The Redskins today announced the hiring of Keenan McCardell as wide receivers coach. McCardell takes over for the departed Stan Hixon — a guy who happens to have been McCardell’s final position coach in the NFL.
McCardell, of course, was drafted by the Redskins in the twelfth round of the 1991 draft — the only Pro Bowl player from the final five rounds of that draft — and got his name onto the trophy for Super Bowl XXVI before going on to greater NFL success with Jacksonville, and another Super Bowl with Tampa Bay. He returned to the Redskins in 2007 for the final season of his NFL career, catching 22 passes for 256 yards and a touchdown, and often serving as a coach-on-the-field.
He’ll be starting his official coaching career in the same place he started his playing career; his previous coaching experience came coaching the receivers for the West team in this year’s East/West Shrine Game, and as part of a Bill Walsh Minority Fellowship program during the New York Giants training camp.
Even during the limited experience, though, McCardell was able to make a fairly significant impression working with one of the Giants’ young wide receivers.
Mario Manningham was taken in the third round of the 2008 draft and failed to make much of an impression in his rookie year. In seven games he caught four passes for 26 yards.
During training camp before this past season, according to Jenny Vrentas of The Newark Star-Ledger, he sought out McCardell for coaching and advice.
The pair would steal 30 minutes at a time during the jam-packed schedule – sometimes between two-a-days, sometimes between the morning meetings and lunch – to go over, one-on-one, Manningham’s camp practice reel.McCardell pointed out plays when Manningham used his quickness to his advantage, and plays when he didn’t. They compared what could happen when he was in the right spot at the right time, and when he wasn’t. By the week of the second preseason game at Chicago, McCardell could tell their side work was beginning to have results.
“Being a former player, you know when the light goes on with another player,” said McCardell, a two-time Pro Bowl receiver, when reached by phone Monday. “The light came on, and you could tell his confidence kept coming.”
Manningham went on to start ten games this past season, catching 57 passes for 822 yards.
It’s just one specific success, yes. But it was a success with an underachieving young receiver from the 2008 draft, a guy who really wasn’t performing as well as people hoped when they drafted him. So, you know, if the Redskins hypothetically had a guy or two like that, maybe this new coach could have similar success with them.
