The Redskins started camp with cornerback Josh Wilson on the PUP list and then saw cornerback DeAngelo Hall and safety Brandon Meriweather sidelined by injuries, which meant they went more than a week of camp without having all 11 expected defensive starters on the field at the same time.
That run ended on Monday when Hall and Meriweather returned to practice. Meriweather, who has battled soreness in his surgically-repaired knee, did all the individual drills and half the team work in his return to the field while Hall said he wanted to get back to practice even though his sprained ankle hasn’t made it all the way back to 100 percent.
“They wanted me to kind of take another day and go through that movement, but I told them controlled movement -- that’s the easy part,” Hall said, via Mike Jones of the Washington Post. “As long as I can -- I know what I’m doing, it’s easy. When I have to go on somebody and go on instantaneous movements, that’s when it gets kind of tough and that’s what we were out there trying to test today. It felt OK. Am I anywhere near being 100 percent? No, not at all. But at least I know it ain’t gonna fall off. If I gotta go out there, I can go out there.”
Setbacks can still happen, something Meriweather knows well after experiencing a few of them in 2012, but getting the players back on the field now to see how they respond to work makes it likelier that the injuries can be managed well enough to ensure that both Hall and Meriweather are on the field for the first week of the regular season.