Team speed and poor personnel decisions

[PulpExposure]

One BAD game and you guys are ready to throw the towel? Some of the same people that were jumping with joy and celebrating the whole organization after our victory against the Jags? Pathetic.

This is Monday and I do understand and share your frustration. But it is ONE bad game. We will recover and improve. But you know what? Do not believe me. Suffer by yourselves or use this thread to collectively whine to one another.

Yeah, I agree. People are freaking out here. It's really silly.

Yes, we lost to the Giants. Yes, it was a pathetic effort.

But honestly you wouldn't expect us to go 16-0. All of the NFC East teams are very good, and it's critical to hold your home court.

I expected us to lose to the Giants at the Meadowlands and at Texas Stadium (we never traditionally play well at either place, last years 2 miracle minutes at Dallas aside).

We are playing one hell of a hard schedule. I expected us to beat the Vikings, lose to the Jags, beat the Texans, and lose to Dallas and the Giants away. Wish we had beat the stupid Vikings at home, that's the one that stings.

2-3 at this point. It happens. I mean if we had the Ravens powder-puff schedule things might be very different, but we don't. We play one seriously NASTY schedule.

[oneman56]

One BAD game and you guys are ready to throw the towel? Some of the same people that were jumping with joy and celebrating the whole organization after our victory against the Jags? Pathetic.

This is Monday and I do understand and share your frustration. But it is ONE bad game. We will recover and improve. But you know what? Do not believe me. Suffer by yourselves or use this thread to collectively whine to one another.

Yeah, I agree. People are freaking out here. It's really silly.

Yes, we lost to the Giants. Yes, it was a pathetic effort.

But honestly you wouldn't expect us to go 16-0. All of the NFC East teams are very good, and it's critical to hold your home court.

I expected us to lose to the Giants at the Meadowlands and at Texas Stadium (we never traditionally play well at either place, last years 2 miracle minutes at Dallas aside).

We are playing one hell of a hard schedule. I expected us to beat the Vikings, lose to the Jags, beat the Texans, and lose to Dallas and the Giants away. Wish we had beat the stupid Vikings at home, that's the one that stings.

2-3 at this point. It happens. I mean if we had the Ravens powder-puff schedule things might be very different, but we don't. We play one seriously NASTY schedule.

This post wasn't about anyone throwing in the towel, I believe I even said as much in the original post. It was just to throw out that the organization, I feel, has made some bad mistakes. I will agree with Boss that all organization's do it as well. But not every year like the Skins' are doing. Who on this board wouldn't have rather given Pierce the extra money he wanted instead of say paying Archuletta. We could have both Clark and Pierce back. Everyone has talked about the Skins' being in cap hell for years and I don't think that will ever happen. But, we have mortgaged our talent pool of the future and it's catching up to us. The drafts pick we've traded and continue to trade would be very useful. And don't start on the schedule, if you tell me how hard the schedule is then you are just saying you expect to lose lots of games because of it. Good teams find ways to win, year in and year.

[PulpExposure]

Good teams find ways to win, year in and year.

Or play in the NFC North or NFC West, where you get 6 additional bye weeks each for the awful teams within...

Scheduling DOES make a huge difference. To acknowledge otherwise is silly. No team is so dominant they can blaze through the hardest schedule without worry. Every team has ups and downs, and if the downs hit when you're playing a tough team, you will lose. And if you're playing a schedule that is full of tough teams, chances are you will have one of your down weeks when you're playing a tough team.

[spenser]

Im way to pissed to even start posting again for a few days, but one think kinda off topic... I agree we shouldnt have let Ryan clark go, but did you see him lay the wood to LT last nite on Monday night football? LT was going out of bounds and ryan just layed into him. Revenge for that stiff arm in OT last year no doubt... lol

[thaiphoon]

I agree with Boss here.

The only one I'd really like to have back is Pierce. Wish he didn't go for slightly more money than what he woudla got here. Not to mention the fans that would've appreciated him staying for a little less money to captain the defense. Woulda left Lamar Marshall on the outside where I think he plays better and we would've been able to draft some better O-line or CB depth in the 2nd round this year..

