Studs
LB Rocky McIntosh. Very good job being in the right gaps. He showed excellent patience on some runs, reading the play and then filling the hole. He stuffed a Keiland Williams run and later stopped another.
LB H.B. Blades. A second straight day in which Blades was very active. He’s a good practice player because of his energy. Today, he replaced London Fletcher, who had the morning off. Blades did a good job filling holes and would have made a couple stops behind the line because of it, including one of Willie Parker inside the 10.
RG Artis Hicks. The knock early was that he played too upright. That wasn’t the case today, at least not the majority of time. Hicks was pretty solid overall. He was matched against Adam Carriker and held him off, thanks to a better base. He seemed to be lower at the snap than he was at the start of camp. That was the case inside the 10; allowed him to have more explosion into Carriker.
RT Jammal Brown. He plays with power and a nasty streak. We haven’t seen he latter too much thus far, but you can see the power. Brian Orakpo turned the corner on him, but Brown was able to recover simply by pushing him wider. He got inside Phillip Daniels on one run to the left and was just stronger. Have said it before, but Brown is one of the few who can let defenders get into his body without getting into major trouble.
CB Kevin Barnes. Really didn’t make any standout plays, but he’s lining up against good receivers now and doing a decent job. Today, he covered Santana Moss in the offensive right slot. Just before the snap, Barnes shaded Moss inside. That’s where Moss wanted to go (about 10 yards downfield). But Barnes took it away, so Moss cut outside with Barnes right on his hip. Rex Grossman’s pass went down the middle and fell incomplete.
NG Maake Kemoeatu. Did a much better job of using his power today; doesn’t always seem to use that strength. However, he did today and it started early when he got inside Casey Rabach and plugged a hole, allowing LaRon Landry to make a play. Just the way it’s supposed to work. He held the middle on a couple other occasions, too. Of course, he overpowered Erik Cook on one snap, but that was a mismatch.
Duds
RT Stephon Heyer. It’s old home week for Studs and Duds apparently; it’s been a few days since Heyer was on the list. But Heyer at times was getting too high at the snap; Phillip Daniels pushed him back because of it. Lorenzo Alexander turned the corner on him early in practice and Daniels did the same a few plays later.
QB John Beck. He’s still getting to know the offense, but he threw another pick today, this one by Lendy Holmes. Beck did show nice touch on a pass to Keiland Williams, dumping the ball over Robert Henson’s shoulder. But the pick by Holmes was too easy; he just broke on a hitch route and snagged it with no problem.
TE Dennis Morris. The rookie continues to look destined for the practice squad at best. Working with the scout team, Morris attempted to block LB Andre Carter. Maybe attempt is the wrong word as his head was down and he lunged forward. Carter simply stepped inside. Later, on a pass route from inside the 10-yard line, Morris looked a bit slow coming off the line and getting into his route.
LT Selvish Capers. He did turn Jeremy Jarmon inside on a Willie Parker run around the end. But he had a tougher time against better players, which is why he’s still a project. He let Chris Wilson into his pads and, unlike Brown, his game isn’t built on strength. Orakpo got around him, too. Not embarrassing stuff – he really can’t stop Orakpo at this stage of his career — but two tough plays nonetheless.
RB Larry Johnson. Once more, his weakness is pass protection. Maybe he won’t have to do it much this year, but if something happens to Clinton Portis then he will. Today, he couldn’t stop Chris Horton on a blitz. Now, Horton is an all right player, but he’s not considered the best blitzer among the safeties. Johnson had a couple nice runs, but he needs to improve in this area.
Backup OL. Let’s see, Will Montgomery failed to get off the ball once; Edwin Williams jumped early, Kory Lichtensteiger was late snapping the ball another time and Clint Oldenburg also had a false start. The Redskins were working on different snap counts and silent snap counts. It resulted in sloppy play.
