young’ns

Although the past Redskins season didn’t unfold as i had expected, there were a couple of bright spots…or at least areas that may appear to be bright if things unfold how i hope they will.  The rookie class from last years draft had minimal impact this season, starting of course with the much written about here, Josh Doctson.  Most of the kids drafted in April of 2016 didn’t see much playing time due to injuries or roster depth.

Take a quick peek:

  1. WR – Josh Doctson from TCU
  2. LB – Su’A Cravens from USC
  3. DB – Kendall Fuller from Virginia Tech
  4. DT – Matthew Ioannidis from Temple
  5. QB – Nate Sudfeld from Indiana
  6. LB – Steve Daniels from Boston College
  7. RB – Keith Marshall from Georgia

If you look closer at the draft though, the team managed to keep everyone in the organization and didn’t cut them.  What that means of course is that the organization felt they did a good job of drafting.  Now, who really knows who drafted these guys.  Could have been Scott McCloughan or Bruce Allen…or maybe it was Chris Cooley…who knows…!  I’m going to keep my hopes up and hope these guys have great futures with the team.

Besides Doctson, i’m really hoping for something great from Su’A Cravens.  He’s making the shift from LB to Safety next season.  Something that should have been done last year…but who has time to look backwards these days.

16 PS Su'a Cravens auto 39:49

Cravens likens himself to a Sean Taylor kind of player…most of the defensive backs that play for the Redskins or wear 21 do, so it’s cool that he gets to fulfill that wish i guess.  Taylor was a freak of nature and a complete beast on the field.  He also loved football and always went all out when he played…not saying Cravens can’t do that…but…i’m just sayin it’s a lot to live up to.

Not to mention, Cravens likes his social media which i really couldn’t imagine Sean Taylor posting photos of him posing near a waterfall during his vacation…but maybe…who knows.  I have hope that Su’A will become a dominant player, only time will tell.

16 IN Su'a Cravens auto 91:488

The only other player that really saw much time on the field last year was Kendall Fuller, although it was somewhat short lived.  He was coming off an ACL surgery from the prior season, so no telling how healthy he was last season.  His impact last year didn’t amount to much, but he seems like the kind of player that will be solid and have some great games.  Maybe not an All-Pro, but his blood line is that of an NFL’er…plus the new secondary coach for the Redskins was his DB coach at VTech.  So there’s that.

Nate Sudfeld is a bit of a curiosity for me.  Is the Cousin’s replacement next season?  Is he just a guy that will be a 2nd and 3rd string quarterback?  Who is he and what can he do!  Only time will tell for him.

16 LTC Nate Sudfeld auto

Since he’s a QB, i’ve been working to stock up on his autographs like i did with Cousins during RGIII’s rookie year.  That was some seriously major foresight on my part.  If things don’t work out for Cousins and the Redskins in the future, i’ll have my Sudfelds ready to go and fully invested in!

16 SC Nate Sudfeld

The other players i don’t have cards for yet are Steven Daniels and Matthew Ioannidis.  Daniels was injured during training camp and was placed on IR but had a decent start to his camp last year.  Seems like one of those small cannon ball kind of line backers that is everywhere and becomes a field leader…like London Fletcher was for so many seasons.  Keith Marshall was another player that was injured and didn’t have an impact on last season.

Looking back on t the draft, you really have to hope that these kids can get and stay healthy or this draft could turn out to be a huge bust.  But if they can get and stay healthy, who knows what their future holds for them.  Lots of potential and talent for them young’ns.

The music today is brought to you by a couple of enigmatic dual personality MC’s from New York.  Kool Keith and MF Doom.  A couple old guys that the young’ns love…especially Doom.  He has quite a cult following for those true hip hop fans.

Keepin’ it 1 hunid

Today on Twitter, Josh Doctson posted this vague tweet that was left up for interpretation…or maybe it was quite clear.

Yup, 100%.

There’s a lot of things that can be 100%…one of them is not this laptop i’m typing on, that’s at 42%…apparently in honor of Jackie Robinson.

100% could be how he’s “keeping’ it!” that’s what the kids say.

100% could be how much effort he gives each time out, although some like to give 110% or 120%.

100% could be the score on his driving test, that’s a good grade.

100% could also be how his health is rated in relation to his aching achilles, which is most likely the reason for the very general tweet.  If that’s the case, this is great news for the Redskins and the guy that drafted him…the guy that was fired a couple weeks ago.  This, of course is assuming he continues to stay healthy and is at 100%.

I find it hard to believe that a football player every really gets to 100% healthy.  With all the hitting and overzealous physical contact from large, fast moving objects from opposing directions…how can you ever be at a full 100%.  100 percent is technically perfect, can’t really do better.  Even the foolish coaches that tell you to give 110% or 120%.  If you give your all, isn’t that a full 100?  Maybe i’m just a slacker or too cynical for wordplay with number…but…nevermind.

So, today marks the 17th anniversary of one of my all time favorite albums.  Hands down favorite album by one of my favorite artists, Common (Sense as he was named when i first heard him).  Like Water for Chocolate was a phenomenal album that came out at a time when hip-hop was getting back to more positive rhymes and storytelling…not to mention the music produced by the late great J-Dilla.  Here’s my favorite track from that album…if you like this one, the rest of the album will be a great listen for you if you haven’t yet heard.  Common definitely gave it a 120% effort on this one.