Bill Callahan Redskins Presser: Wes Martin has a huge opportunity

Redskins interim Head Coach Bill Callahan and Defensive Coordinator Greg Manusky spoke to the media after practice today. Wes Martin has a huge opportunity to prove himself for next year with Brandon Scherff's season-ending injury. Landon Collins is dealing with an Achilles injury, but should be ready to play against his former team, the New York Giants. Quinton Dunbar is still dealing with a hamstring injury, but they don't have plans to use Josh Norman. They are focused on getting the 3 free agents they've hired off the street ready to play instead.

Landon Collins:

Quinton Dunbar:

“He just has a hamstring that’s lingering right now. He’s been working through that. Hopefully we’ll know a little more by tomorrow and we’ll find out his status and whether he’ll be ready to go or not.”

Wes Martin:

"It’s a huge opportunity and of course he played earlier in the year when [G] Brandon [Scherff] was injured, so he has some earlier game experience to rely back on. And of course, I think he’s been drilled awfully well with [Offensive Line] Coach [Phil] Rauscher, so I think that’s been positive. Going forward, I think the more that you get matched up against different people, whether it’s divisional or non-divisional, I think it just adds to your book of experience. Over the years, a lot of players, especially offensive linemen, will make their own notebook of the types of players that they’re matched up on, whether it’s the pass rush moves or the run moves or things of that nature where they can learn a little more about their opponent, a little bit more about the scheme and the techniques that are deployed against them.”

“I think it’s more of an awareness situation where you’re screening the ball a lot on the perimeter and you’re going to have a defender who may be potentially in a man-to-man scenario locked up on the back. So the ability to recognize that man defender – what we would call a ‘mugger,’ he’s mugging up on the back as the back is trying to release through the line of scrimmage – and then making that decision to go activate yourself up on him and recognize it, make the adjustment and then block it up, that’s a pretty big play for a young guard. It speaks to his ability, his training, his ability to execute in a critical moment.”

Improvements on the offensive line:

"I thought we protected pretty well against a team in Philadelphia that presents you with a lot of sack issues – I mean just the one-on-one matchups across the board, but also I thought that the protection helped. I thought as a staff, we planned on getting the ball out a lot quicker, so using the run-action, the three-step, the movement to get the ball out at a faster rate, I think that decreases your chances of being sacked or obviously backed up in the down-and-distance. So play calling kind of comes into play there and utilizing those calls and staying out of long-yard situations and utilizing the screen game when you’ve got a feel for it. Those are all timely calls, so I thought we did a good job on that.”

Daniel Jones:

Greg Manusky Presser

Secondary:

Landon Collins:

Josh Norman:

Young players:

"When you have young players that are playing, they haven’t seen it. Even from a rookie’s perspective, just looking back at the Giants game when [LB] Cole [Holcomb] was playing, just little things you don’t pick up until you actually play a decent amount of snaps in the league. Those guys are going to have some growing pains with everybody that’s out there playing, but usually those rookies do have a hard time making that swing. We’re playing decent, we’re playing better.”

Backup players:

“I was a backup player most of my whole career. When I get a chance to go out there and play, I’m going to give it my all. I know that’s the same thing that they do. They’re put into a position to start now and they’re going to make the best out of it, and they’re studying, they’re trying to know exactly what the calls are and go out there in a high fashion and perform at a high fashion. Yeah, we expect them to do it because that’s why they’re here on our team.”

Redskins vs Giants Injury Report