Jason Campbell "tweaked" his hamstring at practice and head coach Jim Zorn couldn't be happier. From the article:

"I have him sinking down a little bit," Zorn said. "It’s a change, and so I was kind of excited about it—not that he tweaked his hamstring, but just the fact that different things are happening."

Kind of excited? More like hella excited. That's right... I went with hella.

AOL Fanhouse also has the story. And they lead with "it is a bit unusual when a head coach is actually pleased when he starting quarterback gets hurt." A bit? More like... you guessed it, hella unusual. Now, I understand that Zorn is changing some of the things JC does, especially pre-snap, but it doesn't seem very productive to have him to the point of tweaking his hamstring. I wonder if the QBs in Seattle got injured after working with Zorn...

The article also mentions ARE and his knee's floating-body-freeness. And after a few days, we might have found out what those floating bodies actually were:

Randle El said the knee was swollen after minicamp practice Saturday. An MRI found loose cartilage, possibly the residual effects of getting the knee banged in a couple of games last season, and he had arthroscopic surgery Monday.

Yep, I'm letdown. Floating bodies totally built up for something, well, hella exciting. A lot more exciting things than "loose cartilage" can be described as floating bodies.

Oh, and hella kinda buried in the article was the tidbit about the fact that "running back Clinton Portis sat out with a minor hip flexor strain." Now, it has been suggested that Portis might have hurt himself racing Landry, but, for now at least, I'm not buying it. Even Jason Reid over at the Redskins Insider quotes Zorn as suggesting it was the race, but I still think this is more of a veteran-getting-out-of-the-last-day-of-practice-for-a-while thing than a Landry-ran-me-right-out-of-my-hip thing. Maybe its just me.

That's it for now, enjoy your Mother's Day weekend. (Yes, that was me reminding you to go buy some lame card or flower to appease your mother on the one day a year that she specifically gets to be appeased, despite the fact that we all know that mothers are appeased 24/7/365. And yes, it is a made up holiday, just like Valentine's Day, where you have to buy some worthless piece of crap to somehow "prove" that you care for you mother. But do it anyway because the alternative is so much worse. I mean, I got over it without being bitter about it... and you can to.)

In other injury-related news, SP was finishing up school this week, so I'm sure he's off in some gutter somewheres. Wish him luck.

From the Official Site:

Cornerback Carlos Rogers and linebacker Rocky McIntosh are not expected to participate fully in the May 2-4 mini-camp.

Both are continuing to recover from knee ligament surgery last year...

Rogers is coming off a knee ligament injury suffered in Week 8 last season. He underwent surgery to repair the knee in November.

His availability for training camp and preseason is also uncertain.

Rogers has targeted the 2008 season opener for his return, though. He said in early March that he was "making progress" with his rehab.

I assumed he'd be out much longer than that given the injury, so I'm thrilled to see he has the season opener targeted for return. I remain skeptical of that actually happening, and the story doesn't necessarily lend itself to optimism; players would tend to claim their return as early as possible, but I'd like to hear from some of the coaching or conditioning staff on the matter before I take Rogers' word for it.

That said, if he can be game ready by the season opener? Dude will get huge amounts of respect from me. Furthermore I hate the idea of playing much of next season without one of our best cornerbacks, as I witnessed the epic badness of doing the same circa 2006.

Regarding Rogers generally, this is a huge season for him. Questions remain about whether he's as good as he was drafted (although I think he's a good -- perhaps not yet great -- cornerback). And now he is faced with the biggest adversity of his young career with the knee injury. I'm rooting for him to recover and silent critics. In any event, we're going to learn a lot about Carlos Rogers in 2008. I hope we start learning September 4th.

Tanaman is of such physical superiority over the competition that he presents a danger even to himself each and every time he steps on a field and accelerates. Jason Campbell said it:

I am no sports scientist so will not speculate on the accuracy that a player being faster means he's more likely to get injured, though increased reps would tend to increase stress on one's body. I suspect that Santana's injuries have less to do with the fact that he happens to be a remarkably fast human being but that he plays in an explicitly contact sport against other people who also happen to be remarkably fast human beings that wish him harm. If he needs more rest in the offseason to cope with injuries sustained during the regular season, whatever works for him is just peaches and cream by me.

Santana Moss had to resort to kidnapping threats to get workouts with Jason Campbell years ago, though I don't ever recall him actually doing so. Feel free to sift through Hogs Haven archives to find the story where Moss and Campbell actually found time to work together in '07. Better late than never, I suppose.

