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Yeah, I know. You want to know when the Washington Redskins are going to re-sign London Fletcher. Don't have anything for you on that. All I can tell you is that they still plan to do it, he hasn't signed with anyone else yet and there are five months left before the season starts, so there's no real reason to worry that I can see.

In the meantime, though, they are still working. Mike Shanahan has said many times that the biggest thing the Redskins have lacked since he got there was depth. Having struck out in their pursuit of an upgrade at right tackle, they announced Monday that they have signed tackle James Lee, a former Buccaneer and Brown who will be thrown into the reserve tackle mix along with Willie Smith and Tyler Polumbus. He provides some level of veteran insurance in case Jammal Brown still can't shake his hip injury. At this point, with the top free-agent tackles all signed elsewhere and unless they can find a starter in the third round of the draft or later, the Redskins' best bet at right tackle is a healthy Brown. They just need to make sure they have some coverage in the somewhat likely event that Brown is not healthy.

Earlier in the day, ESPN 980 in Washington reported the Redskins had agreed to terms with defensive end Kedric Golston, who played for them last year and gets thrown into the defensive line mix. Having already re-signed Adam Carriker earlier in the offseason, and expecting Jarvis Jenkins back from the injury that cost him his rookie season, the Redskins believe their defensive line depth is a strength of the team. They signed defensive linemen Stephen Bowen and Barry Cofield in free agency last year, and both are back as projected starters in 2012.

Expect the Redskins to keep making depth moves in advance of the draft. They had defensive back Madieu Williams in for a free-agent visit last week, and they still intend to re-sign Fletcher and running back Tim Hightower.

Just after I posted about the Washington Redskins signing free-agent wide receiver Pierre Garcon, Adam Schefter reported they were on the verge of a contract with free-agent wide receiver Josh Morgan, formerly of the San Francisco 49ers. It's been a busy first couple of hours of free agency for the Redskins, who also have re-signed defensive lineman Adam Carriker to a contract extension.

Jason La Canfora of the NFL Network reported the Carriker deal first, and he reports that it's for $20 million ($7 million guaranteed) over four years. A short time later, Carriker tweeted, "I'm back! #resign94 complete." Carriker is an important piece for the Redskins, a favorite of the fans and the coaching staff who helped the conversion to a 3-4 defense, and with him back and Jarvis Jenkins expected back from his rookie-year injury, the Redskins should have good depth along the defensive line.

Now, as for the wide receivers, they're not the ones for whom you were hoping. I understand that. Vincent Jackson was the big prize, but he appears to be off to Tampa Bay, and Garcon was probably about the best option left on the market after Jackson. But he is not an established No. 1 wide receiver. He could turn into one. He turns 26 in August and caught 70 balls for 947 yards in Indianapolis last year without a real quarterback. He's a good fit for Mike Shanahan's offense, and he has the ability to blossom as a No. 1 wide receiver if he clicks with the Redskins' new quarterback, who's expected to be 22-year-old Robert Griffin III. And that kind of future bet was the best the Redskins could do if they weren't going to get Jackson.

Similar situation with Morgan, who's also 26 and played just five games for the 49ers this past year before breaking his leg and missing the rest of the season. Mike Shanahan has been looking for free agents who have done some work to establish themselves as NFL players but are still hungry and young enough to grow with the team over the coming years. This was the thought last summer behind the signings of guys like Josh Wilson and Barry Cofield, and Shanahan is sticking with it. He targets guys he thinks will fit what he plans to do on offense and who are young enough to still be with the team once it's a contender. His hope is to build a team that can contend for a number of years, not just for one.

So while the Redskins needed quality and not quantity at wide receiver, without Jackson and Marques Colston (who re-signed with the Saints earlier in the day) they didn't have too many top-level options. So they're banking on younger guys who can grow up around Griffin and hoping they're getting them right before they take off.

In that respect, the criticism the Redskins are taking for reverting to old habits seems unfair. These aren't aging, big-name stars who are on the downsides of their careers. They are players who fit what the Redskins are trying to build. And whether it works out or not, this is the residue of an actual plan, not just a dartboard free agency approach that looks like what they used to do.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- In the raw, emotional aftermath of an 18-16 meat-grinder of a win, Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant spoke about his quarterback, Tony Romo, in awed, reverent tones.

"He motivated me to go out there tonight when I obviously wasn't 100 percent," said Bryant, who was slowed by a thigh injury but still managed to make the critical third-and-21 catch that kept the Cowboys' final scoring drive alive. "I mean, broken rib, punctured lung, and he's out there. You've got to be willing to put yourself out there for a guy like that."

This was the prevailing thought in the Cowboys' locker room -- that in spite of the tower of circumstances that were stacked against him, Romo was the reason the Cowboys beat the Washington Redskins on Monday night. He was without top receiver Miles Austin, and Bryant wasn't himself. His offensive line played a miserable game, especially center Phil Costa, who was so confused by Redskins defenders barking fake snap counts that he kept snapping the ball before Romo was ready for it. The running game didn't get going until the second half. Oh, and his rib is still broken, and that hurts.

And yet, without much help from any of his offensive friends, and without so much as a single touchdown, Romo managed to deliver a fourth-quarter comeback win for the second week in a row.

"Pure will," tight end Jason Witten said. "And nobody in this locker room is surprised. We knew he had that kind of makeup, and when you have a quarterback with that kind of mentality, it's easy to want to go out there and play for him."

The watchword for the NFC East so far in this young season is "tough." Sunday in Philadelphia, the undermanned, injury-ravaged New York Giants came back on the division-favorite Eagles and won a game they seemingly had no business winning. Giants quarterback Eli Manning wasn't playing with broken ribs, but his passing-game options are as shredded as Romo's right now, and that says nothing of the injury issues the Giants are enduring on defense. But Manning remained cool and calm Sunday, picked his spots and threw four touchdown passes to lift the Giants to 2-1 in spite of all they're going through.

Monday night, Romo did basically the same thing. No, he didn't throw any touchdowns. The scoring hero of this game was rookie kicker Dan Bailey, whose six field goals accounted for every point Dallas scored. But with everything seeming to crumble around him and his center flipping the ball over his head, Romo kept making plays. He kept getting in his teammates' faces and urging them to be better. His very presence on the field did as much. It may well have been Romo's shining moment as a leader.

"He won the game for them," Redskins nose tackle Barry Cofield said. "Quarterbacks are measured by wins and losses, and he did enough to win the game. He made enough plays."

The Redskins, by the way, would like to be included in the toughness discussion. They know everybody picked them to finish last, but they came into Monday night's game 2-0, and when it was over they felt they'd let one slip away. They're not into moral victories in Washington. They believe themselves to be a good team, and they took a tough loss just the way you'd expect from a team that expects itself to win. They took it hard.

"We feel like we have everything we need to be a winning team," left tackle Trent Williams said. "We've just got to find a way to bring these tough games home."

Williams was flat-out exhausted from working all night to try and contain Cowboys pass-rushing monster DeMarcus Ware. Williams had Ware frustrated to the point that the Cowboys moved him over to the other side to send him against right tackle Jammal Brown for much of the second half. Ware got past Williams a couple of times in the fourth quarter, when the Redskins were unable to sustain the clock-eating drive that would have salted away their victory, but overall Williams had reason to feel good about his performance. He said he did, but he looked spent.

