Category: Latest Redskins News

Top quotes from QB coach Ken Zampese’s talk at 2020 training camp

New QB coach Ken Zampese talked with media members at training camp for the first time, detailing his plans on molding Dwayne Haskins.

One of the best things about training camp getting going in the NFL is the chance to hear from some of the people and coaches who haven’t been in the spotlight over the past several months.

One of those people is the new QB coach in Washington, Ken Zampese, who was hired to work under Ron Rivera and oversee the development of both Dwayne Haskins and Kyle Allen. When talking to media members on Thursday, Zampese discussed his transition into the new role, as well as what he expects to see from Haskins and the rest of the team going forward. Here are the best quotes and comments from the conversation.

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Chase Young named ‘dark horse’ candidate to lead all edge rushers in 2020

Though he hasn’t played a snap yet in the NFL, some think Chase Young can finish 2020 as the highest-graded EDGE in the entire NFL.

While we don’t know quite yet just how good Washington rookie Chase Young will end up being in the 2020 season, expectations are understandably pretty high.

Coming out of college, Young has one of the best edge-rushing grades of any player over the past decade, and many are predicting that he will be a future Hall of Famer, and multi-time Pro Bowler. We’ve seen a trend in the NFL as of later where a young and dominant pass rusher is able to bolster a team’s defense, leading them to great success down the road. This is obviously great news for Washington, but there’s no guarantee that his dominance will start during his rookie season.

If you were to ask the experts at Pro Football Focus, however, there is some real confidence that Young could turn into the next big thing this season. In a piece breaking down ‘Dark Horse Candidates’ to grade at the top of their positions in 2020, Chase Young was the choice among all NFL edge rushers, which is an incredibly stacked list of players.

It’s hard to imagine a rookie campaign for an edge defender going much better than Nick Bosa’s did for the San Francisco 49ers last season, and even he didn’t come away as the league’s top-graded edge defender. Young is one of the few physical specimens and talents who could accomplish the feat in his first season, though.

He is coming off a season where he put up a 96.0 overall grade at Ohio State. PFF’s lead draft analyst Mike Renner said Young was one of just two prospects he has felt comfortable calling a future Hall of Famer out of college since he started scouting, joining Quenton Nelson out of Notre Dame. Expect big things from Young early in his NFL career.

If you were to look at the rushers that Young would have to beat out for this title, it might make you second guess the decision. With the likes of the Bosa brothers, Myles Garrett, Khalil Mack, and TJ Watt ahead of him, it will have to be a downright dominant season from Young to sit atop the throne after year one. There’s still confidence that he might be able to pull it off, though, and that should say everything you need to know about Washington’s new superstar.

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Is Washington’s stable of running backs underrated going into 2020 season?

There is some confidence in the RB room in Washington, but they seem to be underrated by much of the league going into 2020.

If you were to rank the position groups in Washington, there is no question that the defensive line sits at the very top, with a huge lead on the next closest. However, if you were to remove the dynamic lineup of Chase Young, Montez Sweat, Daron Payne, Jonathan Allen, Matt Ioannidis, and Ryan Kerrigan, which group stands the tallest?

It’s got to be the running backs, right? With a healthy Derrius Guice and Bryce Love, along with an ageless Adrian Peterson and hopefully dynamic Antonio Gibson, there is a lot of production to be had. Throw in the fact that either Peyton Barber or J.D. McKissic might find a way on to the team as well, and it’s clear that the backfield is where it’s at on offense.

So why did Pro Football Focus rate Washington’s RBs as the 26th best group in the NFL? Here was their reasoning.

The situation at running back will be determined by how much Adrian Peterson has left at age 35. He carried a heavy workload last season, totaling 211 carries and earning a 69.7 rushing grade to go along with a 4.3 yards per carry average. He’s still an effective runner, but he’s not the same dynamic big-play threat that he was earlier in his career.

Former second-rounder Derrius Guice showed the flashes that made him a home-run threat coming out of LSU, as he averaged 5.8 yards per carry on his 42 rushes. He’s battled injuries in his first two years in the league, but he should steal more touches if he’s healthy in 2020.

The wild card is third-round pick Antonio Gibson, a running back/wide receiver hybrid who could become one of the team’s best playmakers. Gibson averaged a ridiculous 11.2 yards per carry and 19.3 yards per reception in his hybrid role at Memphis last year, and Washington will do everything they can to get his 4.39 speed on the field.

Hard to argue with a lot of that, but it’s assuming the worst from the group. If Guice can live up to what we saw in flashes during 2019, and both Love and Gibson can do some of what made them so dynamic in college, Washington will definitely be able to lean on the run game on offense.

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Washington places TE Logan Thomas on Reserve/COVID list

TE Logan Thomas has been added to the Reserve/COVID list, meaning he either tested positive or came into contact with someone who did.

The Washington Football Team has placed tight end Logan Thomas on the Reserve/COVID-19 list to start training camp, signaling that the pass-catcher has either tested positive for the virus, or has come into contact with someone who has contracted the coronavirus, and he will be isolated until it is safe to return.

If Thomas did indeed test positive for COVID-19, then there are several steps that he will have to take before returning to the field. For players that test positive and are symptomatic, they can only return to the field once 10 days have passed since they first started feeling symptoms and at least 72 hours have gone by without experiencing any symptoms.

The good thing about all of this, if there are any, is that it is happening early enough in training camp that Thomas can likely recover and return to the lineup before too much damage is done. What’s important is that more players in Washington don’t get added to this Reserve/COVID list.

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In strange times, Adrian Peterson readies for intense RB competition

At 35 years old, AP will look to hold off 5 talented RBs to keep the top spot in Washington, with the threat of COVID ever-present.

As of Wednesday morning, training camp has finally begun.

