First, the new signing per the Official Site:
The Redskins have signed second-year safety Justin Hamilton, the team announced on Friday...
Hamilton, 6-3 and 222 pounds, played the 2006 season with the Cleveland Browns, totaling 15 tackles (13 solo) during his rookie season.
Hamilton is a full year removed from football, having been cut for an "alleged injury." More:
Hamilton was drafted by the Browns in the seventh round of the 2006 draft, and it was somewhat of a surprise when we waived him. The initial reason for waiving him was because he had an alleged injury, thus the reason he was paid an injury settlement. But, that still begs the question I've been wondering since last season: why not just put Hamilton on the injured reserve list (although his injury didn't seem to merit such a long absence)?
That's a very good question, even moreso because, as DawgsByNature points out, Hamilton was playing pretty decent backup safety before he was let go. He had fifteen tackles his rookie year (2006) which classifies him as overproductive, considering he was a 7th round pick.
He is a year removed from football, though. Which means he has to play some serious catch-up to leap frog a number of other safeties currently on the roster. We have seven of them with Reed Doughty, LaRon Landry, and Vernon Fox the current favorites to make the roster (the first two are locks, I'd say). We also drafted Kareem Moore (injured, though). Behind those guys are Chris Horton, Patrick Ghee, and now Justin Hamilton.
To make room for Hamilton, Stephen Tate (defensive end) was shown the door. Best wishes to Stephen in the future.
Elsewhere, Redskins 360 got the scoop on training camp from Coach Zorn:
Redskins coach Jim Zorn just told me that training camp will begin on Sunday, July 20 at Redskins Park. The first full-pads practice will be on Tuesday, July 22.
This is a reminder that football isn't that far away.