[1niksder]

Well...Lavar wanted out because of how he was treated I thought that was pretty obvious. I would hardly call that "him wanting to leave". He was treated like a dog and I see no problem with him wanting to leave. My concern is they shouldn't have treated him like that. It was very cowardly of this organization to do so.

When you give back $4.2 million YOU WANTED TO LEAVE, you can call it what you want but he wanted out real bad. Say what you want about how he was treated, he wasn't playing and tried to put it on the coaching staff. Now he's gone and still ain't playing (not at the level you remember). He was hurt, said he wasn't but still is

Fred Smoot is 100 times better than Rogers. IMO thats end of story. Smoot at his worst was/is better than Rogers at his best.

Smoot has 26 tackles and 1 pass defense compared to Carlos with 30 tackles and 4 pd. That's pretty close for a #2 forced to play the #1 spot in comparison to a paid #1 CB. Those are the numbers you can keep your opinion

Yes Pierce left for more money. Money that we didn't want to give him but we made AA the highest paid saftey in the league. Again IMO that is so dumb I can't even explain it any better than that.

AP left a year before AA got here, but he was offered more money by the Skins than the Gints, but NY offered more money up front. So Pierce took the money and ran and some people still don't get it. Those same people call Adam the highest paid safety in the league yet Sean Taylor make almost 3 times what AA will make this year and Balt. and Pitt. have safteys that make more than Sean.

Its pretty obvious from that list I made that we have lost better players than those we have gained and to top it off we paid a hell of a LOT of money for guys the rest of the league wouldn't have paid so much for then axe our own players due to "they wanted too much money."

I know there might be only a few that feel this way but its just my

It's not really obvious when you look at the root of you list. AP was coming off his first full year at MLB and any team would have at least wanted to open the spot up to competition (maybe that's why he left), you all compare his play to Lamar's but he had to go to the same thing and is a year behind Antonio, They are both in there second year in the same system but AP has played the spot a year longer.
Smoot wasn't going to last under Gibbs so it's good he took the upfront money and went cruising. Walt Harris was beat like a drum when he was here but I'm glad he's doing his thing in SF (maybe he is being picked on). 5 games removed from being Mr Redskin Lavar should have had his best game last Sunday (I'm willing to bet he was counting on it) but he had 1 tackle that should tell you something if it doesn't ask yourself where he lined up on 3rd downs last game.

Carter hasn't impressed but I', not willing to write it off as a bad move 5 games into the season.

Arch wasn't brought in to be a cover guy, he was signed for run support, when you compare him and Clark you get Clark with 18 solo compared to Adam's 31

Wright was signed as a #3 forced to play the second corner spot and Rumph wasn't signed until Pierson Prioleau went down (Missed all of the off-season) but combined would only trail Harris in INTs

You can say what you want about player moves, who was signed and who "we let go" the bottom line is there was a plan in place (for the 1st time in "the Danny's" reign. Gibbs slotted salaries as a way to get to cap under control and like everything in the NFL it's a work in progress


Question: If we had a guy who knew the system and had played in it, what if he played both S and CB, would you sign that guy?

Answer: No, he's already on the team (he got hurt on the 1st play of the regular season)

Springs not playing along with PP limits the team in what it thought it could do, at the same time it has the fans questioning everything from player moves to scheme.

We've had rookies (some would call them no-names) playing major downs minutes on the defensive line with Corny,Salave'a and Daniels being in and out of the lineup.

The linebackers are caught in the middle, help out in the secondary and the D-line while trying to incorparate another rookie.

If the staff hadn't stocked the players that we do have, where would we be?

Can't answer that one, but we are 1 game below .500 wit the Titans on the radar.

To late to be focusing on who isn't here or who isn't available on game day for that matter.

