Wide receiver Jamison Crowder missed a second straight practice with tightness in his hamstring. Crowder did a series of agility drills and sprints across the back of the end zone. He said that he isn’t concerned, but was just playing it safe and following the direction of the trainers. He didn’t yet know if he’d be ready, or permitted, to play Thursday.

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Some observations from today’s practice:

● The inside linebacker competition between Mason Foster and Perry Riley Jr. remains ongoing. Foster seemed to get more first-team repetitions than Riley on Sunday. However, depending on the day, their workloads flip-flop.

● Joe Barry mixed in Trent Murphy and Houston Bates as nickel ends with the first unit a fair bit on Sunday. Those two replaced Smith and Ryan Kerrigan here and there. It’s an interesting pairing. At 290 pounds, Murphy may be a bit oversize as an edge rusher now, and Bates appears undersize. Despite being listed at 6 feet 3, 252 pounds, Bates looks more the size of Will Compton (6-1, 238) and gets dwarfed by tackles like Williams and Nsekhe. At times, the slight build suits Bates well. He’s slippery and quick, which enables him to get around bigger linemen. But other times, if one of those linemen manage to get their hands on him, Bates is in trouble. Today, in 1-on-1 drills, Takoby Cofield got his mitts on Bates, and held him in check despite his efforts to free himself. Nsekhe later did the same during 11-on-11 action. But on another play, Bates faked to the outside and slipped to the inside to get by and into the backfield.

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● We saw David Bruton Jr. make some nice plays against the run. On one such play, he did a good job of getting downhill and stringing out a run to the outside, running Keith Marshall out of bounds before the back could turn the corner. The big question remains how Bruton will do in pass coverage. He hasn’t been in a lot of compromising situations thus far in practice. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares in Thursday’s preseason opener.

● Kirk Cousins had a sharp day of practice, particularly while running the no-huddle attack during a segment of practice where his team got the ball at its own 35 with 1 minute 40 seconds left on the clock. Cousins completed 6 of 6 passes, marching his team downfield. Three went to Jordan Reed, two to Pierre Garcon, and then Cousins rifled a 14-yard pass to Ryan Grant for a touchdown with 33 seconds left on the clock.

● In red-zone drills, Cousins was 2 for 4 on scoring attempts, connecting with Vernon Davis for a 16-yard touchdown pass, but then throwing an incompletion to Chris Thompson on a slant into the end zone. Thompson got hit by a defender and couldn’t hold on to the throw. Cousins connected with Niles Paul on a fade route over Foster in the back right corner of the end zone. Lastly, he went for DeSean Jackson in the same back corner of the end zone, but Josh Norman broke up the pass.

● Marshall had a couple of nice runs today, and I’m really curious to see how he does in games, when there’s live tackling, not this mix of thumping and/or tagging backs to avoid injury. He appears to have a good burst, and doesn’t seem to shy away from contact. Today, like other days, Marshall got some work with the first team, spelling Matt Jones. Thompson served as the back on most passing downs.

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● Jones had a nice play in pass protection as he stonewalled Duke Ihenacho, who came on a blitz, untouched. Jones slid over to his right, stuck Ihenacho with a thud and kept him from getting to Cousins.

● Speaking of protection, Shawn Lauvao looks like he has knocked off the rust from not having played in almost a year. He continues to rotate with Spencer Long at left guard, so we’ll have to wait a while to see who will win this position battle. But Lauvao looks strong and quick. Today, he won 1-on-1 matchups against Ricky Jean Francois and Kendall Reyes, engaging each on first contact and then fending off their countermoves to keep the defenders at bay.

● The bulk of the wide receiver-related attention has fallen on Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson, and the injured Josh Doctson, and rightfully so. But Rashad Ross has seemed to display signs of growth throughout training camp. Last year, he turned heads with his speed as a return man and deep threat. But he lacked versatility otherwise. Ross spent time in the offseason working on his route running, and the evidence of that work has shown on the field as he has made more plays in the short-to-intermediate game. Today, Ross drew praise from Coach Jay Gruden after catching the ball on a one-yard smoke route and turning it into a nine-yard gain.

Ross accelerated quickly, picking up five yards, made cornerback Greg Toler miss and picked up another four yards before being run out of bounds.

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“That was outstanding, Ross,” Gruden gushed as the wide receiver trotted back to the huddle.

Backup cornerback Kendall Fuller watched from the sideline and looked unimpressed, however. So Gruden walked up to him and say, “Fuller, that was a gain of 9.”

“No, sir,” Fuller said. “Our safety was coming.”

“Toler wasn’t making that tackle,” Gruden said.

“But he forced him back to the inside. Would’ve been tackled,” Fuller responded.

“Nah, he got some more before he got there. Gain of nine.”

Gruden is known for his partiality towards the offense. But in this case, his assessment appeared accurate. Ross indeed made a nice play.