It’s almost as if the 2017 season never ended. The Washington Redskins dealt with serious injury after serious injury a year ago. And after their first preseason game, they had to deal with yet another crucial blow, one that could alter the direction of their season.

The player they had drafted to finally provide a strong running game is out for the season after one preseason game. An offense that had hoped to be more versatile will now be questioned.

In some ways it’s hard to say what the Redskins have lost with running back Derrius Guice now sidelined with a torn left ACL. He hadn’t yet played a game. But the promise of what he could do left others feeling good. His presence was supposed open up the attack, allowing the Redskins to move away from relying on the pass for consistent success.

Now we’re back to the same question the Redskins faced in 2017: Can they coax a consistent run game from Rob Kelley and Samaje Perine? Coaches say both players are quicker this summer, owing to their familiarity in the offense and perhaps having shed some weight.

Perine did look quicker Thursday vs. New England; he also was inconsistent running up the middle and lost one ball (a quick whistle negated a likely fumble). Kelley has lost weight and also ran with a little more pep. In two seasons he’s averaged 3.9 yards per carry. Will they be any different this season? Not if the blocking — the line and the tight ends — doesn’t improve. Good health will help the line, but after last season — and now with Guice out — does anyone want to predict that will happen?

The ground game was inconsistent last season with the same group, ranking 30th in yards per carry and 28th in total rushing yards. The hope for Guice was that he could help create extra yards with his vision and quick cuts and violent running style, overcoming whatever blocking issues arose. He also excelled in the red zone at LSU, and the Redskins ranked 25th in red zone yards per carry last season.

They also have Chris Thompson, who’s coming off a broken fibula. They will keep either Byron Marshall or Kapri Bibbs, but both are third-down types. They could always call a veteran; Adrian Peterson and former Redskins running back Alfred Morris are among those unsigned. A team source said Friday they will go with what they have.

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EAGAN, Minn. — Stefon Diggs and Xavier Rhodes, both preaching “family first” but saying their competitive nature got the best of them, returned to practice Thursday after getting benched by Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer on Wednesday.

The two players began jawing in practice Tuesday and had exchanged heated trash talk through Wednesday’s walk-through before Zimmer sat them down for Wednesday’s practice.

Diggs, who said there was no carryover into the locker room, said he had spoken with Rhodes and that the two have moved on.

“It’s not like we had to bury a hatchet,” Diggs said Thursday. “There was nothing there. Just two competitive guys wanted to go at it each and every day, that’s all.”

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  Vikings guard Nick Easton underwent surgery to correct a herniated disk in his neck Thursday and he will be placed on injured reserve.

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  Kirk Cousins’ Vikings preseason debut will come behind a line that now has plenty of health concerns and depth questions.

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NAPA, Calif. — The Oakland Raiders want Pro Bowl left tackle Donald Penn to take a pay cut, a year after he held out for and received a raise and contract extension from the team.

Penn, who is currently on the physically unable to perform list as he continues his rehab from Lisfranc surgery on his right foot, told reporters on Wednesday that he could not elaborate. He cited team policy that injured players are off limits to the media before saying, “You’ll have to ask them. You’ll find out before they tell me.”

Last summer, after taking part in the offseason training program, Penn held out of training camp and the exhibition season for 26 days. Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie said at the time that he would not negotiate with a player not in camp.

Penn returned and received his two-year, $21 million extension in between Weeks 1 and 2 of the regular season. His string of 170 straight regular-season starts, a stretch that dated back to 2007, came to an end in Week 16 when he suffered the foot injury against the Dallas Cowboys.

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Carolina Panthers middle linebacker Luke Kuechly has drawn comparisons to Chicago Bears Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher since he entered the NFL in 2012.

Now 2015 first-round pick Shaq Thompson is being compared to another of Chicago’s all-time greats.