[Burgandyandglory]

Without Springs our secondary is in trouble (not that you guys don't know that), letting Walt Harris go was a mistake. I haven’t wanted to admit it but our staff has made some poor personnel decisions that is costing this team’s depth right now. We should have kept Antonio Pierce at middle linebacker and moved Lemar Marshall to the strong side and let LaVar walk. We’d be great with Pierce, Marshall and Washington. Also, they just gave up a 3rd round pick for Duckett who doesn’t even play and they overpay for Archuletta, Andre Carter and this Kenny Wright joke at cornerback. They let Smoot go and maybe the Vikings overpaid but dang it we need some cornerbacks. Why give up so much for Jason Campbell if he’s not gonna play for 3 years, I mean WTF is going on, Brunell has proved to be capable about 50% of the games since he came to Washington and this isn’t good enough. His good games are usually because Santana Moss turns a 5 yard pass into a big play and it pads Brunell’s stats. The past couple of years our D has been good enough to overshadow his inadequacies but not this year not being able to stretch the field is killing us. We let Ryan Clark go this off-season for Arch and Ryan Clark is better, IMO. They should have payed clark and used the difference in money spent on Arch for some decent depth. I still think it’s early and they aren’t out of it but the problem is depth and team speed and we don’t have much of either on the defensive side of the ball. Sorry if this is in the wrong spot, if it needs to be moved I apologize. Just venting!

While I share your dismay, I have to respectfully disagree with some of your points. The Skins aren't the only team that may make and have made a bad move every now and then. As for our weaknesses, the cornerback position is a concern, but thankfully, we ought to have Springs back this week or next week, and that will help. I think getting Arch and Carter were good moves and will pay off in the the long run. After all, we're only 2-3, and we have 11 more games to go. As for Brunell, my feelings change from week to week, but I have been consistently dismayed with the CB's. IMO, there is no reason why Sean Taylor ought to be covering a WR 40 yards downfield and be in a better position to make a tackle than the CB. We need to trade Duckett for a CB if he isn't going to play, or pick up a CB or two in the next draft.

[Burgandyandglory]

Players we lost when we should have kept them.
2. Lavar Arrington

You can't be serious. What did he have like two tackles yesterday?

I really like Lavar, too. But don't let it blind you to the fact that he is incredibly overrated.

One tackle and a deflected pass, and then he tried to turn the attention from him running hi big mouth last week.

[Mursilis]

Wright was signed as a #3 forced to play the second corner spot and Rumph wasn't signed until Pierson Prioleau went down (Missed all of the off-season) but combined would only trail Harris in INTs

I'm not sure the timing of those moves is correct. Prioleau went down in the season opener, but wasn't Rumph acquired (via the Taylor Jacobs trade) before that?

[oneman56]

Burgandyandglory Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:03 am Post subject: Re: Team speed and poor personnel decisions

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oneman56 wrote:
Without Springs our secondary is in trouble (not that you guys don't know that), letting Walt Harris go was a mistake. I haven’t wanted to admit it but our staff has made some poor personnel decisions that is costing this team’s depth right now. We should have kept Antonio Pierce at middle linebacker and moved Lemar Marshall to the strong side and let LaVar walk. We’d be great with Pierce, Marshall and Washington. Also, they just gave up a 3rd round pick for Duckett who doesn’t even play and they overpay for Archuletta, Andre Carter and this Kenny Wright joke at cornerback. They let Smoot go and maybe the Vikings overpaid but dang it we need some cornerbacks. Why give up so much for Jason Campbell if he’s not gonna play for 3 years, I mean WTF is going on, Brunell has proved to be capable about 50% of the games since he came to Washington and this isn’t good enough. His good games are usually because Santana Moss turns a 5 yard pass into a big play and it pads Brunell’s stats. The past couple of years our D has been good enough to overshadow his inadequacies but not this year not being able to stretch the field is killing us. We let Ryan Clark go this off-season for Arch and Ryan Clark is better, IMO. They should have payed clark and used the difference in money spent on Arch for some decent depth. I still think it’s early and they aren’t out of it but the problem is depth and team speed and we don’t have much of either on the defensive side of the ball. Sorry if this is in the wrong spot, if it needs to be moved I apologize. Just venting!



