Auburn pair has practice faceoff

The new Tigers barely tangled.

In their Washington Redskins practice debuts, former Auburn stars Jason Campbell and Carlos Rogers provided virtually no highlight-reel interaction yesterday as a three-day rookie minicamp opened at Redskin Park.

The only true faceoff came in one-on-one drills, when Rogers, a cornerback selected ninth overall in last weekend’s draft, bit on an inside-out route by undrafted wide receiver Jerel Myers and was beat for a deep toss by Campbell, a quarterback who went No.25.

Afterward, Campbell didn’t even remember the play, while Rogers figured the ball probably would have gone elsewhere had it been a full-squad drill.

“He’s got to throw to that receiver,” Rogers said of Campbell, his close friend and teammate of five years. “When we had a team, I don’t think he threw a ball over there.”

Said Campbell with a smile: “I didn’t get many shots at him, but his day is coming.”

The rather blase matchup between Washington’s two first-round picks typified what coach Joe Gibbs called a “kind of rough” afternoon on which six draftees, 12 undrafted signees and 51 unsigned rookies attempted to execute plays they saw for the first time only hours earlier.

“We try to throw a lot at them these three days and mentally challenge them, because then they take all this information back with them,” Gibbs said. “I think they got off to a good start today.”

Campbell ended up taking almost all the snaps in more than an hour of passing drills. Former Penn State quarterback Zack Mills was among those trying out, but he strained a hamstring early on and Campbell was left chucking the ball to pretty much anything that moved.

But many of those throws were pretty. Campbell flashed the arm strength that enticed Washington officials in the weeks preceding the draft, lofting long, tight spirals downfield to a cast of undersized and unheralded wideouts.

Especially because of that diminutive ensemble, the 6-foot-4, 230-pound quarterback, wearing the old No. 17 of Billy Kilmer and Doug Williams, cut an imposing figure. But while reporters sized up Campbell’s physical characteristics, Gibbs studied more intangible attributes such as his ability to manage the offense.

“He’s got a lot on his plate from a mental standpoint,” Gibbs said. “You’re looking to see how he handles it — can he get everybody lined up? I thought he had a good feel for that. He handled the mental aspects of it. We were just worried about overworking him.”

Rogers, as mentioned, didn’t get many tests after the team moved from individual to the more scrutinized team drills. But he did get an earful from assistant head coach for defense Gregg Williams.

“I know he’s going to get after me more,” Rogers said. “He expects a lot out of me, and I expect that. There’s a lot of stuff I’ve got to work on. Any stuff I can get from either of the coaches, I’m going to take it.”

Given the newness and pressure to make a good impression, it’s little wonder Rogers was somewhat nervous for practice. So were most of his nearly six dozen peers on hand — eight of whom, including Mills, won’t be back today.

For Rogers, a word from the defensive coaches settled him down as the workout shifted to seven-on-seven drills.

“Coach told me, ’Just relax. There’s no pressure on you,’ ” Rogers said. “Once I did that, it was back to football.”

Unlike the full-squad minicamps that traditionally have followed the draft, this weekend’s session won’t give much indication of how the draftees stack up. In recent years, Washington area reporters were treated to first-day sights such as LaVar Arrington whipping Chris Samuels in a Bull-in-the-Ring and veteran tight end Brian Kozlowski giving safety Sean Taylor the slip in a one-on-one pass route.

Yesterday there wasn’t much to measure Campbell and Rogers against. None of the wide receivers (except for veteran Taylor Jacobs as a casual spectator) was drafted, and just three stood even 6-foot. A decent gauge of Campbell and Rogers won’t come until the June 17-19 full-squad minicamp that concludes offseason activities.

Still, the Tiger twosome was enthused just to be out there.

“It’s your first NFL practice,” Campbell said. “It’s your first time being a Washington Redskin, putting that uniform on. It feels great to have this opportunity.”