Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan isn't just conditioning DE Albert Haynesworth's body. He's conditioning Albert Haynesworth's, and the entire team's, mind by insisting that Big Al pass the conditioning test. So writes ESPN's Adam Clayton is his article Shanahan shows he's in total control.

Haynesworth failed to complete the mandatory conditioning test in the required time on his attempts Thursday and Friday. He gets another shot today.

Shanahan's actions must have a similar impact on Danny Snyder and Vinny Cerrato. Shanny's hammer has fallen hardest on players selected and once touted by those gentlemen.

Haynesworth got a message from Shanahan and skipped the off-season activities for his own workout. Not good. Clinton Portis got a message from Shanahan, for whom he played and disputed in Denver, and participated in the off-season with more effort than he did for Jim Zorn and Joe Gibbs. Either or both receivers Malcolm Kelly and Devin Thomas could be displaced by senior citizens. Ladell Betts, once assessed as a starting-caliber rusher, dumped and not on any team's roster.

Yup. Quite a message. Hard on players, owners and front office minions. And hard on Shanahan if he doesn't win.

Clayton made three other observations about the Redskins.

Donovnan McNabb is a good fit for the Redskins offense. He's athletic, accurate and Shanahan's call for five and seven step drops means McNabb can buy time for plays to develop. That's one way to adapt to a line with question marks.

Are the receivers good enough? Clayton didn't come out and say "no," but he suspects we'll see more two tight end sets to take advantage of Chris Cooley and Fred Davis. Draw your own conclusions. Mine is that Kelly and Thomas won't be much better than they have been. That makes them better than Brandon Lloyd, but not as good as Rod Gardner, who was much derided by the time he left the team.

Will the switch to the 3-4 defense work? Switching to the 3-4 usually requires transition time, but Clayton points out that the Chargers, Cowboys and Packers made that transition smoothly. The Redskins could be next, thanks to Albert Haynesworth and nose tackle Maake Kemoeatu.

Smooth transitions are to be observed, not predicted. The Redskins success with the 3-4 hinges on the health of Kemoeatu who weighs in at 350 pounds. Back-up nose tackle Kedric Golston is a lightweight at 310 pounds. If Kemoeatu can't go, it's bad news for the Skins if Golston steps in on a regular basis. Defensive coordinator Jim Haslett will want Haynesworth at nose tackle instead.

Which brings us back to conditioning Haynesworth's mind.

Points After: QB Sam Bradford signed his deal with the Rams Friday night. Now it's safe for Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Donovan McNabb to work out contract extensions with their teams. None of these gentlemen would want, nor do they deserve, to be paid less than a rookie. Their signings should fall like dominoes next week.

Fred Davis made a poor first impression with the Redskins last year by over-sleeping for an OTA. Now he's seen as a key cog in the offense and nobody mentions that screw-up. Keep that in mind for this episode with Haynesworth. It's likely to have a similar ending. Fairness demands that I point out that Davis was a Cerrato pick.

Most of the football world will focus on the Albert Haynesworth soap opera and give 15 minutes attention to the really important news out of the Washington Redskins training camp.

The Redskins have signed rookie offensive tackle Trent Williams, the team announced on Friday. The deal is reported to be for six years and worth a potential $60 million.

Williams is the first offensive lineman selected in the first round by the Snyderskins since Chris Samuels in 2000. That dearth of linemen draftees is attributed to football stupidity, but the Skins usually didn't have a lot of draft picks to work with. The team, for example, gave up two first round picks (16th and 24th) and a fourth and fifth-round pick to move up to make Samuels the third overall pick in the draft that year.

Williams has to fill Samuels' shoes and them were mighty big shoes. Samuels made six Pro Bowls and elevated the play of the entire line. Head coach Mike Shanahan likes what he sees in Williams' athleticism and mobility. Shanahan's West Coast Offense schemes call for backs that run with power, like Terrell Davis, or who are edge rushers, like the Denver version of Clinton Portis. That calls for linemen who are quick.