"While I share your dismay, I have to respectfully disagree with some of your points. The Skins aren't the only team that may make and have made a bad move every now and then. As for our weaknesses, the cornerback position is a concern, but thankfully, we ought to have Springs back this week or next week, and that will help. I think getting Arch and Carter were good moves and will pay off in the the long run. After all, we're only 2-3, and we have 11 more games to go. As for Brunell, my feelings change from week to week, but I have been consistently dismayed with the CB's. IMO, there is no reason why Sean Taylor ought to be covering a WR 40 yards downfield and be in a better position to make a tackle than the CB. We need to trade Duckett for a CB if he isn't going to play, or pick up a CB or two in the next draft. "


I too agree we aren't the only team that makes some mistakes in the off-season, it's just that it seems to be a trend every year lately. Mis-handling players who are here and mis-handling our draft picks. I'm only against the Arch and Carter moves because of the money spent, I feel it could have been spent better elsewhere. Oh well though, it's past and all we can do now is support it. Hopefully Springs will return and the playtime these other guys have had will be helpful later in the year. I trust the coaches and the playters, just not the pesonnel decisions being made...(Vinny Cerrato)..it could be argued though by comments from Gibbs himself that it's a collective agreement on personnel decisions, in which case I don't know what to make of some of the moves.

[dnpmakkah]

When you give back $4.2 million YOU WANTED TO LEAVE, you can call it what you want but he wanted out real bad. Say what you want about how he was treated, he wasn't playing and tried to put it on the coaching staff. Now he's gone and still ain't playing (not at the level you remember).

Yep it is a matter of opinion. I dont think he would have "WANTED TO LEAVE and give back $4.2 million" as you say if he weren't treated the way he was. I don't know what you were reading but I already stated NUMEROUS times that he wasn't as good as he was in years past but still better than Holdman. People can deny it all they want but fact is they didn't handle it professionally and NO ONE in their right mind would say Holdman is an upgrade.

Smoot has 26 tackles and 1 pass defense compared to Carlos with 30 tackles and 4 pd. That's pretty close for a #2 forced to play the #1 spot in comparison to a paid #1 CB. Those are the numbers you can keep your opinion).

I can't even argue this point because its so skewed and funny. Champ Bailey has 23 tackles and only ONE pass defended. So by your reasoning you would say all three are equal in talent. Do you EVER remember teams going after Smoot with the deep ball like they do Rogers? And if so, do you ever remember having so many of them completed as they do on Rogers? All I know is that when that ball goes deep towards Rogers most if not all the people on this board hold their breath to see what happens....but with Smoot that wasn't the case.

AP left a year before AA got here, but he was offered more money by the Skins than the Gints, but NY offered more money up front. So Pierce took the money and ran and some people still don't get it. Those same people call Adam the highest paid safety in the league yet Sean Taylor make almost 3 times what AA will make this year and Balt. and Pitt. have safteys that make more than Sean.

I apoligize if it is a mistake but all I have heard is that AA is the HIGHEST PAID safety in the league. To me he isn't even in the top 10 skill wise. So he is hugely over paid. The Giants paid Pierce more...even Gibbs said that. So maybe Gibbs is lying. He wanted to be a Skin but went to whoever was going to pay him more. That's the story I've heard.

Carter hasn't impressed but I', not willing to write it off as a bad move 5 games into the season.

Yet you seem to think Arrington isn't doing much with the Giants in only 5 games.

Arch wasn't brought in to be a cover guy, he was signed for run support, when you compare him and Clark you get Clark with 18 solo compared to Adam's 31

Compared to what he is getting paid...he sucks. This is all about over spending. Look at it this way, if he was getting a fraction of what he signed for...most people wouldn't rag on him. But they overpaid for him. What more can I say. Dumb move (SO FAR).

If the staff hadn't stocked the players that we do have, where would we be? Can't answer that one, but we are 1 game below .500 wit the Titans on the radar.

Very true. But they shouldn't have let some people go in the first place thus negating the need to pick up these "so-called" great pickups this year. Yes we are 1 game under .500 but 0-3 in the NFC and 0-2 in the NFC East. It's not over but we aren't in good standing either.

To late to be focusing on who isn't here or who isn't available on game day for that matter.

