Tackling Washington Redskins training camp – Day Two
By Ian Cummings
We’re back to tackling Washington Redskins’ training camp, with day two now concluded.
Naturally, there weren’t as many updates today. The first day of Washington Redskins training camp brings the most intrigue, simply for the change of pace from the brunt of the offseason. Today, many of the storylines from the first day carried over. Josh Doctson was clearly the No. 1 wide receiver, gaining chemistry with Alex Smith. The defense continued to mesh as well, with strong days from players such as D.J. Swearinger and Daron Payne.
There were a few minor health concerns, largely due to the temperature. As players continue to get in shape, the change of pace will take some adjusting. This was the case for Robert Kelley and Ryan Anderson, who both sat out for part of practice with heat-related ailments. They should be good to go in future practices.
Starting linebacker Zach Brown was also limited with a quad injury. He was listed as day-to-day after yesterday’s practice, and today, Josh Harvey-Clemons started in Brown’s place, alongside Mason Foster. The team preferred the same route back in OTAs, when Brown did not attend.
Harvey-Clemons seems entrenched as the team’s primary backup at that position. Yesterday, he accrued an interception off of a tipped pass, and today, he continued to turn heads. Check out this tweet by Warpath News reporter Chris Russell:
Josh Harvey-Clemons, who has made the transition from S to ILB in his 2nd year could be a name to watch. On one play, he showed really good deep range and burst covering a deep-half of the field pretty easily on an INC. #Redskins really haven't had an ILB w/ that kind of range.
— Chris Russell AKA the 🐓🐓! (@Russellmania621) July 27, 2018
We’ve known since the start of the offseason that the Redskins depth at inside linebacker is fairly solid. But this quick development and versatility displayed by Harvey-Clemons adds an extra factor to the equation. He doesn’t appear to be in danger of losing a job this preseason.
There were some other notable events, aside from Harvey-Clemons’ apparent emergence. Montae Nicholson had an inconsistent outing, growing frustrated with himself after his legs got tangled up with Brian Quick and he fell. Additionally, Paul Richardson, once believed to be en route to be Alex Smith’s favorite deep target, had trouble competing with Josh Norman for toss-up balls. Adonis Alexander was one player who gave Richardson trouble on a snap, sticking with him deep and breaking up a pass.
Next. Tackling Redskins training camp - Day One. dark
These occurrences, however, are of fairly minimal relevance. There are two very important things to take away from training camp: That players exit healthy, and that players gain chemistry with one another. Individual performance can’t be judged on such a small scale. Preseason will give us a better look, after players have had time to get back to speed. Some look better than others. But there is a lot of time left. Stay tuned for more updates when available!