ASHBURN -- Perhaps it is the toll of time, the inevitable result of all the high-impact collisions.

Perhaps it is nothing more than a matter of bad luck, with injuries in consecutive seasons slowing down an outstanding player. These things happen in football.

Whatever the case, Marcus Washington knows he needs to have a good season in 2008. The outside linebacker was a high-motor, high-energy and highly effective player for the Redskins in 2004 and 2005.

If there was something a linebacker needed to do, Washington did it. He played the run. He rushed the passer. He covered running backs. He forced and recovered fumbles. He played special teams.

He was an under-the-radar free agent who paid huge dividends for the Redskins.

But in 2006, he was slowed by hip and elbow injuries, problems he never mentioned. He rarely came off the field in the first 14 games, but he did not seem to be the same player he had been in 2005.

Finally, a knee injury in December put him on injured reserve.

Last season, he was primed to show that 2006 was an aberration. Then, he suffered a dislocated elbow in the second preseason game. In the regular season, a persistent hamstring problem eventually cost him four games. Washington finished 2007 with 48 tackles, the fewest of his career since his rookie season in Indianapolis in 2000.

On the other hand, he had five sacks, the third highest total of his career.

"I felt like when I was able to be on the field, I played at a pretty high level," Washington said. "When I wasn't on the field, well, there was nothing I could do about that.

"That was the hardest part, watching the guys and you can't be out there with them, helping the team the best way you can. The toughest part is watching from sidelines."

The tough part for Washington now is proving he still can play at the level that earned him a Pro Bowl spot in 2004 and enabled him to earn NFC defensive player of the month in December 2005.

If he's healthy, that shouldn't be a problem. Washington is only 30, and plenty of linebackers have played well past their 30th birthday.

There is a flip side, though. If Washington is hurt again, his age will raise question marks, and the rumblings will begin about his durability and longevity.

The Redskins remain interested in moving Washington from outside linebacker to defensive end in obvious passing situations. They think he has the quickness, speed and power to elude offensive tackles and harass quarterbacks.

But Washington, 6-3 and 248, sometimes is engulfed by 300-plus pound tackles.

Washington is a player, and players always think they are up to the challenge. Players never consider the idea that they are done.

Washington sees the past two seasons as blips on the screen.

"I don't worry about getting hurt or getting old," Washington said. "I'm just playing. As long as it's fun, it's good. That's the only thing I worry about, when it's not fun.

"When they break the huddle and you don't want to hit anyone anymore, that's when you've got to worry. As long as you've got that hunger, you'll be OK. And I'm not going to lose that."

NOTABLE: Rookie wide receiver Devin Thomas suffered a pulled hamstring on a deep pass route yesterday morning and is expected to miss at least two weeks. "Maybe three," said Redskins coach Jim Zorn. "This is his first pull. We don't know how he heals." Thomas was the team's first draft choice, taken in the second round with pick No. 34, in the 2008 draft. . . . Free safety LaRon Landry strained a hamstring Tuesday and sat out yesterday's practices.