Nice post overall. We all have our perspectives and its nice to share them and vent. I'm not against letting players go but if you do so then they need to bring in BETTER players that earn their paycheck rather than lesser quality talent that make more money than the ones that just left.

[dnpmakkah]

One tackle and a deflected pass, and then he tried to turn the attention from him running hi big mouth last week.

I'm sure his stats aren't as good as it should be especially with the amount of money he was making. But regardless, I still think he was the heart & soul of this team. Arrington brought a swagger and confidence to the Skins when he played. You can't see it in stats I guess but I could just feel it. Maybe it was more a personal opinion rather than fact you know?

[Burgandyandglory]

Burgandyandglory Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:03 am Post subject: Re: Team speed and poor personnel decisions

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

oneman56 wrote:
Without Springs our secondary is in trouble (not that you guys don't know that), letting Walt Harris go was a mistake. I haven’t wanted to admit it but our staff has made some poor personnel decisions that is costing this team’s depth right now. We should have kept Antonio Pierce at middle linebacker and moved Lemar Marshall to the strong side and let LaVar walk. We’d be great with Pierce, Marshall and Washington. Also, they just gave up a 3rd round pick for Duckett who doesn’t even play and they overpay for Archuletta, Andre Carter and this Kenny Wright joke at cornerback. They let Smoot go and maybe the Vikings overpaid but dang it we need some cornerbacks. Why give up so much for Jason Campbell if he’s not gonna play for 3 years, I mean WTF is going on, Brunell has proved to be capable about 50% of the games since he came to Washington and this isn’t good enough. His good games are usually because Santana Moss turns a 5 yard pass into a big play and it pads Brunell’s stats. The past couple of years our D has been good enough to overshadow his inadequacies but not this year not being able to stretch the field is killing us. We let Ryan Clark go this off-season for Arch and Ryan Clark is better, IMO. They should have payed clark and used the difference in money spent on Arch for some decent depth. I still think it’s early and they aren’t out of it but the problem is depth and team speed and we don’t have much of either on the defensive side of the ball. Sorry if this is in the wrong spot, if it needs to be moved I apologize. Just venting!



"While I share your dismay, I have to respectfully disagree with some of your points. The Skins aren't the only team that may make and have made a bad move every now and then. As for our weaknesses, the cornerback position is a concern, but thankfully, we ought to have Springs back this week or next week, and that will help. I think getting Arch and Carter were good moves and will pay off in the the long run. After all, we're only 2-3, and we have 11 more games to go. As for Brunell, my feelings change from week to week, but I have been consistently dismayed with the CB's. IMO, there is no reason why Sean Taylor ought to be covering a WR 40 yards downfield and be in a better position to make a tackle than the CB. We need to trade Duckett for a CB if he isn't going to play, or pick up a CB or two in the next draft. "


I too agree we aren't the only team that makes some mistakes in the off-season, it's just that it seems to be a trend every year lately. Mis-handling players who are here and mis-handling our draft picks. I'm only against the Arch and Carter moves because of the money spent, I feel it could have been spent better elsewhere. Oh well though, it's past and all we can do now is support it. Hopefully Springs will return and the playtime these other guys have had will be helpful later in the year. I trust the coaches and the playters, just not the pesonnel decisions being made...(Vinny Cerrato)..it could be argued though by comments from Gibbs himself that it's a collective agreement on personnel decisions, in which case I don't know what to make of some of the moves.

I totally agree with your assessment of year after year trends of offseason blunders. I am naive in the fact that i trust the guys making the decisions and they know what the heck they are doing. I agree, Vinny needs to be locked out of his office and someone else brought in.

[Burgandyandglory]

One tackle and a deflected pass, and then he tried to turn the attention from him running hi big mouth last week.

I'm sure his stats aren't as good as it should be especially with the amount of money he was making. But regardless, I still think he was the heart & soul of this team. Arrington brought a swagger and confidence to the Skins when he played. You can't see it in stats I guess but I could just feel it. Maybe it was more a personal opinion rather than fact you know?

