London Fletcher knows why players who trained elsewhere last offseason opted to stay in Ashburn. It’s an easy answer. He was among the missing for most of last offseason, training in Arizona instead. And those who were absent last offseason are now in town.
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“Anytime you go 4 and 12, you obviously want to change your approach,” said Fletcher, who mostly worked out in Arizona last offseason. “With the new regime here, coach [Mike] Shanahan is definitely big on offseason workouts so guys here are working out.”
And, apparently, enjoying the atmosphere. It doesn’t just stem from Shanahan; it’s also about Bruce Allen coming on board. Not to mention the chance to cleanse themselves of last year’s disaster.
“It’s fun now,” the Redskins’ inside linebacker said. “It’s not like you dread coming over here to the building. Guys are sticking around even beyond the normal just working out and hanging out with teammates, getting to know each other. It’s a different type of atmosphere.”
in truth, almost anytime there’s a change of coaches players talk about the new atmosphere. As much as guys liked Joe Gibbs, some called Jim Zorn a breath of fresh air as well. But Shanahan owns Super Bowl rings and that helps, too. He has a presence, Fletcher said.
“When he entered the room [Monday], we went from talking to complete silence,” Fletcher said. “He went up there and when he addressed us he was very up front about what he expects, what our goals are and how he expects us to achieve these goals. He said we’ll get the best players, the best coaches to provide us with the things necessary to be successful. You love that as a player.”
Fletcher on:
The 3-4 defense: “Last year some of our stuff was actually 3-4 principles and concepts. I played in this scheme in Buffalo, but we did it out of a 4-3. It’s a defense I’m familiar with because Dick LeBeau was with us in Buffalo.”
Changes for himself in the 3-4: “Maybe alignment. That’s probably the biggest thing.”
On linebacker Rocky McIntosh possibly shifting inside: “When you play a 4-3 defense, you have two inside linebackers anyway, so I think you’re blowing it out of proportion. You always have two inside linebackers, but you call the other guy a weakside linebacker. That’s not a big difference. He always played off the ball. It’s not like he’s going from being on the line of scrimmage to all of a sudden now he’s off the ball. For him it will be a little bit of alignment adjustment.”
Free agent linebacker Joey Porter [visiting the Redskins today]: “I think he’d fit good. He’s a playmaking linebacker. He had, what, nine sacks last year? That’s a lot of sacks from outside linebacker and he didn’t even play a whole lot toward the end of the year. That’s still a lot of pressure on the quarterback.”
On the Redskins’ approach to free agency this offseason: “i guess it was a breath of fresh air, not thinking like, ‘Oh, here we go again.’ It’s the same old situation, trying to buy a championship. So by them not doing that, being very deliberate in approach to free agency and target the guys they wanted to target, I was definitely excited about the way they approached it.”
