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Washington Redskins’ Young Nucleus of Receivers Look to Prove Their Worth In ’09
Published: May 3, 2009
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Devin Thomas, Malcolm Kelly, Fred Davis.
In that order, those were the names of the collegiate football players that the Washington Redskins’ front office selected with confidence in last year’s April NFL Draft.
At the time, the picks were criticized by much of the local media and fan base alike, incensed as a result of the management’s lack of awareness to the holes in the offensive line. The Redskins eventually managed to draft a guard named Chad Rinehart; however, not until the third round. Of course, Rinehart did not play one second in his rookie season.
It turns out passing up an offensive lineman with their first couple of picks would later haunt the Redskins in their lousy second half of the season, where the elderly offensive line wore down immensely, and left quarterback Jason Campbell with no protection in the pocket whatsoever.
None of the aforementioned receivers lived up to expectations in their rookie seasons, their problems highlighted by nagging injuries or a lack of preparation and focus.
If we were forced to pick one “standout” of the group in their rookie season, we’d probably go with Devin Thomas, only because Thomas played in all 16 games and registered the only touchdown of the group, on a reverse handoff in a blowout loss at home to the New York Giants in Week 13.
Malcolm Kelly was bothered by a series of injuries in his rookie campaign. He suffered a sprained ankle in Week Two and injured his knee just days later. The knee was such an issue to a point where the Redskins’ training staff worried about the knee forcing Kelly into an early retirement.
Kelly did not participate in any drills in this past weekend’s mini-camp, coming off of micro facture knee surgery in February.
Things turned for the worse early for Fred Davis, as the former USC tight end overslept on the final day of the Redskins’ first mini-camp last season. This was not a tremendous way to endear oneself to a fan base, which is still trying to understand why he is on this team in the first place.
All three are in noticeably better condition than they were a year ago, and the spot for a dependable third option at receiver behind Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El is still open.
For one of these young bloods to assume that position, characteristics of immaturity and brashness need to be erased, while signs of professionalism and humility need to kick in.
“We all felt like we were supposed to come in right away and play,” said Davis. “We were all coming in from big schools, and we had a lot of expectations. Devin [Michigan State] got hurt early and then had trouble with the playbook or whatever the situation was, but I know that affected him. And Malcolm [Oklahoma], getting hurt early, and then me messing up in my own way by not doing what I’m supposed to do, and not being here on time, that affected me. A coach has got to have trust in a player, and I feel like I didn’t get that right away and I needed it. So now this is the year for us to show what we can do.”
Right on, Fred. Hopefully you purchased a new alarm clock this year.
