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All-Joe Team Recognizes Redskins

Hat tip: Windy City Gridiron for finding this:

USA TODAY's Larry Weisman has compiled his 15th annual All-Joe squad representing the NFL's "grunts" whose work doesn't often show up in statistics but is integral to the success of any football team:
Among the winners count two of Your Washington Redskins:
G: Randy Thomas, Washington-- This is as much for the rest of the guys as for him. Late-season emphasis on running game played to mashers' strengths. What took so long?

RB: Ladell Betts, Washington-- Five consecutive 100-yard rushing games tied club record. But Betts says he can accept backup role next year behind Clinton Portis. If so, he's a gentleman Joe.

I've said it before, Randy Thomas simply does not get the credit he deserves for his role on this team. He already won the Ed Block award (voted on by teammates) and now he is recognized for his non-statistical contribution to the Redskins running game, one of the few things that went really well in 2006 (especially towards the end of the year). Congratulations, Randy.

I cannot plaudit Ladell Betts more for what he did this season. We had no idea that our backup RB was capable of such a monstrous stretch of games and it is very encouraging having him around because of both his clear competence at the position and his professionalism. He is a team player who, in my opinion, took a lower pay check than his performance warranted just to remain a Washington Redskin. He's played his entire career for Washington (we drafted him in 2002) and he is on contract with the team through 2012. We throw around the term "core Redskin" enough where it is in danger of becoming a trite platitude -- particularly on a team that wheels-and-deals so frequently in free agency. The term loses its meaning without an appreciable context, one that Ladell Betts provides. If there is anyone currently on the roster that personifies "core" and "Redskin", it is Betts. Congratulations, Ladell.