Rookie Davis misses the bus

Second-round draft pick Fred Davis missed the final practice of the Washington Redskins’ three-day minicamp yesterday morning.

The Redskins said the rookie tight end from Southern Cal overslept. Rookies typically have roommates during camp, but a club official said Davis moved into a single room Saturday night and failed to board the team bus the next morning.

“[I’m] very disappointed, but part of this is life,” coach Jim Zorn said. “This will be the first time I get to deal with this situation, too. It was going to come at some point. … It might as well come now. Every practice counts. He just had a setback. Hopefully everybody will learn from the lesson that he’s having to learn right now about what it’s going to take to get to a place on time, to be responsible for whatever it is.”

Doughty’s son in hospital

Starting strong safety Reed Doughty left practice to attend to his ill son, Micah. The 20-month-old received a kidney transplant in March and is supposed to avoid contact with young children or sick adults for another seven weeks because of the risk of infection.

Doughty said last week that Micah, who spent almost all of March at Children’s Hospital, is doing well. But Micah’s temperature rose to 105 degrees yesterday morning, prompting Doughty’s departure.

“The baby got a fever, and they had to take him to the hospital to make sure everything’s OK,” said Zorn, who gathered the players and coaches around him before practice to pray for Micah and his family.

Fox returns

Safety Vernon Fox returned to the field yesterday after experiencing swelling in his left knee during the Saturday afternoon practice.

Rookie receiver Devin Thomas returned after being excused Saturday for family reasons. Offensive lineman Jason Fabini was absent for a second straight practice for personal reasons.

Landry triumphs

Safety LaRon Landry is just three years younger than running back Clinton Portis, but he has had five fewer seasons of NFL wear and tear.

That relative freshness was enough for Landry to edge Portis in a post-practice 40-yard dash, a race prompted by an episode in the morning workouts in which Landry came all the way across the field to catch up to Portis on a screen pass.

The offensive and defensive players came out of the locker room to cheer on their guys.

“They’ll race again,” Zorn predicted. “I bet it’s not over.”

OTAs next

The veteran players begin their organized team activities today with the first of three straight practices, their last workouts until June 2. The entire team returns in June for eight sessions over 11 days, then takes off until the start of training camp in mid-July.

“Unless there has been an excused absence, I always tell them it’s voluntary/mandatory,” said Zorn, who was pleased with his first minicamp. “We’ve made our point as coaches that we need everybody here. … They want to be here. I don’t have any problem with these guys.”

The handful of veterans who didn’t appear at Redskin Park for offseason workouts until minicamp are expected to remain through Wednesday along with those who have been on hand since March 17. The rookies who have yet to graduate from college won’t return until June 2, so the coaches will be working with fewer bodies the next three days.

“There will only be [a couple of] tight ends here who can really go, so we’re not going to gas the guys or try to have that same rep tempo,” Zorn said. “The first installation [of the offense and defense] that we did the first day of practice will be the entire first day tomorrow as well. You just start seeing how much faster we can do it, how much better.”