Doug Williams knows what the Redskins have in Jammal Brown, having scouted him for four seasons. He also thinks he knows what the Redskins now have for the foreseeable future: bookend tackles.
“This is a great move,” Williams said by phone Saturday night.
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As a member of Tampa’s front office (until May), Williams, the former Redskin quarterback, saw Brown play twice a year from 2005-08. He liked what he saw.
“Jammal was a solid left tackle,” Williams said. “He wasn’t a dominator. But he was an athletic guy. He’s solid. He went to the Pro Bowl. It gives the Redskins a guy with experience and it’s a system he’s played in. He should do well because he’s the athletic type lineman that Mike Shanahan likes.
“Jammal is not a mauler, but he’s athletic enough to do what they’ll ask him to do: moving on the run and getting to the next level. He certainly can do that.”
In Shanahan’s system, the emphasis is on being able to move laterally and in space rather than overwhelm defenders at the line of scrimmage. This move gives Washington a more athletic right tackle than Artis Hicks, who now moves to right guard.
“He’s not overpowering, but he has good feet,” Williams said. “He uses his hands well and he can get to the second level. When you have a big guy that size who can use his feet and move his hands and get to the second level, that’s very important. If you ask him to be a powerful head-up run blocker, that won’t be his thing. But for what they do, he’ll fit in very well … . And when you have any kind of athletic tackles, the guards go along for the ride a lot of times.”
