Per Ryan O’Halloran of CSNWashington — our go-to guy on these sort of things — the Redskins featured Mike Sellers prominantly on special teams, though virtually never on the offensive side of the football. Combined with Chris Cooley’s knee injury, we may be looking at Sellers as a roster lock, even though he may only ever appear in an offensive huddle while on the goal line.
Sellers was featured on the kickoff return, punt coverage, and kickoff coverage teams. This means he was used as liberally as Darrel Young (kickoff return, punt coverage, punt return), the man who would be replacing him on offense, and Keiland Williams (kick coverage, punt return, and kick return).
It is likely that the Redskins will end up keeping three guys on this roster who have played fullback under Kyle Shanahan. Darrel Young clearly has the inside track to be the starter, but Williams has the versatility to be the team’s third down back if Tim Hightower ascends to starter, and so while many of us have questioned Mike Sellers role on this team, you can imagine that the Redskins may have to tie special teams coach Danny Smith up and lock him in a closet if they are going to take away a player this useful on special teams.
All in all, here are the players who played special teams for the Redskins in the first half, and how many different units they appeared on:
– Horatio Blades: all 4
– Lorenzo Alexander: all 4
– Mike Sellers: 3
– Darrel Young: 3
– Keiland Williams: 3
– Byron Westbrook: 3
– Perry Riley: 3
– Brandon Banks: 2 (both return teams)
– Terrence Austin: 2 (both coverage teams)
– Reed Doughty: 2 (punt cover and kick return)
– Rob Jackson: 2 (kick cover and punt return)
– Chris Horton: 2 (both coverage teams)
– Fred Davis: 2 (both return teams)
– Niles Paul: 1 (punt return)
– Phillip Buchanon: 1 (punt return)
– Logan Paulsen: 1 (kick return)
– Rocky McIntosh: 1 (kick return)
– Nick Sundberg (long snapper)
– Graham Gano (kickoff specialist)
– Sav Rocca (punter)
Two other incredibly interesting things. First: Tim Hightower did not appear on any special teams unit as I presupposed he would. Hightower may have directly been brought in to replace Ryan Torain in the offense. One thing appears for sure: Between Hightower, Helu, Torain, Royster, and Shaun Draughn, there will be no more than three RBs on this team. Perhaps there will be only two with Keiland Williams functioning as the third. And if you lock in Tim Hightower to one of those spots, it becomes clear that there’s just not much left there at the position to be had.
The other thing is: did you think of Horatio Blades as a core special teamer? Well, I did not, but lookie there. He might not be percieved as anything more than a backup LB who is behind others on the depth chart, but he’s clearly safer than Keyaron Fox, Perry Riley, or Rocky McIntosh are. I can only see two out of those three listed making the team, and Fox has a hand up on being a defensive starter based on his performance with the first unit on Friday, and that to me means that there’s only one spot for Rocky McIntosh and Perry Riley. But with Riley on three teams…I just don’t see where Rocky McIntosh fits into this team. Blades is as much a core member of this team as Lorenzo Alexander is.
At this point, we can put the players who were on three or more ST units as the “core Danny Smith guys”, who end up on the roster just because of their special teams contributions. This will also include the return specialists and kicking specialists.
The Danny Smith Roster Locks
Sav Rocca
Graham Gano
Nick Sundberg
Brandon Banks
Horatio Blades
Lorenzo Alexander
Mike Sellers
Darrel Young
Keiland Williams
Byron Westbrook
Perry Riley
It would seem like everyone else is going to need to make this team on offense or on defense. The other thing is that it would certainly appear as if the Redskins are going to need to either carry 2 RBs or QBs for most of the season if they don’t plan on carrying 26 offensive players for most of the year. Then again, that would probably make the most sense at this point.
Here are my roster projections for the 2011 Redskins, with some players that are on the bubble and could make it with a well-timed injury:
Quarterbacks (3): Rex Grossman, John Beck, Kellen Clemens (On the bubble: none) [Practice squad: Ben Chappel]Running Backs (3): Tim Hightower, Roy Helu, Evan Royster (On the bubble: Ryan Torain) [Practice squad: Shaun Draughn] {Picked up on waivers by other teams: Torain}
Fullbacks (2): Darrel Young, Keiland Williams
Wide Receivers (6): Jabar Gaffney, Anthony Armstrong, Santana Moss, Terrence Austin, Leonard Hankerson, Brandon Banks (On the bubble: Niles Paul, Donte Stallworth) [Practice squad: Aldrick Robinson] {Picked up on waivers by other teams: Malcolm Kelly, Stallworth, Paul}
Tight Ends (4): Fred Davis, Chris Cooley, Logan Paulsen, Mike Sellers (On the bubble: none)
Offensive Tackles (3): Trent Williams, Jammal Brown, Sean Locklear (On the bubble: Willie Smith) [Practice squad: Smith]Offensive Guards (4): Kory Lichtensteiger, Chris Chester, Artis Hicks, Erik Cook (On the bubble: Maurice Hurt) [Practice squad: Hurt]Centers (1): Will Montgomery (On the bubble: none)
Nose Tackles (2): Barry Cofield, Anthony Bryant (On the bubble: Chris Neild) [Practice squad: Neild]Defensive Ends (4): Adam Carriker, Stephen Bowen, Jarvis Jenkins, Doug Worthington (On the bubble: Darrion Scott, Kedric Golston)
Outside Linebackers (5): Brian Orakpo, Rob Jackson, Ryan Kerrigan, Edgar Jones, Lorenzo Alexander (ILB) (On the bubble: Markus White) [Practice squad: White]Inside Linebackers (4): London Fletcher, Keyaron Fox, Perry Riley, HB Blades (On the bubble: Rocky McIntosh)
Cornerbacks (5): DeAngelo Hall, Josh Wilson, Kevin Barnes, Phillip Buchanon (suspended wks 1-4), Byron Westbrook, Reggie Jones (On the bubble: Jones, as of wk 5) [Practice squad: Dante Barnes]Safeties (4): LaRon Landry, O.J. Atogwe, Reed Doughty, DeJon Gomes (On the bubble: Chris Horton)
Kicker (1): Graham Gano
Punter (1): Sav Rocca
Long Snapper (1): Nick Sundberg
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