My buddy was a VIP at training camp today

[tshile]

I got two VIP passes to training camp today due to being a
Fan Team Captain (as lame as it sounds it really does work. they immediately respond to anything i report. last year i reported the speakers being excessively loud during preseason, causing many in the upper deck in our section to have to cover their ears the entire time. it was fixed in 5 minutes, and within 10 minutes a person walked over to our seats to verify everything was fixed. )

I could not go, my boss was is out of town today which means I have to be available :\

So I gave the passes to the guy who goes to teh games with my wife and I (I have 3 tickets) and he took his nephew.

Here are some of the observations he made to me via text message today. Take them for what they're worth - he's not a NFL scout or coach or anything. He does typically know his stuff thogh.
Some of them crack me up

"Dan is spending some cash today, this must have cost him a million dollars just today. Catered, ten huge tetnts, mist tents, free cold water. This is cool as ****. Free hat, shirt, gym passes."

"Rex Grossman is thirty pounds over weight. Embarrassing as hell."

"Fred Davis is a slacker, last person done every drill, first Brandon Banks, Santana Moss"

"None of these guys can touch their toes, I know it's hot, but this looks like us out there???????"

"None of our d backs can cover our receivers. Griffin to hank, Pierre, is unstoppable. Every one has picked it up for seven on seven"

"However, cropton, grossman, and cousins are more than stoppable!"


Anyways. Nice to see the organization doing something nice for the fans - for free. I'll post more info, and maybe some pictures, as i get it.
Just wish I could have gone Hopefully they invite me out against year and I can make it

 

[Elephant]

I must be blind because Rex looked noticeably slimmer than he did last year just a week ago.

 

[tshile]

He just stopped by. Got lots of pictures, will post later.

Off the top:

Hankerson - really cool kid. fun to talk to. stayed for a half hour signing autographs, he got everyone who wanted one. signed two of my buddy's cards

Armstrong - same as hankerson

Josh LeRibus - Thanked my buddy for asking for his autograph. Another cool cat.

Jarvis Jenkins - He yelled welcome back, and jenkins turned around and gave a big thumbs up.

Ken Harvey is a beast.

Cooley didn't show the fans the time of day, but i imagine he gets hounded all the time.

The food was excellent. Very nice job of the redskins with the VIP guests. They had a great time.

 

[China]

I must be blind because Rex looked noticeably slimmer than he did last year just a week ago.

He could be slimmer than last year and still be 30 pounds over weight. This is him last year:

Suffering from gynecomastia.

 

[tshile]

The VIP's were extremely close to the action. He gave me 140 pictures... I'm trying to pick the ones of interest.

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Hall's practice number is 2.
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[tshile]

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This is ~700 lbs worth of dude on a cooler. Poor cooler


We now know why Grossman is so good at fumbling, he practices it during the week.


Griffin scrambling after a play broke down

 

[tshile]

As mentioned earlier, Hankerson stood here until everyone who wanted an autograph got one. It took a little over 30 minutes. He signed multiple items for plenty of people, and was genuinely thankful that people wanted his signature. Very cool guy. I really hope he becomes a long term, big play WR for this team. After hearing about this, he's very easy to root for.


LeRibus and Armstrong stayed there with Hankerson and were as nice/thankful to the fans.

Thats not something you see from many football players, normally they give off that they are anoyed and obligated to do this.

I have more, but they're very similar to what I've posted. Not a whole lot from actual play, I think he was too busy paying attention

At some point I want to post the pictures of the hats/shirts they gave out. The hats are black with a special Redskins Fan Captain emblem on the front and the shirts were yellow with the same emblem. My buddy took his 20 year old nephew who is a brain-cancer survivor and both had at great time. So kudos to the redskins for giving them such a special day with the team.

Josh Epstein, the guy running the VIP operation for the Fan Captains for the Redskins, was an amazing host who treated the guys very nicely. They were asked on multiple occasions if they had everything the needed (food, water, a chance to get a good view of the plays), and were shown were to go to get some autographs. They were then checked on afterwards to make sure they got the signatures they wanted from the guys who took the time. All the way around a quality operation. Couldn't have asked for more from the team.
Hopefull we get invited back next year.

 

[McD5]

Nice work, Tshile. Thanks for taking the time on your report, and to post the pics.

I remember thinking that Hank was the first "value" pick we had made in the last five years when we drafted him. I believe he can be something great here.

 

[Fear The Spear]

Uggh, not feeling good about hearing that about both Davis and our DB's.
Then again, neither of those reports really surprise me.

 

[#98QBKiller]

I'm loving the part about Griffin to Hank and Garcon being unstoppable.

 

[Fear The Spear]

I'm loving the part about Griffin to Hank and Garcon being unstoppable.

Yes, but like any "intra-team scrimmage", is that an indication of RG3, Hank's, and Garcon's greatness, or an indication of the ineptitude of our Defensive Backfield.
Obviously, most people would respond with the easy answer of "probably a combination of both". But I tend to believe that it's leaning more towards the poor play of the DB's. Which is very telling, because isn't it usually believed that the offense is usually "behind" the defense in Training Camp, especially with a rookie QB, a brand new WR, and another receiver who is essentially a rookie. This can only further cement my opinion that our DB's are going to truly suck, which is what I have feared all offseason long, especially with the crappy "bottom of the barrel" safeties we picked up.

 

[Fear The Spear]

Well there's 2 sides to that coin.
By the same token, in a real game, where the defense would be allowed to apply more pressure to the QB, our offense would also be receiving more pressure on the QB, than they are in practice.
So that concept is a wash.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Yeah...in today's game, there is no DB who can cover a WR for longer than 4-5 seconds; give a QB that much time, and someone is going to get open. From what I've read, the D has held up hitting Griff (because they have to), and he's had much longer than that to get the ball off. In a real game scenario, he's going to have much less time thanks to our piss-poor OL.

 

[Fear The Spear]

There's absolutely no question where our major weaknesses are : DB and OL.
Hope we can pick up some decent cuts from another team by the end of preseason.