themurf Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 (photo by Brian Murphy) There’s nothing glamorous about the lifestyle of an offensive lineman. While quarterbacks bask in the spotlight, a good chunk of any team’s fanbase is incapable of even naming all five starting offensive linemen. But that’s okay. Guys like Washington Redskins center Casey Rabach don’t mind it at all. We caught up with Rabach over the weekend to see what he’s been up to since last season ended. So Casey, did you do anything special with your offseason? “Actually, we just built a new house and had most of our time taken up by moving in and finalizing all that stuff,” Rabach said. “We were pretty busy.” Where’s the new house? “Back in Wisconsin,” he said. So you spent most of your time back home? “We try to stay back there as much as we can,” Rabach said. “Any time we get a break from football we’re back there. My daughter is in preschool now, so we try to keep her in that here too. It’s a lot of jumping back and forth.” You get to do any ice fishing or anything fun like that? “Yeah, I took the kids a couple times and did a little snowmobiling with them too,” he said. “Mainly I just tried to hang out with the family, with the kids and stuff.” Does it feel odd not having all the weekly aches and pains you have to suffer through during the NFL season? “It doesn’t seem weird, it seems nice not having all of that going on,” Rabach said. “Some days are worse than others obviously during the season. Some times you feel great and other times … not so much. I’m just preparing my body to take that beating again next fall.” Mentally are you back into the swing of things now with the offseason workouts and the draft right around the corner? “Yeah, definitely,” he said. “I think we’ve been back at it for two weeks now, so it hasn’t been that long, but the first week is always the toughest one as you start working on someone else’s schedule instead of working on your own. It’s just habit now. After nine years it comes pretty easy now to get back into the swing of things because you’re doing the same thing year after year.” You’ve been with the Redskins long enough now that these active offseasons shouldn’t surprise you anymore, so let us ask – what was your reaction when the team signed defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth? “I like it a lot that I don’t have to line up against him on Sundays, but at camp and work during the week my job obviously got a lot tougher,” Rabach said. “I think he’s a good signing for us. He was the top free agent in this year’s class and a guy that year after year has proven to be a dominant player in the league. Those are always good players to have on your team, you know. Obviously the money surprised everybody, what he signed for. But Mr. Snyder likes to spend some money in the offseason, so for him to come here wasn’t a huge surprise.” If memory serves us, you’ve played against him before. What’s it like to line up against “Fat Albert?” “He’s good, there’s no doubt” he said. “He wasn’t your typical defensive lineman, in Tennessee at least, where he kept to a gap and maintained his gap and let others make plays. He made it seem like he was trying to make plays no matter where it was and gap integrity was kind of a second thought. He’s a guy who, for as big as he is, is a pretty good athlete and has got a motor on him.” The Redskins defense in recent years has been very good in many areas, but getting turnovers hasn’t really been one of them. What did you think about the team’s decision to re-sign cornerback DeAngelo Hall? “I think that’s one of the main reasons why they ended up signing him was because of that,” Rabach said. “His time here last season was kind of like an interview process almost to see what he’s all about after Atlanta and Oakland. He proved to be very good in man-to-man coverage and obviously got very lucky being able to sign a contract like that in back-to-back years, but good for him.” Out of all of the acquisitions, we’re willing to guess you were happiest about the return of guard Derrick Dockery. What’d you think of that move? “You know what, I love Dock,” he said. “He’s a good guy. He’s a good football player, but he’s a really good guy. He’s a guy that works hard, he’s really humble, but he works his tail off. He got paid when he went to Buffalo but he was still humble, soft spoken and willing to get goofed on and all that stuff. It’s really comfortable having him back on the left side.” He was a guy you didn’t want to lose, but no one could fault him for taking that ridiculous payday from Buffalo, right? “Yeah, exactly,” Rabach said. “You can’t get mad at a guy leaving for that kind of money, that’s for sure. Obviously we didn’t want him to leave because he was part of our line and everything, but when you get a shot at money like that you’ve got to go.” You guys started the season 6-2 and everything seemed right in the world. But as we all know, things unraveled in the second half and the team stumbled to 2-6 down the stretch. Having had some time to sit down and think about everything, what the hell happened? Click here for the full article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derekc4 Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 He went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, so you know this dude is smart. Good interview murf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Never4get#21 Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Good interview. I've always been a fan of Rabach. He has the experience we need at center. I just wish he would've spent the offseason conditioning himself for another year. He said himself that they ran out of steam. He was great early on but just got man handled as the season wore on. I like that