Today marks the beginning of the beginning for the Washington Redskins in the eyes of many. Exciting new times are ‘a-comin’ and the local media were treated to a rare chance to pick the minds of the coaches and assistant coaches in a (fairly) quiet setting yesterday at Redskins Park.
Special teams coach Danny Smith, always enthusiastic, seemed even more so yesterday. We spoke about the state of his group beginning with 2005 Pro Bowl punter Josh Bidwell.
“He’s a professional. He’s a sturdy guy with a powerful leg and I think he’s gonna do a good job for us. He’s done this before and he knows his job is to get us good field position and put the ball down the field wherever we need it to be.”
I asked Smith about Graham Gano and the fact that he was chosen to kick for the team over kicker Justin Medlock. The special teams coach said that he was confident in the former Buccaneer and confident that the team made the right decision in choosing him.
“Y’know Coach Shanahan and Bruce… they know what they’re doing,” Smith said. “They know how to evaluate players, have been doing it for years and know what kind of ball players are going to help us win.”
I mentioned to Smith that, aside from his two specialists, the rest of his squad was virtually an unknown entity, and he agreed. Early in the off-season he lost kicking specialists Shaun Suisham and Hunter Smith and return men Antwaan Randle El and Rock Cartwright…. but the coach is not worried.
“It will all be decided in camp. The people that come to play, the players who want to be on this team… they may get there by playing special teams. This is where we will find out who’s gonna carry the ball on returns. There’s a lot of guys who can do it – punt returns or kick returns. We’ve got a lot of talent on this team and someone will show themselves in camp – that they’re that guy.”
There is a long list of players who could end up returning punts and kicks and they might overlap in the competition. Smith counted them off on his fingers.
“We got a load of people to return punts and give us good field position; [Santana] Moss, DeAngelo [Hall], Phillip Buchanon, Bobby Wade, Terrence Austin… some of these guys may need to step up here in special teams to make the team. Then we got Ryan Torrain who might bring back kicks, Justin Tryon may return some balls… We also have Brandon Banks and Anthony Armstrong. These guys will show us what they can do.”
Later in the day, Smith spoke to Ryan O’Halloran of CSNWashington. I love the enthusiasm he showed when he made this comment and it really shows where the team is right now under Mike Shanahan:
“We’ve changed a lot of players,” he said. “We’ve changed a lot of coaches over the year. So it’s all about getting on the same page, and he’s done a great job of that. I mean, we’re all on the same page, I can tell you that. Ain’t nobody gettin’ out of that [dang] meeting without being on the same page with Mike Shanahan.”