Ashburn, Va. – There never seems to be a dull moment out at Redskins Park. After meeting with reporters today for his regular Monday press conference, Head Coach Jay Gruden got some really bad news… cornerback Chris Culliver has been suspended by the NFL for one game for violating the league’s Personal Conduct Policy.
The news about Culliver was conspicuously missing from other information given out during the presser. Even with Gruden’s comments about how valuable it will be to have Culliver’s fellow cornerback Bashaud Breeland back after his one-game suspension, he only discussed the second-year man’s talent and then how important his presence will be in reference to Justin Rogers’ plantar fasciitis issues and DeAngelo Hall’s rib injury. The possibility that Culliver could be suspended has existed since the hit-and-run accident that occurred last year but the formal announcement by an NFL spokesperson became public after the press conference had ended. It is interesting that the suspension did not come out until after the NFL’s first games had been played.
This is not something the team needs right now. Fortunately, Hall returned to the game against the Miami Dolphins after a few minutes on the sidelines but that doesn’t mean he will be 100% when the Redskins take on the St. Louis Rams later this week.
Gruden also announced that star wide out DeSean Jackson had a hamstring pull and would likely be out three to four weeks, possibly less. Jackson was going after a deep ball thrown by quarterback Kirk Cousins when, looking about to make a huge effort to get the overthrown pass, visibly pulled up. Speculation that his lack of play during the preseason was the culprit of the hammy was shot down by Gruden.
“I don’t know if it had a lot to do with him missing [practices during training camp and preseason games]… it could very well could have,” the coach said, “but we don’t know that. He just went for a deep ball and pulled it. Obviously you like to have guys all throughout training camp but the shoulder limited him. But he was still able to do a lot of running in that time so I don’t think it really did. I just think it was one of those things that happened to a wide receiver now and then.”
Safety Duke Ihenacho, who had solidified the starting spot with his training camp and preseason, will have to have surgery on his injured left wrist for the fracture/dislocation suffered during the Dolphins game. The team will decide eventually whether to put him on Injured Reserve – whether short-term or for the season.
Kicker Kai Forbath missed a 46-yard field goal during the Miami game and had trouble getting any kicks into the end zone. Apparently the team has decided to move on because he was cut today and Dustin Hopkins was signed to the squad.
Hopkins spent some time in training camp with the New Orleans Saints but was ironically beaten out for the job with them by Zack Hocker who the Redskins drafted last season. Hocker was released by Washington last training camp when the team decided to stay with Forbath at the position.
Since 2011, Forbath has made 17 of 18 field goals attempted from 20-29 yards, 18 of 20 from 30-39 yards, 23 of 27 from 40-49 yards and 2 of 4 from 50 yards and out. His career overall percentage of field goals made is 87%.
Gruden insists that Forbath did not serve as a scapegoat for the loss to the Miami Dolphins in the team’s opener.
“Kai was a good kicker for us for a few years now,” Gruden said. “Very accurate obviously inside the 40 but I think moving forward you look at the total package and what a kicker needs to bring to your football team and we were looking for a little bit of a stronger leg… especially on kickoffs. And that’s the bottom line. We’ve got 16 regular season games, we’re down 0-1 and we just think for the long haul we’d like to get some better kickoffs. We think that the new kicker, if he can be close to [Forbath] in accuracy on field goals, I think the kickoffs will put him over the edge as far as being a little better.”