Camp Time

“The Hogs” were the defining element of the Joe Gibbs era in Washington. Here with Joe Bugel (1940-2020) are L-R Mark May, Jeff Bostic, George Starke (aka “Head Hog”), Russ Grimm, Joe Jacoby, and Rick “Doc” Walker. Only Grimm has made the Hall of Fame. There’s still hope that Joe Jacoby can join him. In those days the team held Training Camp at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The mattresses on the beds were so thin that extras were grabbed from empty rooms to use as additional pillows.

The first hint that summer has passed its zenith comes today with the opening of Training Camp for the Washington Football Team. Baseball season envelops summer from a chilly start to an equally chilly end. Football starts in the pure misery of late July heat only to end in the freezing doldrums of February. The only thing making Camp bearable is the knowledge that it is the very embodiment of temporary. In less than three-weeks will be the first Pre-Season game. In less than seven-weeks is the first Regular Season game. It comes quickly. But, the date most circled by the attendees is August 30. That’s the day the 53-Man Roster is set as is the 17-Man Practice Squad. The other 20-players in Camp then join the river of unemployed NFL’ers. It flows at a torrent come the end of August.

What to make

It’s a fair, but currently unanswerable question: “What is there to make of this team?” After a new Afterguard and Quarterback were installed the team went on a magic carpet ride. The Offense was prolific. The Defense was poor. But, it wasn’t enough to ground the enterprise. A year later the Offense was not so productive. The Defense was worse. Predictably given those realities, the good ship WFT ran aground.

Some off seasons are more volatile than others. This one was fairly combustible. The reality of the first two years after Ron Rivera was that his shockingly poor Drafting skills left the team in a painful situation. Some 80-players were active at some point during the 2025 season. Only 8 of them had been drafted prior to Adam Peters’ arrival in 2024. Peters added 14-players via the Draft leaving the team with just about 1/4 of the lot having been drafted here. Super Bowl Champion Seattle had some 32-players that had been drafted by the team with 17 of them having been selected prior to 2024. Teams are not built top to bottom with Draft picks. But, the base, the foundation is set with the Draft. Adam Peters walked into a construction site where the wooden wall plates were sitting on plain dirt

Sometimes it is a single line item that tells a much larger story. In 2023 Ron and his crew had the 16th selection in the first-round. They chose Emmanuel Forbes out of Mississippi State. At 6′ even and 173 lbs. there were immediate concerns about his frame. But, what sold the decision makers was film of him intercepting a screen pass and returning it for a touchdown. “Ball Hawk” was the talk at the time. The Defensive Back Coach was the biggest cheerleader. Forbes was absolutely schooled by AJ Brown of the Eagles in an early game. After a Thanksgiving Day blowout that DB Coach was fired. Dan Quinn saw enough of Forbes in six-games to cut bait. He is currently part of an ensemble cast with the Rams. A constant comment about that team has been that the DBs are sub-standard.

Ok. Another Ron Rivera busted Draft Pick is not exactly news. But, the very next player off of the board after Forbes was Christian Gonzalez, another Cornerback. Gonzalez is 6’1″ at 205 lbs. He was injured early in his first year. In his second he made the All Pro team while placing fifth in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. Last year he made the Pro Bowl team. And, if one observed the Super Bowl closely he was the best player on the New England squad that day. This week the news broke that the Patriots are looking to make Christian the highest-paid Cornerback in the League.

That’s your “Tale of Two Cities” in a nutshell.

Predictability

Back in the day the long gone “Mike and the Mad Dog” radio show on WFAN in New York had a boiler plate routine. At the beginning of the season they would take out a schedule and assign wins and losses for all of the games for the Giants and Jets. At the end of the year they never re-visited the Labor Day exercise. That’s because what they predicted and what actually happened had little in common.

The venerable “Moving the Chains” show on Sirius XM would have NFL Lifer Pat Kirwan and former host Jim Miller predict the playoff teams during the Labor Day period. They would routinely admit there were going to be five or so playoff teams that they couldn’t foresee as they struggled to find two new teams for the current year. Last year there were again five new teams going to the playoffs.

It all begs the question: If one studies football for decades then why can’t they predict such things more accurately? The answer is that there is too much dependence on past performance. As discussed last week the NFL is a short-term business for the participants. Things change in a blink. There is an old method of “Grading Position Rooms.” Assign points to the starters and the backups based on production. Almost always Rookies are dismissed with the minimum grade because they haven’t played a down of NFL ball yet. But, there is where the swirling nature of the game kicks in. Rookies do play. They do contribute. And, the surprisingly successful teams get a lot out of them. The Rams famously had five-rookies on Defense a few years ago. The Chiefs drafted ANOTHER Cornerback high in the first-round. They will probably trade him away in a few years after getting Pro-Bowl work on a Rookie Deal.

Washington should have nearly 20-players drafted by this Afterguard at camp. In order for this to be the redemptive season the fanbase craves those guys will have to produce.

Worry Beads

Football fandom without a stockpile of Worry Beads on hand would be a dull affair. We’ve got an assortment here that should kill the cravings;

Will Jayden Daniels return to form? The question lies less with him than with the Receiver Room. Last year’s travails with Terry McLaurin are well documented. But, his absence pushed others to the vanguard…where they failed badly. Without Defenses having to bracket McLaurin the others couldn’t get open. Jayden held the ball too long as a result. When he did find them the Receivers had a nasty habit of dropping the ball. The Receiver Room dropped some 8% of Daniels’ passes. If you’re wondering, yes, that is the worst rate in the League. And, if you’re into the analytic metrics the football metric of choice is “Expected Points Added.” Daniels’ Receivers led the League in negative EPA at 0.178 due to drops.

McLaurin is back. His third-round Draft status was not an impediment to being a top Receiver. Washington drafted a third-rounder, added some veteran presence, and has hopes for others to emerge from the room. That’s not enough to satisfy those that insist on previous production. Stefon Diggs is still out there. If the team signs him it’s a sure sign the Management team is not overly hopeful that the current crew can get it done.

Last year’s Pass Rush was “Dead and Stinking” after the injuries to Dorrance Armstrong and Dietrich Wise. The team obtained Odafe Oweh late of the Chargers. The plan was to put him on the other side of the Line from Trey Hendrickson. It didn’t work out. Hendrickson was part of some funny business by the Ravens and ended up signing there. Oweh is what football lifers call “The Other Guy.” Baltimore ~~released~~ traded him. But, when he was opposite of Kalil Mack in Los Angeles he was “Money.” It will be interesting to see how he fares with Lines shifting protection his way.

There are newbies at the two Coordinator positions. The good news is that the opposition has no idea what these guys will do. Frankly, neither do we.

Just how good is the Defensive Back corps? It’s an open question. But, the very best pass defense is a good pass rush. Unknown is how good will the Pass Rush be? These worry beads tend to get circular and connect.

Finally, does the team have a Place Kicker that will last the season? However elusive, it does not seem too big an ask.