With the injuries and decline of Jon Jansen, the Redskins found themselves running away from the strong side of the O-line and more to the weak side where Samuels could open holes for the rusher. ("Weak side" because a tight end did not line up to the left of the tackle.) But that made the Redskins predictable on offense.

The addition of Jammal Brown at right tackle and Williams on the left gives Shanahan more playcalling options--on paper. Football isn't played on paper. It's played on television. We still have to see these guys on the field at game speed. Williams will make his rookie mistakes.

Drafting a left tackle is a foundation step. It can have immediate success, but tackles are not that "one last player" needed to make the Super Bowl. The Redskins went 8-8 in Samuels' rookie year. Tackle D'Brickashaw Furguson was the fourth overall selection in the 2006 NFL Draft and helped the New York Jets to a 10-6 season. The Cleveland Browns selected the highly regarded Joe Thomas in the first round of the 2007 Draft and went 10-6 that year, but have gone 9-23 since.

So drafting a talent like Williams can make double-digit wins possible, but only if he's in camp. By signing today, Williams missed but a single practice in pads. That's why his signing is THE news out Redskins camp today.

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(Sigh) Reader interest demands I say something about Albert Haynesworth. By now you've read that Big Al flunked his conditioning test again and will get another shot at it tomorrow (Saturday). Gleeful fans will see that as payback. I hope the Shanahans are not thinking that way. My opinion of them will go down if that's the case.

There are good management reasons for this approach, not the least of which is to keep faith with the players who bought into the program since January.

Danny Snyder never seemed to "get" that football is the most team-oriented of sports and that the effort and talent of your mid-tier talent was just as important that of the few elite stars on the roster. The Redskins, even under Joe Gibbs, never got the maximum from the middle.

If OTAs and "mandatory" mini-camps were really important to the owners, players would be fined more than pennies for skipping them. The big sanctions don't happen unless players blow-off training camp.

Shanahan has to be focused on winning and that means putting the most talented, most committed, best conditioned athletes on the field from top to bottom, and not playing those who do not meet all three criteria. The Redskins didn't put the best conditioned players on the field last year (looking at you, CP).

Haynesworth is the only player who must pass a conditioning test because he is the only player who skipped all the OTAs and mini-camp. Washington's conditioning coaches supervised everyone else's conditioning and knew where they were. No one knew for sure where Albert was, or what shape he was in. We just remember him as being gassed during games--a lot.

Shanahan has to keep faith with his management team too. If Haynesworth skates on the conditioning test because he's a star, then Shanahan has undermined all the coaches on his staff--a poor management move in any business.

If Haynesworth plays for the Shanyskins, he has to be in better shape. This is not a lesson lost on mid-tier guys, or any future Redskin. I'll bet you right now that Washington has 100 percent participation in next year's OTAs. In that regard, Haynesworth has done Shanahan a big favor.

There were whispers that Haynesworth was seen in Northern Virginia last June, but did not report for mini-camp. Could he have had an inkling then that he would take this test and didn't feel ready?

The Skins will gladly accept an offer of a first round trade pick for Big Al, but will be better off if an in-shape and angry in a good way Haynesworth is on this defense.

See also Haynesworth Situation About Setting A Standard on Redskins.com.
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Points After: Trent Williams signs his rookie contract before his Oklahoma teammate, QB Sam Bradford, first player selected in the 2010 Draft. Usually the No 1 pick sets the market for the rest of the draft. But training camps are open and teams can't wait. So Williams deal with the Redskins will set the bar for Bradford and the Rams.

Tweets by a couple of people say that Terrell Davis and Michael Pittman are at the Redskins training camp as coaching interns. Working for free for the sake of their careers. Heck, I would do it. Wait. That's what I am doing with this blog.

I promise that there will not be any horse-beating in this post.  But before a good team-wide preview of the 2010 Redskins can be made, it makes sense to jump in and look at the changes and modifications made from 2008 into 2009.  Sure, you know the team went from 8 wins to 4 wins, against the grain of an offseason that added a player in Albert Haynesworth who was worth more than a win by himself, but we can look at the playcalling and schematic breakdowns to see what works and what decisions put the Redskin players in bad situations.

