WASHINGTON – Rashad Lawrence and Ross Madison go through the same training camp routine as many of their Washington Redskins teammates: wake up, shower, get breakfast, and catch the shuttle to the Richmond, Va., practice facility. Once there, they take a dip in the hot tub to wake up their lower extremities, stretch, get taped up, study the plays and sets installed the previous night. Then the rookies practice football, study their playbook, grab some lunch and watch film from the practice they just finished.
But Lawrence and Madison are not like most of their teammates. They’re two of the 13 undrafted free agents the Redskins signed after the conclusion of the 2014 NFL draft. Training camp is notoriously difficult for first-year players who were drafted, let alone those who weren’t, now trying to stand out on a field filled with seasoned veterans. In many cases, plays – also known as repetitions or reps – come few and far between for them.
“I’m a rookie so my reps are limited,” said Lawrence, a wide receiver.
“It’s very hard to get noticed. You’re a rookie,” said Madison, a defensive back. “No matter how high you are picked or how low, or if you’re not a draft pick, you still gotta work your way from the bottom.”
Unlike the eight draft picks, as well as the 66 veterans with at least one year of experience in the league, Lawrence and Madison, and their fellow undrafted rookies, face a steeper climb to make the team. After all, there are reasons why they were not among the 256 players selected in the draft. They watched the three-day broadcast patiently, waiting for a phone call from a team that never came.
Why do they wait in vain? Scouts or coaches may have questions about a guy’s character. A player might come from a less heralded school or play against weaker competition. Or a player just doesn’t have the statistics on his resume that knock the socks off scouts and coaches.
Character was never at issue for Lawrence orMadison. It was the latter two issues.
The Redskins had three undrafted free agents on their 53-man squad at some point last season, which goes to show Lawrence and Madison could very well make the team. But neither suited up for a football factory in college – Lawrence played at Northwestern University, Madison at the University of Toledo. And neither player’s resumes are as eye-popping as the undrafted free agents who stuck with Washington in 2013.
Neither Lawrence nor Madison was an all-conference selection. They were multi-year starters for two competitive programs, but neither ever led their respective teams in any statistical category.
The NFL is a “what can you do for me now” league. To both young men, and to their position coaches, the college stats are meaningless. Their performance in camp, not what they did last season, will determine whether they make the Redskins active squad.
Going back to class
“Studying plays every night before I go to bed, study when I wake up before I hit the field, staying in the book and just paying attention in meetings.”
That’s Rashad Lawrence describing all of the studying that takes place each day of camp. After graduating from Northwestern, he is still hitting the books.
In an NFL camp, the mental preparation perhaps trumps the physical aspect of football.
“The biggest difference [between college and the NFL] is that it’s more taxing mentally than it is physically on my body,” Lawrence said. “It’s a whole new system. I’ve been comfortable with Northwestern’s system. After four years there, the mental aspect isn’t really the deal; you have to figure how to get through it physically. But out here, it’s the total opposite. It’s more mental. I got a whole new bunch of plays to learn, new terminology, a couple of new schemes.”
Ross Madison has noticed how much he was expected to know coming in, and how much he has to study outside of meetings and play-install periods.
“They [coaches] kind of expect you to know certain things and techniques. They won’t spend too much time on that. They want to spend more time on getting actual reps,” Madison said. “In college you take your time. In the NFL you should know exactly what you’re doing…”
If the film room is a football player’s classroom, and the playbooks the textbooks, then the veterans are the teachers.
Lawrence said even though he is fighting for one of the limited roster spots, veterans are helpful.
“We all know we are competing, but we all know we are teammates and we’re gonna do everything we can to help each other out,” Lawrence said.
Both Madison and Lawrence added that being able to hear from guys who may have been in the same spot they are in, or at the very least players who have gone through a training camp, has made the transition easier.
“Playing behind two of the best safeties in the National Football League right now, to get to actually learn from the vets and watch them and try and critique my own game off those guys, they’re making it easy,” Madison said.
Lawrence said he sits next to Santana Moss in team meetings. “If I don’t get something right away I can whisper in his ear. I am making sure I stay on his hip pocket, soaking up as much knowledge from him.”
Standing out
While being mentally prepared is important, being able to actually play the game and adjust to the speed of the NFL is critical in order to stand out in film reviews studied by coaches.
“In college you might have a couple of guys have a mental error. In the pros everyone is on the same page and is moving fast at the same time,” Madison said.
But being able to showcase their skills is tough. At this point, Lawrence and Madison have seen the field sporadically. While it’s not an ideal situation, both rookies are taking it in stride.
”I haven’t really been thinking about the number of reps, more so just focusing on the quality of reps I put on tape” for coaches, Lawrence said.
At this early point in training camp, the most important thing for both players is to take advantage of the limited opportunities they have to impress the coaching staff..
“I’m just trying to run plays the right way, make plays when they come to me and making sure I don’t mess up. It’s staying consistent, showing them I know what to do and that I can actually do what they want me to do,” said Lawrence.
Madison added: “When there’s an opportunity to make a play, make a play, not make too many mental errors. It’s history after that.”
Having fun
It’s the end of a training camp practice session, and you can hear Rashad Lawrence catching his breath over the phone. At each practice he sees more and more of the field. It’s crunch time for rookies and other players on the roster bubble.
Come Aug. 26, each NFL team will cut their rosters to a maximum of 75 players. Four days later, that number will have to shrink to 53 on the active roster.
The Redskins’ first preseason game, and the rookies’ first chance to show that they can perform at game speed, is Thursday against the New England Patriots. But for Lawrence, the pressure is not getting to him. He knows all there is left to do is play football.
“Everything you already know, you are being evaluated on it every rep, so just lay it all out there, have fun with it,” Lawrence said. “At the end of the day, we’re still having fun with it, we’re playing football. I’m making sure I have fun with it.”