Redskins coach Jay Gruden canceled his team’s scheduled minicamp practice on Thursday, allowing his players to get an early start on a rest period before reporting to training camp in Richmond on July 23.
Washington reported 100 percent attendance this week with a handful of players missing out due to injury, including defensive lineman Jason Hatcher, who was scheduled to undergo knee surgery on Thursday.
That doesn’t mean the next five weeks are strictly for vacation. Veteran safety Ryan Clark said he does have a short 10-year anniversary trip planned with his wife – she doesn’t know the surprise destination yet – but that otherwise the time will be spent in the gym in the Phoenix area.
“Train. That’s all I ever do. I’m going to go train, six days a week in Arizona, hit it hard,” Clark said. “Other than that it’s grinding. I’ll bring my son to work out with me every day just so he can see it, so he can understand what work is in any playing field at any level and just enjoy being one of the guys, getting to run around with 22, 23-year-old dudes who want my job, who want to compete to be better and get an opportunity to compete with them.”
Added wide receiver Santana Moss: “Go home to sunny Miami, sunny south Florida. But I just go home and pretty much don’t take no break. Train and probably vacate one more time here and there with the family. But other than that, Miami’s really a vacation so I don’t do too much.”
Gruden will give his assistant coaches a break, too. This is a chance for them “to get away from football a little bit,” Gruden said. There won’t be much time to see their families once camp begins. That applies to players, too.
They have to continue to train and work on their own hopefully. Most of them are professionals and they’ll do that,” Gruden said. “We’ll see when they come to camp. They should be in good shape but we’re still going to keep in touch, close contact with our strength coaches. They’ll have programs for them and hopefully they will do their work.
“And that’s what being a pro is all about. It’s about working not so much in front of your coaches but on your own and hopefully we have the type of guys in this locker room that are going to work hard on their own and hopefully it’ll pay dividends once we come to camp.”
• Brian McNally can be reached at bmcnally@washingtontimes.com.
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