The Redskins Portal - ESPN 980

Trent Williams was nowhere close to Northern Virginia and the rest of his Redskins teammates,

In a town where controversy never dies, and on a team where drama is always present, his prescence was felt in a ominous kind of way.

In reality, Trent Williams could NOT have been any closer. Day two of the Redskins June player run mini-camp is now complete, and while most players were careful not to mention any teammates by name, clearly the target of a lot of the questions and the subject of a lot of their answers was the now 2^nd year left-tackle.

Williams has not been to any of the previous two sessions, and his work ethic was called in to question when he was at Oklahoma, after he was drafted by the Redskins and during his rookie season.

So despite many veterans also missing their third consecutive camp – most of the criticism and comments were directly targeted at one young player with a lot to prove.

ESPN -980 was the first to speak with Williams via phone on Wednesday afternoon after the team workout, and Williams explained his absence this way.

"I thought this was a Quarterbacks and receivers thing. I haven't talked to anybody on the O-line."

He later admitted to other reporters (Washington Times, Washington Examiner) that he heard about the workout on Monday, while not making it clear – if that was when he FIRST heard about it, or if that’s when longtime friend Malcolm Kelly informed him that it was a all-position get together.

As for why he wasn’t at the last player-run workout in May; the soft spoken Williams told ESPN 980, "I was in a wedding," but he assured me that he has not been just sitting around.

Williams says he’s been working out every day in Houston and said "I feel like I'm probably about as strong as I've been in my life."

Quietly, and lost between all of the Haynesworth and McNabb drama, Redskins coaches were not very pleased at all with Williams work ethic, and desire to be as good as he could be in his rookie season.

I asked Williams for his assessment of his first season as the # 4 overall pick. "I felt like I played OK. I could have done things better. This year, I want to do better."

So that would seem to indicate that the only way you can get better is by being with your fellow teammates and trying to get some work against Brian Orakpo.

"I feel like at this time in my life, I'm doing what I need to do to be a Pro Bowler," Williams told ESPN 980 via phone on Wednesday.

Williams told both John Keim (www.twitter.com/John_Keim) and Rich Campbell www.twitter.com/rich_campbell) that he was taking on boxing as a way to improve his game.

He said he was about the same playing weight as he was last year (323 pounds) and said “in the past few years, I haven’t been doing a lot of leg work, because of the knee problems,” but added “everything is perfect. I have no problem with anything. I feel better then I’ve ever felt.”

As for some of the criticism that he is receiving from fans, media (myself included) and teammates, Williams said he will “use it as motivation,” while adding, "I talked to some of my teammates. We're all on the same page."

So that’s that. Round 3 and the inevitable reaction to Williams and company not being present comes Thursday.

- Chris Russell // RussellC@Redskins.com // www.twitter.com/russellmania980