The Washington Redskins begin training camp the way they ended the season – with starting offensive linemen injured.
A MRI revealed loose particles in LG Kory Lichtensteiger, and he had precautionary arthroscopic surgery to remove them. He will miss the entire preseason.
Lichtensteiger injured the ACL and MCL in the same knee in the home game against the Eagles. The injury cost him the season. The Redskins declined from that moment (3-1 going into the game; 2-10 thereafter).
He declared himself 100 percent going into training camp, and he is not expected to miss the season. The harm comes in time lost time to perfect his movement with LT Trent Williams. Even with all the starters were healthy, the left side of the O-line is Washington’s strongest.
Back-up Maurice Hurt and rookie Josh LeRibeus will work at left guard until Lichtensteiger’s return.
Starting right guard Jammal Brown’s hip still isn’t right. He is on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, proving the coaching staff still have hope and faith in him. Otherwise, he would have been released. The Redskins signed itinerant tackle Jordan Black to work with journeyman Tyler Polumbus in Brown’s spot.
Hope and faith in Brown’s recovery says it all.
The New York Giants had severe injury problems last year on both the offensive and defensive line. The Redskins won game one against the G-men when the ‘Skin were healthy. Washington’s late season upset left New York so P-O’d that they have not lost since.
It’s football. There are injuries. Winning the season has as much to do with depth as with sensational rookie quarterbacks. The Giants won the Super Bowl while injured, and they didn’t need a rookie quarterback to do it.
Wednesday update
RT
@jasonlacanfora#Redskins RT Jammal Brown’s injury not serious. No surgery. Rest and rehab. No exact return date scheduled— John Keim (@john_keim) August 1, 2012
Shades of Mike Barrow
LB Jonathan Goff re-tore the ACL that he tore last preseason when he was with the Giants. He is lost for the season. Head coach Mike Shanahan was pulling for him. Unlike Jammal Brown, the coach’s support did not stop the Redskins from releasing Goff.
That Barrow reference is to Mike Barrow, greatest Redskins linebacker who never played for the team. Barrow made 148 total tackles for the Giants in 2003. By comparison, London Fletcher made 133 while with the Buffalo Bills. Joe Gibbs signed Barrow to a six-year contract at $11 million per year. Unknown to everyone, including Barrow apparently, the player was suffering from Tendonitis in the knee from which he never recovered.
Antonio Pierce filled in nicely for Barrow in 2004. Expecting Barrow to recover in 2005, Gibbs & Co. let Pierce walk away (he wanted to stay). Pierce walked all the way to New York and to a Super Bowl ring in 2007.
The loss of Pierce was a hard pill to swallow, and it was perfectly indicative of the Snyder-Gibbs-Cerrato front office that valued other team’s veterans more than home grown talent. It rarely worked for Washington who would have done better with cast-offs Pierce, Ryan Clark, Gregg Williams and Brad Johnson who won Super Bowls with other teams. (Not to mention Stephen Davis who ran the Panthers to a Super Bowl appearance, or Carlos Rogers who played big for the 49ers in their near miss for the conference title.)
Injuries happen in football. Veterans shore up depth. Goff would have stolen time from Perry Riley and Lorenzo Alexander’s development; that would not have been a good thing. I feel badly for Goff, yet do not see the loss as bad for the team. Maybe that is perverse of me.
I admit to football superstition. Never sign a linebacker from the Giants, or a quarterback from the Eagles.
Safety Tanard Jackson is off the Physically Unable to Perform list. He cannot practice in Pads until Wednesday upder the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
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