I totally agree with you that LaVar was the heart and soul of this team, .............. when he played, and I don't think he was the heart and soul the last two years he was here. I think he spent more time worrying about how much Snyder was going to pay him instead of performing on the field. In that sense, I think he could have been a detriment to the team, but God bless 'em, they rose to the challenge and played great. IMO, with the impressive *tounge in cheek* stats LaVar is putting up this season, I am not missing him much. Despite him saying he wanted to be a Redskin, he didn't show that to me. I don't miss him.

[rick301]

It has nothing to do with the guys you all think we should have kept or shouldn't have signed...it's about our offense...they're not consistent.

I'm sure you all have heard what I have about Al's offense -- it takes awhile to learn it and maybe that's what we're seeing.

IMO we win 2 of the 3 losses if our offensive line and QB play better. NO one is mentioning how horrible the OLine has played in those 2 losses.

We gave up 19 to the Vikes & Giants and lost both game -- we should at least score 21 pts a game, anyway. The Vikes held us to 16 lousy points and the Gints held us to 3? The Giants have lousy DBs and we didn't do squat against them. The Vikes defense ain't that scary.

Most of the complaints I see on this thread are about Defensive players. That isn't our problem right now. I believe our problem is offense and here are the problems I see:

1) The offense is tying to learn Al's offense..we're 5 games in;
2) Portis was hurt to start the year... we must have him;
3) We added a #2 and #3 WR to the mix, they're getting comfortable with Brunell;
4) The OLine has played great one week, horrible the next (this is a MAJOR issue);
5) Brunell can NOT carry us when the Oline isn't playing well;
5) Brunell never looks beyond the 1st or 2nd guy (I don't think he likes to get hit);
6) Becuase Brunell doesn't have a scary arm, defenses are cheating up to the LOS..this hurts our ability to get 4-5 yards from Clinton on 1st down.

I hate to make it sound like I'm blaming Brunell but football, at every level, is about the QB. I don't believe our Oline can play like they did against the Jags every week and Brunell will NOT pull out those tight games, where he's under pressure...Eli might, McNabb might, Peyton will, Brady has, Ben can, etc. We don't have an elite QB.

I sure hope Campbell is a quality QB -- or we're in trouble down the road.

I don't mean to turn this into a MB thread but ... Fred above has a point. With a more consistent offense, the defense spends less time on the field and is fresher. MB is making very safe - and in most cases very conservative - decisions. Granted, few INTs are thrown - but the O is very lackluster. We need a QB that can make things happen - and find a way to win. Its 50-50 if MB will be hot or not on a given Sunday. I like MB, but its not working. We had 2 good games - well really 1 against the Jags where we rose above and beyond to the point that at the end of the day, we all said WOW.

As Fred pointed out, our opponents know that each play will go on average 4 +/- yards - either run or pass so they bring the DBs and safeties closer to the line ... so that we only get 4 +/- a play (when we make positive yards). That would work if we didn't get stuffed - or penalized - or drop passes as often as we do. There are way too many 3 and out drives.

I suspect that MB may be injured a bit. If so, the Titans would be a good - managable - learning experience for JC, and give MB time to heal up.

[Chris Luva Luva]

I have one question. How many drives does this offense need to put up 7 points? The defense didnt play too well but if our offense had been able to score the game would have different.

Sustained drive = rested defense
Sustained drive = points
More points = win

Sure it'd be nice if our defense could play as well as it did last year just to have our offense still only score 3 points. There is no guarantee that we would have scored more points with more chances. The only fact is that we didnt make due with what was given.

[RayNAustin]

There are some really good points being made here, and the consensus I believe is correct.

There have been some poor personnel moves....Pierce being the first of those errors. The MLB position is the quarterback of the defense, and Pierce was outstanding very early on. Big mistake letting him go, and we did see a decline after he left.

Smoot was a solid corner for the skins despite what he has or has not done with the Vikes. Remember, Smoot played opposite Bailey which everyone avoided as much as possible, so if he hadn't been solid, it would have been extremely obvious. When we traded Bailey, Smoot was the #1 corner on this team. However, Smoot wasn't quite as spectacular as Smoot thought he was, and he may not have been worth the money the vikes put up, so I don't know if that move was so clearly an error. Springs, when healthy has been a solid replacement.

