Having lived and worked in Northern Virginia, Baltimore, and New York City in the last nine months, Marcus Mason has gotten used to life on the road. After being cut by his hometown Washington Redskins last summer, Mason re-signed with the team on April 28 and soon the Potomac native found himself once again in familiar surroundings — stuck in rush hour traffic on the Capital Beltway.

“I’ve been all up and down I-95,” Mason said of his recent itinerant lifestyle as he drove home from practice last month. “It just feels good to be back home in a familiar place with my old teammates.”

Such is the life of a 24-year-old running back trying to make it in the National Football League. Two years ago, Mason made local headlines when he earned a roster spot on the Redskins’ opening-day roster as an undrafted rookie free agent. After the team’s first game he was cut as the team juggled the roster in the wake of injuries, but was signed to the Redskins’ practice squad — an eight-player group that NFL teams can use to develop young players but who are then ineligible to participate in regular season games. Last summer Mason had another strong training camp, leading the NFL in rushing yards during the four-game preseason, but was promptly released from the team in the last wave of cuts as teams were required to trim down to the 53-player regular season roster.

Instead of re-signing with the Redskins and spending a second year on their practice squad, Mason opted to join the practice squad of the Baltimore Ravens. Eight weeks later Mason joined the active roster of the New York Jets, where he finished out the season without getting any carries. The Jets released Mason on April 27, and on April 28 the Redskins claimed him off of waivers.

Mason, who grew up in Potomac’s Scotland neighborhood, has already gotten himself an apartment in Fairfax and is happy to be back where he can see his family whenever he likes.

“Feels great, feels good to be back home,” Mason said. “Scotland’s that home cooking, you know what I mean? My whole family was pretty much excited. When I got released from the Jets, my whole family was sad but I had to let everybody know it was OK.”

Being able to see her son and talk to him face to face is nice, said Patricia Mason, Marcus’ mother. Once again Marcus pops in from time to time, she said, and now she can see past whatever front he might be able to put up on the phone and have a better idea of exactly how he’s feeling about things.

AFTER HIS FIRST week of practice with the team — the Redskins held a series of offseason workouts last month and began another round this week — Mason said he was already back in the swing of things.

“After the first couple days it was like I never even left because that’s how good the team chemistry is there. It makes you feel at home,” he said.

The dynamics of the team are much the same as they were a year ago, and Mason knows that may not work in his favor. Again, he has three talented, versatile backs ahead of him on the roster. Again, there is a crop of wide receivers that includes two young, highly touted players virtually guaranteed roster spots, and once again there is a corps of linebackers that will likely rely on quantity to answer questions about the reliability of its starters.

To make the team this year Mason will have to prove himself as an important contributor on special teams to avoid being bounced in the roster crunch, said Redskins running backs coach Stump Mitchell. That means that he must go beyond simply participating on special teams and instead must be the player flying down the field taking on blockers or making open field tackles on coverage units or setting up blocks for the return men on return units.

“In terms of running skills there’s no question in our mind that Marcus Mason has the skills to be a running back,” Mitchell said. “He has to make things happen on special teams for him to really have a legitimate shot of making it this year. And he understands that challenge.”

To that end, he has two talented and committed teachers — special teams coach Danny Smith, and running back and special teams ace Rock Cartwright. Cartwright took Mason under his wing two years ago when Mason was a rookie despite the fact that they were essentially competing to be the third running back on the team. Mason said this year Cartwright is continuing to help him learn the nuances of special teams dirty work, and he knows that his improvement in those areas is the key to his success.

“As far as last year the difference is — yeah, we have the same guys, but I just feel like I’m a little stronger on special teams right now,” Mason said. “I [learn] about it from watching Rock. He lets me know when I do something wrong, what I can do to get a better release [from blockers], stuff like that.”

Mason will also have to be more focused than he was a year ago, said Mason’s uncle Mark Mason, who played running back for the Maryland Terrapins in the early 1990s and tried out unsuccessfully for the Dallas Cowboys in 1994. He will have to convince coaches that in addition to running the ball he can protect the quarterback on passing plays and he will have to wow them with his knowledge of the playbook, a deficiency that may have cost him a roster spot last year.

“That last preseason game when it was on him to really make the team he went the wrong way a couple times,” Mark Mason said. “Right after the game he called me and told me ‘I messed up.’ When you’re playing for your livelihood it’s a lot of pressure. He didn’t step up the way the team expected.”

FOLLOWING A STELLAR career in high school and college, Mason has adjusted to life as an athletic everyman after going undrafted and bouncing between teams.

After setting the Maryland high school rushing record with 5,700 yards at Georgetown Prep, Mason went on to play at the University of Illinois for two years before transferring to Division II powerhouse Youngstown State and setting a school record with 1,847 rushing yards his senior season.

Then, in the 2007 NFL draft Mason went unselected and the only call of interest he got after the draft was from the Redskins. Success for him now is simply making the team.

“It was a humbling experience because you learn nothing’s going to be given to you,” Mason said. The recent emphasis on special teams compounded the humbling nature of his experience.

“Coming out of high school and college, I didn’t do much special teams. Now after being on the practice squad it just kind of helped me,” Mason said. “I feel like I got a better chance.”

Mitchell said that despite Mason’s short stature — the Redskins generously list him at 5-foot-9 — his size (218 lbs), vision, agility, and ability to make tacklers miss in the open field could make him a valuable contributor to any NFL team.

Mark Mason said that his nephew’s instinctual running abilities are second to none that he has ever personally seen play, and that includes the NFL’s all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith. Redskins officials say that Mason would be eligible to return to the practice squad again this year but entering his third season in the league Mark Mason said Marcus’ window of opportunity is beginning to narrow.

Mitchell said he likes the improvement he’s already seen in Mason’s special teams duties, and if that trend holds up Mason may just shine through on the game field someday soon, be it with the Redskins or with another team.

“He’s a very talented guy, its no question he should be playing in the league and I know for him, this is where he would love to play because its home,” Mitchell said. “I think he’s going to get every opportunity and I think he’s going to do very well.”

If that day comes Mark Mason, for one, won’t be surprised.

“When he gets the opportunity I guarantee you this, he’s going to blow it up,” he said. “He will do extremely well.”

On Monday, June 1 the Redskins opened their next round of offseason practices and afterwards held a fan appreciation event at Six Flags amusement park in Maryland. Mason broke briefly from the ceremonies to chat by phone. Practice went well, he said, and he felt great. His voice full of energy, he sounded relaxed and confident when he talked about his performance of late and his outlook on the coming months.

“I know what I’m doing,” he said. “I’m ready to go.”