Leonard Hankerson is quite a catch

Leonard Hankerson bought himself a 2011 Infiniti FX50 shortly after being selected by the Washington Redskins in April's NFL draft.

Otherwise, it's all business for the rookie receiver.

The 6-foot-2, 205-pound third-round pick out of Miami is a virtual lock to make the Redskins' roster despite the team's plethora of receivers. But that hasn't prevented him from doing everything he can to give himself an advantage when the cuts start coming.

"If you don't know the playbook, you're not going to play," Hankerson said after yesterday's practice. "If you don't know what you're doing, you're not going to play. You've got to understand the playbook.

"A coach is going to like that guy, or a coach is going to like that guy, but you can't worry about how many guys are on the field. You've got to do your job."

Hankerson has one obvious advantage: his height. Aside from the oft-injured Malcolm Kelly, who's out of practice with a bruised foot, Hankerson and Jabar Gaffney are the tallest receivers on the team.

And while Hankerson has large hands, they've not been much of a blessing thus far. Not only has he had trouble catching passes in team scrimmages--including a wide-open drop over the middle from about 10 yards away on Friday--he's also demonstrated issues catching them in position drills.

When Hankerson made a long catch Saturday afternoon, coach Mike Shanahan walked up to him and briefly praised him before reminding him to tuck the ball away.

"He's got big-time ability," Shanahan said. "If you've ever evaluated wide receivers, his size, his ability to cut, one-on-one--he's got all the physical attributes you look for in a wide receiver. He's got a chance to get to the next level.

"[But] there are going to be some growing pains. There are always going to be that with a rookie wide receiver."

Hankerson, 22, was a touchdown machine at Miami, where he caught 13 scoring passes last fall to top Michael Irvin's school single-season record. The all-ACC selection also joined elite company when he caught 72 passes for 1,156 yards, becoming only the third player to surpass 1,000 yards in a season and first to also have 2,000 in his career.

That performance earned high praise from Santana Moss, who also played at Miami but never reached those marks himself.

"I mean, he's one of the best in college in what he did, and one of the best at UM," Moss said. "The level he's coming off of, that level prepares you to play over here. I feel like all he can do is just be a sponge to everything around him--to the guys around him, to the offense, to everything that's telling him something, and take that and be able to lean on that and be his crutch for the season or whenever it's time for him to be that guy."

Little has been decided with regard to the Redskins' offense. The team has 10 other receivers in camp and is likely to keep five or six, though Moss and veterans Gaffney and Donte Stallworth are on the roster.

The end of the lockout just two weeks ago doesn't help either, with Hankerson missing a summer's worth of conditioning and acclimation and only recently obtaining a copy of the playbook.

He said it's similar to the pro-style offense Miami ran last season under offensive coordinator Mark Whipple. To learn the plays, Hankerson has been equating the concepts and names he already knew to the Redskins' terminology.

"It's a whole lot of stuff, a whole lot of information being thrown at us now," Hankerson said. "I'm just saying, 'Oh, this is this play, and this is this play.' I'm learning it all. I'm not trying to wait, because if I wait, it's going to hurt. I'm just trying to learn everything now."

When Moss was first breaking into the NFL with the Jets in 2001, he relied upon veterans such as Wayne Chrebet to help him pick up the concepts. Moss said Hankerson hasn't yet asked him for help, and that he'd be wise to watch other similar receivers around the league--Houston's Andre Johnson, or Detroit's Mike Williams--for pointers.

Until then, it's about business--and a little enjoyment.

"Just get everything down, learn the offense, try to [know] it like the back of my hand and have fun out there," Hankerson said.


(fredricksburg.com)