"It's almost impossible to go out there and dominate him to where he doesn't make any plays," Williams said. "I felt like I recovered well, but there's some stuff he did that he didn't even show on film, a lot of inside moves and stuff. He's a great, great player."

But Williams hung tough, and the Redskins' defense hung tough for most of the night. And the offense ran the ball tough, though without much success against an extremely tough-looking Cowboys defense. These two teams traded punches as if they were fighting at the end of a "Rocky" movie, and in the end the Cowboys were one or two plays tougher.

"I don't feel like we took a step back," Redskins linebacker London Fletcher said. "We held them to six field goals and we needed to make one more play than we made defensively."

Coming out of this week of head-to-head matchups in the NFC East, the Cowboys, Giants and Redskins are all 2-1. The favored Eagles are 1-2, mainly because their own quarterback hasn't been able to finish the last two games. While Michael Vick is complaining about not getting calls, Manning and Romo have been finding ways to overcome their challenges and win games anyway. Their teams may not have as much talent on the field right now as the Eagles do, but they're taking a back seat to no one in the toughness department, and the records reflect that.

"It's going to be tough and hard-fought every single week, right to the end, and I think with all four teams," Cofield said. "That's the way it always is in the NFC East. That's the way we like it."

Much less is new about the Washington Redskins now compared with a year ago. This is Mike Shanahan's second season as their head coach, not his first. It's the second year of his zone-blocking offense, of Jim Haslett's 3-4 defense, of owner Dan Snyder staying in the background. And yet, even though so much less is new, so much feels different. Redskins players were saying this week that things this year around the team are "boring, in a good way."

"Most of the time, I've been around boring teams," Shanahan said when reporters relayed those comments to him. "That's what you like. You like guys taking care of business, and I guess compared to the first year, it is kind of boring."

After a year's worth of dealing with an Albert Haynesworth mess he inherited and a Donovan McNabb mess he helped create, Shanahan has the team he wants. He has a quarterback in Rex Grossman who knows how to run his offense and -- perhaps more importantly -- wants to do it. He has a converted 4-3 defensive tackle in Barry Cofield who's excited about playing 3-4 nose tackle. He has players he brought in -- such as Tim Hightower, Stephen Bowen and Josh Wilson -- who can carry out what he wants done now while also growing with the team as it develops into the future. He has high-caliber, high-character holdovers such as London Fletcher, Brian Orakpo and Santana Moss, whose leadership isn't being drowned out anymore by controversy after controversy.

For all of those reasons, this is the year in which people will make up their minds about Shanahan as Redskins coach. And the "Monday Night Football" spotlight he's got here in Week 3 in Dallas against the banged-up Cowboys is a huge opportunity for Shanahan to show people he's not just a big name but a great coach who knows what he's doing.

On the surface, it looks like a bigger game for the Cowboys, who would be 1-2 with a loss and heading into a very tough portion of their schedule. If the Redskins lose, they're 2-1 and still further ahead of the game than anyone expected them to be after three weeks. But if Shanahan's serious about changing the way things work and feel around the Redskins, he sees this game as a huge chance not just to do it but to announce it to the entire football-watching world.

A win in this rivalry game would make the Redskins 3-0, and 76 percent of NFL teams that start out 3-0 reach the playoffs. That was a goal that looked unattainable for the Redskins before the season started, but the way their schedule lays out, and the way their defense is playing, it's not out of the question. This is a league in which five new teams make the playoffs every year, in which we're guaranteed a handful of teams that turn out to be much better than we imagined they'd be. The Redskins are in a position to be one of those teams, and if Shanahan is able to take advantage of that position, it would rank among his most stellar coaching achievements.

Very little was expected of this year's Redskins, and they still have a long way to go to make good on their promising early returns. It won't always be this much fun around them. They will lose games they believe they should have won, and they will have to deal with more challenging issues than they've faced so far. Shanahan will have to manage all of that, and he surely knows this and believes he can.

But right now, in Week 3, Shanahan and his "boring" bunch of Redskins have a chance to do something that would force everyone who watches this league to sit up and take notice. Shanahan can make an early announcement that his team is for real and so is he -- that those who doubted after Year 1 were wrong and that he really does know something about how to put a team together from scratch and coach it. If they lose Monday, it doesn't mean none of that is true, and he'll have more chances down the road to prove it with steady progress. But if the Redskins win this game, there's going to be a lot of attention paid all of a sudden to the work Shanahan has done since he got to Washington. And people are going to be very impressed.

LANDOVER, Md. -- The play that could have broken the spirit of the Washington Redskins' defense happened with 11:09 left in Sunday's game. Linebacker London Fletcher was just a quarter of a second too late in getting to Cardinals quarterback Kevin Kolb, who found Larry Fitzgerald deep down the right side of the field for a 73-yard touchdown that stretched Arizona's lead to eight points. After a day of missed opportunities, a game in which they'd dominated time of possession and should have had things well in hand, the Redskins were staring at the strong possibility that they'd let one get away.

"There was no panic on our sidelines," Fletcher said after a 22-21 victory that pushed the Redskins two games over .500 for the first time since 2008. "We were disappointed to give up the touchdown, of course, but I was really stressing to the guys that there was a lot of football left to be played."

The Redskins still had a lot going for them. They knew they'd been stopping the Cardinals pretty much all day. Their offense was marching down the field behind Rex Grossman and Roy Helu for a touchdown drive. And perhaps just as important as either of those two things, they had Fletcher, their inspirational leader, urging them on, as he always does.

"He's obviously still got a lot left in his tank," Redskins nose tackle Barry Cofield said. "If a guy who's played as long as he has can still be that fired up and that hungry, it makes you feel bad if you can't be that same way yourself."

There were some who predicted that the Redskins would play this whole season and not win any more games than the two they've already won. Those who did so ignored the improvements Washington made on defense, the benefits the returning players would draw from the season they spent in Jim Haslett's 3-4 defense in 2010, and the veteran leadership the Redskins have on that side of the ball. Fletcher was all over the field Sunday, making five tackles, hitting Kolb twice and collecting an interception. He blitzed out of the Redskins' shifting, confusing defensive fronts as if he'd been playing in them his whole career. The Redskins' linebackers were the stars of the defensive show as the banged-up secondary kept losing players to injury, and Fletcher led them.

"He's the captain of our ship," said reserve cornerback Byron Westbrook, who forced the Chansi Stuckey fumble that sealed the game for Washington in the final minute. "He's vocal. He has a lot of passion. He's always positive and upbeat. Guys want to follow a leader like that."

It was Fletcher who organized those Redskins player workouts during the lockout, scribbling down plays he remembered Haslett running (or trying to run) last season and keeping them on a piece of paper tucked into his back pocket so he could make sure those workouts were directed and productive. It was Fletcher who set the attacking tone the Redskins wanted to set against Kolb and the Cardinals Sunday -- a plan that resulted in three sacks. It was Fletcher who made sure, once the Cardinals started to have success running the ball and then hit that monster pass play, that no one got discouraged.

"When he sees guys in the huddle with their heads down, he's always bringing them back up," linebacker Brian Orakpo said. "That's what I really respect about him. He's always the same."