To do this, I'm using the strategic Redskins statistics found in Football Outsiders Almanac 2009, and FOA 2010.  Statistics employed in this article are from there unless otherwise linked/noted

Redskins Defense

A good place to start would be with the 2009 defense.  Schematically, things could not have been more different between the two seasons.  In 2008, only four teams rushed four less frequently than the Redskins, who rushed four just 56% of the time.  Instead, the Redskins would blitz 6 or 7 (or, yes, 8), and did so 14% of the time, third most in the NFL.  Last year, throw all of that out the window.  With Albert Haynesworth in the fold, few teams rushed four any more often than the Redskins: 69%, 5th in the NFL.  They accomplished this by cutting their house blitzes in half, down to just 7% of the time.  The frequency of Redskins zone blitzes also doubled, meaning they were still prone to bringing multiple linebackers, but were now more interested in replacing them in coverage.

All the linebackers brought in 2008 simply didn't result in many sacks.  5 sacks, total, were made by back seven players in the 2008 Redskins defense, bottom third in the league in terms of total sack percentage by non-defensive lineman (and only that high because the Redskins had all of 26 sacks as a team).  The Redskins matched that exact total in 2009 with far less blitzing, and greatly exceeded it if you count any of Brian Orakpo's sacks as sacks by LBs.  A couple of his 11 sacks came as a stand-up linebacker, but most came as a pass rusher from a three point stance.

Coverages were also very different.  The increased zone blitzing also occurred due to an increased used of zone coverage.  In theory, the significant increase in pass pressure with more guys in coverage.  Consider: despite bringing in Brian Orakpo at strong side (SAM) linebacker, the Redskins, they actually blitzed five players LESS often than in 2008, by about three percent.  This, more than a lack of aptitude from a two point stance, probably had a lot to do with Orakpo's damage from the defensive line.

As mentioned, the reasoning for fewer five man blitzes was increased zone coverage.  Cover-two, cover-three (mostly), cover-four, the Redskins used all of them.  They had to be better.  Had to be.  They sent fewer players and got more pass pressure.  It would be inexcusable to be worse in coverage with more players in coverage than they had in primarily man coverage the year before.

Except, that's exactly what the Redskins were: worse in coverage with seven guys and great pass pressure than they were with five and little pass pressure.  Was this due to something uncontrollable, such as injuries?  It was not.  The Redskins were the fourth most injured team in 2008 on defense, but were the 12th healthiest team in the NFL in 2009 on defense (this according to adjusted games lost).  The run defense was much better overall, and phenomenal in power situations.  The red zone defense was very, very good this year.  Situationally, an excellent defense, which depressed offensive point totals, even as the pass defense declined.

The Redskins' secondary and linebackers, by and large, could not grasp the concept of zone coverage.  LaRon Landry was never a man defender, but they tried to give him an actual coverage responsibility in the defense, and he was terrible.  Fred Smoot never understood when to pass his defenders off deep and when to follow, and his learning safety only compounded the problem.  Carlos Rogers didn't have a conceptual problem with the defense, when to pass and whatnot, but clearly, he was bad at the deep third coverage responsibility after playing for years as a man defender and a cover two short zone player.  DeAngelo Hall looked comfortable and played well, but screwed up his responsibilities more than a comfortable player should have.  Rocky McIntosh had a really poor success rate in zone coverage.  Not nearly as horrible as Orakpo, but still terrible.

The defense improved on first down from a year ago, which is good, but declined a lot on second and third down.  The first/second half splits completely reversed trend: after being a fairly average defense that got out-adjusted at the half a year ago, this team's defense was horrendous in the first quarter, giving up big play after big play, and much better later in the game.  The pass pressure made the biggest difference in late and close situations and red zone situations, where the Redskins improved across the board.  On third downs in the middle of the field in the middle of the game, the opponents had little issue picking up the pass rush.

