Taylor Jacobs

Last year, he took a knee to the kidney and could have died if he tried to come back too soon. It was a freak injury. He can't help that. This year, he has a minor injury that could become worse if he pushed it too hard. He impressed the coaching staff enough in mini camp, so making the team isn't really an issue here. I say let him heal up, let him learn behind LC, Gardner, & Thrash and see what happens in a couple years from now. He does not have a history of being injury prone in HS or college, so I don't know what you're beef is with him.

cpayne5,
A knee to the Kidney? You need to get your facts right. This is the official REDSKINS press release regarding Jacobs injury:
"Jacobs suffered a pancreas injury when he dove stomach-first on a defender's foot. He had an MRI on Tuesday which revealed a pancrease injury."
"Taylor sort of fell on a guy's foot and had an abdominal issue, where one of his inside parts was bruised," coach Steve Spurrier said. "He's resting, and he's doing a lot better now. "

He only missed four games to this injury and made his pro debut in week 5 against the Eagles. He had a grand total of 1 catch for a whopping 4 yards.

For the season he ended up with:

Year Rec Yds TD YAC
2003 3 37 1 6

According to the Redskins, he did suffer other injuries last year:

12/24/2003 Questionable Foot
12/17/2003 Questionable Foot
12/10/2003 Questionable Foot
11/26/2003 Questionable Knee
09/24/2003 Probable Abdomen
09/17/2003 Out Abdomen
09/10/2003 Doubtful Abdomen
09/03/2003 Doubtful Abdomen

From what I know, Jacobs did a lot of off season conditioning this year and camp to camp a lot stronger. I dont know what else he could have done, its football, you get injured. If it was the regular season mabye hed play with it, but its camp, so why risk making it worse.

Taylor seems to have caught whatever Cliff Russel's has the last few years. Always hurt in the early going.

Keep in mind that the timing of Jacobs' abdominal injury last season was very detrimental to his development in the offense, and therefore his positioning on the depth chart early in the season. It was also during Jacobs' down-time from the abdominal injury that McCants emerged as a solid third wideout and red zone threat, making it that much tougher for Jacobs to break into the lineup.

I was disappointed to see Jacobs out again this week, but he's day-to-day, and he could very well be practicing again this afternoon. Jacobs isn't the only former Redskins draft pick who has had injury problems-- Betts (a 2002 second-rounder) was sitting out yesterday with a strained hamstring, and Cliff Russell (a third-rounder in '02) has been out all week with a strained hamstring. Betts will probably be out a couple more days, as will Russell.

Before this injury, Jacobs was catching a lot of short outs and hooks during the 9-on-9 and full-team drills. The reason nobody has really said anything about his catches is that he makes them look so routine and unremarkable. He generally gets good separation, and I have yet to see him drop a pass that he should have caught-- which is more than can be said for the other receivers outside of Coles and Thrash. That trio of Coles, Thrash and Jacobs has been the most consistent, in terms of their routes, separation and hands. Gardner and McCants have come up with some dazzling, acrobatic catches, but they have also had their share of dropped passes-- particularly McCants.

It makes sense that Thrash is doing best out of the #3 WR competition. We seem to tend to overlook the fact that he has been a starter in the league for 3 years. That said, I'm still pulling for my fellow Arundel HS grad McCants though!
Prediction (not what I want, but I could see it happening): Jacobs will never pan out here because of injuries, but will do well somewhere else (in a year or two). Of course, we won't really care because we will be set with our current set of WR's (Coles, Gardner, Thrash, McCants) and will be going deep into the playoffs! (RG will have a good year due to the intense WR competition and will be re-signed)

In the end I think we're going to just always have fresh receivers on teh field. I think we should be strong in the 4th qtr this year becuase of the depth at receiver. And with Portis and Betts at halfback, finishing a game out, unlike last year, shouldnt be a problem.