The great leaders are, and Fletcher-as-leader is a bit of a secret weapon for the Redskins, who aren't as surprised as you are that they're 2-0, by the way.

"We really don't get caught up in what's said about us outside our locker room," Fletcher said, affably, not angrily. "What matters is the way we feel about ourselves."

And in case you're wondering how they feel about themselves ...

"There's just a belief on this team that we're going to win," defensive end Adam Carriker said. "We honestly believe we have one of the best defenses. We believe we're going to win. We believe we're good. And when teams have that belief, they're not going to fold."

And so it was that the Redskins, after Grossman went down the field and cut the lead to two points with a touchdown to Santana Moss, went out and got the three-and-out that put the ball back in their offense's hands. And Westbrook, pressed into service thanks to an injury to starting cornerback Josh Wilson, jumped up from the back end of the depth chart to make the game-clinching play.

"Our young guys, they have resolve," Fletcher said. "And they study."

They probably do so because of the example Fletcher and the other defensive veterans on the Redskins set. And while that may not be the kind of thing that shows up in statistical projections, the belief and confidence it inspires can be hugely valuable to a team, like this one, that's growing and figuring out what it's going to be.

"We know we have a long way to go," Fletcher said. "But the thing we can be happy about is the character of the football team."

He probably won't, but Fletcher should take a bow for that.

Everybody will talk about Washington Redskins quarterback Rex Grossman, and so will I, but I think I should start with the Redskins' defense. Having watched the Redskins play four games against the New York Giants over the past two seasons, the thing I noticed most about their 28-14 victory Sunday was the difference in the energy on the defensive side of the ball.

The Redskins did a lot in the offseason to improve their defense as they headed into the second year in defensive coordinator Jim Haslett's 3-4 scheme. They added former Giant Barry Cofield at nose tackle, signed defensive end Stephen Bowen away from the Cowboys, brought in cornerback Josh Wilson and drafted outside linebacker Ryan Kerrigan in the first round. Those additions, plus the fact of the holdovers having spent 2010 learning what Haslett wanted from them, has resulted in major improvements over last year's defense, and it showed Sunday.

Kerrigan provided the highlight-reel play when he tipped and intercepted an Eli Manning pass and returned it for a touchdown, but there were big plays all over the field from the Redskins -- and at big times. The Giants were 1-for-10 on third downs and 0-for-1 on fourth, and running backs Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs combined for just 73 yards on 19 carries -- an average of 3.8 yards per carry. Manning had a lousy game and will surely get the bulk of the blame in New York. But without a healthy tight end and with the passing-game options limited, the Giants undoubtedly believed they could and would run on the Redskins. They were disappointed.

Shortly before the game, the Giants announced that star defensive end Justin Tuck would not play due to his neck injury. It was the final, crushing blow for a defense that lost starting cornerback Terrell Thomas, starting middle linebacker Jonathan Goff, starting defensive end Osi Umenyiora and reserve linebacker Clint Sintim to injury during preseason. The result was a badly undermanned Giants defense trying to stop a Redskins offense that looked sharp as it stuck to a good-looking plan. Grossman was 21-for-34 for 305 yards and two touchdowns, spreading the catches around among six different receivers. Tim Hightower carried the ball 25 times, demonstrating a commitment to the run that will serve the Redskins well as a foundation in every game this year if they can maintain it. Tight end Fred Davis was unstoppable, especially when he was able to get open in the middle part of the field against a confused and overwhelmed group of Giants linebackers.

The Redskins played an excellent all-around game in their opener. The Giants will limp home and deal with many of the major problems that were exposed in this game. But as Grossman and the Redskins prepare for next week's game against an Arizona defense that just gave up 422 yards to Cam Newton, the confidence and optimism they generated with their strong preseason has intensified, and they're surely (and justifiably) feeling very good about themselves.

» NFC Final Word: East | West | North | South » AFC: East | West | North | South

Five nuggets of knowledge about Week 1:

All Along the Hightower. Over the past three seasons, the Arizona Cardinals were 6-1 in games in which Tim Hightower carried the ball at least 14 times. What jumps out, given that winning percentage, is that there were only seven such games in three years. The Cardinals were a passing team for the first two of those years under Kurt Warner and were using Beanie Wells in a lead-back role last year, so Hightower's chances were limited. It should not be thus in Washington, where I'd expect Mike Shanahan to feed Hightower the ball early and often in an attempt to help keep the Giants' pass rush off newly minted starting quarterback Rex Grossman. Hightower also has 10 fumbles over the past two years, so keep an eye out for that and don't be surprised to see Ryan Torain and/or Roy Helu factor into the run game if Washington gets enough chances to run it.

Giants love Washington. What did Justin Tuck mean Wednesday when he told Redskins beat writers he felt the Giants had the Redskins' number? Well, New York has won five straight games against the Redskins in Washington -- the Redskins' longest home losing streak to the Giants since they lost seven straight from 1957-63. In the five games of the current streak, the Giants have outscored the Redskins by a total of 157-71, or an average of about 31-14 per game.

The Eagles are coming for Sam Bradford. Philadelphia rushed five or more defenders on 41.2 percent of their defensive plays last year. That was the fifth-highest percentage in the NFL and it could go up this season, given the stated commitment of new defensive coordinator Juan Castillo and new defensive line coach Jim Washburn to be more aggressive up the field. Opposing quarterbacks hit on 51.7 percent of their passes and gained 5.7 yards per attempt when the Eagles rushed five or more. Oddly, Rams quarterback Sam Bradford saw five or more rushers more than any other quarterback in the league last year. He completed 57 percent of his passes for 6.6 yards per attempt against five or more rushers.

DeMarcus Ware will make Rex Ryan jealous. As great as the Jets' defense has been under Ryan, he has not had a player remotely like the Cowboys' star outside linebacker. Ware has recorded at least 11 sacks in each of the past five seasons -- an NFL-best 72 over that span. During that same five-year stretch, the Jets have not had a single player record 11 sacks in a season. Their highest individual total in that stretch was Bryan Thomas' 8.5 sacks in 2006.

I expect the Giants to throw it early. I know, the Giants want to run in general, but if they're watching tape of their old buddy Barry Cofield and the Redskins' run defense from the preseason, they'll see Washington has toughened up in the middle. By contrast, with starting safety LaRon Landry out and cornerback Josh Wilson still finding his way, the secondary looks as though it could be the weak point of the Redskins' defense. If the Giants' line can keep Brian Orakpo and Ryan Kerrigan away from Eli Manning, I'm thinking Manning looks downfield early in an effort to establish the lead that eventually helps the Giants run.

Click here for a complete list of the Washington Redskins' roster moves.

Biggest surprise: The decision to keep Chris Neild as a backup nose tackle and release Anthony Bryant. There was some chatter in the offseason about Bryant's possibly being promoted to starting nose tackle if the Redskins focused their offseason energies on defensive end. But once they signed Barry Cofield, they didn't need two backups, and they liked what they saw from Neild, especially on special teams.

Running backs Evan Royster and Keiland Williams have apparently been released, victims of overcrowding in a Redskins running-back field now headed by Tim Hightower. Ryan Torain will remain on the roster, along with Roy Helu, as a top option if Hightower should falter. And it's a bit surprising to see them keep eight receivers, including Brandon Banks, Leonard Hankerson, Niles Paul and Donte' Stallworth.

