Skip to main content
Advertising

News | Washington Commanders - Commanders.com

Practice Notes: 2018 #SkinsCamp, Day 13

jets-redskins-practice-notes-0812

Redskins.com's Jake Kring-Schreifels and Grant Cohen break down the key plays and highlights from Day 13 of the Washington Redskins' 2018 training camp in Richmond, Va.

Offense:

--It quickly became a matter of when, not if. Tensions between the New York Jet and Washington Redskins had circulated before their joint training camp practices even started, and after some chippy 1-on-1 drills in the trenches on Sunday, they materialized into a full skirmish. On the very first play of 11-on-11 drills, Chris Thompson took a pitch to the right following lead blocker Morgan Moses, who got a hold of defensive back Trumaine Johnson as Thompson turned the corner. Moses was then pushed down after the play ended and looked to be in pain kneeling down out of bounds. He was later evaluated and cleared with no injury. The Redskins took exception and soon a large kerfuffle broke out that merged off the sideline and near the fans. Once tempers briefly settled, the teams got back to work and quarterback Alex Smith hit Jordan Reed on a deep crossing route in which the tight end sprinted angrily after the catch. A couple more minor brouhahas broke out over the next 15 minutes before the rains came to cut practice short and cool down the some of the fire still being stoked.

--Outside of the extracurricular activity, the first half of practice was relatively uneventful. After an extended special teams unit with the punt teams, the Redskins offense and defense split fields and some 9-on-7 drills took place, in which the Redskins running backs got some work against the Jets linebackers and defensive linemen. After a couple of clogged holes to start, Samaje Perine got into the second level and opened things up, and the rest of the group, including Rob Kelley and Kapri Bibbs, started to have its way around the edge.

--With new defensive players to work against in preparation for Thursday's preseason game, the Redskins seemed to have a few more gadget plays in their pocket, throwing more screens and read-options to confuse the Jets. Trey Quinn got in on the action taking a swing pass for about 10 yards from Colt McCoy while Chris Thompson got back into the screen game on a bootleg from Alex Smith. The starting quarterback pulled off some trickery keeping the ball on a play-action and running up the sideline untouched.

--What really started flaring tempers – and gave a good indication of where the day was headed – happened during 1-on-1 drills between the Redskins offensive line and the Jets defensive line. Ty Nsekhe took on Jets linebacker Brandon Copeland and took care of his bull rush. The two kept butting heads after the whistle until both side surrounded them. Nsekhe, it was later announced sustained a lower extremity injury. Meanwhile, there were only a couple of matchups between Brandon Scherff and Leonard Williams, the fifth and sixth-overall picks in the 2015 NFL Draft, respectively, but the highlight came when Williams waited his turn to match up with Trent Williams. Goading on the fans before the snap, Trent took care of Leonard's bull rush and earned lots of applause from sideline.

--Lost in the chaos was wide receiver Josh Doctson back to practicing, and he looked good in the limited reps he had during team drills. The Redskins offense looked sharp throughout practice and Smith, even after the scuffles, wasn't afraid to try some deep passes to Maurice Harris and Jamison Crowder, who caught a touchdown before the horn blew to end practice. Byron Marshall also got in on some of the action during 7-on-7 drills catching a slant route over the seams and bursting up the middle of the field.

-- Jake Kring-Schreifels

Defense:

--While tensions were high on the Redskins' offensive side of the field, Washington's defense was much calmer against the Jets offense. When the whistle was blown to indicate the end of the play, both teams went to their respective huddles a majority of the time. New York Jets quarterback Josh McCown even shared a fist bump with Redskins cornerback Quinton Dunbar after he made a stop. The only incident occurred when Redskins defensive lineman Dante Sawyer thought Jets tackle Antonio Garcia came up with a cheap block, but it was quickly broken up and defensive line coach Jim Tomsula reminded him to keep his head in the game. Overall, the tackles were clean and the trash talking was kept to a minimum.

--As the Redskins defensive backs and Jets wide receivers moved to the 1-on-1 drills, Torrian Gray's group was the one to win the battle. D.J. Swearinger Sr. broke up a deep pass targeted towards the end zone to start off things, with rookie cornerback Greg Stroman also making catches consistently difficult by having his coverage force overthrown passes. Dunbar added a few deflections while rookie Ranthony Texada had solid defense down the field. The Redskins had consistent defense down the field, earning high praise from Gray and frustration for the Jets offense.

--Besides practicing against another team that took some getting used to, the defense had to respond to no-huddle situations. As the Redskins scrambled to set up their defense on the first play, Swearinger came up with an interception off a play-action pass that would've put Washington's offense in a goal line situation. Going again in a hurry-up situation, the Redskins stopped an offensive reverse for a loss of yards. Even though the Jets gained 20-yards during their third no huddle, the Redskins made their adjustments efficient and quick in their first looks in those situations.

--The first team segment saw the defense succeed defending long passing situations. While the offense completed 5-of-10 passes during the first team segment, most of the completions were for short yardage. With the defense up front forcing the Jets' quarterbacks outside of the pocket, that allowed the secondary to find their man quicker and tackle them before getting little to almost no extra yards. New York's offense didn't catch longer than a 20-yard reception during the team's segment, which is a quality early season sign after giving up only a 25-yard catch in Thursday's game against New England.

--Towards the end of the day, the Redskins defense had shown tremendous improvement with stopping the run. The Jets failed to get a first down when calling a running play in the final team segment, often being stopped before gaining three or four yards. Linebacker Pernell McPhee came up with a couple of decent stops, including a quick one where he shed a block and resulted in a loss of yards. Along with the defensive line stopping the run, Martrell Spaight forced a short yardage situation in the middle to put the Jets on fourth down. 

-- Grant Cohen

Special Teams:

-- The Redskins and Jets began practice with a heavy dose of punt coverage practice and then returned for more in the middle of the session before team drills began.

Related Content

Advertising