Rod Gardner

oafusp · Post by **oafusp** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 6:28 pm

Ok, I am officially (always have been) a fan of Rod Gardner.
Especially after realizing the guy has been through the most inconsistant 3 years a pro football player could go through.

Fact:

Rod has has these QB's:

Jeff George
Kent Graham
Tony Banks
Shane Matthews
Danny Wuerfull
Patrick Ramsey (injured)

Rod has had some crappy offensive schemes:

Marty Shotenheimer's conservative ball control offense
Steve Spurrier's Fun n` Gun experiment

Rod has only played 3 seasons:

2001 Rookie year w/ limited playing time
2002 Sophmore year with QB carousel
2003 Season behind Coles, and Spurrier's system did not even allow the QB to get the ball in the air

You must remember that Rod was a 1st round pick, he has a ton of talent, he is a big possesion receiver, and wants to prove all the haters wrong.

Give this guy a season under Joe Gibbs and the REAL ROD GARDNER WILL STAND UP. Not to mention this is HIS CONTRACT YEAR. The Redskins fron office knows how players perform during their contract year. The signing of McCants and Thrash will only serve as motivation for Gardner this season.

Watch out, I think he will be AWESOME dude.

theposse87 · Post by **theposse87** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 6:35 pm

how soon we all forget how many DROPS Gardner had....

But he still has talent to make Coles, McCants or Jacobs and himself the new posse!

Magoo · Post by **Magoo** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 6:41 pm

Well stated. I'm raising my can of bud to you right now.

With that said, I think we're going to lose Rod after next year anyway. His contract is up and somebody will offer him top dollar.

If we trade him now, we see a return on his eventual loss - ala B. Johnson - and we can potentially use the draft pick he'd bring to help bolster the defense.

And maybe that's not such a bad thing. At most, Gibbs is going to keep three recievers happy - Coles is #1, and he singled out Jacobs during mini-camp for praise, Thrash is the utility man, and it says a ton that they just resigned McCants with praise comparing him to Monk.

It just seems that Rod is the odd man out.

frankcal20 · Post by **frankcal20** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 6:43 pm

All those statements are true. I dont know what i would do if i were the 'skins. It would mainly depend on his overall performance and how his attitude. When i met him last year he was very motavated and energetic about the season. That is the Gardner i know. But, I know that with a lot of players, when their responsabilities are taken away. Spurrier ran plays where he wasnt going to get the ball thrown to him so i be he wasnt expecting the ball to come to him anyways. But, his previous season's #'s shows that he does have talent.

oafusp · Post by **oafusp** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 6:53 pm

theposse87 wrote:how soon we all forget how many DROPS Gardner had....

But he still has talent to make Coles, McCants or Jacobs and himself the new posse!

DROPS? I have heard that a lot lately.

Does anyone know who Darryl Jackson is? He had a lot more drops than Gardner last season. Johnnie Morton had a few drops too.

It is a fact that receivers drop passes, but nobody has ever stated what the fine line is when it is too many. Is it 5,6,10, 20 drops until you get labeled as 50/50?

Patrick Ramsey will work on his touch (remember, Gardner was a possesion receiver and Ramsey would rocket 8 yard passes to Gardner), and Brunell has great touch on the ball.

my 2 centz

frankcal20 · Post by **frankcal20** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 7:01 pm

I do remember those rocket 2 yarders. Coming from a previous receiver, its kind of hard to react when the ball comes out and is at you less than 1 sec. later.

redskincity · Post by **redskincity** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 7:12 pm

Heep him we will need him down the stretch.

Skinsfan55 · Post by **Skinsfan55** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 7:25 pm

I have 6 Rod Gardner rookie cards, so I say keep him! :-)

surferskin · Post by **surferskin** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 8:01 pm

i definitely say we need to keep him.

frankcal20 · Post by **frankcal20** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 8:04 pm

He's worth keeping around but you have to admit, if we get a very attractive offer then we cant pass it up.

theposse87 · Post by **theposse87** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 8:36 pm

yeah but I can recall those 3rd and 5's where Gardner dropped the first down and Barker punted the ball the 5 yrds.
He is a solid #2 but will never be the #1., thats why Coles was brought here last year.

