If Redskins safety LaRon Landry was upset that his name was rumored to be in trade discussions with Philadelphia earlier this month, he isn’t going to let it bother him. Or at least not prevent him from being in Washington. He attended the three-day minicamp and has been working out in Ashburn, unlike previous seasons.
“I’ll let my agent handle everything,” Landry said. “I’m proud to be a Redskin and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but if I was going to be traded that’s my next move. I mean, I didn’t take it as a negative thing or surprising. I kept working, but there was nothing negative in my shoes.”
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And the reason he’s working out in town? The new defense.
“The second year here I knew the whole defense, I knew everything,” he said. “I communicated with coach [Greg] Blache and he was OK with me working out whereever I was working out at. But this defense is a whole new thing and I need to be here and learn that.”
He needs to learn both free and strong safety in Jim Haslett’s scheme, which does not differentiate between the two positions (Gregg Williams’ defenses did not make a distinction either, until they drafted Landry and put him at strong safety and Sean Taylor at free). Landry, drafted as a strong safety, has played free safety since Taylor’s death in 2007.
“I feel very comfortable in the defense so far,” Landry said. “Just going over the playbook, it looks like it’s going to be a fun year.”
Landry said he’ll play closer to the line of scrimmage than he did the past couple years. At times he could be a de facto linebacker, depending on the scheme. He said he’s also bulking up — he claims he wants to reach 240 pounds before training camp. His listed weight on NFL.com is 210 pounds. So who knows how much he’ll actually put on, but hedid appear bigger this weekend.
“I wanted to put on a little weight so I could sustain that beating,” he said.
Meanwhile, Haslett said they want to take advantage of Landry’s athleticism. So did the previous staff. They’d also like more consistent tackling.
“Some of that is, we have to put him in the right spot,” Haslett said. “Some of that is he is so fast that he doesn’t know how to temper his speed. The guy is unbelievably fast. Once we can harness that and get him to take better angles, he’ll be a better player. The scheme will help him. Some things we do will help him. He’s a talented kid.”
