Washington Redskins Training Camp: Top 10 Questions to Debate (Nos. 8-10)

The wait is finally over. After months of speculation, the selection of a phenom and a summer of expectation, the Washington Redskins finally appeared in front of their fans on Thursday, as the team's annual training camp got underway.

Temperatures reached the high 90s, and it was hot, sticky and humid. But that didn't deter legions of admirers from showing up.

They know what time it is.

It's time for the Redskins to go to work, and from here on out, Washington's fans will serve as judge and jury for a team they hope will turn the corner in 2012.

From now until the end of camp, we'll ask 10 of the most urgent questions the Redskins will need to answer before their season kicks off on Sunday, September 9th, in New Orleans. 

Please feel free to elaborate with your answers in the comment section below. And don't be shy to defend your opinion, because once the vultures start circling, you'll have no choice but to shoo them away.

So let's get started with questions 10 through eight, as we count down to the one that's most pressing.

No. 10—Will the new collective bargaining agreement have an adverse effect on Redskins' camp, with its limited contact and reduced practice time?

This is a hot-button topic across the league this summer, with rosters that start at 90 players in late July.

Washington's coaching staff will deal with it, but the parameters are constricting and are a detriment to young players like Robert Griffin III who need time to build cohesiveness.

In a column he wrote for SI.com, Jeff Diamond claimed that training camp is too "player-friendly" now, which makes it hard to develop young players and whittle down rosters. 

Diamond then included a quote from new St. Louis head coach Jeff Fisher, who played for the Chicago Bears in the early-to-mid 1980's.

"The changes in training camp are dramatic," Fisher said. "With the Bears, we had two-a-day practices in full pads. Camp was hard work, and we practiced mornings and then mid-afternoon in the heat."

Meanwhile, coaches like Fisher have to summarize a massive amount of information in a short period of time:

"

Only 12 [of 24 practices] will be in pads, and the CBA dictates we can't practice in pads the first several days of camp. Two years ago under the old system, we had 24 practices [in pads] in three weeks, so it's been cut in half, which makes it really challenging to get your team ready for the regular season.

"

And as ESPN.com's Andrew Brandt points out, it makes the five truths about training camp that much harder to bear.

This is the new reality in the NFL, so Redskins fans may need to temper their excitement about a fast start. Stress may not be showing on coach Mike Shanahan's face now. But come early September, you'll know from the looks of it, if he needs more time to get RGIII up to speed.

No. 9—What is the most important thing the Redskins must accomplish in training camp?

Will it be repetitions for their rookie signal-caller? Will it be protection schemes for an offensive line that will need to be more mobile? 

Perhaps the most important work to be done is on the other side of the ball, where questions run deep in the secondary.

Can former Tampa Bay head coach Raheem Morris find an answer for all of them? And what about the Redskins' pool of safeties who are hoping to rise up?

If you feel the urge to hear another point of view on this issue, check out a fellow Featured Columnist of mine. In late June Shae Cronin offered "4 Ways to Evaluate a Successful Washington Redskins Training Camp."

And brace yourself if you haven't heard the bad news from Day 1 of camp.

According to ESPN.com's Dan Graziano, "Mike Shanahan told reporters that right tackle Jammal Brown had been placed on the physically unable to perform list due to his recurring hip injury."

I guess the O-line just jumped to the top of the list of things to get done.

No. 8—Will RGIII make those around him better?

This one can literally go both ways. The media is doing all it can to convince fans that Griffin's presence will change the Redskins' fate overnight.

But Griffin doesn't exactly see it that way.

He refuses to project how the team will fare. He doesn't set individual goals. And he sees himself as a "puzzle piece." In essence, if each and every piece is in its rightful spot, all the pieces together can complete a puzzle.

In a press conference with the media Wednesday, Griffin expressed that "there's really no true face of the franchise" (h/t USA Today). He also referred to working in unison with his teammates:

"

There's got to be a heart, there's got to be legs, some arms. I'm just the mask. Those guys are the real ones that make up the body of this team. 

"

Speculation is running rampant about how Griffin's unique abilities will translate into Mike and Kyle Shanahan's system. Mark Maske of The Washington Post claimed that RGIII looked "human" on the first day of camp, with "some high throws and one-hoppers." But that's to be expected for any rookie who debuts as a pro in front of a fanatical fanbase.

Griffin even got some ribbing from a popular veteran.

"Our division is so tough, so tough, great quarterbacks," said cornerback DeAngelo Hall in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "He's probably, right now, the worst quarterback in our division. He hadn't (taken) a snap, so he has that title until he takes a snap and goes out there and proves a little something." 

In time Griffin will mesh with his teammates, and they'll improve as he improves.

But which ones have the ability to do so? Will old weapons and new ones need extra time to develop with the RGIII? Or will the speed of the NFL slow Griffin down in the short term? Will he dominate statistically as Carolina's Cam Newton last year, or will he need to "will" his team to victory as young Andy Dalton did in Cincinnati? 

Let's hear from you, the reader, because this is your bully pulpit. Speak your mind or forever hold your peace.

Joe Versage is a NFL Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report.  He previously covered the Buffalo Bills, Washington Redskins and Baltimore Ravens as a television beat reporter. Follow him on Twitter at: @JoeVersage