Deadeye’s Training Camp Preview: Rejoice! For football will soon be upon once again! 

By Robbie Duncan
*Insert “Hallelujah Chorus” here*
Hallelujah, indeed. The date we all have circled on our calendar is July 30th. Which is, if you didn’t already know is the day the Redskins begin Training Camp. With that right around the cornerback, let’s take a look at the team and highlight expectations and potential position battles during camp and Preseason.
“Help me, Robert Griffin III, you’re my only hope…” – I know. You’re shocked. Don’t give me that look! I have to start this preview with Robert because amongst everything thing about this team in regards to how good they can/will be, it all rests on Robert’s shoulders. We all know that Robert has the potential to be great. The physical tools is a given, obviously, but what’s always been Robert Griffin’s problem is the mental aspects of being a quarterback. Reading the defense, going through the progressions, working the pocket, protecting yourself from big hits, etc. I believe every Redskins fan can agree with those areas Robert needs to improve on. If not, watch last seasons Tampa Bay game. If Robert can improve this preseason and show this team some consistency, this team can do some good things. If not, well we’ll most likely be looking for another quarterback and be back at square one…
What SPF Proof Was Our OL Last Season? Wait, don’t answer that… – Let’s just say that if our offensive line last season was a sun protection lotion, we’d all be as red as the Red Lobster (Sorry, Mike…). Scot McCloughan, our shiny new General Manager, obviously recognized that our burns needed healing and applied as much aloe as he could by bringing in Brandon Scherff and Arie Kouandjio in the Draft and cutting the dead weight in Chris Chester and Tyler Polombus. Scherff is obviously an instant starter and will be for the unseen future our Right Tackle. Kouandjio has potential but will need time to develop. However, he will be good young depth that this offensive (no pun intended) line needed. Spencer Long is now our starting Right Guard after Chris Chester’s departure. He didn’t see much playing time last year in his rookie year but he’s a big mauler type that new OL coach Bill Callahan loves. I expect Long will be a pleasant surprise at right guard and the duo of him and Scherff on the right side of the OL has the potential to be dominant. Kory Lichtensteiger is our Center and will remain that. He had a very solid season last year, if not the best of all our OL including Trent Williams. I don’t anticipate him losing his job this season. Shawn Lavaou was pretty rough last year but seemed to get better by the end of the season. I don’t see guys like Josh LeRibeus or other JAGS (Just A Guy) beating him out, so for now it’s Lavaou. Morgan Moses and Tom Compton will be battling it out for the primary backup for the tackle positions. Both had their struggles last season. As long as Compton has been here, I’m afraid he is what he is at this point. Moses obviously struggled during the opportunities he had and still is very lacking in technique but he has a ton of potential and his development with coach Callahan this preseason is something to keep an eye on. MAYBE if he proves to be a competent right tackle, they can plug him there and move Scherff to left guard. It’s wishful thinking at this point, unfortunately. We’ll see what happens. This team is in some serious need of good offensive line play, and this year POTENTIALLY could be a step in that direction. Fingers crossed.
“Of course, your Safety is our #1 Priority…” – You know how some facilities focus on safety and have one of those “X number of Days Since Incident” signs? Yeah, the Redskins defense had to reset that sign to zero practically every Sunday after their game. And a lot of that blame can be pointed to our porous safety play. Both safety positions have been a revolving door of JAGS that never proved to be any good. OJ Atogwe, Madieu (MaDooDoo) Williams, LaRon Landry, (Death, Taxes, and…) Reed Doughty, Ryan Clark 2.0, Brandon Meriweather (but that Philly game!)- you get the point. It’s sucked. It’s been really hard to tell how bad our corners actually are because they have had such poor safety play behind them. This year, we once again have brand new starters at both safety spots with Dashon Goldson at Free Safety and Jerron Johnson and Duke Ihenacho battling it out for Strong Safety. I’m not sure what to expect from Goldson, he was a pro bowler in San Fransisco but struggled mightily at Tampa Bay and now he’s here. He’s not a deep cover safety and is more comfortable in the box but he is an upgrade over Ryan Clark which isn’t that hard to be. Just how good he’ll be remains to be seen. Johnson is a bit of an unknown, but he’s a solid special teams player and comes from Seattle where he was stuck behind Earl Thomas and Kam Chencellor. He seems primed to step up and prove to the NFL that he deserves his shot at starting. Ihenacho was here last year but suffered a season ending injury and didn’t get to show Redskins Nation much. Before he came here he was a starter for the Broncos and proved to be solid while he was there. Johnson and Ihenacho will be a good battle to watch all preseason and regardless of who wins, we’ll have solid depth behind the winner. On the back end of the safety roster we have Phillip Thomas amongst others like Akeem Davis, Trenton Robinson, draftee Kyshoen Jarrett, and DaMon Cromartie-SMith. Thomas has been a disappointment so far in his career riddled with injuries. This potentially could be his last season with the Skins if he doesn’t improve. All of these guys will have to make this team by their special teams play. Davis and Robinson have the edge on that as they’ve been very good in that area. Jarrett was drafted for his solid special teams play at Virginia Tech as well as potential as a safety. To sum up, these two positions have been bad for too long and at least on paper looks to be improved over what we’ve had in the past. How good? Time will tell.
