested 6 times and was suspended for the entire 2007 season, will be eligible to play for the Cowboys in regular season games from the start of this season.
Jones, who has been involved in incidents requiring police intervention 12 times during his brief NFL career, joins a long and distinguished lineup of Dallas Cowboys who have managed to fit an active life of crime into the schedule of a gainfully-employed football player.
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Topics: Dallas Cowboys, Legal | No Comments »
Nats Fans — Want Jim Bowden Fired?
By PennSkinsFan | August 28, 2008
Apparently, you are not alone
Wanna buy one? LInk HERE!
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Topics: Jim Bowden, Nationals | 1 Comment »
Smoke Signals: ‘On the bubble’ edition
By Spence | August 28, 2008
Jason Taylor’s knee injury will keep him out of tonight’s preseason finale against the Jacksonville Jaguars and it might keep him out of the season opener in the Meadowlands against the NY Giants. If it does, DE Demetric Evans and DE Erasmus James will step in and try to fill the void. Evans is a versatile lineman who has filled in when injuries struck DE Phillip Daniels and DT Cornelius Griffin, so he can play anywhere along the line. The slimmer James is strictly a defensive end. Expect Evans to be the starter against the Giants if Taylor can’t go, with James replacing him on passing downs [Evans would move inside on those downs]. James is under contract for two seasons and the Redskins gave up only a late-round draft pick to get him so if he can stay healthy and be relatively productive, that trade will have worked out well for Washington.
How did Greg Blache become the Defensive Coordinator of the Washington Redskins? It’s a tale that involves near-retirement, cloak-and-dagger subterfuge, last-second plane rides, and a Berretta shotgun. Mike Wise has the story and it is well worth your team to read it. So do so.
Gregg Williams is no longer the Assistant Head Coach-Defense of the Washington Redskins, but his son Chase is still in the area, playing tight end and linebacker for the Raiders of Loudon County High School. He’s 6′3″ and 235 pounds and colleges are interested.
There are a number of players who are on the bubble right now, hoping to make the final Redskins roster, but having no assurances of it. TB Marcus Mason comes to mind, though he has to be closer to a sure thing than any bubble player in history. Mason went through this last year, after having a good training camp and preseason at a strong position for the Redskins.
“I remember sitting by the phone and just waiting and waiting and waiting,” Mason said. “When the time passed, I called Rock Cartwright and asked him, ‘I didn’t get a call - what does that mean?’ He said, ‘It means your butt better be at practice in the morning.’ I was nervous last year.”
At WR, Billy McMullen appears to have the edge over Anthony Mix, Horace Gant, Maurice Mann for a final roster spot. On the offensive line, bubble players include Justin Geisinger, Andrew Crummey, Todd Wade.
At linebacker, Alfred Fincher, David Holloway, Danny Verdun-Wheeler are all on the bubble, with Fincher perhaps having a slight edge at this point.
“It is something that I don’t think a lot of people really understand,” Fincher said. “This is your life on the line. It is not just a job - it is your life. If you get cut, yeah, you might have an opportunity somewhere else, but there might be a chance this could be it. It is tough. It could be the last day of you playing the game that you love [and] that you’ve played your whole life.”
At cornerback, Shawn Springs, Fred Smoot and Carlos Rogers will have jobs. Leigh Torrance, Justin Tryon and Matteral Richardson look like they are likely to make the team. That probably leaves Byron Westbrook and Cedric Holt on the outside looking in. Laron Landry, Reed Doughty, Kareem More, and Chris Horton will make the team as safeties. Justin Hamilton might make the team, Patrick Ghee probably will not.
Finally, the punting position is still up in the air. Both incumbent Derrick Frost and draft pick Durant Brooks will punt tonight, with the job presumably going to whichever punts the best.
Veteran Redskins beat reporter Paul Woody takes a look at the 2008 Redskins and draws a few conclusions. You’ll be smarter after you read what he’s written for this morning.
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Topics: Preseason, Redskins, Roster, Smoke Signals | No Comments »
Join the forums and win free stuff!
By Spence | August 28, 2008
Less than 10 days to go until the opener! Join our brand new Fan Forums now, an enter our Pick the Redskins Weekly contest and get a chance to win a NFL Jersey of your choice, on the house! Pick the winner of the Redskins game each week, earn points. Pick the total points of the game, be the closest, earn more points. Whoever wins at the end of the season wins an NFL Jersey courtesy of Dc Pro Sports Report!
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Topics: Site Information | No Comments »
What I am Watching for: Pre-Season Finale
By PennSkinsFan | August 28, 2008
Well, there is actually alot, given it is the final pre-season game, and several player may make the team tonight, or cut themselves tonight. There are a couple bigger things to watch for though, and this is where my eyes will be locked.
