He watched the play again, his thoughts echoing those of thousands of others. Jason Campbell saw the lineman shoot at his knee. He saw his knee buckle and nearly fold. He thought of what could have been.
“Nine times out of 10 when you see that, it’s usually torn or not good,” said Campbell.
Welcome to the one time.
“I did get kind of lucky,” he said.
Lucky, indeed, as Campbell — walking with barely a limp Sunday — merely has a bruised left knee and hasn’t yet been ruled out for Saturday’s preseason game against Baltimore, though he admitted he wouldn’t likely try to run until later in the week. It’s possible he could miss a couple weeks, though the Redskins simply say he’s day-to-day.
The news was good for Marcus Washington and his dislocated right elbow, though Washington could still miss several weeks and will play for some time with a brace. He’s already out for this weekend. This injury could take four weeks, but Washington said trainers have told him others have returned after a week.
Washington was encouraged by a couple small things: He could shower and put his socks on by himself.
“It should take a couple of weeks, but we’ll play it by ear,” Washington said. “I knew I was hurt when it first happened but didn’t think it was anything too serious. Once they told me what was wrong I felt good about it, but I wasn’t too worried.”
Coach Joe Gibbs said, “Marcus is an unusual guy. He’ll probably come back quicker than anybody in this situation.”
It’s uncertain who will replace Washington; the coaches were meeting Sunday night to discuss the situation. Khary Campbell took over for him Saturday night, but this is the first summer he’s played on the strong side. Lemar Marshall has started 45 games, but all came either in the middle or on the weakside. Those two have rotated sides with the backups all summer.
“I hope he comes back and I don’t have to go in place of him,” said Campbell, who has started one career game.
Campbell’s backup hasn’t been named, either. Todd Collins and Mark Brunell are competing for the No. 2 job — Collins went in ahead of Brunell Saturday. Gibbs said he wants to play Campbell more, but admitted that “the preseason is one thing; the regular season is something else.”
Campbell said he didn’t think the hit was dirty.
“He apologized afterward,” Campbell said. “That made me feel good, that he didn’t try to do it purposefully.”
