THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 12, 1995 TAG: 9509120373
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Comment
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
After scoring a touchdown on a 58-yard reverse last week to help the Washington Redskins defeat Arizona, rookie Michael Westbrook admitted that adjusting to the NFL had been ``easier'' than he had imagined.
Sunday, after dropping a couple of passes, one a 52-yard bomb that would have been the tying touchdown against the Oakland Raiders, Westbrook confessed to his ever-probing press pals that ``I'm only human.''
A word to the wise, Mike. Keep that last part to yourself. Six weeks from now, I doubt anyone will believe you.
Maybe it's me. Maybe it's the gloomy spectre of Desmond Howard. Maybe it's been so dad-blamed long since the Redskins sported a rookie who looked like he actually belonged in professional football that almost everything Michael Westbrook does seems spectacular. Or this close (hold thumb and forefinger one inch apart) to being spectacular.
It's just two games and his only touchdown has come by land, not air. But Westbrook looks like the best fledgling receiver the Redskins have had since . was a running back his rookie campaign and therefore in a completely different hyperbolic category.
Yes, better than Art Monk, the league's all-time leading pass-catcher and the sentimental lampshade Redskins fans have been wearing on their heads to block the light of change the last two seasons.
Actually, Monk's rookie stats and Westbrook's thus far are eerily similar. In 1980, Monk grabbed 58 passes in 16 games - 3.6 per outing - for 797 yards and a 13.7-yard average per catch.
Westbrook has eight catches - four a game - and a 13.25 yards-per-catch average.
On a team whose quarterback was the emerging Joe Theismann and whose second- and third-leading receivers were running back Clarence Harmon and tight end Don Warren, Monk scored just three touchdowns his rookie season.
Barring injury, Westbrook will have at least that many by midseason. And he's teaming with a far more accomplished target in Henry Ellard, and dealing with a far less effective quarterback than Monk did, whether it's Heath Shuler or Gus Frerotte.
Sunday against Oakland, he caught the same type of square-out pass Monk would have gained 5-7 yards on and turned it into a 33-yard gain by engaging the afterburners and sprinting away from safety Eddie Anderson two steps after the catch.
Monk was many beautiful things. Fast wasn't one of them. Watch old tape of Monk running the reverse and watch Westbrook. We're talking tortoise and hare.
Forget about the dropped passes. On second thought, don't forget about them. They're part of what's really intriguing about Westbrook. His vast, virtually untapped potential.
At Redskin Park Monday, the talk was of the adjustment one makes from college to pro receiver. On Westbrook's two most obvious drops - a 15-yard pass over the middle and the sideline bomb in the end zone - the films showed that Westbrook made the same mistake. He turned to face the quarterback, thenO adjusted his hands to try to make the catch after Frerotte had released the ball.
That's common practice in college, or at least at Colorado, Westbrook's alma mater. The pros operate differently. Almost always, you don't read the quarterback and react. You run to the spot designated by the play.
The other amazing aspect of Westbrook's auspicious debut is that, because of the 26-day holdout, he doesn't even know all the plays yet. Coach Norv Turner conceded Sunday that Westbrook more than occasionally has to ask Ellard or Leslie Shepherd where he's supposed to go on certain plays.
``He's asked if he's on the line of scrimmage or off it, whether he's to run inside or out,'' Turner said. ``On that (dropped) ball over the middle, he had no idea Gus was going to throw the ball that fast. There's a comfort level you get in playing that he's going to get. A month from now, he'll catch that pass and run for 20 more yards.''
The day Westbrook first reported to Redskin Park following the draft, someone asked him what he knew about the NFL. Not much, he answered, just what his old classmate and Pittsburgh Steelers wideout Charles Johnson had told him during their weekly conversations.
``He said he had seen every receiver in the league,'' Westbrook recalled, ``and that I had nothing to worry about. He says I'm better than all of them.''
It won't be long before Johnson isn't the only one holding that opinion. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
[Color Photo]
Redskin rookie wide receiver Michael Westbrook has quickly shown
great talent - and untapped potential.
by CNB