John Beck was on the Gordon Monson Show recently to talk about hunting, Redskins, and BYU football. It's quite a long interview, but John Beck is still confident he can be the guy:

I feel without a doubt I can be a better Quarterback. I told our coaches this at the end of the season. I went into Coach Shanahan's office and said, "I want to play right now." This is very frustrating for me to have had my opportunity, to made the most of it when he put me in, I made the most of it, but the games following it didn't go the way we wanted. It's tough for me to say now I'm not playing. I'm like "Coach, I want to play because having that experience I know I can play better." And he said, "I know you can too, but right now we're in this situation. There'll be another opportunity down the road and you just got to make sure you're ready for it." So, there's where my mindset is at. I believe there will be another opportunity. When it comes I have no control over.

Beck is quite candid in this interview talking about a couple conversations he had with Shanahan after the Buffalo game. It is very clear Beck has a lot of respect for Shanahan, highlighting the fact he's always been honest with where other coaches have not.

Continue reading this post »

I came across this recent Bleacher Report article where the writer spoke with Landry first hand and at length regarding his Achilles injury. I saw that Landry re-tweeted this article, so it's safe to say Dirty 30 validated it. I recommend the entire read, but here are some of the major parts.

Landry prefaced the Achilles story that the Redskins originally wanted him to get shoulder surgery, but that the second and third opinions he got said surgery was not needed and "PRP" treatment would work. And it did. So, one can see why Landry is hesitant to trust the Redskins medical staff. As for the Achilles:

"This year, I went back to the same doctor in Anderson and he instructed the best thing for me was to get open up and fully cut my Achilles and that's a tough surgery as it takes a year and a half to heal," he continued.

"So I went to get a second and a third opinion and everyone I've talked to, and not to criticize Dr. Anderson, but they said, ‘why would you want to operate on that Achilles' when there are other options to healing?' So that's where the hick-up comes in with the team. I told them I wanted to try the other procedure and it's better than the PRP and the procedure would allow my body and heel to strengthen, along with my bone structure and tendons, instead of cutting and taking away those things. It would heal on its own, so why not grant me the opportunity to do this procedure before going through a major surgery?"

Continue reading this post »

The teams salivating for a shot at acquiring Indianapolis QB Peyton Manning got the answer to their prayers yesterday. Two doctors, one being the last surgeon to operate on him, have cleared Peyton to play. Teams like the Jets, Browns, Dolphins, and of course, the Redskins all have quarterback situations. I can guarantee the topic has come up more than once in each of their front offices.

Many news sources and insiders believe that bringing in Peyton to any squad would involve some sort of package deal. One of those scenarios involves Jeff Saturday. I would like to try my rapping skills here: Stay away Saturday.

How was that?

I wouldn't mind Peyton in Washington, the details of which, I will get into a little. That's not the point of this. The point is, I don't want Saturday. Not because he's old (late 30's), or because he plays bad (which actually, he doesn't), but because of continuity.

Read on after the jump...

Continue reading this post »

Our friends over at Son of Washington are doing a very cool thing right now. Any Redskins' fan can suggest a new uniform color and logo scheme, and he'll mock it up in Photoshop. Check out the bottom widget on his post that cycles through all the different ideas so far. I love not only the one to the right, but also the yellow helmet "R" in the modern look.

Of course, these uniform changes are all part of the hype of what will happen with Nike taking over for Reebok as the official NFL company for gear. Newsflash, the NFL would never allow sweeping changes like this, but as Ken Meringolo always says, "A girl can dream."

Larry Michael just reported on ESPN 980:

Ike Hilliard is the new #Redskins WR coach & Bob Slowik takes over LBs for Lou Spanos.

Hilliard's Career:

• Ike Hilliard played for the Giants from 1997-2004 and was with Tampa from 2004-2008. Obviously there's a Bruce Allen connection there in Tampa.
• Ike was a WR Coach for the Florida Tuskers (UFL) from 2009-2010 (Jim Haslett was Head Coach then)
• Hilliard was the Asst. WRs Coach for the Dolphins this past season.

Update: Via Grant Paulsen: "Just reached LaRon Landry via phone. Says he hasn't made a decision on surgery yet. He's waiting to see how Achilles responds to treatment. Landry hopes to know within the next 6 weeks whether or not he will need surgery. He is hoping his Achilles responds to new treatment."

This surely won't sit well with Redskins fans. Via Grant Paulsen:

Mike Shanahan says LaRon Landry has elected not to have surgery on his Achilles. #Redskins

It's tough for me to form a strong opinion here since I have no idea what Landry's doctors are telling him. If Landry wasn't a free agent, would the team make him do it? Can a team make him do it? Either way, Landry has been on IR in back to back years. He played 9 games in 2010 and 8 games this season. It's hard to be optimistic that he'll both recover fully from his injury AND want to return to the Redskins.

Landry tweeted his frustration with the Redskins medical staff regarding his groin injury, which he later apologized for:

"Uuhhh oo it ain't my fault...blame the genius circus staff for the rush. wouldve been there 2wks ago. Im [sorry] but saga [continues]" Landry tweeted.

It's safe to say that Redskins fans, myself include, detesting seeing former Redskins players that couldn't put it together here do well elsewhere. Devin Thomas made two key fumble recoveries yesterday, but being a gunner isn't exactly what's expected from a 2nd round draft pick. Andre Carter is a guy who is easy to root for. He showed up to work every day and was simply was a casualty of the system. It's so unfortunate we won't get to watch him play on Super Sunday.

If there's any silver lining here, at least we don't have to risk watching Haynesworth making a key play to win the Super Bowl. I'm sure he's on a boat somewhere with no clue football is still going on.

	Active: Devin Thomas IR: Justin Tryon (broken wrist) Practice Squad: RB Andre Brown, Tackle Selvish Capers Coaches: Jesse Armstead (Player Development Consultant), OL Coach Pat Flaherty (Redskins TE coach in 2000), TE Coach Michael Pope (Redskins TE Coach 1997-1999), DL Coach Robert Nunn (Redskins DLine Coach in 2003).
	IR: Andre Carter

• WR Domenik Hixon was active for 4 games with Denver under Mike Shanahan in 2007.
• Since 2000, Redskins have 4 regular season wins over the eventual Super Bowl Champions (2010 Green Bay, 2007 Giants, 2003 Pats, and 2000 Ravens). If the Giants win the Super Bowl, that'll be league-leading 5. Bizarre.
• Another interesting (rather well known) story line: Pat's DLine Coach, Pepper Johnson, has been with Belichick for 12 years now and of course had an illustrious career with the Giants. Pepper now has five Super Bowl rings. His Aunt gave him the nickname "Pepper" since she noticed he liked to sprinkle pepper on his cereal as a kid.

Continue reading this post »

Tune in at 1:30 this afternoon (EST) on 106.7 The Fan as I discuss the draft, Peyton Manning and other ludicrous offseason storylines with Danny Rouhier.

I will try to sum up all of your opinions on these matters in a way that makes it sound like everything was my idea.

Here's a link to listen to the station online.