Rocky McIntosh and Carlos Rogers are only fashionably late to this party

It has been alleged that tomorrow evening both Rocky McIntosh and Carlos Rogers will take snaps in an actual pretend football game. This is quite miraculous given the gravity of their injuries. In McIntosh's case it was knee surgery that had the Washington Post (per ESPN at least) predicting he'd be out for at least two more weeks... that was 4 days ago. Rogers was in even worse shape:

Tests showed that Rogers tore his right anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in the 52-7 loss Sunday to New England. He will undergo surgery when the swelling subsides in a few weeks and Gibbs will consider signing a free agent cornerback or promoting a cornerback from the practice squad to replace him.

My soul has yet to recover from the loss.

At the time word matriculated about that Rogers might not even be back in time for the start of the following regular season given the injury was so totally serious. X-Rays were terrifying and really, really cereal you guys:

via i93.photobucket.com

And yet, via two reliable sources, Rogers and McIntosh are both returned healthy once more. Redskins Insider:

The Boys Are Back In Town: Blink and you may miss them, but they will be there. Linebacker Rocky McIntosh and corner Carlos Rogers are both coming off of major reconstructive knee surgery, both are well ahead of schedule, and both are set to make their preseason debut tonight [sic]. Now, they'll likely on be out there for a play or six, but even getting through that would be significant.

Redskins 360:

Redskins coach Jim Zorn announced that cornerback Carlos Rogers, whom the team thought might not get on the field until October as he recovered from reconstructive knee surgery last November, will see some action in Saturday's preseason game at the New York Jets.

I've had some serious questions for the training staff given the freakish amount of hamstring injuries this team accumulated over the past 12 someodd months, but paint me impressed by their ability (while giving due credit to both Rogers and McIntosh) to return two of our young defensive starters to the field.

Enough can't be said for the necessity of both players, especially with an eye towards the future. Rocky McIntosh represents the only starting LB under the age of 30. Indeed, at 26 he's still got a lot of mileage on him, especially if his life is modeled after that of superhuman London Fletcher, who remains one of the best (and most underrated) linebackers in the league at 33. And he ain't done. (But he will be eventually which is why I'm so slap happy Rocky's back.)

Although Carlos Rogers has some help from Smoot smack in the under 30 crowd, he's the heir apparent to take over for Shawn Springs, now 33, as the team's premier wide receiver one day. That is assuming he takes some strides forward this year, as many have questioned whether he has yet warranted billing as the third best cornerback of the 2005 NFL Draft (drafted 9th after Adam Jones and Antrel Rolle). I remain faithful -- which is to say, full of faith, and not to say I've ever cheated on Carlos Rogers by dreaming of a Redskins slash Adam Jones mixer.

Welcome back fellas.