In a camp with barely a job to be won, Washington Redskins defensive coordinator Greg Blache just revealed that 2007 starter Anthony Montgomery and 2006 starter Kedric Golston were in a serious battle for the job this season even before the former broke a bone in his right hand in the July 26 scrimmage that will sideline him for at least 10 days.

"That position, no one owns that," Blache said in his weekly meeting with the media. "That's a position that's definitely going to be won week to week, day to day. We look at those guys actually on the same basis. That's been a heated competition since the start of OTAs. They've both been told that. They both bring certain strengths to the table. It's just matter of who's got the hot hand at a given time. This is a 'What have you done for me lately' business and a guy that gets a little fat, thinks for a second, 'That's my job,' they're mistaken."

The towering 6-foot-6, 315-pound Montgomery started all last season next to veteran Cornelius Griffin, but Blache said that the stockier 6-4, 315-pound Golston played so well in the playoff loss at Seattle that if Washington had won and advanced to the divisional round, that the latter probably would have started.

"Kedric was right on Monty's hip last year," Blache said.

And apparently in his head this offseason.

"When you have a guy that's got that kind of talent sitting right behind a guy, boy it gives you great leverage," Blache said. "When Monty woke up in the morning, if he [wanted] to roll over and hit the snooze button and not come to work, he'd have to worry about seeing Kedric's face. I think a lot of time, he turned the snooze button off and came in because he knew Kedric's ghost was right there his shoulder waiting for him."

-- David Elfin

• 
• Comment