The last day of open practices for the 2005 Washington Redskins training camp was Thursday and it was probably the hottest day yet. There was a full crowd in attendance and apparently it was ‘VIP’ day as there seemed to almost be more people with VIP passes than without. There were a few of the THN brethren in attendance with Portis26, Punu, Jansen Fan (with Jackson) and oafusp all showing up to watch the Skins practice. It was great to finally catch up with Punu (and his brother and his sister).
But this was the most vanilla practice to-date. So vanilla in fact that Bryson Spinner and Jason Campbell seemed to get as many or more reps in 11-on-11s than Ramsey and Brunell. It was also extremely hot down on the field and the ‘big guys’, the linemen, spent a great deal of time at the water cooler just trying to replenish fluids.
Injury update: LavarArrington, Carlos Rogers, Phillip Daniels, Shawn Springs, Brandon Noble, Cornelius Griffin, Tony Dixon, and Artrell Hawkins did not practice but Walt Harris, Santana Moss and Dahrran Diedrick did. Renaldo Wynn also returned from his father-in-law’s funeral.
11-on-11s
The quarterbacks looked good today, probably their best day yet. By no means were they perfect but they were definitely completing more passes and genuinely looking more comfortable.
Patrick Ramsey had his best day of camp in my opinion. Not only did he complete more passes but he threw several short passes with good touch, something that has escaped Ramsey a bit in his first few seasons. There were several passes to the flat that were easy passes and unlike in the past, Patrick floated them in as opposed to firing them in.
Jason Campbell looked really good today as well. He had some great passes both long and short including a 40-yard pass to Jimmy Farris that Farris stretched out for and pulled down. He still made a couple of bad throws, but for the most part he was crisp and accurate. One note though, his passes do tend to have a bit too much loft in them sometimes.
Jimmy Farris caught several passes Thursday. This late in camp, someone on the bubble like Farris really benefits from days like Thursday. He was noticeable.
David Patten didn’t do anything today… except get open on pretty much every play he ran. He may not be very big but he plays with an intensity and tenacity that reminds me a lot of Gary Clark. Personally I think he has fortified himself as the number one option in the receiving corps.
Antonio Brown is definitely pushing for playing time with the offense. He made a few good catches again today, runs crisp routes, and just seems to glide out there. He has all-world speed and it’s a surprise to me that we picked him up on waivers. Perhaps his speed wasn’t as noticeable in the past, but with every touch of the ball he seems to gain confidence and look more and more dangerous.
Kevin Dyson also had a nice catch today. It’s hard to see Dyson and Darnerien McCants making the team and one of them is going to be a very, very tough cut. It would be nice to see the coaching staff use the preseason games to give both of them a lot of looks and gauge their opinion on that rather than some vanilla practices. McCants hasn’t had a great camp but it’s hard to ignore both his community spirit and his potential. It’s also hard to ignore that he didn’t miss a practice despite having stitches holding half his thumb on while Taylor Jacobs continues to find new maladies to keep him out of the line-up.
There were a few more running plays and plays for the running backs today. Portis took his first run of the 11-on-11’s outside on a sweep, followed his blocks nicely and turned it on as he rounded the corner and got up field. He may not be getting a lot of work in these open practices but when he does get a chance, he looks ready to play. It also bears mentioning that you could have drove a truck through the lane opened by the linemen on the play (Samuels and Dockery).
It wasn’t the only Portis run that the offensive linemen were noticeable on. On another run to the right, jon Jansen and Randy Thomas blew up the left side of the defensive line and portis was five yards down field before he even encountered a defender. Pure power running — Joe Gibbs ball.
Manuel White made a nice grab across the middle. It wasn’t the quality of the catch so much as the fearless attitude going after the ball in traffic.
Nehemiah Broughton continues to make his mark. His best run of the day came on a play that he appeared to be stacked up on but just kept driving his legs and powered through the would-be tacklers. This kid is strong and it’s easy to see why Earnest Byner was so high on him. Not only will he make this team but he will likely push very hard for some playing time. There’s always a little crunchy to go with the smooth and it would seem to me that Nemo’s great camp may spell the end for Rock Cartwright.
Dahrann Diedrick also had a nice run today in his first day back at practice. He ran a sweep to the outside, encountered two defenders, put a nice juke on one and then lowered his shoulder on the other as he was hit on the sidelines. He may be a long shot to make the team but he showed a nice mix of speed and power on that one particular run.
This concludes the 2005 training camp reports, we hope you enjoyed reading them. Hopefully we provided a little bit of insight as opposed to just re-gurgitating a play-by-play of the practices. We’d like to thank all of the THN brethren that made it out to a practice or two: Hailskins666, Amy, JansenFan, NikiH, Jackson, DEHog, DEHog Jr., Jake, SkinsChic, oafusp, NC43Hog, PhotoHog, Punu, portis26, GibbsHog, warmother, ScrewGun (and his kids Tom and Wendy) and Chris Luva Luva. Camp is great but the people are better. Every year we’re amazed at the quality of these brothers and sisters and they alone are worth the long trip down from Canada.
Hail to the Redskins and to all the THN mob.
Edit: This blog was archived in May of 2016 from our original articles database.It was originally posted by Mark Solway