No-brainers: They're only keeping two quarterbacks, John Beck and Rex Grossman, while cutting Kellen Clemens and Matt Gutierrez, but I don't think that's surprising. Those last two were only there to help take up preseason snaps when they needed to rest guys who might be their starters at any point this season. Rookie receiver Aldrick Robinson didn't do anything to help himself. And Artis Hicks has been squeezed out of the offensive line mix. They looked into trading Hicks on Saturday but ultimately had to put him on waivers.

What's next: They could hit the market for a third quarterback, obviously, though that's not a major concern. I wonder if they'll still look for help at defensive end with Jarvis Jenkins out for the year. The Cowboys just cut Igor Olshansky, who's a name that will surely catch someone's attention.

So that's John Beck, everybody. We've heard so much about him since Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said right after the draft that his belief in Beck was one reason he didn't feel he needed to draft a quarterback. Perhaps in order to build suspense, Beck missed the Redskins' first preseason game with a groin injury and watched his main competition for the starting job, Rex Grossman, have a solid game against the Steelers.

But Beck showed up and started Friday in Indianapolis and wouldn't you know it? He looked pretty good. Beck was 14-for-17 for 140 yards in the first half of the Redskins' 16-3 preseason victory against the Colts. He was cool under pressure (and he faced plenty, thanks to a poor game by left tackle Trent Williams). He showcased the quick release Shanahan and his son, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, have been talking up. And while it seemed for a while as if every play was a bootleg rollout, I actually thought that was okay for two reasons. First, it showcased Beck's speed and athleticism, which are things the Shanahans believe set him apart from Grossman in terms of upside. And second, he seemed to make good decisions at the end of those rollouts, finding his receivers, throwing accurately and not forcing throws that weren't there.

Did he dazzle? No. Did he fire the ball downfield in awe-inspiring arcs for back-breaking pass plays? No. But does he have to? Two different running backs, Tim Hightower and Roy Helu, had 50-plus-yard runs. His starting wide receivers, Santana Moss and Jabar Gaffney, are more possession receivers than deep threats. This Redskins offense isn't built in such a way that asks its quarterback to be Tom Brady. The Redskins' quarterback needs only manage the game and work the ball downfield patiently and intelligently. Beck did that while in the game Friday night.

Grossman did it last week, and looked okay (but for an interception) in the second half Friday night. But the Shanahans know what Grossman is and what he can do, so nothing that happened last week had any real impact on this quarterback competition. The Redskins believe Beck has the tools to be a better player than Grossman can be at his best, and they want to see how he handles the pressure of the bright lights and the opportunity they've given him. I firmly believe Beck would have to play very poorly this preseason in order to not be the Redskins' starting quarterback. And he did not play poorly in this game. Far from it, in fact.

In conclusion, I don't think anything changed on Redskins quarterback Friday. I think Beck was already in the lead, in spite of Grossman's effort last week, and has maintained that lead. If anything, he's widened it, and he showed some things Friday night that could help Redskins fans feel a little bit better about the situation.

Some other thoughts:

1. I have no idea what to make of the defense, as it was missing four or five starters and playing against a Colts team that didn't have injured quarterback Peyton Manning. This is akin to running a NASCAR race against Jimmie Johnson when Johnson's car does not have an engine. It seems clear that rookies Ryan Kerrigan and Jarvis Jenkins (and of course, third-year star Brian Orakpo) have the ability to get to the quarterback. The Redskins generated a bit of pass rush up the middle with the help of Barry Cofield, who's taking to his new role as nose tackle. And defensively, I believe they'll look even better once they have their starting safeties. But as for Friday, tough to make any big judgments about the defense, which wasn't going up against much of an opponent.

2. Helu looks very fast, and he got a bunch of snaps in this game as fellow rookie Evan Royster did last week. Shanahan likes to give running backs "full games" when possible for evaluation purposes in the preseason. But Hightower is going to open the season as the Redskins' starting running back and should hold the job until and unless he (literally) fumbles it away. He understands Shanahan's "one-cut" preference perfectly, seems to work well behind the offensive line and its zone-blocking scheme and has basically done everything right since they traded for him.

3. Trent Williams needs to be better. The second-year left tackle got flat-out beaten on a couple of those sacks and got manhandled most of the night. Now, granted, Dwight Freeney is one of the game's best pass-rushers, but in this year's NFC East, Williams is going to see a lot of those. We know he's talented, but he just needs to block more consistently.

4. Been a pretty good month for Graham Gano. He hasn't missed a kick yet. His prime competition for the job got cut after a miserable first game. And his wife had a baby this week and he managed to make it to the game just in time Friday. Congrats, Papa Graham, and good job.

5. Leonard Hankerson caught four passes, but what people will remember is that he dropped one. He drops too many. I know, I know, that's his reputation. But every time you start to worry your being a slave to a reputation... well, the guy drops another pass. The Redskins like him and likely won't give up on him, but he's not going to see the field much this year if he can't find a way to catch the ball more reliably.

6. A preseason game can have value for a team like the Redskins. No, the result doesn't matter. And no, you can't assume they'll look as good in real games as they have so far in two fake ones. But think about where the Redskins are right now. Nobody thinks they're any good. Everybody thinks they'll finish last. They've got people saying they could be the worst team in the league (which I seriously doubt). And while they can pretend they don't hear it, they all have the internet, and cable TV, and AM radio in their cars. And even if they don't pay attention to any of that stuff, they all have friends and relatives who undoubtedly keep them posted on it. But world-class professional athletes aren't inclined to doubt themselves, and having success -- even if it's on a micro level in a game that doesn't count -- is the kind of thing that can bolster confidence internally when nothing's happening to bolster it externally. This is two weeks in a row that the Redskins peeled the tape off their ankles and went home feeling good about themselves. And a team that's going to be an underdog in the majority of its games this season can benefit greatly from knowing what it's like to feel that way.

I love a contrarian point of view, and K.C. Joyner's got one here. While everybody is gushing over the Philadelphia Eagles as free-agent champs and NFC East favorites, K.C. has written an Insider piece listing eight reasons to think the New York Giants should be the favorites instead. Like I said, it's an Insider piece, so if you want to read it you can either buy the insider subscription or call my cell phone and I'll give you my password.

K.C.'s eight reasons are:

1. Michael Vick was lucky last season, as a high percentage of his potential interceptions weren't actually intercepted.

2. Eli Manning was unlucky last season on the opposite end of the same scale.

3. Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham are better against good coverage than DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin are.

4. Manning can overcome the loss of Kevin Boss and Steve Smith simply by throwing to Nicks and Manningham more.

5. Jason Pierre-Paul and Marvin Austin will improve the Giants' already strong pass rush.

6. Steve Weatherford is a better punter than Matt Dodge, who cost them games last season.

7. Offensive line coach Pat Flaherty is the best in the NFL, and that should help the transition to the reworked alignment there.

8. Kenny Phillips is fully healthy.

K.C. has numbers to back up many of these points, and many of them are points with which I agree. I think Phillips will be a huge help, agree completely on Weatherford and can easily believe both that Manning will throw fewer interceptions than he did last season and that Vick won't be quite as awesome as he was last season. On the comparison of the two teams' wideouts, I have no reason to doubt K.C.'s numbers.

