Redskins Stock Report: Youth is served

It’s time for the Redskins Stock Report. The Redskins record has fallen to 3-8 after back-to-back losses to divisional opponents in which the team squandered 4th quarter leads of 6 and 8 points on the road. Veterans continue to go down with injuries, while younger players continue to demonstrate that maybe some of those highly-paid veterans are not as important as their signing bonuses would indicate. However, some wily veterans are proving their worth by their play or their absence.

BLUE CHIP OF THE WEEK

London Fletcher: The middle linebacker’s 12 tackles and 1 sack yesterday are just a continuation of what he’s done all season. He leads the team in tackles with 105 — 32 more than the closest defender — and he appears to be one of the very few old guard Redskins who isn’t overpaid. While management will, hopefully, be looking to shed a lot of over-priced and under-performing vets during the offseason, Fletcher will not be one of them. Fletcher appears to be every bit the player he was when he first arrived in D.C.

STOCK UP

Devin Thomas, Malcolm Kelly & Fred Davis: The 2008 2nd round picks are hardly setting the world on fire, but at least we don’t go entire weeks without their names being called. Davis’ 27 catches are one fewer than the other two combined, but at least Kelly and Thomas are making a few plays per game and Thomas has demonstrated he’s a capable kick returner, as well [25.7 yards per return]. None of these guys is producing at the level you would want for a 2nd round pick in his second season, but any improvement at all is welcome on a team with so much age and so little youth. Now, if management would just see its way to letting Marko Mitchell on the field…

Lorenzo Alexander, Quinton Ganther, Justin Tryon & Chris Wilson: Alexander is getting on the field more on defense and delivering big hits on special teams. Ganther ran exceptionally well against the Eagles yesterday and his quick action on special teams turned a potentially-disastrous Eagles onside kick into a scoring opportunity for Washington. Justin Tryon has been playing a lot lately and looked as good as any Redskins cornerback on the field yesterday. Chris Wilson is providing a nice pass rush in limited opportunities and it was his hit on Donovan McNabb which allowed Tryon to get an interception yesterday. All these players are young, cheap, and producing as well or better than the more expensive players.

Read more at

http://dcprosportsreport.com/2009/11/30/redskins-stock-report-youth-is-served.html