1. The Punter Battle: This is it. The battle between veteran Derrick Frost and rookie 6th rounder Durant Brooks comes to culmination tonight. The Redskins will not carry two punters. One will win the job tonight, one will lose it. It’s that simple. Frost lived to see this day by booming 8 punts last week for an average of 51.8 yards per punt, good enough to put himself back in the running with the rookie.
The Stats as we speak:
Derrick Frost: 12 Punts, 45.5 AVG, 1 TB, 3 Ins the 20
Durant Brooks: 10 Punts, 44.2 AVG, 2 TB, 3 Ins the 20
Pretty damn even. Let’s just say, if this battle remains even tonight, I support Brooks,. He was the Nation’s best collegiate punter, has a super strong leg. Frost has done this before, wont he battle in pre-season, yet remained inconsistent. It is silly for me to think Frost is going to average 44 to 45 yards, he hasn’t done it. But, Brooks has in college and pre-season. All things being equal, to me, the fact we spent a 6th round pick on the spot, that’s enough for me.
2. Mix v. McMullen: Not a court case, but a battle nonetheless. One of these guys needs to make the case tonight. McMullen has obviously has the better pre-season, but Mix likely leads this battle for two main reasons. One, his special teams play last year earns him points this year. Two, Mcmullen still at times seems plagued by pass drops, something that has plagued his short career since being highly touted out of Virginia. Much like above, both will not be on the roster. One could wrap it up, one could lose it. Tune in.
The stats as we speak:
Anthony Mix: 3 recpetions, 13 yards, 6.5 average
Billy McMullen: 16 receptions, 197 yards, 12.3 average
3. Defensive End/Defensive Tackle: Why do we lump them? Because we will either carry 4 DEs and 5 DTs or 5DEs and 4 DTs. Right now, my gut tells me with the Jason Taylor injury, we are carrying 5 DEs, not good news for DT Ryan Boschetti. Should we carry 5 DEs, two are wrapped up with Taylor and Andre Carter. Backup roles go to Demetric Evans and Erasmus James. That leaves Chris Wilson and 7th round pick Rob Jackson to earn the final spot. Jackson has been impressive and has done so against starters and second team units. Wilson racked up 4 sacks in limited action last year, but really has been invisible in the pres-season. Tonight, the decisions come fast and furious. If the Redskins do choose to go with 5 DEs, then we will likely carry 4 DTs which means, despite a good pre-season, Boschetti will be the odd man out. Kedric Golston, Anthony Montgomery, Cornelius Griffin, and Lorenzo Alexander are locks.
The stats as we speak:
Chris Wilson: 3 Tackles, 1 Assist
Rob Jackson: 4 Tackles, 2 Sacks, 1 Fumble
4. Backup Linebacker: There is likely one spot open here. The starters are set: Marcus Washington, London Flecther, and Rocky McIntosh. Two of the backups spots are likely sealed: Khary Campbell and HB Blades. That leaves one spot open. That battle is between rookie Curtis Gatewood, veteran Alfred Fincher, 2nd year man Danny Verdun-Wheeler, and 2nd year man David Holloway. Based on what I have obsevred, I think Fincher leads that race. he has looked pretty solid at times. Holloway was a late pickup, being added in after Rian Wallace was cut due to injury.
The stats as we speak:
Curtis Gatewood: 5 Tackles
Alfred Fincher: 9 Tackles and 5 assists
David Holloway: 1 tackle
5. Malcolm Kelly and Devin Thomas: Big night for the young duo. These guys need to start fitting into the offensive system and showing the Redskins and fans glimpses of why they were selected. For Thomas, he needs to show more cohesion in the offense and make some big grabs. For Kelly, it is his first game, his debut as a Redskin and eyes will be on him. There is no doubt the injury to Kelly has set him back, as far as his role in the offense the first weeks of the season. But for Thomas, he has to show he is ready to play and show he can assume a pivotal role in the offense form the onset.
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Topics: Defensive Line, Devin Thomas, H.B.Blades, Jason Taylor, Linebackers, London Fletcher, Malcolm Kelly, Preseason, Punters, Redskins, Rocky McIntosh, Roster, Wide Receivers | No Comments »
Join the Forums and Win!
By PennSkinsFan | August 27, 2008
Less than 10 days to go until the opener! Join our brand new Fan Forums now, an enter our Pick the Redskins Weekly contest and get a chance to win a NFL Jersey of your choice, on the house! Pick the winner of the Redskins game each week, earn points. Pick the total points of the game, be the closest, earn more points. Whoever wins at the end of the season wins an NFL Jersey courtesy of Dc Pro Sports Report!
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Topics: Site Information | No Comments »
Spotlight on the East: New York Giants
By Spence | August 27, 2008
This is the first in a recurring series of articles about the NFC East. We know that Redskins fans need to keep up with what’s going on with our division rivals. Today, we tackle the New York Giants, who are facing some tough times.