Not much emphasis has been placed on acquiring a linebacker in the upcoming draft but perhaps that has been in error. The team has gone as far as scheduling a visit from at least one linebacker. Per the Post:

The Kelly invite comes as no surprise as the team is in obvious need of a larger receiver to complement Santana Moss and bolster an underachieving receiving unit. Malcolm Kelly fits that bill. But Jerod Mayo? Marcus Washington, London Fletcher, and Rocky McIntosh make up a solid unit for the immediate future, yes? Perhaps not: Jerod Mayo projects as a first round pick. Although he hasn't been taken in our own Mock Draft yet, by pick 31, he is the number one available prospect on MTD's board. For depth we've got Khary Campbell (Note: Covering the Redskins thinks he's good for special teams only), H.B. Blades (The Hamburglar) and then a bunch of people I've not heard of: Danny Verdun-Wheeler, Rian Wallace, and Matt Sinclair. This is neither good nor horribly bad; I think Campbell can backup on both outside spots and feel fine with the Hamburglar in the middle. I do lament the fact that we may end up having spent a 2nd round pick (McIntosh), 5th round pick (Hamburglar), 6th round pick (Dallas Sartz) and potentially early pick this coming year on linebackers, without a starter to show for it. If McIntosh's knee is indeed degenerative -- and I pray it is not -- then we're in hot water at linebacker in spite of expending large draft resources on the position.

I don't know what the future holds in Re: Rocky McIntosh, but I know it's a lot brighter if his knee holds up. Question to reader(s): Should we draft a linebacker in the 1st round? I'd vote no, initially, and say that concerns about Rocky's injury should prompt, if anything, the drafting of a reliable backup linebacker in a later round. Unless the team knows something the rest of us don't (and of course they do) then mere concerns over a knee shouldn't force our hand on the first round draft pick. Then again, they scheduled the meeting with Mayo and both Marcus Washington and London Fletcher are in their 30s.

PS: On all things Jerod Mayo related, please check out one of the best blogs on the entire network. Rocky Top Talk is our Vols blogger and does outstanding, recognized work at his blog.

Rocky Top Talk, NFL DRAFT PROFILE: LINEBACKER JEROD MAYO

Hat tip to PFT. Per the Washington Times, bad news first:

Meaning if we ditch Shawn Springs this offseason, it will be Fred Smoot all alone out there defending against the NFL's bests with little help. That's not an attack on Leigh Torrence or David Macklin or John Eubanks, but suffice to say I don't know if I want any of them starting games at cornerback over long stretches of the season. Magic beans solution is blog favorite Byron Westbrook, who will catapult onto the scene in a Batman outfit and immediately play at a Pro Bowl level.

Some aspects of this remind of a perfect storm that was 2006, where Adam Archuleta and a lack of reliable starting cornerbacks dramatically affected play calling and ultimately produced one of the worst defenses in the NFL. We've improved by losing Archuleta and gaining Smoot and LaRon Landry, but we've lost Sean Taylor and now, seemingly, Carlos Rogers (at least for a minute) and perhaps Shawn Springs. His future remains in doubt, though it shouldn't anymore! Make sure he is here or we will suffer the consequences. The article admits as much, pointing out that Rogers' extended injury could very well mean an extension of Springs' time in D.C.

And the good news:

McIntosh had a phenomenal year. In thirteen starts he amassed 87 tackles (3rd on team, 2nd in solos) with three sacks, five passes defensed and, per here at least, 3 fumbles (forced, recovered, I don't know). The main concern on McIntosh was articulated by the Post earlier this week: The question mark is abated if only slightly. I'm not a doctor, but a speedy recovery time from knee surgery doesn't lend itself to lingering degenerative knee problems. Then again, I shudder merely at the suggestion that McIntosh has a degenerative injury since that would obviously cut short his thus-far potential laden career.

If there were any remaining doubt about who would start this Saturday, Jason Campbell appears to remain injured and thus Todd is green means go. Per Redskins Insider Jason La Canfora:

Also from that article, Stephon Heyer and Randall Godfrey both appear ready to play on Saturday.

The coaching staff dived in yesterday on the issue of who would start, per the Post:

While there is no way to tell, I expect the Redskins to play it extremely safe with Jason Campbell. With Collins playing so well, and we'll quantify that in a moment, there is simply no reason whatsoever to rush Campbell onto the field. If his injury lingers then you risk aggravation every time he steps in. I'm not even positive that, at this particular moment, I'd take Campbell over Collins even were the former unquestionably at 100%. I might be inclined to leave Collins in throughout the postseason even if Campbell's injury subsides dramatically over the next week. We should at least wait until he's ready enough to play backup: Make no mistake, I think JC is still (obviously) the future of this franchise as Todd Collins was born into the Vietnam war, if that puts his age in perspective. Atari didn't exist.