Ultimately, the 2009 Redskins defense will be remembered for it's remarkable ability to stop offenses on 3rd and short, and its hilarious inability to line up correctly with an offense in 3rd and long.  They'll also be remembered for ranking 5th in adjusted sack rate after ranking 32nd, 26th, and 29th in the three years prior to 2009.  Those improvements are real, and should be enjoyed in spades under new coordinator Jim Haslett.  And the defense will improve on third down, if we can expect a small decline in short yardage defense (stuffed 3 out of every 5 3rd/4th & 1 or 2 yd runs is unheard of).

Redskins Offense

The Redskins percentage of runs on first down was largely unchanged from last year (down to 48% from 50%), which, considering all the time the Redskins spent trailing, implies more of a tendency to play conservative on first down.

I say conservative because the Redskins ran FAR less in two situations where the teams that run the most are going to be the ones that are most trusting in their rushing efficiency: 2nd and long, and 3rd and short.  Only two teams ran more often in 2nd and long than the 2008 Redskins (48%), but two-thirds of the league ran more often in 2nd and long situations than the 2009 Redskins (32%).  That's nothing compared to power situations.  The 2008 Redskins were one of the five best teams in football running in power situations, and they ran in those situations a league-average 67% of the time.  In 2009, they ran in those situations 52% of the time, and only three teams ran less often in short yardage.

When the Redskins had second half deficits in 2008, they approached with a "punch you in the mouth" mentatlity, running the ball down opponents throats at a near-40% clip, among the top three teams in "running when the going is tough."  Last year, that dropped to 32%.

The Redskins threw a lot more often with Mike Sellers in the game in 2009.  They ran about two-thirds of the time with him at FB in 2008, and helped him reach the pro bowl.  This year, they ran only about three-fifths of the time he was in.  The Redskins were also less aggressive in running out of the singleback formation in 2009.  Both of these trends occurred while the Redskins ran even more single back formations.  Sellers was not very good in run blocking last year, and the Redskins accounted for that by making him a non-factor in the second half of the year.

There were spread concepts alive and kicking in the 2008 Redskins offense, and Jason Campbell was excellent in those situations.  By about week 3 of 2009, those concepts were more or less dead for the rest of the year.  There were more 2 TE formations in 2009, but not as many as you'd think for a team that had two TEs among it's best offensive players.  19 teams ran 2 TEs more than the Redskins last year, and Fred Davis didn't really get an opportunity until Chris Cooley was injured.  Both Sherm Lewis and Jim Zorn paid lip service to using the 2-tight formations, but Mike Shanahan will actually utilize those formations, instead of just talking about them.  Same goes for getting the quarterback outside the pocket.  Zorn/Lewis talked about it.  Didn't do it.  Shanahan will get McNabb outside the pocket.

The tidbit I saved for last is about protection, and how Sherm Lewis probably hurt the Redskins' ability to protect the quarterback, while making the receivers a lot better in the process.  Jim Zorn used max protect (7+ blockers) concepts on almost ten percent of pass calls in 2008.  He had a run blocking line, and good pass protecting backs, so this was a good way to get Campbell time.  He used a similar strategy the next year, but after losing playcalling duties, the Redskins stopped blocking with more than five guys, pretty much ever.  For the year, 19/20 pass plays for the year, the Redskins blocked with 6 or fewer guys.  This was a more limited use of max protect than all except two teams.

The result was a spike in yards after the catch, where the Redskins ranked first in all of football.  They were above average in all three years that Campbell was starting quarterback.  Critics of Campbell will point to his tendency to go underneath the coverage for this trend, while defenders will point to his defined ability to find the open spot in the coverage with the most space.

What probably can't be credited (after the playcalling and the quarterback) is the receivers themselves, who couldn't beat man coverage, have low catch rates, and don't make plays after the catch.  The last Redskins wide receiver to have an above average DVOA season was Antwaan Randle El, with a mere 1.8% figure...in 2008.  Randle El and Santana Moss both declined (though ARE's catch rate increased), but Kelly and Thomas both improved to fill that void.  Neither has posted an above average season quite yet, but they'll get one more chance in 2010.  None of the Redskins offseason acquisitions at receiver produced even replacement level results in their last stint -- unless you count new WRs coach Keenan McCardell, an excellent third down target for the Redskins in 2007.