LA went to three pro bowls in five years....LB's like that are not a dime a dozen as might have been insinuated by his treatment from Dale Lindsey/ Greg Williams. I think it is just as important for a coaching staff to find a way to utilize a special player's talent as much as they try to make a player fit into a certain scheme. And 3 pro bowls in 5 years qualifies as special IMO.

I've heard a lot of talk about some players (LA is one) being "out of position" on plays. I also see some players "in position" and not able to make the play (Holdman). Seems to me that Williams-Lindsey just didn't like LA for whatever reason, and things got personal. I fault the coaches for that, because LA played for 3 other staffs in his career in DC, and only had problems when Williams was in charge.

Although Williams came onto the scene and immediately produced results, which no one can argue....things are looking a bit different now after three years of tinkering. He had the Redskins playing outstanding defense right out of the blocks, BUT......we have all seen a decline in each of the past 2 years...this year, a dramatic decline. It makes me think that perhaps there is a stubborness and arrogance factor at play here, where Williams and his staff are placing more value on their scheme than on the player's talents.....i.e. they may feel their scheme is omnipotent and the players are just interchangeable and replacable parts.

Clark has been clearly a mistake....and I think that one is very obvious. AA in my view is extremely limited, and not a good cover guy at all. Talk about being out of position!!! I cannot recall a single instance of an outstanding play comming from him so far, and he never seems to be around the ball down field, which may explain this terrible big play issue we are suffering. Huge mistake (maybe the biggest one so far). Especially considering he was good enough to sign with a Super Bowl champion team.

Of course, the dramatic decline we've seen in defense this year might suggest that Williams may suffer from the same disease that effected Smoot......the "legend in their own mind" syndrome. They might be giving themselves too much credit, and too little credit to the players that perform in their "packages".

I think the results we're seeing proves this point's validity. We let go players, and the production has certainly declined.

2004 finished 3rd in total defense

2005 finished 9th in total defense

2006 currently 21st in total defense (not much better than 2003)

On offense, we made big strides last year going from 30th to 11th. That should have helped the defense. This year, we've seen glimpses of improvement with a new offense and new coach, but we still seem to have major problems. Is Brunnel the problem? Maybe. He is inconsistent....plays good, sometimes excellent, then goes out the next week and looks like a mediocre backup.

But our defense is not helping the offense at all, like it did last year. The defense, in my opinion should be our greatest concern.

The other thing worth considering here is how much chemistry or conflict exists on the coaching staff? We have assembled an "all star" staff....highest paid in the NFL. And us football fans somehow see these fairly obvious poor personnel decisions?

Ask yourself this......Would Steinbrenner put up with a below 500 efort for that kind of money?

If I were Snyder, there would be some serious arse chewing staff meetings. Somebody has some "splainin" to do.

[roybus14]

R NA,

You make some very valid points. As far as LA is concerned, this team got it wrong about how to use this guy. Who scouted this guy while he was at Penn State? Even at PS, all he did was rush the QB and hurdle RBs getting to the QB. This guy, if used properly, was the second coming to LT. He was never a true LB to play in anybody's scheme but I guess no one could see that except Marvin Lewis for one year.

IMO, all this is about money and guys resting on their laurels because they are paid. There is no hunger and all of those cooks (coaches) in the kitchen can't get them motivated to play.

What is really interesting though is the lack of respect of these guys have for Joe Gibbs. He has been protecting them for weeks with this "we" stuff and not calling anybody out and all they seem to do rollover on him with pathethic performances like the one on Sunday. Portis talks about having their backs against the wall. If having your back against the wall is the only thing that can motivate you, then you are in the wrong profession.

Also, GW and his defense are being exposed. Now I understand that you need a #1 guy to stop the opponents #1 guy but what about stopping the run??? If GW's defense is not effective unless he is blitzing, then that was it really all of that great in the beginning????

[RayNAustin]

Williams defense is a lot like his mentors. Buddy Ryan style. It's all about the pressure, bringing the blitz from different places. But to pull that off, you need good cover guys because if they do pick up your blitz, a good QB is going to burn you deep.

