ASHBURN — Perry Fewell knew what type of player free safety Dashon Goldson was when the Washington Redskins acquired him from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on April 3.
Fewell, in his first season as the Redskins‘ defensive backs coach, had coached against Goldson three times as the New York Giants’ defensive coordinator. He had seen hours of film and the crunching hits, the kind that had the ability to make wide receivers hesitate crossing the middle of the field.
What Fewell was not attuned to was the scope of Goldson’s football intelligence, which is what he quickly noticed when Goldson walked into his first meeting with illustrations of assorted defensive alignments.