Posts tagged JimZorn at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Some of the assets he has on offense, like Santana Moss and Clinton Portis are not best highlighted in the west coast offense. Moss is an explosive player, who is best running over routes and deep comebacks, not slants and snags. When the Jets ran the west coast with Paul Hackett, Moss was the change of pace wide receiver he was used for specific routes as Laveranues Coles was the number one wide receiver.

Portis is best when he can run the zone scheme and is not very effective when it comes to pass protection--something the west coast tailback will have to handle.

Among the excused absentees was receiver Santana Moss, who was ill following a weekend-long, multiparty celebration of his 29th birthday.

"He was feeling his hamstrings all along, and I think it was because I have him sinking down a little bit," Zorn said. "It's the change. I was kind of excited about it. Not that I wanted him to tweak his hamstring, just the fact that different things are happening to his body. He's going to be fine."

Zorn was a quarterbacks coach (uh, and a quarterback) so I'm sure he sees the bumps and bruises as a sign of Campbell following his direction. One of the most important keys in the 2008 season for the Skins is how Campbell performs in the new West Coast Offense.

However, it isn't encouraging to see the Redskins' skill players dropping like flies. Campbell's hammy will hurt his development in the new offense. Running back Clinton Portis hurt his hip in a race against LaRon Landry; Antwaan Randle El had surgery to remove some cartilage from his knee.

"He told me it wasn't true. He told me this is my team," Campbell said after workouts this week at the complex. "He made it clear that I'm the quarterback the Redskins are going to grow with. He told me that I'm still developing as a young quarterback, but that he thinks I have it all. . . . I have what it takes to take us to where we want to go. That was a confidence-builder."

The NFL schedule has been released and the Washington Redskins have a tough one -- as is usual in the NFC East.

The highlights include three primetime games, including the NFL's season opener at the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants.

In Week 9, the Redskins get a visit from the Pittsburgh Steelers for a little Monday Night Football. That is significant because it will be Election Day Eve and the D.C. area will be buzzing.

After their Week 10 bye, the Skins host the Dallas Cowboys on NBC's Sunday Night Football.

One interesting aspect of the schedule is that the Redskins face NFC East rivals in three of their first five games -- and all of them on the road. After visiting the Giants in Week 1, Washington heads to Dallas in Week 4 and Philly in Week 5. They also have four of their last six games on the road ... including a trip to new head coach Jim Zorn's old haunt, Seattle (oh, and that is also a rematch of the last two Redskins' postseason games).

Here is another wild fact: the Cleveland Browns will be making their first trip to Washington since 1991. On the flip side, the Skins head to Cincinnati for the first time since that very same season.

They also visit nearby Baltimore to play the Ravens for the first time ever.

"He's trying to be a strong man, and doing a pretty good job of it," Zorn said. "He'll be around as well. It's not like he's going to be gone for the whole offseason.

This is Jim Zorn's first combine as a head coach, and Vinny Cerrato's first as Washington's executive vice president, and the team will seek to accomplish much more than merely draft preparations. Also on the to-do list are meetings with player representatives as free agency approaches. More salary cap relief still is needed from a handful of contracts.

[Cerrato] said he accepts all responsibility for moves that did not work out such as Adam Archuleta, Brandon Lloyd and TJ Duckett ...

He explained that the Archuleta and Lloyd signings were a little different then some of the others, namely, Fred Smoot (who the team already knew), London Fletcher (who played under Gregg Williams and Jerry Gray) in that none of the coaches knew either of those players before the team decided to make moves to get them...

He also wanted to be clear, "No one is going to be perfect, but I am accountable."

Several readers were unhappy that on last Sunday's front page, Sen. Barack Obama's Feb. 9 primary victories were played below a story on the Washington Redskins naming Jim Zorn as head coach. Saadia Mahmud of the District wrote: "I've heard the argument that The Post tries to be a local paper. . . . In this case, local also looks provincial, insular and narrow-minded."

Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, assistant managing editor for Sports, is in charge of the Sunday paper. He said, "The stunning nature of the Redskins hire, the fact that it was a complete surprise, to me made it a more compelling story. Plus, we have been leading A1 with politics just about every week, and this was a nice change of pace." Good point, but Obama's multiple wins also could have gotten better display.