he mentioned the "right side" of the line has to improve. Hopefully the FO feels the same way during the draft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pedro Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 The Center of the line needs to improve too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slackermike Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Nice interview. This should be a sticky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chump Bailey Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 The Center of the line needs to improve too Absolutely - Rabach is overrated IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. Kaos Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Murf, nice read as always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoCalSkins Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Pretty obvious he has serious doubts about JC. Notice how he defines a bad day for the line in terms of a poor rushing effort. Also, by saying that JC will progress to become the QB everyone wants him to be, is a nice way of saying that a player entering his 5th year is still not an NFL caliber guy at his position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thinking Skins Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Pretty obvious he has serious doubts about JC. Notice how he defines a bad day for the line in terms of a poor rushing effort. Also, by saying that JC will progress to become the QB everyone wants him to be, is a nice way of saying that a player entering his 5th year is still not an NFL caliber guy at his position. yeah, your reading between the lines is clearly your best asset. You mentioned the passing game, so let us ask you – do you think Jason Campbell is definitely the guy who can and ultimately will take this team to where we all want to see it go? “Yeah, definitely,” he said. “Last year was Jason’s first full season as a starter. You could see, especially in the first half of the season, he was taking more of a leadership role. He was a lot more confident, not only in himself, but in the players around him. This being his second year in this offensive system, I think will pay huge dividends for him. He’s been in a lot of different systems just with Washington and having two years to work with [Jim] Zorn coaching him in this system, I think he’s going to grow by leaps and bounds this year.” We don’t think the average fan realizes just how important continuity is. Having the same system year in and year out and not having to learn a whole new offense every other year provides a quarterback with a huge advantage, right? “Everybody says quarterback is the hardest position on the football field,” Rabach said. “He gets a lot of glory when we’re playing good and takes a lot of blame when we’re not doing so good. Right or wrong, that’s how it happens. It’s tough for a guy to not only learn a new system but to also be coached a completely different way whether we’re talking about Coach Zorn or Billy Lazor or Al Saunders, who are all totally different. You have to adjust to that and there’s a lot of pressure. People don’t really understand what goes into that, but like I said, I expect big things from Jason this year.” That comment is just oozing with doubt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dockeryfan Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I wonder how he felt being the worst player on the line last year. Guess you can't really ask a guy that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eljeasel Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 yeah, your reading between the lines is clearly your best asset. That comment is just oozing with doubt. Hahahaha, well played Thinking Skins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eljeasel Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I wonder how he felt being the worst player on the line last year. Guess you can't really ask a guy that. He cant feel too bad, hes moving into his new house while the team is hitting the weights in Ashburn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Braxford Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 Good Interview Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DallasBlowsBig Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I wish he played as well as he talked Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corrupt3d Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I wonder how he felt being the worst player on the line last year. Guess you can't really ask a guy that. Pfft, you forget we had Jansen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigyim Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 If memory serves us, you’ve played against him before. What’s it like to line up against “Fat Albert?” “He’s good, there’s no doubt” he said. “He wasn’t your typical defensive lineman, in Tennessee at least, where he kept to a gap and maintained his gap and let others make plays. He made it seem like he was trying to make plays no matter where it was and gap integrity was kind of a second thought. He’s a guy who, for as big as he is, is a pretty good athlete and has got a motor on him.” Does anyone else think this may be a potential problem with the way Blache runs his system, where gap integrity is crucial for every person on the defense? I know Blache has already indicated he's willing to shape the defense around Haynesworth's skills, but we may go backwards at first as a defense as they try to put that together. Overall, it seems Rabach is somewhat tepid about Fat Albert--"pretty good athlete" with gap discipline issues doesn't describe $100 Million worth of player, to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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