But that isn't meant to take anything away from the Best NFC Player in the Entire World Ever (in this month of December):

All the more reason to keep him at the helm. I've been most impressed with him on 3rd down; a brief comparison:

Jason Campbell - 3rd down 70 completions on 124 attempts (56.5%) with 53 1st downs.
Todd Collins - 3rd down 23 completions on 35 attempts (65.7%) for 17 1st downs.

None of which is said to dog Jason or to cast doubt on his incredibly bright future. When the season starts in '08 it does so with Jason at the helm, regardless of what happens this postseason. He is the future. But what Todd Collins has been able to do thus far is breath new life into a team that so desparately needed it and for that he's earned the right to start throughout the rest of the year, in my opinion. When you've won 4 straight against quality opponents there is no reason to mess with a good thing. Todd Collins to the Super Bowl.

Disagree with me here.

Also at Redskin Report.

We all had a scare last weekend when Big Huge Mike Sellers appeared to injure his head -- he had a concussion apparently, but who believes those crafty doctors -- and had to leave the game. Per the Post:

And then he clubbed a baby seal and not even PETA was willing to get in his face about it, 'cuz he's so hardcore, you see.

Big Huge Mike Sellers really did add afterwards, per the article, that he wasn't even aware that the league had a rule preventing players from returning to games in which they were concussed. This because of recent scrutiny the league has received for its handling of concussed players, which goes to show how effective they've been at getting the word out to the, you know, actual players the rule affects. Unbelievably Sellers said this was the first concussion of his career, further confirming that he is really a metallic robot sent from the future to block for Clinton Portis. Rules shmules tried Sellers (emphasis added):

So our coaching staff is large enough to govern nations, but you try managing a gameplan while also preventing a marauding Mike Sellers from entering the game against league rules through such sophisticated trickery as hiding his helmet.

If you're like me and want all Huge Mike Sellers all the time, enjoy some more Steinberg who pointed me to this (pre concussion give me my helmet or die) video:

But he's our crazy sumbitch.

Most recent victim of the dreaded IR is Mike Pucillo, per Redskins Insider:

Pete Kendall isn't a real option since we need him to start elsewhere on the line. I am totally convinced that Lorenzo Alexander could sub in for the next Moon landing as an alternate astronaut since the dude is handy, so I'm announcing my vote of confidence for him. Everytime he sees field he overachieves, in my opinion. Among other things he has: Kevin Sampson from the practice squad was upgraded to the regular roster to take Mike's place. The bad news is that we've lost a versatile offensive linemen in Mike Pucillo for the rest of the season (and postseason???). The good news is that Casey Rabach is unbreakable.

Better news: I haven't followed the other 31 teams nearly as closely as I have my beloved 'Skins, but is there another team that has suffered as much roster-loss? We've lost the following players to IR:

1. Nehemiah Broughton
   
2. Tyler Ecker
   
3. Mike Espy
   
4. Steven Harris
   
5. Jon Jansen
   
6. Brandon Lloyd
   
7. Rocky McIntosh
   
8. Mike Pucillo
   
9. Carlos Rogers
   
10. Randy Thomas
    
11. Ross Tucker

In more palpable terms, we've lost our starting cornerback, our starting tackle, our starting guard, our starting weak side linebacker, and a handful of backups and role players. Add in the best player on the team, pro bowl safety Sean Taylor (lost to murder) and we've suffered as much adversity on the roster as any other team that comes to mind. In spite of all that, we just won two huge road games, convincingly, against one opponent that could have guaranteed itself a playoff spot with a win and another that very nearly depended on a win to make the postseason, if I recall correctly. The team has suffered more emotionally this season than any I can remember and here we are controlling our own postseason destiny heading into week 17. And, to think, at one point we were wondering about the future of Joe Gibbs. I agree with mmford10; Coach deserves a lot of credit for not only keeping this team alive, but thriving by the standards of many teams who would love to be in the position we're in.

First and foremost, how about them Giants? Hat tip to reader Redskinette for this lovely video of Giants fans at their worst, not safe for work:

They can totally hear you mang. Just be louder. The rest of us fans really appreciate it.

