Rocky McIntosh is the Lynchpin of the Redskins Defense

Two years.That's the book on players who suffer ACL injuries. It supposedly takes two years before an athlete to get the explosiveness lost to return to the injured knee. Just look at Edgerrin James: he averaged 4.2 and 4.4 yards in his first two seasons, then lost the final two months of his 2001 season to an ACL injury. The next season, James posted a completely out of character 3.6 YPC. But once he was two years removed from the injury, James' final three years in Indy went to 4.1, 4.6, and 4.2 YPC.Two years.For a player in a contract year, the time to have that breakout year, if ever, is right now. Let's put some perspective on this. In 2005, the Redskins spent the 25th overall draft pick on QB Jason Campbell. In 2006, the Redskins spent the 35th overall draft pick on LB Rocky McIntosh. Neither player played as a rookie. As a second year player inserted into the starting lineup for the first time, Jason Campbell posted mediocre overall numbers while wowing with his poise and his arm strength. In McIntosh's second year, he was a first year starter, a key part of a resurgent Redskins defense for the first 15 weeks of the season, and a young talent that the Redskins could build a defense around.Then, just one week after Jason Campbell's season was ended by a knee sprain, McIntosh lost his season, and most of his offseason, to a torn ACL. His recovery didn't go smoothly either. McIntosh has a lengthy chronic injury history, and his (and Rogers') injury was one of the biggest reasons that the Redskins were so universally predicted to fall out of the playoffs in 2008. But for five or six weeks in 2008, it looked like Rocky had overcome the expected wait period. Like Jason Campbell, the first five weeks of the 2008 season were not an indicator of a strong finish, however convincing that performance might have been.The parallels between the quiet quarterback whose plight has drawn attention from the national media and the recovering linebacker who gets nary a word written about him by the local media are striking, but while there's little reason to worry about Campbell's performance going forward, I can't say the same about McIntosh. You see, Campbell's personal development in the face of adversity was present on the field for anyone willing to take the time out of their day and pay attention. For McIntosh, a decline that began in the middle of October resulted in a benching at the start of December, in which he was replaced in the lineup by Alfred Fincher. There was no silver lining in the way McIntosh concluded his season. What started as a physical problem in McIntosh's knee eventually became a mental problem, in which McIntosh simply wasn't seeing the field like he needs to at a premium position in the NFL such as Will linebacker. His assignments were no longer second nature, his reads no longer good enough to make him succeed.According to stop rate, the statistic developed by Football Outsiders designed to measure how often a player makes a successful play, Rocky McIntosh's 50% figure ranked 99th among qualifying linebackers. For sake of comparison, H.B. Blades came off the bench and posted a 64% figure that put him 52nd among qualified 'backers. McIntosh has always been stronger against the pass than the run, but that's not an acceptable number. McIntosh did rank second on the team with 14 defeats, a stat created to measure how many tackles for loss or successful third/fourth down stops a player makes, but McIntosh's total was accrued disproportionately in the early part of the season, and he was not around when the Redskins needed him at the end of the year.It's almost criminal that Rocky McIntosh has been in contract extensions with the team while Jason Campbell remains "unproven", but if you break it down to it's most basic level, it's not Campbell that needs to make the big jump this year.McIntosh is the only player on the team with starting experience in his career on the weak side. We're now talking about back to back years in which the Redskins have gotten questionable production at the position down the stretch. But more significantly, the Redskins don't need anyone quite like they need McIntosh this season. Sure, you'd like for DeAngelo Hall's contract not to look like a steaming pile of poo at the end of the season. You'd like Carlos Rogers to have a 5 INT season. You'd like for Malcolm Kelly and Devin Thomas to make our 2008 draft look good all while Jason Campbell turns the NFC East into his own personal playpen. But if the offense struggles, you can always turn to the defense. If Hall struggles, you can adjust the scheme to help him work through it. If Rogers drops INTs, he's still one of the best corners in the league.But if Rocky Mac is an easy target for offenses to pick at, the Redskins don't have a realistic solution anywhere on the roster to that problem. It's a defensive unit that is expected to be among the league's best, not to be an overpaid, highly touted unit with major design flaws. And perhaps it's most glaring weakness is the fact that it's most irreplaceable linebacker is coming off a down year.Yet, all of those fears established, Rocky Mac is now two years removed from that ACL injury. His teammates expect the world of him. And if he can deliver on that promise that he brought with his selection in 2006, he can be the first of the Redskins second round picks to finally breakthrough and get this team to the next level.He plays the toughest, most-demanding position in Greg Blache's defense, but for the first time since the injury, Rocky McIntosh will not be limited by physical defect. And given his new focus as a pass coverage linebacker--the role that best fits his incredible athleticism--it's high time for him to deliver on his promise.