Today was the second-to-last day of the Washington Redskins 2016 training camp. During the 3 p.m. practice, it was hot… hot enough that Head Coach Jay Gruden decided to let the players remove their shoulder pads.
They had been at it for an hour-and-a-half and they were in the midst of red zone 11-on-11 drills when the second-string defense — mostly due to the secondary — blew the coverage on a Colt McCoy (backup QB) pass to receiver Ryan Grant on a corner route.
Gruden wasn’t happy. Defensive coordinator Joe Barry wasn’t happy.
“This is the third week of training camp,” Gruden yelled. “We shouldn’t be doing this!”
“Communicate out there, guys!” Barry shouted.
The session ended shortly after that and, with the heat of the day, it was easy to understand how it would have been hard to concentrate.
But these are NFL players who, if things work out right for them, will soon be making a lot of money working at a job that 1,000’s of college ballplayers dream of doing but don’t.
The frustration doesn’t last long for a couple of reasons.
First of all, Barry is not the kind of coach that leaves guys in the “doghouse” according to his players. He gets fired up on the field but really wants to put these guys in the best situation to succeed. And he tries hard to know which young guys he can really get after and which ones need a different kind of coaching.
As well, there are a lot of veteran players on that squad that can mentor, guide and answer any questions from the young guys.
“It’s a fine line,” 12-year veteran DB DeAngelo Hall said. “I mean, you want to coach guys as hard as they can be coached. A lot of guys are different. Some guys you can ride a little harder, some you can maybe baby a little bit more. If we blew something, we’ve got to get it right… especially after what we put on film in Atlanta. We blew some coverages out there and that’s not who we want to be known as.”
The Redskins have some savvy vets on the team and the young guys will surely benefit from their counsel.
“If you see something as a vet, you want to help the young guys,” safety David Bruton, Jr. said. “I mean, you were once a young guy before and someone helped you along. I was just talking to [second-year CB [Deshazor] Everett and [CB] Jeremy [Harris] about adjustments and what I do to learn certain shifts and motions and things of that nature. The big thing is that Joe B. just wants the safeties in that back end to take control, you know? To be vocal leaders and not just enforcers in the secondary. And that’s huge because we are the quarterbacks in that back end need to make sure we’re all on the same page. If we’re wrong on the back end, it’s probably a touchdown [for the other team].”
There have been some really productive practices during this two-and-a-half-week period of training camp but there have been a few that weren’t so much. It’s always going to be like that. But it’s good to know that there really doesn’t seem to be any issue at all in the locker room with egos. The young guys have tangible support from the vets and only time will tell if the combination of coaches, veterans and youth that end up on the 53-man roster will be able to build on the success they had last season.