While this camp will be unlike any other in NFL history due to the coronavirus pandemic, many players are working to adapt to the climate and try and be as safe as possible, adhering to protocols that are necessary to keep the virus at bay. Some players have chosen to opt out of the season and understandably so. But the players who are now in Ashburn — or wherever their respective training camp is — know that playing football is what they want to do, and this is just something that they’ll have to work with going forward.

That was Washington’s running back Adrian Peterson’s mindset on Wednesday when he showed up to the team facilities.

“Of course [COVID-19] is always a concern, but work is work,” Peterson said, via TMZ Sports. “We got to do what we got to do.”

At 35 years old, there’s no telling how many more seasons AP can squeeze in. Peterson will have as eventful of a camp as ever this year, with loads of competition. Just this week it was announced that Bryce Love had been cleared to play, and Peterson will also have Derrius Guice, Antonio Gibson, Peyton Barber and J.D. McKissic all to contend with for playing time.

It’s going to be an uphill battle for the veteran running on older legs. That’s not to say he isn’t up for the task, though. If we’ve learned anything from AP over the years, it’s to not count him out before he’s done.

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Report: Washington signs LB Donald Payne for 2020 season

In light of the news that Reuben Foster failed the football part of his physical, Washington has signed LB Donald Payne.

The Washington Football Team is adding some depth to their roster this week ahead of training camp, this time by adding a linebacker, Donald Payne, to the depth chart.

It was also announced on Tuesday that LG Kevin Pamphile was also signed.

This is an interesting move, as the news came out on Monday that LB Reuben Foster was being placed on the PUP list, meaning that his availability for the 2020 season is uncertain. With Washington signing another linebacker to play alongside Thomas Davis and Cole Holcomb, it could mean that they are trying to add as much depth to that position as possible and covering all of their bases.

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Washington signs G Kevin Pamphile, adding to O-line depth

Washington has added to their offensive line depth by signing former Buccaneer and Titan LG Kevin Pamphile.

The Washington Football Team has added to their offensive line depth, signing former Tennessee Titans guard Kevin Pamphile. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Pamphile is already in the building and has passed his physical in Washington.

Pamphile is a five-year veteran who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the first four years of his career, before playing a single season in Tennessee. He was the starter at left guard during his time in Tampa Bay.

So what does this mean for Washington? We’ll have to wait and see, but it’s easy to believe that Pamphile will now be in a competition with Wes Martin and Wes Schweitzer for the starting LG spot, and he will battle for playing time during training camp.

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5 takeaways from Ron Rivera’s pre-training camp video conference

Rivera touched on a number of important things in his video conference, among them being a fierce RB competition, and lack of depth at WR.

The players are in Washington, and the team is ready to get down to business. They may not end up taking the field for a little bit, but members of the Washington Football Team are surely getting in the weight room and around the facility now, as training camp gets ready to kick off.

To open up the day, coach Ron Rivera sat down with media members on a video call and discussed the upcoming season, talking about where some of the injured players stand in their recovery, and where a lot of the focus is at going forward. Here are our biggest takeaways from that video call.

RB is the position to watch

News broke on Tuesday morning that second-year RB Bryce Love passed his physical in Washington, meaning that he has the green light in the 2020 season. Love was drafted in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft after an impressive college career, but he missed the entire 2019 season due to a knee injury that he suffered at Stanford.

Now, with Love back in the picture, it becomes clear that the RB room is one of the focal points of training camp. Washington currently has Derrius Guice, Adrian Peterson, Antonio Gibson, Bryce Love, J.D. McKissic, and Peyton Barber all competing for not only snaps but a place on the 53-man roster. It’s hard to believe that Rivera will choose to keep more than four RBs on the active roster, so it’s likely that two of those aforementioned players will get cut. Without a preseason to prove themselves, we’ll see how this competition shakes out in camp.

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Top quotes from Ron Rivera’s video conference on Tuesday

Washington coach Ron Rivera sat down with media members on Tuesday to discuss the kick-off of the 2020 season and what expectations are.

Washington’s head coach Ron Rivera sat down on a video call with media members on Tuesday to kick off training camp and answer questions about the upcoming season. In an unprecedented year where things are anything but normal, there was a lot to talk about, especially when you consider all of the off-field things that have been going on in Washington over the past month.

In the interview, Rivera discussed the personnel on the team, where he felt the roster could get better, and what some of his expectations going forward were. Here are the best quotes from the meeting.

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PFF ranks Washington’s defensive-line as No. 3 best in NFL

Washington may have a tough year ahead, but the D-line is among the best in the entire NFL, which will surely lead to many highlights.

Are you looking for some good news in Washington? Something that might give you some hope for the upcoming season, and could inspire celebrations on Sunday afternoons rather than annoyance and indifference?

Pro Football Focus recently released its rankings of the top defensive lines in the NFL, and the Washington Football Team came in at No. 3 on that list, highlighting the impact that rookie DE Chase Young could have on the field.

Chase Young will be the most intriguing player to watch on Washington’s front line. The No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft may be the best pass-rusher to come into the NFL in a decade, and we have seen some excellent ones arrive over that time. He was able to statistically separate himself from players like the Bosa brothers and Myles Garrett during their college careers and could be a transcendent player for a defensive front that has had a lot of good players recently but, perhaps, lacked true star power. Young gives the team five former first-round picks along the defensive line, each of whom has shown flashes.

PFF goes on to note that the interior of the line — containing Daron Payne, Jonathan Allen, and the supremely underrated Matt Ioannidis — will be tough to deal with for opposing teams, and then there is also Montez Sweat, the first-rounder from 2019 on the other side bookending the front line.

It may not be the most successful year in Washington upcoming, but there are bound to be highlights on the defensive front, and loads of sack celebrations to applaud.

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