Camps All Start In Same Place

15-year-old Sara Stokes, left, from Stevensville, keeps her eyes on the opening day of training camp. She is joined by her mother, Terry Reed, right. (By Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)

With Brunell upright and functional, the Redskins have the trigger man to deploy all those backs and receivers. Without him? Todd Collins has played in only 12 games since 1998. He's completed only 18 passes in those eight seasons and hasn't started a game since '97. Jason Campbell is a kid, a rookie when it comes to actual experience. So the Redskins have no idea what in the world will happen if Brunell goes down. We're not talking about going to Brian Griese, or even a Kyle Boller (who'll presumably back up Steve McNair). Other than Big Ben Roethlisberger, who had started for two years, those kid quarterbacks (Rex Grossman, Eli Manning, Chris Simms) didn't do too well in the playoffs, did they?

The whole thing becomes about No. 8, Brunell, doesn't it?

A team with this kind of talent should want its quarterback brimming with confidence going into the season. There's no need for the Redskins to shrink from expectations now, and Brunell isn't. "To come off a year where we had quite a bit of success, again, to repeat that type of effort, go 10-6 and only get as far as we got last year, I think for all these guys would be a disappointment," he said. "It's not [bragging] or making predictions. That's just what we think."

Of course, this isn't the first time in recent years camp started with such electricity. Dan Snyder has gone out and procured talent before, most notably the 2000 season, when Deion and Bruce Smith and Mark Carrier, et al, arrived . . . and the whole thing came crashing down around Norv Turner.

Thing is, Snyder paid for this team, but he didn't put it together.

Joe Gibbs put it together.

And meaning no disrespect to anybody, let me simply say that Norv Turner ain't Joe Gibbs. Marty Schottenheimer ain't Joe Gibbs. And Steve Spurrier ain't Joe Gibbs. Check the record when Gibbs has the players and coaches he wants. Yes, there are things beyond a coach's control, even a Hall of Fame coach like Gibbs. Teams have already suffered season-ending injuries to important players and there's nothing to say the Redskins will avoid such calamities.

Even so, as training camp begins in earnest you can't help but look at teams around the league, then look at what the Redskins have assembled and understand completely why even the dog days of August might crackle with something besides heat.