I have specific issues with points 4, 5 and 7, as follows:

4. I don't think it's as simple as "throw it to Nicks and Manningham more." Nicks and Manningham surely benefited from defenses having to pay attention to Smith, who'd caught 107 balls the season before, when he was on the field. He's gone and has not been replaced.

5. I like Pierre-Paul and Austin fine, but they're not being added to the mix. They're replacing people who have departed. Mathias Kiwanuka moved back from the line to linebacker, and Pierre-Paul will take his spot. Barry Cofield signed with the Redskins, and Austin replaces him. It's a big leap to believe that those two young players will approximate the production and performance of those two veterans and a bigger one to believe they'll improve on it.

7. Flaherty could be a wizard, but if William Beatty isn't ready for the starting left tackle job in his third season in the league, the Giants' line will struggle. And as of right now, we still don't know if he is.

So what do I think of K.C.'s basic thesis? I think the Giants have a very good team as far as the front-line starters go, and I don't think it'd be some huge upset if they won the division. I have all kinds of respect for the work K.C. does and the numbers on which he is basing his conclusions. He makes a strong case and a case worth making amid all the Eagles hype.

But the way I see it, the Giants' problem the past couple of seasons hasn't been one of measurables.

The Giants' defense over the past two seasons has been inconsistent and hasn't always played up to the level of the talent on the roster. The same can be said, in places, for the running game and for Manning. The Giants were good enough to make the playoffs in 2009 and 2010 but didn't, and the reason they didn't was because the good players they have in key spots like that didn't always perform the way the numbers would expect them to perform. Supposedly reliable parts of the roster let them down when it mattered most. Ahmad Bradshaw fumbled. Manning threw interceptions. Kareem McKenzie had an inexplicably bad game against the Titans. Half of the defense quit on its coordinator in 2009.

That's the kind of stuff that doesn't show up in preseason projections, when we're imagining everyone playing as well as they can possibly play and predicting outcomes based on that. If the Giants stay healthy and play 16 games that reflect the talent on their roster, sure, they can be division champs. But that was true last season and the season before, too. And those teams, which looked a lot like this team except maybe deeper, didn't do it.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It's funny to say this about a team that plays where they play, but the New York Giants like it when nobody notices them. They like being forgotten, underestimated, treated as an afterthought. They're OK with the Jets getting all the back-page-tabloid attention and the Eagles being the big offseason story because of their free-agent shopping spree. The Giants believe in their own way of doing things, and if that means lying in the weeds while people on the outside are distracted by other teams that are hot at the moment, that's fine with them.

"We believe in our organization, and we believe in our coaches," said ninth-year offensive lineman David Diehl, who has moved from left tackle to left guard as part of the Giants' offensive line shuffle. "We're not running around doing the free-agency fiasco and all that stuff. Yeah, you hope that, if an opportunity arises, you bring in guys that fit holes. But at the same time, we've got guys that have been here, guys that are a part of this team, guys who know the system."

That's why, even though they lost tight end Kevin Boss and receiver Steve Smith in free agency and didn't sign new guys the way the Eagles did, the Giants say they're not worried. They have a different way of doing things here. They build through the draft and groom their own players to replace the ones who leave. And they have a few guys they think can fill the holes created by their cuts and free-agent defections. It remains to be seen whether they're right, of course, but the vibe at Giants training camp is clear: Go ahead, underestimate us. We'll see how it turns out in the end.

THREE HOT ISSUES

1. The new offensive line. When they cut longtime center Shaun O'Hara and guard Rich Seubert on the first day of free agency, the Giants signaled a decision to change an aspect of their team that hadn't changed much over the past six or seven years. They signed free-agent center David Baas from San Francisco, moved Diehl inside, and gave the starting left tackle job to 2009 second-round draft pick William Beatty. So there are questions that must be answered about how quickly the newly configured group can jell, how smooth the relationship between Baas and quarterback Eli Manning will be and, perhaps most importantly, whether Beatty in his third NFL season is ready for the responsibility of protecting Manning's blind side.

"In the case of William Beatty, it's time," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "We've had him here. He's talented. He's had an opportunity to learn. He's practiced against some of the best. We've had some defensive ends around here that can play. So it's time. It's his turn."

Beatty started four games in his rookie season and two last season as he was being groomed for this opportunity. He's perhaps the best example of the Giants' belief in their ability to groom their own replacements for departing veterans rather than having to hit the free-agent market to do so. Now, he must prove that their faith in him was justified.

2. Can Osi Umenyiora be happy? Upset about his contract, the Giants' star defensive end has sat out practice and demanded that the team re-work his deal or trade him to a team that will. Neither of those things appears likely to happen, though the Giants have offered an olive branch in the form of some 2011 incentives depending on the number of sacks Umenyiora gets this year. He had his knee checked out last week and there's a sense he could return to practice Monday. The way Jason Pierre-Paul played in Saturday night's preseason opener only helped the Giants' leverage in this situation. They believe Pierre-Paul, their 2010 first-round pick, can be a capable replacement for Umenyiora at the defensive end spot opposite Justin Tuck. Of course, if Umenyiora wants to come back and play, they'll be thrilled to be able to rotate three such weapons at the defensive end spots. It would also enable them to put Mathias Kiwanuka at linebacker and leave him there.

3. Manning's safety valves. As the Giants' passing game evolved over the past couple of seasons, Manning relied heavily on Smith and Boss as targets when things broke down. Both are gone. The Giants hope that 2009 third-round pick Travis Beckum is ready to replace Boss. Beckum is a good receiver, but he doesn't have Boss' size or blocking ability. And they're trying everyone from Mario Manningham to Domenik Hixon to Victor Cruz in Smith's old slot-receiver role in the hopes that someone can play the position the way Smith did. Top receiver Hakeem Nicks appears poised to have another big year, and the Giants can use Manningham on the outside as they did last season. But Manning is justifiably concerned about who will be there for him when a play inevitably breaks down, and tight end and slot receiver are positions that need to be sorted out before camp ends.

"When we've gotten in trouble in the past, we always had Steve in the slot, and that's kind of all we worked on -- Steve's in the slot, there you go, he's got it down," Manning said. "And so last year, when he got hurt, we were in trouble. No one else really knew how to play it. So this year we're putting everybody -- Hakeem is in there, Manningham's getting in here, we're getting a lot of people in there to get them to learn some of it, so that'll probably create some more opportunities for us to move guys around and get some mismatches."

MAN IN THE MIDDLE

Linebacker has been a weak spot for the Giants the past couple of years. Unable to add outside free agents because of cap concerns, they'll address it by moving Kiwanuka there for first and second downs. But much will still fall on the shoulders of Jonathan Goff, who enters his second season as starter at middle linebacker in the Giants' 4-3 defense. "I'll have better composure this year," Goff said. "Last year, being my first year, was a little bit of a learning experience for me. This year, I think we're all on the same page to move forward as a defense and get better. It's just natural now." Goff is responsible for communicating the calls from the sidelines and for making any front-seven checks. (The coverage checks are the responsibility of the safeties.) He knows he'll need to take a stronger on-field leadership role for the defense to play more consistently this season.

