You gotta give it to 'em

I think the Redskins did something right. God knows what kind of drills Zorny was running that knocked out two DEs the first practice of two-a-days but it happened. (By the way, Smoot got hurt as well and Rodgers is still recovering and I'd be suprised to see startes at CB against the Giants 44 days from now.) But, all the negativity goes away for a day or so. Injuries are part of football. When people say stuff like "well, the Pats would have won it all if Brady wasn't injured in the Super Bowl" I think they are stupid. Injuries are a part of any sport and are emphasized in football. You have 325 plus pound guys banging into each other as hard as they possibly can. An ACL might go out from time to time, which is a mess for the player, but never should be for the team they play for.

The reason is because injuries happen all of the time. If you haven't gotten some depth along the defensive line and two DEs go down, all of a sudden you are in serious trouble. The first day of training camp. Yes the Skins got this guy from the Vikings for a pick but guess what, he is injured and isn't practicing. I still stand behind the fact that the Skins should have gotten some guys to bolster both lines in the draft. They didn't and the first day of camp it bit them directly in the butt. But for once, for once, I think they came through. I thought the big trade would bring us Favre and his West Coast O expertise, but the Jason Taylor pickup was somewhat brilliant. As much crap as I might want to give Cerrato from time to time he looked at what happened the first day of camp and reacted. Young Danny boy is in the draft war room with him, and I am sure helped to ignore the gaps in the D (and O) lines.

However, when bad went to worse, Cerrato actually took care of it. A second round pick seems like a hefty price to pay (on top of a sixth round pick two years from now that I could care less about.) But I would take the trade for a chance to contend this year, which would become even tougher with a more anemic pass rush than we had last year. If Cerrato looked at his team and saw this weakness and pulled off this deal after Daniels went down for the year, he is a genuis. Campbell is young. Everyone else is old. This is the year to make it happen with the team Gibbs put together, and I think Cerrato recognizes this. Getting it done in nine hours may not have happened but we will never know because the Skins are the only organization more secretive than the CIA in DC. Heck, we don't even know if Campbell has the whole playbook yet. Cerrato did a good job as long as this guy wants to play. If Taylor is still hungry, if he wants to prove Parcells wrong, if he wants to put a big ring on his finger, watch out.

It may be the sweltering heat that accompanies the Post's coverage of the Skins for at least three pages of the Sports section. Or it could be the fact that we can all go see the Skins work out, or it may be the fact that ESPN has a distraction from the Brett Favre reality show that runs all day every day, but I am ready to watch this team go. Everyone says that this trade means nothing and we will still finish last in the toughest division in football. I agree that its the toughest division in football, and I honestly have no idea if we will finish last. If Eli Manning can win the Super Bowl over the Pats, we can win the division or at least wild card it and knock off the division champs like the Giants did. We are the underdogs to straight out of the gate. I love proving everyone wrong, and hopefully everyone that throws on pads, holds a clipboard, dons a headseat, or tries to cover up a bad draft by making a quick brilliant trade real quick loves to prove people wrong as well. I thought the Skins would make a big trade for Favre, but Taylor is even better.

The Skins need to be scrappy but there is a team that was even scrappier this weekend. How the hell did they put up 15 runs on Sunday? The offense came alive all of a sudden playing the Braves and it was nice. Their fans stole the tomahawk chop from FSU but couldn't get their team to get an easy sweep, much less a series win against the lowly Nats. The Nats are so hurt it is almost a joke. If I were the Lerners or Bowden I would fire the trainer who is in charge of trying to keep these guys healthy. I don't know if there even is a guy who has that job. But I would fire the guy whose job description comes closest to that. Every single position's starter has been put on the DL at some point during the season, most of whom for a long time, so if there is a guy to keep the Nats healthy he sucks. Paul Lo D Duca , of catching and steroids fame is our 1B. D. Young is going on the DL for diabetes. Wilford Brimley has that and he is still doing okay, so are we the unluckiest team ever or does Mr. Brimley have better trainers than the Nattos? However, the guys that should be playing triple A are playing scrappy baseball, not even needing to dig it out, but putting up fifteen. 15! Willie Harris reached base 5 times on Sunday. If these guys can make some type of weirdo run towards .500 it will make watching the first half of the season almost worth it. It would be nice if the all-star break and the Taylor aquisition bring a big chip to every DC athlete's shoulders. I think we might need it.