1. Linebacker Ryan Kerrigan suffered a bone bruise and hyper-extended his knee during the morning workout. An MRI was negative, but coach Mike Shanahan said Kerrigan could miss time.
2. “Hopefully it’s only a couple of days,” Shanahan said.
3. Strong safety LaRon Landry (Achilles) free safety Kareem Moore (knee) and linebacker Robert Henson (knee) have been placed on the physically unable to perform list. Only Landry is expected to start this year, though Henson will get a chance to win a starting inside linebacker’s job. The players can come off this list at any point before the season. After that point, they must stay on the list for the first six weeks of the season.
It does not sound as if Landry is in any danger of missing the regular season.
“It’s more preventative than anything,” Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said. “He’s not 100 percent, but he looked good [Friday] so hopefully it won’t be too long and he’s ready to go. I can tell he’s not 100 percent. I want to get him ready for the Giants [in the season opener]. I’m not worried about getting him ready for Pittsburgh [in the preseason opener].”
4. Keiland Williams said he’ll be splitting time between fullback and running back, with Mike Sellers playing more tight end. Williams said he was told that’s the plan “as of right now.”
5. The Redskins re-signed exclusive rights free agent cornerback Byron Westbrook. They also signed linebacker H.B. Blades to a one-year contract. Corner Carlos Rogers remains unsigned, but Shanahan declined comment on if they had moved on from him. He entered free agency a longshot to return.
6. Shanahan on released center Casey Rabach: “Casey is one class individual. I thought it was fair to him. I said I could keep you around here for a couple weeks and then release you. I said this is the direction I think we’re going. In fairness to you I want you to give you an opportunity to look to see what teams are out there that need a center because you still play.”
7. Shanahan on released defensive end Phil Daniels: “He’s another class guy. I told him with the addition of some of our players I wasn’t going to just keep him on our team to release him at the end, give him the possibility to look at another team. And hopefully he can make another team, but at the end of his career I told him you’re the type of guy that you’d like to have back in the organization as a coach or somewhere in the organization because he handles himself so well.”
8. Shanahan said that newly-signed Barry Cofield will play nose tackle and some end in the Redskins’ 3-4 defense. He called Cofield the “bell cow” of the New York Giants’ defensive line the past few seasons. “You could tell he was a team leader. He played harder than any player on their team.”
Shanahan said that attitude is comparable to another newly-signed player, Stephen Bowen. “You got two guys who are 27 years old, natural leaders, and that’s, to me, how you build a football team,” Shanahan said. “You build it up front. It starts with that defensive line and that offensive line. We’ve got a couple young guys that, I believe, our future captains, guys that can lead and play well.”
9. More on Bowen from Shanahan: “He’s a guy that when we played Dallas we looked at him as being a very dominating defensive tackle/defensive end. He’s got quickness. He’s got speed. He’s a young guy. He’s got a lot of character. I thought he played as hard as anybody on their football team. He’s a guy we had targeted and a guy we are very pleased about.”
10. Shanahan on guard Chris Chester: “He fits in well with our scheme, what we ask. He has good size, he has quickness, he has speed. And again a guy that is well thought of on that team relative to his leadership skills and how he handles himself. So he’s gonna come in here and help our offensive line and get better as a group.”
11. And, finally, Shanahan on corner Josh Wilson: “He was one of those guys that I kept on watching on film and here’s a guy that is 5-9 and a half and he played all different coverages, two deep, two man, quarters inside-outside, bump coverage against guys like Andre Johnson and had no fear and has great speed. And I said if we have the opportunity to land him because he’s a fierce competitor, going against some excellent wide receivers and never backed down a bit. And the guys in Baltimore said you’re never going to find a better guy in the locker room and that’s the way we like to build our team. He’s a young guy.”
12. The player workouts in the offseason weren’t a surprise to Shanahan, mainly because of linebacker London Fletcher. “[He] is a great leader, probably the best leader I’ve seen since I’ve been in the National Football League who just dominates a locker room and how he handles himself and how well prepared he is.”
13. Here’s a story on the quarterback competition.
14. Morning notes/observations.
15. Mike Shanahan on Albert Haynesworth and Donovan McNabb.