(Also be sure to check out Redskinette's pictures from the game which I'm going to try and load up on to the site at some point this week. Law School finals finished hours ago for me so I am finally ready to start enjoying my Christmas break and maybe even catching up on some blogging.)

In horrible, frustrating, bang-my-head-against-the-wall news, hat tip to SinceTheBeginning (who, incidentally, has been a reader for some time now, perhaps since the beginning) Rocky McIntosh is out for the year and due to the injury, likely longer. Per Redskins Insider:

So, so frustrating for Rocky McIntosh. He was having a huge year, was 22nd among NFC linebackers in tackles, had three sacks, and forced three fumbles with one recovered. He was having the year we all hoped he would have and now it's been cut short, perhaps reaching into next season. A bad recovery means he won't be back until next December. A good one, per Jason's timeline, has him back in September, though they won't force him back early with such a severe injury. Nor should they. Continued aggrivation of this would threaten Rocky's career and he deserves the chance to recover fully before putting his body at risk on the field. In the interim, we turn to young H.B. Blades to help pick up the slack.

Here Rocky, per Redskins Insider, on how long he'll be out and his replacements:

This is bad for any player -- I'm thinking of Carlos Rogers -- but in some ways it is especially bad for Rocky. He was drafted in the 2nd round with high hopes of joining a defense that turned out to be pretty lousy. For reasons unknown that might have cost our former linebackers coach his job, Rocky was benched in favor of Warrick Holdman through much of his first year (2006) and only saw time right there at the end. Still, for that entire year he got to take some reps and spend time at practice. Now he'll lose much or most or at least a non-trivial amount of his third season to injury, meaning by the end of '08 he, in all likelihood, won't have seen two full seasons of action. From everything he's shown us this year, I think we were wrong not to play in him in '06, and I think that decision is only going to appear worse and worse looking back. Warrick Holdman didn't save us from an embarrassing defensive season. Would an extra season of game time, more intensive condition, etc. saved Rocky from injury? That's kind of an absurd thing to speculate on, but at a minimum we would have enjoyed more of the young man's talent at linebacker and he would have been more seasoned, perhaps enough to adopt a leadership role for H.B. Blades. That seems far too much to ask of him, now.

Get well soon, Rocky.

Per Redskins Insider:

Per The Official Site: We were due, I guess. Randy Thomas started just three games this season which played out as though it were designed to test the Redskins. We lost Derrick Dockery to free agency. Jon Jansen was placed on IR earlier in the season. We had to bring in newcomer Pete Kendall to shore up a line that wasn't getting fixed by Todd Wade or whomever else we put around him, be that Jason Fabini or Stephon Heyer or whoever. Mike Pucillo? Even he has seen time (11 games) with a start due to an injury to Casey Rabach, which could have been predicted. This comes after a miraculously healthy 2006 when we went, I believe, 14 of 16 weeks with the same 5 guys starting and finishing games.

I believe all the cliches about the importance of the offensive line and lament the way our season has gone as a result. It is worth noting that we've lost (and won, though) some close games due to costly turnovers, a few crucial ones by Jason Campbell losing the football caused in part by an absence of reliable blockers against monstrous blitzers. No consistently meaningful run game has managed to bail us out or, more importantly, aided us in closing out 2nd halves with clock-killing 1st downs accomplished exclusively on the ground.

Now I'm not exculpating Coach Gibbs of his apparent developed inability to adjust at the half and carry leads to victory in his second stint in the league, but here's something to consider. Maybe the reason this decade's team has looked so different from the one of yesteryear In Re: 2nd Half Leads has less to do with what Coach Gibbs forgot about football teams and more to do with what he lost from his three-time Super Bowl winning football team from wayback. It would be a lot easier to carry a lead if your running backs were charging to victory behind the most famous and perhaps greatest offensive line in the history of the sport than if they're attempting the same behind a beaten and battered, Frankenstein patchwork line that is the 2007 unit. Our modern day hogs appear less like their famous predecessors and more like the victims in an Upton Sinclair novel, maybe something like: "There was a line of hogs with squeals and lifeblood ebbing away..." Sounds about right.

Regardless, he still really screwed up on that double time out against Buffalo. Very frustrating.

Tough break to Randy Thomas and well wishes to him on recovery for the 2008 season. Todd Collins is encouraged to evolve an extra set of eyes out of the back of his helmet immediately because only God knows where that pass rush will be coming from, and the Todd ain't fast enough to introduce himself as late as it arrives. Nothing has gone right this year and, yet, we're still clinging to the possibility of a postseason. I'm thankful for that much.