Last weekend, two NFC East teams saw a starting defensive end — their team’s best pass-rusher, suffer a knee injury. For the Washington Redskins, DE Jason Taylor, who has barely broken in his burguny and gold uniform, writhed in agony on the field in North Carolina. It looked disastrous for a defense that struggled to rush the passer in 2007 and had already lost 2 defensive ends for the season on the first day of training camp. But the news turned out to be much better than expected. Taylor’s knee injury was not too serious and the team announced he would miss 10-14 days. He might even play in the season opener in the Meadowlands against the division rival and reigning Super Bowl champ New York Giants.
For the Giants, though, the news was not so good. Osi Umenyiora, who led the team with 13 sacks last season, will miss the entire year with a knee injury. He will not be available for the season opener against the division rival or, indeed, for any other game this year. New York’s best pass-rusher and best defensive player will not play a down for the Giants in any game that matters this season. Combined with the previous losses of DE Michael Strahan to retirement, as well as LB Kavika Mitchell and S Gibril Wilson to free agency, the Giants will field a very different defense from the one that dominated high-flying offenses like Dallas, Green Bay and New England during the playoffs last season. Not since the Chicago Bears of 1985 has a defense so thoroughly over-matched opponents in the playoffs. Not since then has a defense seemingly won a Super Bowl no matter what the offense was inclined to do. The New York Giants defense of 1990, which also won a Super Bowl, was arguably better than the defense from last year over the course of an entire season. But over 4 weeks of playoff games, last year’s Giants defense wrote itself into the record books as one of the greatest post-season defenses in NFL history.
And history is what it may well feel like to Giants fans when they see their defense this season. In the NFL, 
where domination in one season earns you exactly nothing in the next season, the New York defense will have its work cut out for it to come close to the performance from last year’s squad. The 2007 New York defense squashed offenses by completely dominating the line of scrimmage. Pass-rushers like Strahan, Umenyiora, and Justin Tuck [who would have been a starting defensive end on any other team], sent wave after wave of pressure at opposing quarterbacks, leaving All Pros like Brett Favre, Tom Brady and Tony Romo looking like chumps. The Giants were not only the best pass-rushing team in the NFL, they were the best by a country mile. The NFL is a passing league and if you can control the opposing quarterback, you will usually win the game. [That's why the Minnesota Adrian Petersons Vikings didn't make the playoffs.]
Concerned about losing not only Strahan [a loss they expected], but Umenyiora, as well, the Giants had some conversations with Michael Strahan about coming out of retirement. It’s not clear how serious those discussions were, considering Strahan had loudly and repeatedly made it clear how much he has been enjoying retirement. [Not to mention that Strahan probably wouldn't have gotten off his couch for less than $10 million for one year. Also not to mention that there is no way of knowing how long it would take Strahan to get into shape or whether he'd be able to stay healthy after essentially taking the offseason off.]
As it turned out, Strahan wisely decided to stay retired and earn a nice living — without the accompanying aches and pains — talking about football instead of playing it. That leaves the Giants pass rush with the aforementioned Justin Tuck — one of the most underrated players of 2008 — and Mathias Kiwanuka, a 265-pound defensive end who was moved to outside linebacker last year. Kiwanuka has a lot of potential and can really move quickly after the passer, particularly off the edge, but he lacks the experience of the other players and his technique is definitely a work in progress. Kiwanuka had 4.5 sacks in 10 games last year before a fractured fibula ended his season, so he can get to the quarterback. The problem is that Kiwanuka got all those sacks while Strahan and Umenyiora [and sometimes Tuck] were on the field. With offenses understandably obsessed with blocking Umenyiora and Strahan, Kiwanuka drew far less attention. That will no longer be the case; every offense will be keying on him and Justin Tuck. Kiwanuka will still get his sacks because he’s a good athlete. However, at 265 pounds, teams are likely to challenge him by running over his position repeatedly to see if he can take the pounding.
The Giants still have some cards to play on defense. They have MLB Antonio Pierce, one of the smartest defenders in the NFL. If Pierce, who is the brains of the defense, is smallish and struggles when blockers get their mitts on him, he is almost never out of position, is a sure tackler, and plays well from sideline to sideline. DT Barry Cofield is a true run-stuffer who can occupy space, but also has the speed to make plays outside the tackles. Cofield is another up-and-comer who hasn’t gotten the attention he deserves because he has played next to bigger names. But as good as he is [and could be], Cofield is not a pass-rusher. Nor is Pierce.