AN 'EXPLOSIVE' PHILLIPS

Two years ago, Kenny Phillips was on the verge of breaking out as one of the top safeties in the NFL. But he lost his 2009 season to a left knee injury, spent the 2009-10 offseason rehabbing the knee and wasn't the same player when he returned in 2010. This year, Phillips said, he was able to condition himself the way he normally would for a season, rather than have to rehab, and believes it has made a huge difference. "Just being more explosive," Phillips said. "Last year, just seeing the field, it was kind of difficult at times, because I'd been away from the game, to be able to break on the ball -- to actually see it and then be able to get to it. But this year, now, everything is just fluid. My technique and everything is sound. I just feel good about everything this year." Phillips said he learned a lot last season playing and working with veteran safety Deon Grant (who remains an unsigned free agent), and that, with his physical ability fully restored, he believes he'll be a better player.

OBSERVATION DECK

Hixon could be a very important player for the Giants if he's recovered from his knee injury. He showed ability to play that slot receiver position when he was healthy, and will get a chance to show it again, though it seems clear the Giants would like to have multiple options there in case something goes wrong.

Linval Joseph, the 2010 second-round pick, would seem to have the playing-time edge at defensive tackle over 2011 second-round pick Marvin Austin. But each brings impressive size and agility to the position, and between them the Giants should be able to capably replace Barry Cofield, who signed with Washington.

The starting secondary of Phillips, Antrel Rolle, Terrell Thomas and Corey Webster looks excellent in practice. The question is whether there's enough depth behind those guys if there's an injury. Cornerbacks Michael Coe and Brian Witherspoon and safety Tyler Sash have a chance to earn playing time with Prince Amukamara hurt and Grant not re-signed. Witherspoon has been impressive on special teams and looked good in Saturday's game. Sash appears to be very athletic, but he needs to play with more discipline.

Kiwanuka at linebacker is a work in progress. No question he has the ability to play it, but he over-pursued Saturday at times the way a defensive end might.

Even before he left Saturday's preseason game with a thigh injury, kicker Lawrence Tynes looked as though he might be cause for concern. Having missed a few practices as he recovers from knee surgery, Tynes was unable to boot kickoffs out of the back of the end zone the way it seems every other kicker in the league has so far this preseason. And he missed a couple of field goals (though the first was a 56-yarder he shouldn't have been asked to try). Worth keeping an eye out to see how he looks the rest of August.

As for punters, Matt Dodge has looked better than he did in his difficult rookie season, but it's going to be tough for him to beat out Steve Weatherford, who's just better at the job.

We knew earlier in the week that Rex Grossman was a confident quarterback, when he said he expected the Washington Redskins to win the NFC East this season. Friday night, in Washington's 16-7 preseason victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, Grossman played like a confident quarterback. He looked cool and in control, playing the first half behind a surprisingly sound offensive line and going 19-for-26 for 207 yards and a touchdown.

Now, the first reaction will be to say that Grossman has seized the lead over John Beck, who missed the game with a groin injury, in the competition for the Redskins' starting quarterback job. But I'm not sure it's that simple. The Redskins' coaches believe Grossman can run their offense as well as, if not better than, Donovan McNabb did in 2010. They believe he's competent as can be, and nothing he did Friday night showed them anything they didn't already know about Grossman. The reason this is a competition at all is that Mike Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan believe Beck has more upside and athleticism. They want to see how Beck handles himself against hostile competition, under the bright lights in a situation with something (i.e., the starting quarterback job) on the line. The groin injury robbed them of that chance this week, and they'll hope they can get him in there next week so the competition can begin for real.

What Grossman's performance did Friday was maybe allow the Shanahans to sleep a little bit more easily. What they saw reinforced what they thought things would look like if they ended up going with Grossman. But as far as the Grossman-Beck competition is concerned, I'm not sure it's really started yet.

A few more observations from Washington's surprisingly impressive effort in its first preseason game:

1. Ryan Kerrigan can contribute right away. The first-round draft pick is still getting up to speed, as a leg injury cost him several early training-camp practices. And he will need to continue to work on his coverages and get used to playing on two feet as a linebacker rather than out of the three-point stance in which he played as a defensive end at Purdue. But Kerrigan can rush a passer. He showed that several times, making his way swiftly into the backfield from the side opposite Brian Orakpo and getting hits on Steelers running backs and quarterbacks. He may not be a fully finished NFL product by Week 1, but the Redskins can start him at outside linebacker if they want to and just send him after quarterbacks all night, and they'll get plenty of value out of that.

2. Tim Hightower will be the starting running back as long as he holds onto the football. Mike Shanahan thought he got a steal when he acquired Hightower in a trade with Arizona during training camp's first week. You saw Hightower look good running the ball, but what really jumps out to Shanahan is the help Hightower can provide in the passing game -- as a receiver and as a blocker. Ryan Torain will still get a long look once he gets back from his hand injury, but Hightower is the clear leader to be the starting running back in Week 1.

3. Lots of Evan Royster. Once Hightower was out of the game, the rookie running back who got the vast majority of touches was Royster, not Roy Helu. Helu didn't get a carry until there were about eight minutes left in the third quarter, and the work he got at that point seemed to be aimed at getting a breather for Royster, who came right back in. As Rich Campbell, the fine Redskins beat writer for the Washington Times, pointed out on Twitter, Shanahan likes to give running backs "whole games" to allow them to establish rhythm before he evaluates them. Did the same thing, Campbell says, last season with Willie Parker and Larry Johnson. By that logic, we should expect to see a preseason game at some point in which Helu gets a ton of carries. Helu looked explosive in the fourth-quarter action he saw, and I'm sure they're eager to take a longer look at him.

4. Trouble in the secondary? There were a couple of first-half plays on which Steelers receivers got well past Redskins cornerbacks and would have had big plays if the passes hadn't been overthrown. Some of the secondary problems could have to do with communication issues, since both starting safeties were out with injuries. But newcomer Josh Wilson bears watching at corner as the preseason goes along.

5. Mixed results on the defensive line. I thought there were times when it got pushed around, but the defensive line had its moments. Kerrigan's tackle of Mewelde Moore on that third-and-two probably wouldn't have happened if new nose tackle Barry Cofield hadn't gotten quick penetration and held his spot. Moore ran right into Cofield a split-second before Kerrigan grabbed him. Rookie Jarvis Jenkins also was able to produce some pressure, Stephen Bowen sacked Byron Leftwich and there were plenty of early plays on which the line cleared room for a fired-up London Fletcher to get into the backfield and make plays.

6. Veteran receivers. Whoever the quarterback is, they'll be happy to have Santana Moss and Jabar Gaffney, two professional, veteran route-runners. The young receivers? Meh. Niles Paul made a nice play. Aldrick Robinson kept dropping the ball on kick returns. And Leonard Hankerson had a bad drop, which only matters because that's the thing about him that everybody's watching. The drops.

7. A good night for Graham Gano. While the quarterback competition may not have begun yet, the kicker competition may be over. Newcomer Shayne Graham missed badly from 29 and 49 yards. Gano made his two field goals from 32, 34 and 45. Maybe they brought in Graham just to pressure Gano into doing better, but he didn't exert much pressure Friday, and Gano looked fantastic.

