The third day of Washington Redskins training camp had several interesting storylines, and not every one of them involved Albert Haynesworth. Here's our summary of the day's media reports from Ashburn.
Santana Moss Is A Big Fan Of Kyle Shanahan
The biggest benefactor of Kyle Shanahan's offensive system might be veteran wide out Santana Moss. While Moss was stuck lining up in the same spot every play under Jim Zorn, he had to be salivating watching film of Andre Johnson in Shanahan's system the past few seasons, and he looks to be the leading candidate to earn strong receiving numbers for the Redskins in 2010.
Moss told Paul Tenorio of the Washington Post how thrilled he is about what Kyle Shanahan brings to the team.
Moss said he was excited about the capability of the offense and its ability to mix things up to confuse defenses. Moss said the scheme prevents defenses from being able to predict what's coming based on formations or splits. "We have a solution for everything that they going to bring to us," he said.
NFL observers might not necessarily agree with Moss going on to compare himself to Johnson and Reggie Bush, but it's nice to see that he's confident.
The Afternoon Jog-Through
Two-a-day practices don't necessarily mean that the team will be going all-out full-speed twice a day. Mike Shanahan introduced today the concept of the "jog-through". This afternoon, the players lined up in their regular positions, ran through several plays, but did it at a reduced speed.
According to Rick Maese of the Washington Post, these drills were described by Shanahan as "a chance for players to walk through plays without getting lost in a pace that's too fast."
Albert Haynesworth Joins The Team
A surprising participant (or maybe "observer" is a better word") in both sessions today was Albert Haynesworth. He can't practice until he passes his conditioning test, and didn't take the test today due to some swelling in his knee, but Haynesworth is at least starting to join the team for certain activities. Mike Shanahan confirmed to Paul Tenorio this morning that Haynesworth has been attending three to four hours of meetings each day, and joined the team for 30 minutes in the morning and an hour in the afternoon to learn more about his role and the defensive terminology.
I'm not sure whether we should be reading anything into this or not, but the follow tweet from Grant Paulsen of 106.7 The Fan has to raise some eyebrows:
Haynesworth learning plays from up close. Just heard him tell a coach: ''The nose is easy stuff."
LaRon Landry Likes Hitting People
Chris Cooley took exception to a few particularly strong challenges from LaRon Landry in practice today. Now let's not go feeling bad for Cooley. He can handle the pain. But this is practice. We're talkin' about practice!
Cooley told John Keim of the Washington Examiner his side of the story.
Jeremy Jarmon Gains 20 Pounds
And it's no cause for concern. The team asked him to do it!
Jeremy Jarmon was originally preparing to enter camp as a linebacker, but according to Paul Tenorio of the Washington Post, he was asked to gain weight in order to play as a defensive end in the 3-4 scheme this season instead.
"It's going well, getting used to carrying my new weight," Jarmon said. "I'm up to 295 [pounds] now so just got to get used to that. It's the heaviest I've ever played at, it's going to help me, and I'm just trying to do whatever I can to help my team."
Graham Gano Is Legit
The Redskins don't necessarily want to have to rely on their kicker to win games this year. But if they do, it's fairly safe to say that they'll be in good hands. Er, a good leg.
Grant Paulsen tweeted Gano's unofficial results for the day.
Graham Gano just put on a kicking clinic. He was unofficially 19x20 overall, 16x17 from 38 and 3x3 from 40 yds out