Conclusions

I don't think it would be a stretch to suggest that the Redskins offense left two or three wins on the field by not being as aggressive on first down as they were on fourth (4th highest percentage in the league in "going for it").

But you can see the missed opportunities in the defense, where the pass coverage units had every advantage: health, pass rush, ability to play zone coverage, and sucked.  I don't know how much blame for this lies with the coaching staff, as I was advocating for far less blitzing and more four man rushes in 2009.

What I was not advocating for was more pansy-zone coverage behind it.  The Redskins are still a man coverage team.  They don't have a lot of zone coverage players: DeAngelo Hall, Justin Tryon, and London Fletcher are pretty much the extent of those players who can play zone coverage.  I think coach Haslett would be wide to mix 4 man rushes with 5 man rushes, scrap the 6+ man rushes, and allow for aggressive zone coverage in the secondary.

Clearly, the Redskins lacked the ability to play team defense with zone coverage concepts.  I'm not sure what could be done to fix the problem, as I'm not aware of any team at any level (high school) included lacking this ability.  I'm sure they could be taught to play zone, and probably should have been instructed to do so last year.  But if we can scrap soft defenses and go back to an aggressive man coverage scheme, I think that would be my preferred adjustment for 2010, as an observer.

Piggybacking off the research done in our previous Mike Shanahan post, the success or failure of the 2010 Redskins offense will have a lot to do with the quality of it's running game.

Clearly, the NFL has become a pass first league, and the teams that win are the ones that can throw the football, but the Mike Shanahan scheme more or less requires that running is a highly productive use of 40% of his offense, and not just something to do when he's thinking of ways to attack the secondary.  This is a critical distinction.  One of the primary tennants of modern spread offense, both in college and professional football, is that running to set up the pass is an antiquiated idea.  The Shanahan/Kubiak/Shanahan branch of the west coast tree isn't spread averse, but it's clearly on the opposite end of the tree from where those concepts are flourishing.  Traditional west coast schemes use a fullback, but neither spread-leaning offenses, nor zone-leaning offenses emphasize the fullback position anymore.  While both of these offensive variations promote shotgun and singleback usage, they have different uses for their running game.

This year, the Redskins will be a run-first team, after spending most of last year as a pass-first team.  This does not mean they will run more than they pass -- no team should be doing that.  What it does mean is that their success in the passing game will be very dependant on their sucess in the running game.  When you look at the receivers on this roster: Santana Moss, Malcolm Kelly, Devin Thomas, Joey Galloway, etc., this is not a team that's designed to convert on third and long the way the Green Bay Packers or last years Philadephia Eagles were.  The number one goal on first and second down will be to stay out of third and long.  Mike Shanahan (and Kyle) like to have the flexibility to throw the football on first down, and that requires a very efficient running game, one that can turn 2nd & 10 into 3rd & 5, making Donovan McNabb's existance tolerable.

We've expressed concern about the ability of the running backs on this roster to be part of a running game that's this good, and as of right now, the interior offensive line is going to be Derrick Dockery, Casey Rabach, and Artis Hicks.  That's not very good, and far from a group that should be expected to help Clinton Portis and Larry Johnson to 5 yard per carry averages while running between the tackles.  Superficially, this is a poorly planned offense that will thwart the Redskins plan to compete this year.

But you don't go to Hog Heaven for superficial analysis, I'm aware.  We can start by compiling the DVOA ratings and ranks of the Redskins rushing attack since Steve Spurrier was canned resigned after the 2003 season, and Joe Gibbs traded for Clinton Portis to be his franchise running back.