All in all, if you hadn't been following any of the preseason coverage, you'd have tuned in Friday night and thought the Redskins looked pretty sharp. Keep in mind: This is a rebuilding team. So good signs from Friday night can be good signs for the future even if they don't end up portending anything great for 2011. As for 2011 ... One thing they'll almost certainly be able to do is beat outside expectations. Remains to be seen, of course, if they have any chance of living up to Grossman's.

ASHBURN, Va. -- This will be Brian Orakpo's third year in the NFL, but the Washington Redskins' linebacker finds himself in an unusual position. There are only 16 players in camp who have been with the Redskins longer than Orakpo has. Only five of those 16 are starters and only three play defense. This puts Orakpo, who turned 25 last week, in the position of having to help a lot of new guys learn the way things work around Redskins Park.

"It's very odd, man," Orakpo said. "I'm only going into my third year and already guys are looking at me as being a veteran on the team. So it's a different era, where we're at right now, but I'm excited for the opportunity."

Last year's plan didn't work. Donovan McNabb flopped as the quarterback. The 4-3 defensive personnel didn't fit into new coach Mike Shanahan's 3-4. And Shanahan decided, one year later, that the best thing would be to bring in new players: Barry Cofield, Stephen Bowen, Josh Wilson, Chris Chester, Tim Hightower and a slew of rookie receivers. A couple of quarterbacks, John Beck and Rex Grossman, who were on the team last year now find themselves competing to be the starter at the most important position.

"The plan, at least the plan in free agency, was to get people who are solid football players but solid people as well, and who are young," Shanahan said. "The second year, you always have a good feel for what type of people fit into your scheme and what type of people you want to have on your football team. If the nucleus of your football team is guys with character who can play, you've got a good chance."

Most of the new additions are in their mid- to late-20s -- players who are already established in the league yet young enough that they can continue to grow as the team does over the next several years. They're men and players, Shanahan says, that he specifically targeted for that reason and for those he listed above. And the feeling around training camp is that this is a group of people looking to build something together.

"Of course, right now we're looking to win, but you want to build something with longevity," said safety O.J. Atogwe, a graybeard among the new additions at the ripe old age of 30. "We want to have something that's sustainable, and I believe that's what Coach Shanahan is doing, getting good character guys in here, younger guys. You're building the nucleus of a team that can be a contender for years and years to come."

THREE HOT ISSUES

1. Who's the quarterback? Shanahan surprised a lot of people by not taking a quarterback in the draft. He surprised a lot more people shortly thereafter, when he declared that he believed Beck, who was already on the team, could be the starter. He has since moved to include Grossman as a candidate for that spot, but neither has inspired much confidence outside of the Redskins' offices.

Shanahan and his son, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, insist that they loved Beck when he was coming out of college and was picked 40th in the 2007 draft. They believe he continues to show the same qualities they liked when they watched him then -- athleticism, mobility, quick release, natural leadership ability -- and that the only reason he hasn't had NFL success is because he hasn't had NFL opportunity. They insist they like Grossman, who operated their offense last year at least as well as, if not better than, McNabb did. The sense I got from hanging around the Redskins for a few days is that the coaches are more concerned about the pieces around the quarterback -- the line, the receivers, the backs -- than they are about the quarterback position itself. Speaking of which...

2. To whom will that quarterback throw? Santana Moss is back, and the team added veteran wideouts to the mix in Jabar Gaffney amd Donte' Stallworth. But in order to be successful, the Redskins' offense must get a jolt from one or more of the inexperienced receivers on the roster. Anthony Armstrong showed something late last year, and he'll be pushed by rookies Leonard Hankerson and Aldrick Robinson, as well as by holdover Malcolm Kelly, a 2008 second-rounder. Running back Hightower can be a weapon in the passing game, and the best receivers on the roster outside of Moss may be tight ends Chris Cooley and Fred Davis. But because of concerns about the offensive line and whether it can come together in short order, those guys may end up doing a lot of blocking.

3. Do they have the defense down yet? Defensive coordinator Jim Haslett said last year that it would take two years for the 3-4 install to work because it takes that long for players to re-train their minds and bodies around it. Adding in players better suited to the 3-4 than the people they had here last year should help, but new players such as Cofield, Bowen and rookie Ryan Kerrigan are experiencing the defense for the first time. The Redskins have a lot of talent on the defensive side of the ball and could be good there in short order. But they're still in a learning process, and how good they are on defense this year will depend on the speed with which they learn it.

ADDITION BY SUBTRACTION

The story of last year's Redskins training camp was disgruntled defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth and his distaste for what he believed would be his assignment in the new 3-4 defense. Haynesworth's refusal to be open to the switch led to a drawn-out confrontation between him and Mike Shanahan, the conditioning-test mess and a feud that lasted all the way through the season. Trading Haynesworth to New England (and McNabb to Minnesota) was one of the first things the Redskins did when the lockout ended, and the main reason they did it was because they were determined not to let last year's problems infect this year's training camp. It hasn't. Without naming names, London Fletcher laughed when I told him Cofield, who played in a 4-3 in New York, had told me he was excited to make the switch to a 3-4 nose tackle.

"That's good, to hear that he's excited about it," Fletcher said, chuckling. "I want a nose that's excited about playing that position."

EXTRA PREPARATION

Fletcher, Beck and Lorenzo Alexander organized some of the most frequent and best-attended player workouts of any team during the lockout. Fletcher said the three of them divvied up administrative responsibilities such as calling guys to make sure they were coming and reaching out to local schools to see about the use of fields. Fletcher said there was one time he flew in the day before one of the workouts and went over on a whim to check out the high school field on which they were scheduled to practice only to find it unacceptable and have to make a last-minute change.

"We had some great turnout, got some great work in," Fletcher said. "Obviously it's not what we're getting here now, but it was important for us. What upsets me a little bit is when we have something that we did in our player-only camps, and we don't cover it correctly out here. I'll see somebody do something wrong and I want to yell out, 'Man, we worked on that!'"

Maybe, but the coaching staff appreciates that the players took the time to work out together while they weren't permitted to work out with coaches at the team facility. Kyle Shanahan said he notices it with those young wide receivers.

"We weren't able to work with them, so that was one of the positions I was worried the most with," he said. "And I could tell that Rex and John had gotten with these guys and given them some stuff, and I could tell these guys had put in their work before they got here, so we weren't just speaking Chinese to them."

OBSERVATION DECK

• Alexander is an extremely valuable guy to the Redskins' defense. He has lined up at all four linebacker spots, could start the season on the outside if first-round pick Kerrigan isn't ready and has been lining up inside next to Fletcher as well. Even with the return of Rocky McIntosh, expect Alexander to find his way onto the field a lot.
• Tim Hightower isn't here just for depth. I believe, after talking to Mike Shanahan, that Hightower is the clear front-runner for the starting running back job as long as his fumble problems don't follow him to Washington from Arizona.
• Ryan Torain, at least before he hurt himself, seemed to be working on his role in pass protection, which was something he didn't do much of last year. He'll have to if he wants to keep up with Hightower, for whom that's a strength.
• Second-round pick Jarvis Jenkins has been one of the eye-openers in camp and should fit nicely into the defensive line rotation. "He's learning so fast," offensive tackle Trent Williams told me, "it's almost scary."
• Beck may look good to the coaches who loved his college tape, but if you were out there watching the first week of practice, you saw a lot of receivers reaching behind themselves to catch his passes and a lot of wobble on the deep downfield throws. He does look good when he scrambles and runs, but as a passer, he looks as if he needs more camp.
• Trent Williams looks slimmed down from last year and has looked good in his win-some, lose-some battles with Orakpo in early drills.

