The one-time iron man of the Redskins suffered a gruesome dislocated ankle and broken leg during the second quarter of the 2007 opener. He fought back from that injury to be ready for training camp last summer only to be benched at the end of preseason. And although Jansen played well for a while after getting his job back in Week 4, he endured a miserable December that has the Redskins looking to replace him for good.

But the flinty 33-year-old Michigander refuses to let any of that get him down. Instead, Jansen plans to show all his doubters that he's far from done.

"It should be a competition," Jansen said. "But I also want it to be known that I WANT that job. I believe it's mine and I'm not letting it go. I'm going to make it obvious that it's my job. There are some doubters. I want to prove that not only are they wrong this year, but that they're wrong next year."

Jansen said being fully healthy -- he began working out at home earlier than ever this winter and reported to Redskin Park on March 16 with a record-low 18 percent body fat for this time of year -- will make all the difference.

"Whenever I wasn't playing before it was because I couldn't even walk," said Jansen, who missed all of 2004 with a torn Achilles' and played much of 2006 with a torn calf muscle after battling broken thumbs throughout 2005 but not missing a snap. "It just took me a little while to figure out what it was that (coach Jim Zorn) wanted from me. Once I figured that out, I was able to produce. Not a lot of times in my career have people said, 'I'm not sure he can do it.' To suppress a lot of those doubts was very satisfying. It created a good feeling that I hadn't had in a while."

But a sprained knee which kept him out of two December games and the entire offense's rocky second half of the season caused even Jansen supporter Joe Bugel, the offensive line coach, to say that the Redskins need to add some young blood up front. However, the only free agent tackle they brought in for a visit, Ray Willis, re-signed with Seattle, meaning they'll likely look to add competition in the draft.

"Jon played with a lot of hurt last year," Bugel said. "Coming off that surgery, the wear and tear caught up to him a little bit. It was a long training camp. It was a grinding year. He may have run out of gas a little bit, but knowing that guy ... he'll try to play forever. Those kind of guys you can't put (an expiration) date on. I won't do that."

Neither of course will Jansen, whose signing bonus acceleration makes him more expensive to cut than keep as he looks to become the longest-tenured Redskin of the free agent era with 11 seasons in Washington.

"There's no point in being worried about what (the Redskins) are going to do," Jansen said. "I can't control that. All I can control is working as hard as I possibly can and if they want me to be here, this is where I want to be."