• 2004: -12.0%, 29th in NFL, 14th in NFC, 4th in East
• 2005: 5.1%, 9th in NFL, 4th in NFC, 2nd in East
• 2006: 7.1% (thank you, Ladell), 9th in NFL, 5th in NFC, 4th (!!) in East
• 2007: -6.0%, 22nd in NFL, 9th in NFC, 4th in East
• 2008: 12.3%, 6th in NFL, 3rd in NFC, 2nd in East
• 2009: -7.3%, 28th in NFL, 14th in NFC, 4th in East

Over the same time period, Shanahan's rushing attacks have ranked as follows:

• 2004: 5.5%, 13th in NFL
• 2005: 26.3%, 1st in NFL
• 2006: -2.1%, 19th in NFL
• 2007: 1.8%, 15th in NFL
• 2008: 23.9%, 1st in NFL

Ed. note: Kyle Shanahan's Houston teams have ranked 16th in the NFL in 2008 (4.7%), and 31st in 2009 (-11.2%).

For a team that had the reputation of being able to plug in anybody at running back and run all over opponents, the Broncos haven't often struck a great offensive running balance since dealing Clinton Portis to the Broncos. Portis has had more success with the Redskins than pretty much any back -- with the exception of Mike Anderson in 2005 -- has had with the Broncos.  The 2008 Broncos best typified the Mike Shanahan era: that line was so good that even though the Broncos. didn't have any back who carried the ball 100 times that season, everyone who carried at least 40 times did excellent in their limited time.  Even Tatum Bell had significant value running behind those five guys, perhaps the rarest of feats.

The 2008 team, however, was the culmination of many years of rebuilding and talent development, and isn't in any way indicitive of where the Redskins are compared to the Broncos.  The 2005 rushing attack that powered the trip that the Broncos made to the AFC Championship game, and assisted Jake Plummer in heading to the pro-bowl for the only time in his career is of far more use to me.  The lead back in that stable was Anderson, who was 32 years old, hadn't rushed for 1,000 yards since 2000, and spent the prior 3 seasons as a fullback and then out for the year with an injury.  In other words, Anderson's career should have, by all means, met it's conclusion, but he was one of the 7 or 8 most valuable RBs in football that year.  The number two back on that team was just as valuable on a per run basis (albeit with 1/5th the carries).  That's Ron Dayne, people.  That teams' offensive line included Matt Lepsis, Ben Hamilton, Tom Nalen, Cooper Carlisle, and George Foster.  That's not a bad group, but the 2008 OL was much better.

Was there a hidden secret to the Shanahan rushing attack in 2005 and 2008 that evaded his genius in those other seasons?  Best I can tell, the difference in the running games had little to do with Mike Shanahan at all.  The zone rushing attack appears to be simple: find the best running backs, and play them behind the healthiest offensive line you can find.  In 2005 and 2008, the Broncos featured absolutely zero injuries on the offensive line.  In 2006, they were decimated at the offensive tackles, losing Matt Lepsis for most of the season and George Foster for three games.  In 2007, they lost Center Tom Nalen (who didn't return the next year), which shook up most of the offensive line.  Prior to 2005, guard Dan Neil was injured and missed parts of the 2003 and 2004 seasons before the team moved on with Cooper Carlisle in 2005.

Clinton Portis was fantastic in the 2003 season running behind a line very much in flux.  When you look at what Portis did in the Shanahan system for two years, you realize that not only was he a great player for the system, but he put up elite numbers in far less than ideal conditions.  That was not a good offensive line for the Broncos: Portis was just better than it.  Portis is responsible for bridging a gap between the post-Super Bowl Broncos zone blocking scheme, and the mid-decade line that once again made stars out of everyday joes at the running back position.  It should come as little surprise that Portis' success with the Redskins wasn't out of line with those replacing him with the Broncos, as he was the best back either team had in the timeframe.

