Redskins/Texans Day 1 Practice Observations 

By Robbie Duncan

The Redskins started their joint practices with the Texans this morning, with a full padded physical practice. A decent practice overall that was physical and competitive. The Redskins offense and Texans defense went against each other on the field closest to where the spectators were while the Redskins defense and Texans offense were on the far field on the other side. I couldn’t hardly see how things were going over there, so most of this will be about Skins O vs. Texans D.

• Jamison Crowder was the star of the day. In WR vs DB one on one’s Crowder was too quick and showed great route running skills. One rep left the crowd in awe. He shook his guy with a double move and left his man in the dust with broken ankles. In live team reps against the Texans, Crowder seemingly was always open and also made some tough catches. I should also note that Crowder ran a 4.56 in the forty yard dash at the NFL Combine, but he looks faster than that on the field and has something they call “game speed”.

• The right side of the offensive line consisted of Brandon Scherff at RG and Morgan Moses at RT. They did better than I thought they would against the Texans defensive line. JJ Watt (as you’d expect) got the better of them on a number of occasions, but they had their good reps against him as well. Their side was opening up some good holes for the running backs a couple of times. You won’t face anybody better than Watt on the defensive line and the reps they got against him in team action will make them better. I don’t think Moses did bad enough to be moved back from the 1’s at RT. Scherff specifically moving from tackle to guard is a slight adjustment but he should be okay with more reps. Still lunging some in pass pro. I would guess that this will be the same lineup tomorrow. 

• OL wasn’t perfect in one on ones overall. Spencer Long got beat bad on one rep, had slow feet and couldn’t stick with his guy. Many guys were getting beat by spin moves today. Have to believe that Coach Callahan will drill them on this to fix it. 

• One lineman who didn’t struggle and had a good day overall was Ty Nsekhe. He caught my eye last week and had another good day today. He won all his reps handily with one rep ending in a pancake. I love his size and strength. He’s now my sleeper for the OL and could win the swing tackle job should Moses remain the starter.

• Another bad day from Colt McCoy, had a couple of bad throws plus an interception. Gruden mentioned earlier that he would let the preseaon games help him decide if they’ll keep two or three quarterbacks on the 53 man roster this year and at this point I’d say just keep two with Robert and Kirk. With the guys dropping like flies at the Cornerback position, Gruden may need to make that sacrifice.

• Robert was not at his best today but he wasn’t terrible. Had a couple of throws that he were poorly thrown (too high/low), but he looked good in the pocket to me. You could tell that Robert was going through his progressions and reading the defense.

• Rookie draftee Evan Spencer has flashed here and there getting open and making some catches. He did, however, have a really bad drop on a play where he was wide open. Got to eliminate those easy drops.

• The defense finally came over to our side of the field where we could see them for a couple of series. DHall on the first play slipped and tweaked his groin. Good to hear that Hall is just day to day so he should be okay. The defense was getting good pressure on the Texans QB’s. Trent Murphy had two sacks and then on another play, Stephen Paea and Ryan Kerrigan met Brian Hoyer in the backfield on a play-action play. Dashon Goldson caught an interception from Hoyer thanks to the pressure our DL generated. The defense also continues to keep everything in front of them in their pass coverage. The only is they have to be good at getting to the football, and they weren’t very good at that today. Many times today their quarterback would dump the ball off to the checkdown route and the receiver would get at least five or six yards before one of our defenders could get to him. This is something that will need more work but the scheme is evident.

• Also DeSean Jackson went down with a shoulder injury during one on ones. Gruden said he’ll be out for a week or two. I’m not worried about that, it gives guys like Crowder, Grant, and Spencer more quality reps.

A decent first practice against another team for the first time. Would like to see Scherff and Moses have a better day as well as Robert bouncing back with better accuracy tomorrow. For the defense, I’d like to see them be better in their pursuit to the football. AND FOR GOD SAKE CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE NOT GET HURT TOMORROW????? Is that too much to ask? I don’t think so….