[Note by Skin Patrol, 08/11/08 2:36 PM EDT ] Promoted, edited slightly, thanks CptChaosSidekick.

Some good news, it seems that our training staff might be pretty good after all. As usual the Redskins Insider clues us in:

Defensive end Erasmus James has passed his physical and will be activated from the physically unable to perform list.

That means someone had to go and that someone is Kevin Huntley, a veteran defensive end who had failed to move up the depth chart. He's a DC area guy who had spent some time with Atlanta, but after the Jason Taylor trade and with James getting healthy, Huntley was expendable.

Now imagine this, if James can get back to full speed our Redskins could have three DE's capable of applying heat on 3rd down situations ala New York Giants '07.  Jason La Canfora sees the Redskins posibly lining him up at DT in some senarios. Mr. La Canfora hosted an online chat:

D.C.: With all due respect to the previous HOF coach, this time last year and well into the season the Skins could not even line up and snap the ball consistently. After 2 mostly penalty free preseason games it seems Zorn's basic football coaching skills surpass previous administrations.

Jason La Canfora: I am with you 100 percent.

 

Game day was a mess under Gibbs. It really was. All of that clutter and pre-snap motion and mumbo-jumbo that never really fooled anyone and resulted in a lot of penalties (too much time, offsides, etc).

 

 This looks like it will be a smoother operation, but, again, let's see how it goes when the results really matter. Early returns are promising, but that's not alwasy the best way to project.

The above is the first thing I was looking for when Zorn took the controls.  IMO All of that clutter and pre-snap motion and mumbo-jumbo was a thing of the past and worked in the 80's & early 90's but not in this day-and-age. I remember several offensive personnel complain that the opposing defense knew what play the Skins were about to run before they hiked the pigskin.  To Zorn's early credit, his uptempo way of doing things is looking good. Faster play-calling, faster coming out of the huddle to disrupt the defense, and playcalling generally all looking grand.

Randoms:

WR Devin Thomas could make his first appearance this preseason as he returned to the practice field.  LaRon Landry is being handled with kiddy gloves and Zorn says he'll play in one of the preseason games; ny guess is that he'd be playing if this were the regular season. Against the Bills Antwaan Randle El had his hand stepped on but is doing fine and is practicing, however Anthony Mix, who, depending on where you go for your Redskins news, either broke a rib -- or didn't -- might miss up to a week or more. Fellow WR Billy McMullen is looking good and might just push Mix out of the roster.

Well that's it for now. -HTTR