What needs to be said is that Clinton Portis is not the same runner he was in 2003.  He's not even the same runner he is in 2006.  But I do believe that he, not Larry Johnson, is the ideal runner to help bridge the gap between the decimated offensive line of the past, and the healthier, younger offensive line of the future.  It's hard to say that about a guy who lacks any meaningful explosion in his legs, and lost the desire to run through an arm tackle or finish a run four years ago, but Portis' vision will be an asset.  Regardless of what happens on Portis' 200-280 carries this year, whether or not the Redskins have a merely passable running game, or a dominant ground force that sets up the pass depends on Larry Johnson, and to a lesser exent, Willie Parker/Ryan Torain/Keiland Williams.  We've seen the Broncos have, at times, lacked any sort of contribution from their second back.  At the same time, we've seen them get great 60 carry seasons from Ron 'freakin Dayne (that one was probably line-assisted).  Here are the best DYAR seasons by a non-feature back from 2002-2008 (but excluding the 'perfect health' OL seasons of 05, 08):

1. Selvin Young, 2007 (92) [ROOKIE]
2. Mike Bell, 2006 (77) [ROOKIE]
   
3. Mike Anderson, 2002 (63)
4. Travis Henry, 2007 (40)
5. Garrison Hearst, 2004 (33)
6. Mike Anderson, 2003 (-40)
7. Quentin Griffin, 2004 (-50)
8. Quentin Griffin, 2003 (-54) [ROOKIE]

Interestingly, if you include Kyle Shanahan's non-feature backs, Ahman Green's 2008 comes in a close third to Bell's 2006.  Ryan Moats could be 4th on this list in either year under Kyle Shanahan.  Adrian Foster's 2009 tied for second.  If anything, Kyle's RB depth has been better than Mike's in similar conditions.

The prospectus then is this: Portis will probably play the role of a feature back, meaning 200+ carries.  He should establish the running game as a bit above average.  If young players such as Torain and Williams seize the moment and end up playing the role of back number two, the Redskins have a high probability chance of producing a rushing attack in the top seven or eight, and supporting a passing game in the top ten that could reach levels of yardage not seen in recent Redskins history.  If Johnson and Parker share the number two role instead, we'll probably see a running game a lot like those ranked between 12th and 17th in the NFL -- an upgrade from last year, but not at the level of 2008 or 2006.

Unless, of course, the Skins are blessed with rare perfect health on the offensive line.  In that case, as the Shanahan decree has shown, it may not matter who runs the ball -- such forture would lead us to offensive riches.

Jeesh! The Washington Redskins first training camp practice hasn't started yet and already news comes out that Albert Haynesworth didn't pass his conditioning tests. We don't know what that means.

Redskins Insider's Jason Reid hears that Big Al passed the first part of the test ("killed it"). FOX Sports Jay Glazer reports Haynesworth failed the second part. News accounts don't say whether that was a near miss or an epic fail. Nobody has explained exactly what those tests are, or who else passed or failed them.

Lets get a grip. Head coach Mike Shanahan already decided that Haynesworth would line up with the second team defense. So he had an inkling that Big Al wasn't in the same condition as the players who worked out at Redskins Park with the rest of the team. Here's another news flash in advance: Haynesworth will fail the playbook test. too. Yes, boys and girls, pro football players are tested on plays and game plans like little kids and frightened high schoolers taking the ACT.

It's the price he pays for his prior decisions. It's not a catastrophe. It's not insurmountable. It's sure not unexpected.

When you think about it, it's not even news.

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There are only two seasons: football, and waiting for football. The waiting season ends today.

The Washington Redskins open training camp at 4:00 PM. Most players reported to Redskins Park yesterday. That includes Albert Haynesworth, the focus of 99 percent of media attention coming out of Washington.  Big Al met with head coach Mike Shanahan who described himself pleased with the outcome.

Shanahan said that Haynesworth must pass a physical and would start with the second team. Fans will see that as payback time for the defiance shown by Haynesworth upon Shanahan's arrival. Lets give Shanny more credit for professionalism.

The Redskins need to see--actually see--Haynesworth's fitness before risking his health, or trade value, in hard practice. After making an issue of the Skins' intended use of him on defense, the coach wants to see cooperation and a little faith from Big Al on team strategy. And Shanahan owes something to the players who put in the time.

Fairness dictates they not lose their spot just because the absent guy (finally) showed up. That approach hasn't been seen around here since Marty Schottenheimer in 2001. That's reason to hope that the cultural shift the Redskins need is happening. Haynesworth's talent should get him elevated to the first team in no time.

