SI: Training Camp Visit by Don Banks

SI.com - Writers - Training Camp Postcard: Redskins - Wednesday August 1, 2007 3:34PM (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/don_banks/08/01/redskins.postcard/index.html)

Didn't really cut on our Skins like he normally does!

Decent write up.. He wasn't really complimentary or negative... I'd like to see more of what non-Redskins reporters see in Campbell at this point (not that reporters have much true insight) and I was suprised there was no mention, besides the 4 top 10 picks, of the defense..

I think alot of reporters maybe afraid to judge our defense. Everyone knows Greg Williams understands defense, but what happened last year? Our DLine was weak, Holdman sucked, AA could not cover me and Carlos and Taylor were asked to do to much espcially when Washington went down. So what did we do? We did not address our DLine issue (directly), if Smoot goes back to the player he was and Landry is the player everyone says he is our secondary is extremely strong. Fletcher is a tackling machine. But we did not directly fix our DLine. I say directly because we did not sign or draft anyone for those positions. but there is talk about Washington playing with his hand down, and honestly i am not sure how well that will work for him, but he is an athlete and it could cause some problems for slower OT with a fast Washington on one side and Carter on the other, their is the side of me that says hey that may work. But you lose size and with a little MB, it is important to keep shedding OLineman off of Fletcher so he can make tackles. The defense is hard to judge, nobody really knows how Greg Williams will use the athletes he has.

I think alot of reporters maybe afraid to judge our defense. Everyone knows Greg Williams understands defense, but what happened last year? Our DLine was weak, Holdman sucked, AA could not cover me and Carlos and Taylor were asked to do to much espcially when Washington went down. So what did we do? We did not address our DLine issue (directly), if Smoot goes back to the player he was and Landry is the player everyone says he is our secondary is extremely strong. Fletcher is a tackling machine. But we did not directly fix our DLine. I say directly because we did not sign or draft anyone for those positions. but there is talk about Washington playing with his hand down, and honestly i am not sure how well that will work for him, but he is an athlete and it could cause some problems for slower OT with a fast Washington on one side and Carter on the other, their is the side of me that says hey that may work. But you lose size and with a little MB, it is important to keep shedding OLineman off of Fletcher so he can make tackles. The defense is hard to judge, nobody really knows how Greg Williams will use the athletes he has.

Definitely, I feel like the offense and defense are equally unpredictable. Thats probably the main reason the media has given us somewhat of a snub so far this year. They can't make any confident predictions...

good read. very neutral

I liked seeing that people outside of the organization and outside of the local media can see how hard Campbell has been working. Hopefully he will live up to or even surpass expectations this season.

One thing on the news this morning that made me smile was ARE talking about how hard Campbell has been working on the little things that will make the entire offense run smoother on the field. He said that JC has worked on his pronunciation because he used to have such a thick Southern accent that people often misunderstood him in the huddle.
For example, ARE said that one of their plays uses the word "falcon" in it but when Campbell used to say it it sounded more like "balco" (a bad omen maybe?). Now JC is pronouncing it correctly and everyone can get on the same page much faster.
I would think that this is extremely important considering we will be starting at least one new O-lineman who may have gotten confused last year by his accent.

I guess it was like listening to Larry the Cable guy calling plays. That is funny right dere I dont care who you are....