1. Strong safety LaRon Landry had hoped to return Sunday with a strengthened Achilles tendon. But then he tweaked his hamstring while running when the team was in Indianapolis.
Now his return remains uncertain.
“I don’t know how bad the hamstring is,” coach Mike Shanahan said. “We all know hamstrings sometimes take a day or two. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Landry has yet to practice since workouts started July 29 as he continued to work on his Achilles. He missed the final seven games in 2010 because of a ruptured Achilles’ tendon.
But at least his safety partner, Oshiomogho Atogwe, returned to practice. Atogwe had not practiced since Aug. 6 because of a sore left hamstring.
“I felt pretty fast, quick thinking,” Atogwe said. “It felt good to be out there.
2. Redskins running back Ryan Torain said he’s “still in for handoffs and catching the ball” but wasn’t sure how much he was going to do in practice this afternoon. Shanahan said last week that Torain likely wouldn’t play before the preseason finale, which Torain agreed with. But he’s anxious to return, if only to show what he can do. He’s optimistic about working back into shape.
“I don’t think it will take long at all,” Torain said. “I’m getting back in shape, getting used to contact. It won’t take long at all. I’m ready.”
And he wants to remind everyone that it’s not just Tim Hightower and Roy Helu who can play.
“Most definitely,” Torain said. “Competition makes us great. We all push one another to be better.”
3. Brandon Banks is undergoing Platelet Rich Plasma treatments in his left knee and will miss Thursday’s preseason game vs. Baltimore. Banks had surgery on the knee last November and it’s bothered him throughout much of training camp. He played vs. Pittsburgh in the preseason opener, returning a kickoff for 58 yards, but in the next practice his knee swelled up after running pass routes.
4. Linebacker Ryan Kerrigan said he focused on being more explosive, partly by leaning more forward on the front of his feet. He admitted getting off-balance a couple times, forcing him to put his hand down to steady himself.
“I felt a lot more comfortable in a two-point stance,” Kerrigan said. “I felt I was exploding out of it better. I didn’t have as many false steps and wasted movement. That was really helpful to me.”
5. Shanahan on John Beck’s performance: “I was pleased with John’s play. You never know when a guy has a sack if it’s the quarterback’s fault or is it the line. Could he have made a play? Good quarterback play is taking a sack when you have to take a sack and trying to make something happen when you’re able to make something happen. John made some good decisions.”
And on Beck taking the underneath passes: “The thing you don’t want to do, if you go downfield you lose a game. You have to be patient and sometimes whent hey do give you a big play you have to take advantage of it. They’re a zone team, about 90 percent of the time if you go for the big play you’re throwing interceptions, you get sacks and that’s what they live by. The next team we play they may give you big opportunities to get the big play because you can’t consistently move the ball downfield. Theyt ake chances with blitzing, zone blitzing. Week by week it changes.”
In other words, Shanahan liked Beck’s decision making.
6. Yes, linebacker Edgar Jones has watched a video replay of his hit on a punt return that led to him getting a concussion.
“I couldn’t believe it happened that way,” Jones said. “The only thing I remember is him catching the ball and me saying, ‘I’m gonna hit him.’ And then feeling someone push me in the back and once he pushed me in the back I had no control over that.”
He said he wasn’t scared.
“Just blessed to be walking,” he said. “Luckily it wasn’t anything serious. But it’s football. When you put the helmet on you know it’s risky. Injuries happen.”
7. Outside linebacker Lorenzo Alexander lost weight, toned up and got a little faster. But he also credits former Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington for his increased explosiveness. Alexander recorded a sack Friday and applied pressure another time.
Alexander said he met with Arrington “four or five times” in the offeason for 90-minute sessions.
“It was more just repetition and drills,” Alexander said. “Over the last couple years we haven’t focused on pass-rush technique in practice in the offseason. I’m not a natural pass rusher. So working with him on little things and going over and over and over it again it becomes more natural for you. Everything with him was being explosive, being just violent with whatever move you’re doing and really push the pocket.”
8. Will the new kickoff rule cost people their jobs? It’s a topic in the locker room.
“That’s what we were talking about,” Alexander said. “Unless [kickers] sky to try and put [the ball] at the 1-yard line, you can put anyone out there to jog down and cover touchbacks. Obviously you’ve got to punt and all that stuff, but kickoff is one of the most exciting palys and you have guys that specialize at it. I’m sure they’ll cut some guys off at the end that are trying to make the team.”
9. Linebacker London Fletcher on Barry Cofield: “He’s a good football player, man. I’ve watched him since he came into the league. You don’t realize how good he is until you see him making plays, not only in the run game but against the pass, putting pressure on the quarterback. That added dimension will be huge for us.”
10. Receiver Jabar Gaffney on John Beck: “He’s a gamer. From everything we do in practice, he was a totally different guy out there on the field in the game. Beck wants to win and he gets fired up on game day. That’s a real good quality to have.”
