Campbell, Portis both have strains

The way their starting skill position players were dropping, it was a good thing for the Washington Redskins that they won’t return to the practice field until June 2.

Quarterback Jason Campbell and running back Clinton Portis joined receiver Antwaan Randle El on the sidelines by the end of yesterday’s practice. Campbell strained his left hamstring during the session. Portis sat out with a strained hip flexor, and Randle El had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Monday.

Campbell said his hamstring grabbed a little early in practice. He expects to be 100 percent in a couple of weeks.

“I just pulled my hamstring a little bit,” said Campbell, who last year missed the final three-plus regular-season games and the wild-card loss at Seattle with a dislocated left kneecap. “I won’t be running for a while.”

Jim Zorn found a bright side to the injury because it meant his quarterback lowered himself under center as the new coach has asked him to.

“He was feeling his hamstrings all along, and I think it was because I have him sinking down a little bit,” Zorn said. “It’s the change. I was kind of excited about it. Not that I wanted him to tweak his hamstring, just the fact that different things are happening to his body. He’s going to be fine.”

Zorn said Portis will be ready for June 2 but might have injured himself with the 40-yard match race against safety LaRon Landry that followed the end of minicamp Sunday.

“Clinton’s OK,” Zorn said. “I’m wondering if it was that sprint …”

Meanwhile, Randle El left Redskin Park on crutches. He said his knee first began aching in September but hadn’t flared up since November until Saturday night.

“It’s an ongoing thing,” Randle El said. “I banged it a little against Philly last year. It didn’t bother me [again] until about Game 8 and then it came back out of nowhere for Game 12 [when he missed the only game of his six NFL seasons]. Then it didn’t bother me for the rest of the season or in the playoffs until I came back out here. There wasn’t no impact that I fell or I twisted a certain way.

“Friday and Saturday, I played pretty well and didn’t have any problem with it,” Randle El continued. “Saturday night, it kinda swelled up. Sunday, we iced it, but then we got an MRI and found out it needed to be cleaned up a little bit. The big thing is get it done now and not have it happen in training camp.”

And although the Redskins are installing a new passing offense, Randle El won’t rush back.

“I want to try to make it back for OTAs, but if not, I’m not going to push it because the most important thing will be training camp,” he said. “I’m not too concerned about it. If early June is too early, I’ll wait until late June and run some routes on my own.”

Notes — The veterans have three weeks of conditioning before returning to the field. The rookies can return after their schools’ graduation ceremonies. …

Fullback Mike Sellers considers the atmosphere more relaxed under Zorn than it was with former coach Joe Gibbs.

“We don’t have people watching us constantly and telling us what to do like we’re little kids,” Sellers said. “He puts it on ourselves. We’re being treated like men.”