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ThomasTomasz
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RICHMOND – Cornerback DeAngelo Hall rolled an ankle early in Monday afternoon’s practice session and expected to have an X-ray done on the area.
Hall was covering rookie wide receiver Skye Dawson and went down in a heap as Dawson turned back downfield on a comeback route. Hall writhed on the ground in pain, grabbing his right leg. After being helped off the field, Hall initially had the ankle wrapped and went back into practice during 11-on-11 drills. He came back out a short time later. He walked around with a big ice wrap on the area for a while, then put his shoe back on and watched the remainder of practice.
“I just wanted to see how it felt,” he said. “Because when it happened, it hurt pretty bad. I felt like I got shot. I kind of stayed on the ground for a little bit, couldn’t put any pressure on it.”
Hall said he didn’t think the injury was too serious.
“It’s just part of training camp. You get a couple nicks and bruises and you keep fighting through them,” he said.
Other observations from today’s practice, which drew an announced crowd of 8,378 (2,255 in the morning, 6,123 in the afternoon)
Robert Griffin III said at his Monday morning presser that he expected to ramp up his activity slightly today, and in the afternoon, we saw him do some things he hadn’t done before. Griffin ran two six-play, no-huddle drills with the whole offense. The defense, however, was not on the field.
Griffin’s passes were crisp and accurate, and he continues to plant on his back leg with more authority and explode off of it as he throws. After those drills, Griffin went to a side field with offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and did a series of drills designed to improve footwork on drop-back passes. Griffin did five-step drops and threw the ball to Shanahan, who stood directly in front of him and tossed the ball back to Griffin, who repeated the drill. After the first round, Shanahan instructed Griffin to increase his pace and plant and spring forward with more explosion as he stepped into his passes. Griffin was able to do this. Griffin went 8 for 10 in 7-on-7 drills against defensive backs and linebackers. He went 3 for 4 on his first round, and 5 for 6 on the second round, completing the last five passes after missing the first of that segment. Later, Griffin did another footwork drill in which he held up the ball as if looking to pass and, while straddling a blocking dummy, scrambled forward a number of times. Mike Shanahan said afterwards, however, that Griffin’s activities didn’t increase. Could be that he logged the same amount of on-field minutes, and that only the exercises changed.
Rookie running back Chris Thompson went through the early part of practice, but sat out the second half after having his surgically repaired left knee checked by the team’s medical staff. Thompson, who has been practicing without a brace because his doctors and team trainers cleared him to do so, was experiencing some soreness in the knee. Thompson said the on-field check revealed no problems. “I guess it’s just one of those days with this thing,” said Thompson, who missed a chunk of his final season at Florida State with a torn ACL. Thompson spent the spring rehabbing and received clearance to practice at the start of training camp.
Second-year guard Adam Gettis and veteran wide receiver Donte Stallworth both missed practice with hamstring strains. Mike Shanahan said he didn’t expect Gettis to be sidelined long, classifying his injury as a “mild strain.” Today marked the second straight practice that Stallworth has missed, but he did some running on the side and appears to be improving.
Pierre Garcon and London Fletcher both returned to practice after receiving Saturday off from Shanahan.
During minicamp, Jim Haslett said he’d be looking for ways to take advantage of his pass-rushing depth by getting Brian Orakpo, Ryan Kerrigan, Rob Jackson and rookie Brandon Jenkins on the field at the same time. Today, we saw a couple of different looks from the defense that had Orakpo and Jenkins as the linebackers and Kerrigan as a down lineman.
Today’s practice featured one-on-one pass-rush/pass-protection drills between linebackers and running backs, and let’s just say that the backs need work. Darryl Tapp embarrassed Thompson, slapping him to the side with one hard swat of the hand. Jenkins easily bested Evan Royster, Kerrigan bull-rushed Roy Helu, Orakpo sent Royster sprawling onto the grass, and Rob Jackson manhandled fullback Eric Kettani. Jawan Jamison and Tristan Davis also struggled mightily as Roddrick Muckelroy and Perry Riley overpowered them. Alfred Morris didn’t take part in the drills. Only fullback Darrel Young held his own, sticking both Muckelroy and Riley as they blitzed up the middle.
The offensive linemen didn’t fare much better in their drills against defensive linemen and outside linebackers. Trent Williams fended off Jackson twice in their matchups and Will Montgomery held off Chris Neild. Kory Lichtensteiger, Chris Chester and Tony Pashos had mixed results. But Tyler Polumbus, Josh LeRibeus, Jeremy Trueblood and guard Tevita Stevens struggled.
LeRibeus, who was drafted in the third round in 2012 to eventually anchor the interior of the line as a guard or center, has struggled quite a bit this camp. He missed all the offseason practices with injury, so is still working his way back into football shape, as Shanahan likes to say. But he has yet to appear to make strides forward. He has worked exclusively at left guard in practices, and no longer at center, as he did last training camp and in practices during the regular season until Lichtensteiger got hurt. Kevin Matthews seems to have replaced LeRibeus as Will Montgomery’s backup.
Brandon Meriweather again was held out of team drills. After doing position drills, he did work on a side field with trainers, but didn’t do any one-on-one, seven-on-seven or 11-on-11 work. Reed Doughty and Jordan Pugh alternated as first-team strong safety, with Phillip Thomas relegated to second- and third-team action.
Josh Wilson took part in 11-on-11 drills for the first time after being restricted for the first three days of practices. Wilson surrendered a catch to Aldrick Robinson downfield, but not for a lack of trying. On the 11-on-11 play, Wilson ran stride for stride with Robinson and went up at the same time, swatting at the bomb from Kirk Cousins. But Robinson got a little higher and made a spectacular grab.
David Amerson took over at left cornerback after Hall was injured because Wilson was at right corner. Amerson hadn’t worked at left corner until today. He said it requires some mental adjustments because all the movements are reversed. But he welcomed the chance to prove his versatility. When Wilson came out, Amerson went back to right corner and E.J. Biggers took over at left corner with the rest of the starters. Biggers also covered the slot in nickel packages. Richard Crawford and Chase Minnifield spent the bulk of practice as the second-team right and left cornerbacks, respectively. Minnifield recorded an intercepted a pass by Pat White.
I’m really liking the physicality that Amerson displays. He does a good job of jamming receivers at the line, and he continues to ride them for the allowed five yards. He has good closing speed, and got the best of Pierre Garcon (himself a physical, fast player) in their lone matchup today. Amerson rode Garcon’s hip, and then got better position than Garcon on a comeback route, preventing the catch.
It appears Santana Moss remains the top option at slot receiver. Josh Morgan got a little action in the slot with the first team today. Leonard Hankerson and Devery Henderson have seen limited time there other days.
Dawson is a guy to keep an eye on as he tries to make the team as an undrafted rookie out of TCU. He’s competing at kick/punt returner and wide receiver. Today, for a second straight practice, he did a good job in one-on-one drills as he has caused trouble for Hall with his speed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...vations-from-day-4-of-redskins-training-camp/
Amerson is going to be a good player for us. I wouldn't be surprised to see him force Hall to the slot at some point this season and take over the starting job. It also looks like pass-blocking needs work all around, and none of the potential backup running backs did much to distinguish themselves in that area.