So the Giants will have trouble rushing the passer this season? Well, maybe. It’s unlikely they will match last year’s achievement of 53 sacks, tops in the NFL and 6 more than the Patriots, who finished in second place in sacks and in the Super Bowl. New York may have to shift to more of a bend-but-don’t-break defense that depends less on the big play of a sack and more on just getting offenses off the field after a couple of 
converted first downs. No team can lose its top two pass-rushers without feeling the effects. The Giants were unlikely to match last year’s sack totals without Strahan. Without Umenyiora, too, it becomes virtually impossibe.
New York still has talented defenders and a defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo, who has correctly been lavished with praise for the work he did with the defense last season. And don’t under-estimate Head Coach Tom Coughlin, who knows how to take adversity such as this and use it to inspire his players. The Giants made the playoffs last year because of their defense and they won the Super Bowl because of their defense. [Yes, I know Eli Manning won the Super Bowl MVP, but let's not forget this is the same guy who threw 5 interceptions against the Minnesota Vikings on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.] Coughlin and Spagnuolo will not let their players use the Umenyiora injury as an excuse; they’ll demand they play harder and better to compensate for the loss. Antonio Pierce will rally the players, as well, and try to get his teammates to play smarter.
The Giants are not as good a team now as they were at the end of last season. Without Strahan and Umenyiora, they couldn’t be. It’s possible the defense will come back to Earth in a big way, but it would be a mistake to count them out, as some fans of other NFC East teams are now doing. [Yes, Cowboys fans, I'm looking at you.] The Giants learned how to win last year. Just as importantly, they learned how to win at the right time. The Giants were not a great team in 2007. They lost 6 games in the regular season, including a 24-point blowout defeat at the hands of the very average Minnesota Vikings. But in the first month or so of 2008, they were the best team in the NFL. An experience such as that must have taught them something.
The Giants are down right now, but they’re not out.
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Topics: NFC East, Spotlight on the East | No Comments »
Pyromania! [Jon Jansen can see the end]
By Spence | August 27, 2008
Redskins staff writer Pyrogenic is back with another edition of Pyromania! This time, he takes on the subject of Jon Jansen’s decline from reliable rock to trouble spot. Read on…
As they say, all good things come to an end, but what whoever they are neglected to mention in that proverb is that the end of that good thing is usually accompanied by a big fat side of denial. Anybody who has been paying any degree of attention to the Redskins starting offensive line has witnessed the decline of a man that used to be synonymous with reliability and sturdiness, but can now be best described with a set of less than positive adjectives; namely slow, fat, timid, and lost. The offensive lineman in question is of course Jon Jansen, the man with the reputation of being the proverbial rock on the offensive line that has had the misfortune of missing the majority of the passed two seasons nursing a variety of injuries. Only recent history dictates that Jansen is injury prone, up until the last couple of seasons, Jansen fought through injuries including a case where he had a set of broken thumbs and was equipped with a pair of casts which transformed him into what looked like a Washington Redskins-themed rock ‘em sock ‘em robot. Even with that hampering injury, Jansen continued to play at a high level. Let me repeat that to let the degree of amazingness sink in: Jansen dominated the best defensive ends in the NFL without the use of his hands. It’s really a shame to see such a talented guy have his talent slip on the stairs and plummet to the cellar, and my dismay is exponentially greater since Jansen is one of my favorite players. He may not be the worst in the NFL, but his days of being the unquestionable starter are memories of the past. Jansen has looked tired and utterly defeated at times and he hasn’t even played a full four quarters of football consecutively yet.
The aforementioned denial could take several forms in this case, but the most apparent one is the go to “Give him time, he’s just recovering from an injury and getting into game shape” excuse that most fans are using to shield themselves from the truth. The reality of Jansen’s steady decline in talent has been swept under the rug of denial for the past couple of years, but in that last display of futility that was the Carolina pre-season game, the rug was thrown off and whatever was under it bit me on the leg; Jansen isn’t who he used to be. Carolina tee’d off on the the Redskins’ o-line and I was concerned for Campbell’s safety in the pocket (seeing Collins on the depth chart will quickly spread that concern to those fans that didn’t possess it). Each time the ball was snapped, the Redskins’ o-line was consistently pushed back, obviously over-matched and down right embarrassing. Campbell, on average, had three seconds to get rid of the ball and the running game was largely neglected and in the end regarded as a joke. Running plays rarely, if ever, get a first down after two consecutive plays resulting in lost yardage. Being able to pick out Jansen as the obvious worst player of a unit that instilled nausea in me just by watching them speaks volumes to how he’s playing now.
Looking back, this shouldn’t be all that surprising. Each of the last few times Jansen attempted to return from injuries, he garnered concern from fans who saw who they thought was the same man, but was only living up to a fraction of his ability. It looks like this last batch of injuries only spurred the attrition of talent that all NFL players have to deal with. I’m still going to miss what seeing number 76 on the right side of the line meant to me, though.
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Topics: Jon Jansen, Preseason, Pyromania!, Redskins | No Comments »