Redskins_P presents Best Training Camp Battle

Who cares about holding your tongue when you can't hold on to the rock?



This statement is just flat out wrong. Betts looks like he should be a tank, but looks can be deceiving. He's only effective when he has space to run, which was why he looked so good at the end of last season. The line was creating holes that you could drive a truck through. Portis runs harder, is faster, and is a better overall player. The only way Betts becomes the starter is if Portis goes down with an injury.

Betts finds holes and fits them faster than Portis does. Betts is also a much better receiver than Portis. Portis has more power, but his rep as a Redskin break-away runner is based on one run. He doesn't have the stats to support the notion he's a home-run threat. When I consider Portis' health and comparatives to Betts, I have to believe Portis is no longer as valuable to us as Betts is. I've heard all the nonsense about Betts running behind a better line than Portis has previously, but that's total nonsense. They've, in fact, run behind the same line. The only advantage Betts has had is the absense of Brunell. Hopefully, this year we'll learn how big a plus Brunell's absense will be. Maybe Portis can pull his stats to the levels established by Betts. I doubt it, but am willing to take a mouthful of crow to keep it from happens.

I totally disagree. There's no way Smoot will effectively challenge Rogers. The Smoot of a few years back? Yes. This one? No. Smoot's clearly a backup now and lucky to be one.


I strongly agree. Smoot is not a #1 or #2 CB. He is a good #3. He is very thin little guy and thus not very strong at supporting against the run. He used to be a good man to man CB. He is not the CB he used to be.
In the last two seasons they have both had very similar years statistically. The difference is Rogers is a young/raw corner still learning the game, the other (Smoot) is a 7 year veteran that statistically has seen his career regress each season of his career. His rookie year was his best.

Fox vs Landry et al. I think Fox won't go away easy.

Dude, if you are related to Fox that is one thing. He is 4th on the depth chart for that position.

And whoever said that Fox is average, all the average players are now offended.

Betts finds holes and fits them faster than Portis does. Betts is also a much better receiver than Portis. Portis has more power, but his rep as a Redskin break-away runner is based on one run. He doesn't have the stats to support the notion he's a home-run threat. When I consider Portis' health and comparatives to Betts, I have to believe Portis is no longer as valuable to us as Betts is. I've heard all the nonsense about Betts running behind a better line than Portis has previously, but that's total nonsense. They've, in fact, run behind the same line. The only advantage Betts has had is the absense of Brunell. Hopefully, this year we'll learn how big a plus Brunell's absense will be. Maybe Portis can pull his stats to the levels established by Betts. I doubt it, but am willing to take a mouthful of crow to keep it from happens.

You are out of your mind. Portis' break away runner status is based on his career not his first run here.

By the way, what good is a runningback if they can't hold onto the ball?

SI.com - Writers - Third Man In (cont.) - Tuesday May 15, 2007 10:55AM (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/peter_king/05/15/tomlin0521/3.html)
At defensive meetings each day, Tomlin put two pages on the overhead projector. One was the Loaf Chart, which totaled the number of plays on which each of his players had dogged it during the previous practice. Tomlin preached accountability. The other sheet was called the News, which singled out players for mistakes such as jumping offside or dropping an interception or looking half-asleep. "I'm not telling a story," Tomlin would say, "I'm reporting the news."

"You definitely did not want to be in his newscast," Smoot says. But midway through last season, he was. Eight games into the second year of a six-year, $34 million free-agent contract, Smoot was not playing well: no interceptions and just one pass breakup. Tomlin opened a midweek defensive meeting by saying, "We're going to have a change at cornerback. Cedric Griffin's going to replace Fred Smoot, and if Fred does not come and compete for the job, Cedric's going to be the corner the rest of the year."

Recalls Sharper, "The feeling in the room was, Wow! But Mike was so blunt, so honest, and he had said at the beginning of the year that's the way it was going to be."

"[Smoot] had to be replaced," Tomlin says, "and if you're going to have a tough time doing that, then don't take the job."
The boastful and supremely confident Smoot did not take his demotion well. But he rebounded to play better down the stretch. Now with the Washington Redskins, Smoot said last week, "When it happened, I was never so shocked. My heart fell to the floor. Understand the last time I didn't start a game was in 10th grade. But it worked. Mike ruffled some feathers, and it was good for the team. Mike made the right call. It woke me up. It made me a better football player, and I think it made me a better man."

When the Steelers interviewed Tomlin, president Art Rooney II asked him about the Smoot story. "We wanted a coach with the courage of his convictions," says Rooney. "We had good, strong internal candidates for the job, and whoever came in from the outside was going to have to jump over that bar. We thought Mike did."

Personally, I think that Smoot learned his lesson. I also believe that he wasn't cut out for the Cover Two. News Flash! The redskins do not run the Cover 2. Every year he was a Skin he played well. Until he falters here, I have nothing but respect for the man. IMO we have 3 #1 corners.