What are we seeing right now? We're getting fried on the big plays...at least two or three per game. And that's nothing unprecedented. This happened last year against Denver and KC. Both games, if you may recall, we dominated statistically, but we got killed on big plays.

I'm sorry to say this, but as optimistic as I was this offseason with some of our pick ups on offense, right now, I see no light at the end of the tunnel.

We only beat the Jags because of a huge offensive performance across the board. They moved up and down the field on us at will....just like the Giants did.

Unfortunately, Gibbs seemed way to happy with the Jags game. I was outraged that our defense allowed two 4th Q leads to be blown, and we were just lucky that Brunnel was having one of those great games. Games we can't expect from him every week.

I think Arrington was the first big red flag of a problem on the defensive coaching staff, followed by Clark, and Walt Harris, and the replacements we picked up.

Frankly, I like Snyder's desire and willingness to do whatever possible to win, but his actions have been counter productive in most cases.

I know I'm probably going to bring forth the rath for this next comment, but I feel letting Schottenheimer go after only one year was a mistake. After an 0-5 start, ole Marty righted the ship and went 8-3 for the remainder of the season. And Marty loved LA.

Hey, look at the Chargers now!! And look how Marty has the stones to let Brees go and start Rivers. I think Schottenheimer has a pretty solid winning history.....only about 5 wins away from Gibbs all time. Of course he doesn't have 3 SB trophies, but the way the Redskins are playing now, Marty is likely to get one before Gibbs gets another.

Overall, I think the Redskins have had more poor personnal moves both in terms of players and coaches than most anyone else over the past 10 years. And had Schottenheimer been given the time and resources that Norv Turner recieved, the Redskins might have had another trophy or two by now.

[roybus14]

Yeah, you may get blasted but I think that when you talk about Marty, you talk about discipline. Remember when he was here how he players complained about his practices being hard, etc., etc. Well, to hear Doc Walker, B-Mitch, and others talk about how Gibbs was when they played, you would think that he and Marty were brothers separated at birth.

But these guys appear to have no discipline and the coaches are covering for them. I mean come on, these are grown men getting paid too much money for them not to be criticized for not performing. This whole notion of not criticizing them in the media and that it's happening behind closed doors is crap. If they were, then we have heard about it and they would have gotten themselves together by now. I remember during Gibbs' first go around, we had a game with a ton of penalties. Gibbs got on the team in the media and said that we can't have this. The next week and next several games, those dudes did committed maybe one penalty and that was questionable.

Oh, I forgot, this coaching staff get's off on publicly criticizing players (Lavar) that are no longer here.

[PulpExposure]

Also, GW and his defense are being exposed. Now I understand that you need a #1 guy to stop the opponents #1 guy but what about stopping the run???

Even with giving up 120+ to Tiki Barber, the Skins are giving up 3.5 yards per carry this year.

That's damn good. The run is being stuffed.

[RayNAustin]

Damn good? It's middle of the road 13th in the NFL, but in the games against NY and Dallas, the average was 5 yds, which would rank at the bottom.

Combine that with overall rank of 28th against the pass, that's damned pathetic from the highest paid team in the NFL.

[Forever Young]

Even with giving up 120+ to Tiki Barber, the Skins are giving up 3.5 yards per carry this year.

That's damn good. The run is being stuffed.

I would probably say respectable, but not damn good and definitely not stuffing the run game (i.e. Giants in week 4). Right the now the skins run defense is ranked 13th. They will get better though...it's still early in the season.

[RayNAustin]

Stats are not a good judge either way.

Wins and losses are the real deal.

We have 1 clear win against a team that has a collective record of 3-17 since last year.

We have 1 win against a team with a winning record, and that win could have easily been a loss.

We lost the opener against an underdog.

We were man handled twice by teams in our division.


Right now, we're keeping company with San Francisco at 2-3, last place NFC East.

Nothing good about that.

[Forever Young]

Right now, we're keeping company with San Francisco at 2-3, last place NFC East.

Nothing good about that.

I could not agree more, but the 49ers at least have an excuse though.