SOW| Early Camp Injuries Could be a Big Problem for Redskins

[rd421]

The 2012 training camp kicked off for the Washington Redskins yesterday as the team’s first practices got underway. It isn’t really a surprise to anyone that most of the headlines have been dominated by Robert Griffin III. There have been so many hard hitting questions, such as: How much does the guy weigh? “Are you mad at Osi for calling you Bob?” and “What’s for dinner?”. The list goes on.

We get it. The Redskins haven’t had a quarterback since the Stone Age, and this kid is a pretty big deal coming out of college. Everybody wants to know everything about him.

So while everyone else is focusing on pistol formations and how impressive RG3 is (spoiler alert: he’s pretty freaking impressive), I want to turn your attention to a storyline that is not going to go away anytime soon.

The single most important determining factor heading into the 2012 season is the one that no one has any control over – injuries.

It’s only one day into the 2012 camp, and there has already been one promising young player lost to the IR, and two of the most important guys on this team are still struggling with past injuries.

It is hard to say what the impact will be of losing an undrafted guy like Chase Minnifield. Sure, he was pretty good in rookie camps and at OTA’s, but he never even put pads on. Minnifield has all the potential and talent in the world, but the question for him has always been his health. Stashing him on the IR for 2012 and spending a year getting him healthy could be one of the smartest things this organization does this season. Protecting the future of a guy with this type of potential is way more important than whatever small impact he would have while trying to come back too soon form his injuries.

Tim Hightower continues to deal with the ACL injury that cost him most of his 2012 season. While Hightower is stressing that he is at “full speed” on the reps he is getting, Mile Shanahan is preaching caution when it comes to the team’s projected starting running back.

“Hightower looked good.” Shanahan told members of local and national media. “As I told Tim, I said, ‘I don’t want to overdo it. I’ll get you through some individual work, a few team plays, then I’ll try to get you ready for the regular season after the first preseason game.’ I thought Tim did an excellent job today.”

While Shanahan reiterated his faith in Hightower, reminding the media that Tim was the starter before injury, he also showed faith in the younger backs on the roster.

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[E-Dog Night]

Like I said before, I think the overall success of the line hinges on Jammal Brown. If he can't get healthy then we're looking at another year where the coaches have to get creative and hide deficiencies, which limits what they can do.

I really think Tom Compton will be the long term solution at RT, but it will take him a couple of year before he's truly ready.

[dan757]

Wow I just got back from the gym and saw this thread it made my heart drop like something happened that we didnt already know about

[pjfootballer]

Every year certain players are held out for precautions because they are recovering from injuries or have minor injuries. It's the state of the game. Too much premature panicking around here. Nobody except Minnifield is out for the season and it was pretty much expected he may not have made the roster anyway. Brown and Hightower and are just day to day. Not sure we needed an injury panic article with 1 1/2 days of training camp.

[terpfan]

I'm ready to move on from Jammal Brown. Cut his ass and let the younger guys fight it out. We aren't gaining anything by trotting his tired old ass out there.

[Timmy Smith]

This is still a transition / rebuilding year for us: just look at how young our team roster is. We're developing lots of unproven young talent with big upside, and the goal for this year is to give Griffin a smooth start, implement a new-look offense that's being tailored to Griffin's strengths, and to build depth across the roster. This is not a playoffs-or-bust year. If guys get injured - which you can't control anyways - so be it. It just gives us an opportunity to test our depth. It's definitely not a "big problem," as the article states.

[skinfan2k]

Comeon, you guys act like Chase was some 1st round pick. he was a UDFA for a reason. We didn't losing anything with him not playing this year

[superozman]

Early camp injuries (any injury) could be a big problem for Redskins (any NFL Team)...the Redskins are no different than any NFL team out there.

And The one guy in Minnifield on IR is not someone I lose sleep over. While I love people are impressed by him, he hasn't done **** on the field.

[roanoker]

Every year certain players are held out for precautions because they are recovering from injuries or have minor injuries. It's the state of the game. Too much premature panicking around here. Nobody except Minnifield is out for the season and it was pretty much expected he may not have made the roster anyway. Brown and Hightower and are just day to day. Not sure we needed an injury panic article with 1 1/2 days of training camp.

Agreed. Lol - It wouldn''t be the ES Message Board if there wasn't panic. Geez, I remember panic when it was decided the team would go from white on white.uniforms.

[bowhunter]

Comeon, you guys act like Chase was some 1st round pick. he was a UDFA for a reason. We didn't losing anything with him not playing this year

I don't think the concern has anything to do with what we gave up to get him (ie nothing,) but the loss of the hope that we could add some potential quality depth to our weakest part of the team. We've added a few veteran question marks but nothing else. I'll really be rooting for Brandyn Thompson to show that he can play.