This Position Ain’t Big enough for the Two of Us, Partner! – I’ve already mentioned a couple of position battles already but there are other to keep a close eye on this preseason, starting with the battle between Preston Smith and incumbent Trent Murphy. Both are tall, lengthy big-bodied players that are stout against the run but needs improvement in pass rushing. Murphy has made a lot of gains this offseason by beefing up and gaining about fifteen more pounds. I would say that he had a solid season considering he was thrown to the wolves when Orakpo went down. Smith is a more versatile player, however, and played all over the defensive front during his days at Mississippi State. We have solid depth between the two of them and the competition will make them better. The next big position battle to watch this preseason is Andre Roberts versus newcomer Jamison Crowder. To say Roberts disappointed last season would be an understatement. He dropped a lot of balls and didn’t produce like the starting-caliber wide receiver he claimed to be. Crowder, the rookie out of Duke, has been very much so the coaches darling so far. He’s a proven dangerous returner in college and is very shifty. Roberts won’t be able to do anything this preseason without Crowder breathing down his neck. Another position battle worth mentioning is the Cornerback depth chart. Will DeAngelo Hall be healthy enough? If he is then you’d presume that Hall and Culliver will be your starters with Bashaud Breeland as the nickel corner. David Amerson, with his struggles, now has rookie Tevin Mitchell breathing down his neck. So the top end of the cornerback depth chart will be interesting thing to watch. The wildcard here is of course Hall. You want a sleeper position battle no one will talk about? How about Jordan Reed versus Niles Paul? Before you bash me for bringing this up let’s take a look at this. Reed is obviously super talented and has all the tools to be a great receiver tight end for us. But what’s his Achilles Heel? Injuries. Yes, Reed seemingly is Mr. Glass and always finds a way to get hurt. Insert who seemingly is Iron Man, or maybe more like The Hulk, Niles Paul.  Yes Paul in the past had a knack for the case of butterfingers, but Paul is getting better every year and did a solid job filling in for Reed last season when he was hurt. If Reed can’t prove to stay healthy it very well might become Paul’s job. There are other position battles worth mentioning like Cousins versus McCoy for backup quarterback (one that I don’t really care about, both are about the same caliber of player), primary backups for the DL, and the RB competition on the back end but those simply don’t have as much an impact on the team as these other battles.
So…..how good will we be Deadeye? – Great question! There were obvious improvements made to our roster this offseason thanks to Scot McCloughan. The obvious ones being:
Improving the Defensive Line with Terrance Knighton and Stephen Paea,
Working to fix our secondary by bringing in Chris Culliver, Jerron Johnson, and Dashon Goldson.
Drafting Brandon Scherff to help fix our Offensive Line.
In one of our earlier podcast episodes I predicted a 8-8 season record. I believe this can be attained if not more wins than that. Like I said before, this team will go as far as Robert Griffin will take them. The defense has been greatly improved talent wise, the offense has the tools to be successful. New schemes and new coaches may make things be a little slow to start but I’m caustiously optimistic about the Redskins this year and cannot wait for Training Camp to start. Hopefully i’ll see you there! HTTR!