Haynesworth only one not attending workout
ASHBURN – Rocky McIntosh did nothing special. He showed up for work, like just about every other teammate. That’s nothing to celebrate. Except that teammates know he’s unhappy with his contract situation. Except that another disgruntled player was again nowhere to be found.
So the fact that McIntosh is attending the Redskins voluntary minicamp — with no contract and having skipped the offseason workouts to this point — amounts to a big deal.
“I came to play ball,” McIntosh said. “It was just time to come in.”
Simple as that. But contracts are never simple in the NFL and McIntosh is reportedly irked that he hasn’t received anything more than a basic one-year qualifying offer. Others, such as corner Carlos Rogers, received a similar offer. But Rogers has been participating in the offseason workouts.
McIntosh did not want to address his contract situation, saying he’s only worried about the final day of minicamp Sunday. He also has to adjust to playing inside linebacker as opposed to the outside, where he’d spent his first three seasons, though he called the defense a variation of what they’ve used here in the past.
“It was great to see him in,” Redskins end Phillip Daniels said. “That says a lot about Rocky, even though he’s upset about the contract. But he still loves being a Redskin and being around his teammates. Every guy on the team understands the contract stuff. But it’s just good to see him here. We respect that a lot.”
Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said, “Rocky has been a very good player for [the Redskins]. He’s a quality guy; I’ve talked to him on a number of occasions. … There’s a lot of catch-up involved.”
Shanahan also said he expects McIntosh to stick around for the organized team activity sessions that begin next week.
In fact, the only player not attending this weekend is defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, who has worked out this offseason in Tennessee. Though Haynesworth has stayed mum about the reasons why, the speculation is that he’s upset about playing in a 3-4 defense where the ends and nose tackles are asked to more or less set up the linebackers.
“We pretty much accept the fact that he’s not here,” Daniels said. “Every guy on the team would love to see him participating. When you’re 4-12, you don’t have room to negotiate anything. Just get here and let’s win some games, man. We can’t go through that again.”
