Trio to vie for right tackle spot with Skins

ASHBURN - At the end of last season, one of Washington Redskins coach Jim Zorn's biggest concerns was right tackle, a key position that opens holes for running back Clinton Portis and keeps quarterback Jason Campbell on his feet.

Five months later, when the Redskins took the field yesterday for the final set of spring practices, the story was the same.

"This position," Zorn said, "is legitimately open."

What was different was that Jon Jansen was nowhere to be seen for the first time in a decade. The 1999 second-round draft pick - the team's longest tenured player - was released Friday, and that's going to take some getting used to.

"He understood a lot of what was going on," center Casey Rabach said. "I make all the calls, but he fed me information. You lose that. He's the guy who's been around forever who knows everything and has seen everything. Anytime a friend of yours leaves a team it's no fun."

But the Redskins felt it was time to move on. Jansen, 33, had been hindered by injuries for five straight years. He signed yesterday with his home-state team, the Detroit Lions.

Before looking forward, however, Zorn did something unusual before yesterday's practice. He spoke to the offensive linemen about their departed colleague.

"I didn't want to have any speculation as to what may have happened and why and all that," Zorn said. "I was specifically talking to the veteran players, Randy Thomas, who has played beside him and one of his best friends, Rabach, and then Chris Samuels. Those guys had played together for a real long time."

The race is now on to fill Jansen's shoes, a contest that ends when the season opens Sept. 13 against the New York Giants. The contenders are an undrafted player entering his third season, a veteran with a disconcerting off-the-field history and a comeback player who is losing weight at an astonishing rate.

Stephon Heyer, the undrafted contender, is the current favorite - if only because he's the one who was on the roster last year. Heyer has 12 starts over two Redskins seasons but needs to improve his run blocking.

Then there's Jeremy Bridges, who can play guard or tackle and has 39 starts over six NFL seasons. The Carolina Panthers considered him a valuable reserve, but he was cut in February to clear salary-cap space. It didn't help that he was arrested on misdemeanor assault charges twice while with the Panthers, but the second case stemming from an incident at a Charlotte, N.C., restaurant in December was dropped yesterday. The other case resulted in a conviction.

Zorn said Bridges is in the mix for the right-tackle spot but hinted that the lineman might have to settle for a backup role as an interior lineman, especially with the news that Thomas had arthroscopic knee surgery last month.

And though Thomas is expected to recover in time for the start of training camp in late July, Bridges was listed as a guard on the roster distributed at Redskins Park yesterday.

The wild card remains Mike Williams, who said he is down to 381 pounds, from 450 in February and 404 in late April. The former No. 4 overall draft pick hasn't taken an NFL snap in three seasons, but the Redskins are impressed by his off-the-field preparations and his enthusiasm.

"He's rusty at the comfort level of being back in it," Zorn said. "He has the furthest to come, but he has tremendous talent."