Their Similarities Are Different

When Brandon Lloyd asks Antwaan Randle El about his Super Bowl past with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the conversations usually begin, "So, when did you guys know? When did you guys know you were going?"

Like an enraptured child asking his uncle about life in the '60s, Lloyd listens.

"Antwaan gets a little twinkle in his eye, like, 'Oh, man, we knew after we won eight straight,' " said Lloyd, who is a wide receiver for the Washington Redskins like -- and very unlike -- Randle El.

Barely two years apart in age, both played college ball in the Midwest, began their NFL careers within a year of each other, signed with the Redskins in the 2006 offseason for about $10 million each in guaranteed money and tonight will suit up against the Philadelphia Eagles on "Monday Night Football."

Beyond that, Randle El and Lloyd stopped running the same route a while ago.

"I've never been to the playoffs," Lloyd said. "El has won a world championship."

In many ways, El has been there; B. Lloyd has not.

Randle El is a very adult, multidimensional talent. He had five catches for 162 yards in the opening victory against the Dolphins, which is almost half of Lloyd's total receiving yards for 2006. He is listed generously at 5 feet 10, which has invoked the term "gimmick." But there's no denying he has supplanted Lloyd as the team's No. 2 receiver.

Lloyd is an enigmatic dreamer in cleats. He smiles vacantly at his detractors who, frankly, view him as a flaky underachiever unable to grasp the declining state of his career. Some reporters who regularly cover the team wonder, with great angst whether Lloyd is tough enough to ever be considered a rough, Gibbsian player. Lloyd sees them as misguided spin doctors in need of a target.

"The Redskins always bring in the big-money guys and they're always looking for that one guy who's not panning out," said Lloyd, who acknowledges he has become that guy.

He has yet to score a touchdown or have a breakout game in Washington, catching but 23 of 57 passes thrown to him a year ago. Although he has heaved his helmet, incurred the wrath of Joe Gibbs and, even after last week's acquisition of Tom Brady's leading receiver from a year ago, Reche Caldwell, still parades naively through Redskin Park as if he's one 80-yard fly pattern from the Pro Bowl.

Depending on whom you ask, Lloyd is either awesomely confident or amazingly clueless.