Former Redskin-former Bronco Mark Schlereth offers a few insights on Shanahan's practice methods. Rich Campbell of the Free-Lance Star reported a lengthy interview with Schlereth who played under Joe Gibbs, Norv Turner and Shanahan (I call him the Hog who got away).

Shanahan's practices should be crisp, up tempo, "full go" without a lot of hitting. Good. That suits the NFL's oldest team.

Campbell's article is a good read. Go take a look. We'll be here when you get back.

Redskins Hog Heaven rated FIVE STARS in an annual review of blogs that follow the Washington Redskins NFL team. The review was conducted by DC Pro Sports Report and published July 26, 2010.

This is the second review of Redskins sites by DCPSR and the only such I'm aware of. It's also quite the clever idea from guys who are full of clever ideas. By reviewing every Redskins site from Matt Terl's official Redskins Blog to a few that started just months ago, DCPSR entices everyone to link back to their site. That's a hat tip to them. Wish I thought of it first.

Though a cute blogging technique, the reviews are thorough. So for an assessment of the strengths of each blog, go take a look. We'll be here when you get back.

With training camp starting, now is a good time to describe who we are and what was are trying to be.

Hog Heaven was born from the mind of Evan Brunell, who like all sports blogging pioneers, it seems, was a college student. Brunell is a diehard Boston Red Sox fan who, with a few of his friends, began posting stories about the team early this decade. Together, they concocted the idea of a network of blogs covering team sports in other cities. Thus, the Most Valuable Network, later MVN, was born. If MVN wasn't the first sports blog network, they were one of the earliest practitioners.

MVN launched Hog Heaven to cover the 2003 Washington Redskins season. By then, most of the positive vibes about the Skins came from memories of The Hogs, still the greatest offensive line in NFL History.

I contributed stories for the 2005 season, splitting time on my personal blog, Running Redskins. By 2007 most of my content went to Hog Heaven. Greg Trippiedi, my writing partner, signed on about that time.

MVN was once the largest sports blog network. Alas, they did not attract financial backing as Sports Blog Nation has. SB Nation is the clear leader of blog networks. SBN's site covering the Redskins, which goes by the unfortunately similar name of Hogs Haven, was established circa 2005.

With better funding, SBN could afford better tech support, snag more marketing deals, and scarf press credentials for Hogs Haven writers Kevin Ewoldt and Ken Meringolo. That had three big impacts on Hog Heaven.

The first and biggest was the demise of MVN. The Brunell family shuttered the network in 2009 and scattered its orphans to other networks. We landed with high hopes at Bloguin.com. (MVN.com has since relaunched under new ownership.)

The second was the clear realization that Greg and I are bloggers, not journalists. I tell my momma all the time that you don't get a job at The Post because you are a good writer. You get it because you develop sources. Bloggers do not have sources and do not originate stories. It's nigh impossible to do without the backing of a network that can deliver traffic and open doors. SBN does that for Kevin and Ken. Comcast SportsNet does it for Rich Tandler, the godfather of Redskins bloggers.

Kevin's, Ken's and Rich's good fortune is something we applaud.

We'll never match their access to the Redskins. So we have to do a better job of figuring out what it all means. Our motto and guiding light at Hog Heaven is "thoughtful analysis about The Washington Redskins." We don't say that out loud anymore because it's, well, boring. But our assessments are not.

If you follow the Snyder Redskins, you already know that healthy skepticism is a defense mechanism. As fans, we need remainders that nothing about Washington's glory years makes us a potential 12-4 team today.

Finally, we refined our identity to Redskins Hog Heaven to distinguish ourselves from Hogs Haven and from the hog heaven sites that follow the Harley-Davidson Motor Company and Arkansas Razorbacks, not to mention every Hog Heaven Bar-B-Que joint in the country.

There you have it. Redskins Hog Heaven got here first. We analyze news sourced by others as a defense against the Snyder hype machine. DC Pro Sports Report says we're kinda good at it. Independent thinking never hurt anyone.

Hail To The Redskins!

Follow us on Twitter @SkinsHogHeaven.