ASHBURN, Va. -- Barry Cofield is the nose tackle for the Washington Redskins now, which is not what he necessarily wanted to be when free agency began. His first choice, he said at the time and says still, was to remain with the New York Giants. But the fact that the Giants didn't re-sign him didn't make him bitter.

"No hard feelings at all," Cofield told me in an interview after a Redskins practice here Tuesday. "Now, don't get me wrong. I'm excited about Sept. 11 and the prospects of playing those guys. That fires me up. But definitely no hard feelings. I definitely think I should be able to come back to the Super Bowl reunions and not get booed."

In the end, Cofield said, the Giants made a "respectable" offer, but that they "weren't able to be competitive because of their salary cap situation, and that's the economics of the game."

"They made their bed when they made the signings that they made at defensive tackle," Cofield said. "Guys like Rocky (Bernard) and Chris (Canty), they spent a lot of money on those guys. They're already invested in Canty, and that’s the guy they have to stick with. They drafted guys, and if they feel like they get a great value with a defensive tackle, with all the other positions of need they have, I was the odd man out."

He was surprised when the Redskins called, because he'd been a 4-3 defensive tackle in New York and the Redskins run a 3-4 scheme. But having played in a 3-4 in college, he liked the idea and the fact that the Redskins sought him out to be the man in the middle of their defensive line.

"They've definitely spelled out what they expect from me, and it's something I think I can do," Cofield said. "You're not taking on double-teams. It's not necessarily about two-gapping and being a 350-pound monster. Nose tackles come in different shapes and sizes, and I feel like I have my own fit, they obviously envision me in their defense, and we have a common vision."

Redskins coach Mike Shanahan told me Cofield and Stephen Bowen were two defensive linemen the Redskins had targeted going into free agency because of their ability, their age and their character. He said he had no concerns about Cofield adapting to the 3-4.

"He played it in college and played exceptionally well," Shanahan said. "You go back to film and you watch. He can give you all the calls of the 3-4 defense when you talk to him on the phone, so he's played it before and he's exceptionally bright. So whatever he does, he's going to be a consummate pro, and those are the guys you look for when you put a football team together."

Cofield likes the fact that the Redskins came to him. He liked, obviously, their contract offer. And the 3-4 is the defense in which he feels he fits the best. He remembers talking to the Steelers, Patriots and Cowboys before he was drafted and being surprised that the Giants, a 4-3 team, were the ones who took him.

"I thought there was a good chance I'd be going to a 3-4 defense. It just happened five years later," Cofield said. "I'm excited about it. I've always liked the 3-4 defense, I think it's an effective defense, I think there's a reason teams like the Steelers and the Ravens are always on the top of the league defensively. I think it fits my abilities perfectly. It's a defense that's built on technique, leverage and discipline, and I think those are my strengths."

He was known in recent years for his pass-rushing ability with the Giants, but Cofield said that's not really what he's all about as a player.

"I'm a guy that's disciplined, and I play with great pad level, leverage, technique, use my hands and I’m not the guy who’s aggressively flying upfield," Cofield said. "I did that when called upon in New York, and it was good for me to diversify my game, diversify my repertoire by doing that, but coming into NY, I felt like I was a guy that was better suited for a 3-4."

Now he's in one, and he's excited about making the transition. For Shanahan, who tried unsuccessfully to talk Albert Haynesworth into doing the same thing a year ago, that's pretty refreshing.

"Whoever you bring in," Shanahan said, "you want to make sure they have the right mindset."

He's got that in Cofield, who can't wait to get into that 3-4 and get at the Giants in that season opener.

Time once again for our nightly check-in, where we look back over the 24 hours that have just transpired and ask the open-ended question: How was your day...

Dallas Cowboys?

"You know, fine." Got to be getting old watching the Eagles sign half the world, but the Cowboys did finally lock in one of the two starting safeties they need, bringing back Gerald Sensabaugh on what appears to be his third one-year contract. Wonder what that says about a guy. They keep wanting him back, but ... not that much. I'd be surprised if Abram Elam weren't the Cowboys' next move, and after that maybe a No. 3 receiver. But everybody who's been harping on the Cowboys to sign free agents seems to forget how many good players they already have. Rob Ryan's coaching could be enough to fix what went wrong on defense last year, even with similar personnel. And the offense is loaded with talent. They don't need star-caliber pieces. They just need to fill holes. They'll do it. By the way, they also signed another kicker -- Kai Forbath, who was really good at UCLA, but is hurt now and may or may not be a factor in the David Buehler/Dan Bailey kicking competition that has the Metroplex riveted.

New York Giants?

"Restful." The Giants' players had the day off, to their coach's chagrin, but the front office made itself busy with minor moves, like signing defensive tackle Gabe Watson, who'll be a solid backup or rotational guy in the middle of their line, and bringing back Michael Clayton to help their receiver depth. Nothing new on Osi Umenyiora, who still wants a new deal or out and isn't any more likely today than he was yesterday to get either. Nothing new on Steve Smith or Kevin Boss, though the signing of Zach Miller by the Seahawks could get the Raiders interested pretty quickly. The Giants signed Ben Patrick on Monday to give them insurance in case Boss left, but they're not similar players. Patrick doesn't block the way Boss does, and they surely want Boss back.

Philadelphia Eagles?

"Oh, you know. Typical, three-signing day." The Eagles were off too, but they were at it again, agreeing to new deals with Ronnie Brown as a backup running back, Ryan Harris as a right tackle and Jarrad Page to add to their safety mix along with all of the young guys they have back there. All three came on one-year deals because apparently the whole league wants to play for the Eagles now and will take anything to do it. Jeremy Maclin also arrived in camp after missing the first five practices due to an illness that the team won't discuss, so hopefully he's okay. And nothing new on DeSean Jackson, who has to be wondering how much money is left for him.

Washington Redskins?

"Humbling." Yes, they're paying attention in Ashburn to what's happening at Lehigh with the Eagles. The whole league is. And if you're the Redskins, it can't escape your attention that your current starters at quarterback and running back are John Beck and Ryan Torain while the Eagles' backups at those spots are Vince Young and Ronnie Brown. But hey. Rex Grossman showed up Tuesday, which means it might not have to be Beck. Phillip Buchanon showed up, too, though we also learned that he's suspended for the first four games of the season. Once he's back, I think the Redskins' defense has a chance to be good. The offense, with question marks at quarterback, running back, receiver and offensive line ... that's another story.

My day was good. Spent some more time at Redskins camp. Had some nice conversations with Barry Cofield, Trent Williams, DeAngelo Hall, Lorenzo Alexander and others, and in the coming days I will be filling you in on the insight I gleaned from those conversations. I like getting out and talking to the players and coaches. I learn more from those conversations than I do from watching practice, though I know you guys want to know what I saw in practice. But yeah, my day was real nice. Looking forward to one more morning in Ashburn before I head home and then out to see the Eagles.

How was your day?