Homer: Barry Cofield: "I don’t feel like we’re a rebuilding team. I don’t feel like we’re a team that’s a year away."

[wit33]

You can tell the defense feels like they will be THE major reason why the Skins succeed this year. Their genuine excitement gives me confidence in the team being able to do some nice things record wise, this year. If they can get themselves to a top 10 ranking and hopefully knocking on the door of a top 5 ranking, this season may exceed all of our expectations.

Go Skins!

[roanoker]

Thanks Murf. This piece contains the most quotes from Cofield that I've read (probably my fault in not searching or paying attention to other interviews he's given).

I like his positive and down to earth attitude.

[TSO]

Does anyone else feel like we need to fire the strength and training staff. It seems like every year we have a lot of players hurt and injured before we even get started. More than most teams. Whats going on here?

Can you prove it's more than most teams?

[Rpredskins]

Does anyone else feel like we need to fire the strength and training staff. It seems like every year we have a lot of players hurt and injured before we even get started. More than most teams. Whats going on here?

We've got nobody on IR and two of the most notable injuries (lichtensteiger and brown) are guys who were hurt last year or came to camp hurt. Injury wise we are doing fine. That's not a compliment to the strength staff, nor would a lot of injuries necessarily be an indictment. I think it's mostly just a crapshoot.

[RonYoungEra]

Well we do have Chase on IR but I think that is it.

Nice read Murph!

[Koolblue13]

I don't feel like we are a year away either. Top 5 defense, veterans on both side of the ball, if we can average a TD more a game this season and the cards can fall right for us, I see no reason why we have to keep waiting.

[worstSeat]

“First off I’m bigger than the 306 than I was at the combine, so I’m not the smallest guy on the field by any stretch of the imagination,” Cofield said. “It’s really just about technique, pad level, and just work in the weight room. I kind of took a different approach last season. It was in the lockout. I didn’t know where I would be. I didn’t know if I was going to go to a team where I was going to be getting up the field, or I was going to be a 3-4 end, 3-4 nose. I had no idea, so I didn’t know how to train. I was just trying to be in shape.

That's interesting to note. He was small last season, and I wondered if he was going to make a change -- or if he'd decided being small was better. Good explanation why he was small last year.

[themurf]

Murf, maybe I'm the first to say that I really miss your camp coverage. Having to rely on tweets is incredibly obnoxious. I always felt like I got a very thorough overview of what transpired during the practice. What the wide-wide-world-of-sports happened?!

Honesty, I stopped doing it because of Twitter. When it's an open practice, every beat writer and half the fans in attendance love to race on there and deliver play-by-play, so sitting down and cranking out 1,000 words at the end of the day just felt like a waste. I do appreciate the kind words though. Glad at least one or two people noticed.

[Jumbo]

Honesty, I stopped doing it because of Twitter. When it's an open practice, every beat writer and half the fans in attendance love to race on there and deliver play-by-play, so sitting down and cranking out 1,000 words at the end of the day just felt like a waste. I do appreciate the kind words though. Glad at least one or two people noticed.

More than one or two noticed. I kept asking Rick where you'd been and I had a few PMs about it. But I truly get ya on the whole twitter deal. Not a twit fan.

[wit33]

Honesty, I stopped doing it because of Twitter. When it's an open practice, every beat writer and half the fans in attendance love to race on there and deliver play-by-play, so sitting down and cranking out 1,000 words at the end of the day just felt like a waste. I do appreciate the kind words though. Glad at least one or two people noticed.

"Tweets" are nice when you are starving for any information coming out of Redskins camp, but much rather have well informed write-ups with player comments and such. Please continue the great articles, they are greatly appreciated and a joyful read.

[THEREALTOR1]

Yea. I guess its just the optimist in me that took it as a positive. And hearing other quotes from Barry this offseason, he's definitely excited about what this team can do.

Anybody that watched that 2011 Yearbook episode on ESPN, there's about a 10 sec clip near the end where he's addressing the team, and the guy just seems genuine. Basically said what an honor it was to play with everyone and how he finally felt comfortable enough to stand up and speak after being with everyone for a full season (remember we lost alot of people due to injury) how fortunate he felt he was to be a part of this team and looks forward to being more of a integral part (a leader). Immediately caught my eye as the absolute opposite of an "Albert Haynesworth" type player. After seeing that clip and then reading on here what he's said recently, I've become a big fan of the young man, and feel that if we can get some luck and just stay healthy this year, this Defense might be very special when the dust clears at the end of the year.

Hail!