Redskins notes: Injury updates; QB chatter

The best he could say is this: “I’m making a lot of strides and progress so I’m looking forward to playing the Giants.”

But coach Mike Shanahan was non-committal, saying he had no idea. Landry tweaked his hamstring on Aug. 19; he has yet to practice this summer.

“Anytime a guy has a tweak, you’re always hoping he’ll go but you don’t know for sure,” Shanahan said. “I’ve seen tweaks take two days; I’ve seen tweaks take three weeks.”

Landry hurt his hamstring running before the game vs. the Colts. He missed the last seven games; he hasn’t practiced this summer; and he hurt his hamstring already. It gives him reason to be a little cautious about returning too soon.

“Mentally you’re nervous that it’s gonna tweak again,” Landry said. “But that’s what all the rehab is for, to get you thinking positive about the injury.”

2.       Tight end Chris Cooley remains confident about his chances of playing in the season opener. In fact, he said he’s “100 percent confident” about playing vs. the Giants.

“I’ve made dramatic progress over the last two weeks,” he said. “The only issue is that I have a little tendonitis, that’s not a big deal. So any soreness is in the tendon and that’s not anything to worry about.”

Cooley also said the soreness in his knee is something he’ll have to contend with during the season.

“It will be something I’ll treat throughout the year, but hopefully it’s something I can treat and keep at a minimal pain level,” he said. “Obviously I won’t grow the cartilage back so I’ll deal with it but hopefully it’s not an issue.”

3.       Want to know why the Redskins like Jarvis Jenkins so much. Read this story and it’s hard not to be impressed with his attitude following his ACL tear.

4.       Receiver Brandon Banks practiced and should play Thursday vs. Tampa Bay. As long as Banks is healthy, it’s hard to imagine him not making the final roster. He’s a playmaker on a team with precious few such players.

5.       Running back Ryan Torain returned to practice and will play Thursday. Though he’s competing with Tim Hightower for the starting job, he said, “I’m very happy for Tim. He’s making plays and helping the team be better. We’ll do it together and have a great season.”

Torain lacks Hightower’s all-around ability, particularly on third downs. Hightower is better at picking up the blitz. But both are good fits in this running scheme.

“The line will open up holes this year so I’m excited to be out there and see what I can do behind it too,” Torain said. “There are some great runs out there and there are more runs to come.”

6.       Jabar Gaffney on what’s impressed him about John Beck: “Just he likes to call it his little swag that he has. A lot of quarterbacks don’t do that. A lot like to sit back and be mellow. He likes to get amped up and like to get it going. I like that.”

7.       Shanahan said there’s a chance he’ll reveal the winner of the starting quarterback job several days before the season opener vs. the Giants. Yes, he could opt to take it all the way to kickoff. But that’s also going to be a tough secret to keep. Whoever the starter is will take all the first team reps in practice Wednesday through Friday of that week.

8.       As you might have heard in Thursday’s loss to Baltimore, ESPN analyst Jon Gruden said he’d pick John Beck to start. You can guess the reaction of the respective quarterbacks.

Rex Grossman: “I’m glad I’m not playing for Jon Gruden.”

Beck: “It means a lot because I know he’s someone I respect as a coach. It’s nice to know that there’s people that would believe because for years I was behind the scenes just doing my work so that there would be a day that someone would believe the way I felt.”

9.       Many times when players say they don’t read the papers, they’re not exactly being honest. Remember back in the day when Michael Westbrook would make that boast, then we’d see him in the public relations area thumbing through the daily clips. Beck, however, does seem clueless about what is said and written about him.

It stems from his high school days. As always with him, there’s a story. So here’s Beck:

“I was watching a University of Washington game. Brock Huard was playing. His older brother Damon had told him not to pay attention to all that stuff because sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s not. I just tried to adopt that right then. Now, in high school, mom was cutting out the articles, so I did see them every once in a while. In college, never once. I just really tried to do my best because you actually hear about it enough when you stop at a restaurant and the people next to you say ‘I read this about you.’ You hear it. You just try to do your best to kind of filter it so it’s not an overload.

“If you start adding more into it, that can sometimes be a distraction. Sometimes that can worry you and cause more anxiety. There’s already enough as it is playing quarterback.”

10.  Grossman on knowing the offense better after two years: “Anytime you’re in an offense for consecutive years your body kind of takes over of OK, I’m getting pressured I need to get to a quick route or immediately know where an outlet route is or this route is faster than the one I’m looking at so I need to get off of that and get to the quicker throw. You’re body kind of takes over. You don’t have to think about it. You just react. Those are some of the better things that have helped me in an offense for consecutive years to grow.  . . . It’s crucial to your development to have some consistency there.”

11.  The first round of cuts must be made by Tuesday afternoon. It shouldn’t be hard to trim the roster to 80 players. They can help by putting Jenkins on the injured reserve list. But those on the physically unable to perform list – Landry and Kareem Moore – will count toward the 80.

12.   Don’t expect the Redskins to put Malcolm Kelly back on injured reserve. They did so last season hoping to see what he could add this summer. Instead, he got hurt again. Also, Shanahan just refers to his injury as a “sore foot”. Shanahan also said he expects Kelly to return to practice in the next few days. Keep this in mind: if he’s healthy, they can cut him without an injury settlement. Hence the patience.

13.   Shanahan on keeping seven receivers: “Anything is a possibility.” To get there, they’d have to keep just two quarterbacks and only eight linemen. Shanahan has kept only two quarterbacks a couple times in his coaching career. 

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