Coach Ron Rivera called the outside linebacker’s one-handed interception of a Cam Newton pass in the end zone to end Tuesday’s practice the best play he has seen in practice since Pro Bowler Wilber Marshall picked off a pass from quarterback Jim McMahon during Chicago’s 1985 run to the Super Bowl.

“It was a heck of a play down in the red zone,” Rivera recalled. “Wilber went up and made a great one-handed catch, too, and took off running. Shaq’s got that kind of ability, and that’s what’s exciting to see when a young man starts putting things together.”

Next thing you know Rivera will call the Carolina defense the “Monsters of the Midway II.”

Or at least the “Monsters of the Queen City.”

If anybody has a right to make that comparison, Rivera does. He played with Marshall for four seasons (1984-87) in Chicago and was Urlacher’s defensive coordinator with the Bears from 2004 to ’06.

He knows what it’s like to be around great defensive playmakers, and Thompson is starting to show that potential entering his fourth season out of the University of Washington.

Rivera said Thompson displays other traits of Marshall, the 1992 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, as well. He believes it’s time the rest of the world sees that, especially with three-time Pro Bowl selection Thomas Davis out for the first four games because he’s serving a suspension for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs.

All signs — at least for Thompson — point toward a great 2018 season.

Everywhere he looked, from license plates to billboards, on the 90-minute drive from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Wofford College for training camp, Thompson saw his No. 54.

“My whole mindset is this is the year of 54,” Thompson said.

Thompson began to emerge as a star last season. He started a career-best 14 games and had a career-best 57 tackles, which might not sound like a lot until you consider Kuechly had a team-best 125 and Davis 76 from the linebacker spot.

Thompson is light-years ahead of where he was as a rookie making the transition from college safety to hybrid linebacker.

“My first few years I would say I was like a blind mouse,” Thompson said. “I was just going. But I had great leaders like [safety] Roman Harper who told me to just go out and play.

“As I learned this defense by asking questions from TD and Luke, I started picking it up more and understanding the game more and how teams like to attack our defense.”

Tuesday’s interception was an example of how his knowledge of the playbook has paid off for Thompson. “[It] has helped me play a lot faster,” Thompson said.

play

Here is how Panthers linebacker Shaq Thompson saw his one-handed interception of a Cam Newton pass in the end zone to end practice – and how backup QB Garrett Gilbert ”chased him down.” Video by David Newton

Thompson didn’t finish the interception fast. As he jogged the final 30 yards to the end zone, backup quarterback Garrett Gilbert came running from the opposite side of the field to simulate making a touchdown-saving tackle.

“I wouldn’t say he chased me down,” Thompson said with a laugh. “Gilbert did a great situational play, chasing the defender down to make sure we didn’t score.”

Nobody likely would have chased down Thompson had that been a live play, as will be the case in Thursday’s preseason opener at Buffalo (7 p.m. ET). His 40-yard dash time of 4.64 seconds at the 2015 NFL combine was among the best for linebackers.

What kept Thompson from going higher than No. 25 in the draft were questions about where he would play. Some teams had him pegged as a safety and others as a hybrid linebacker.

Thompson also played running back in college, and he was lobbying Carolina offensive coordinator Norv Turner for a few carries on Twitter before training camp.

“I’ve been talking to Norv about it,” Thompson said. “He said just wait.”

Rivera will be satisfied if he sees more Marshall-like traits from Thompson.

Marshall’s stats after his first three seasons were far superior to Thompson’s. He had 31 starts, 202 tackles, nine interceptions and 11.5 sacks.

Thompson has five more starts, but only 159 tackles, one interception and three sacks.

But with more playing time in Carolina’s two-linebacker set while Davis is suspended, and possibly after that to keep Davis fresh, Thompson should put up his best numbers as a pro and make more spectacular plays like he did on Tuesday.

“Still continuing to learn this game,” Thompson said. “I’m trying to get up there with Luke and TD … still, performancewise. Just like Luke reading the plays, I’m still trying to get there.”