Redskins4Life · Post by **Redskins4Life** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 8:55 pm

Whoa Posse, he'll never be a #1? When he was the number one in only his 2nd season in the league he caught 71 balls for 1000+ yards! If that isn't #1 reciever stats then I dont know what is? I too am a huge Rod Gardner fan Oafusp, and I think you made some great points. Great post man.

BringThePain! · Post by **BringThePain!** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 9:00 pm

listen i loved Gardner coming out of college, I've been rooting for him to come out of his shell this whole time now... heck, i've had him on my fantasy football team since he was a rookie.... The fact is.... yes he had alot of poor coaching and alot of crap QB's throwing to him.... when he did get balls thrown his way....he dropped them.... and these weren't hard to catch, over the sholder catches... these where little 5 yard slants, wide open muffs...most of the time on 3rd downs when we needed a first...like skinsfanfromroanoke said in one of his posts...it's become a shock when he catches one rather than a shock when he dropped one....

Lets say he stays, and has a good or great year... he's gonna comand a high salary, and with all things were gonna need money on... are we really gonna give him what he wants...i don't think so... not when will still be set at WR

And if he doesn't have a good year.... well then it's gonna be harder to trade him for a high draft pick next year, than it will be this year... I say we get something high for him while we can, and give some of these other guys a shot.... it's only gonna help the redskins in the long run....

kkryan · Post by **kkryan** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 10:06 pm

I say good bye Mr. Gardner. I have several reasons for the previous statement. All the drops are frustrating to me as a fan no matter who is throwing the ball or what scheme. The only thing more frustrating than the drops is the penalties. He holds a lot and I am suprised no one has brought up that inconsistent part of his game. Third of all, we could use some draft picks and we have a deep crop of ball catchers.

floridaskinsfan · Post by **floridaskinsfan** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 7:55 am

Keep Rod. He is a good player with a good attitude.

NC43Hog · Post by **NC43Hog** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 10:20 am

I'm not sure the Skins have the luxury of "waiting for Rod to come out of his shell". Every team has to burden of winning now - the fact is we have a surplus at WR so someone will have to go, and having said that, who will get us the best return. We know Coles isn't going anywhere.

While I would love to see how Rod would do under a HOF coach, I know our needs on Defense are still great. If we can get a good 2nd round pick for this year, then we have to be open to that.

Bottom line - I want to win, and if trading Gardner puts us in a better position to do that, I can't object.

oafusp · Post by **oafusp** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 11:03 am

Well, if he has a great year you have to keep him. You don't win in the NFL if you let players go just because they are good and want to be compensated for it. duh!

He has had crappy QB's and crappy coaches.
Let's see how this pans out in 2004.
If Ramsey is the man that means he would have fixed his "touch" problem and won't bullet 3rd and 5 passes. Brunell already has great touch.

Mark Maske posted a great Rod Gardner article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... Mar31.html

BringThePain! · Post by **BringThePain!** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 11:12 am

oafusp wrote:You don't win in the NFL if you let players go just because they are good and want to be compensated for it. duh!

The Patriots have been doing this for the past couple of years and they seem to be doing ok...

even if Gardner Does have a good season... That would make him have a good season every other year... 2 out of 4.... Do we then take a chance and pay him top dollar, which I'm sure he'll want... for a guy thats 50/50?

There's guys waiting in the wings... that can do just as good as he's done... why not get some value for him while we still can... Do you believe he'll one day turn into a T.O.,Moss,Rice,Harrison type of reciever? I have a hard time believing he'll ever amount to those guys...

oafusp · Post by **oafusp** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 11:19 am

BringThePain! wrote:
The Patriots have been doing this for the past couple of years and they seem to be doing ok...

Good point about the Pats. Can you name any players that fit that description besides Lawyer Milloy last season?

You cannot forget what happens when the Redskins let a young player go, it comes back to bite us.

Thrash
Mitchell
Kalu
to name a few

It would piss me off to see Gardner playing against us one day when he finally gets a consistant team atmosphere and his career peaks.

BringThePain! · Post by **BringThePain!** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 11:56 am

oafusp wrote:Good point about the Pats. Can you name any players that fit that description besides Lawyer Milloy last season?

Well other than Milloy...they got rid of Bledsoe...and they just let go of Washington this year... he had a pretty good year for them...

But you can't say Gardner even compares to those players... those are top notch well known guys.... I doubt anybody outside that doesn't keep up with the washington sports scene knows who gardner is... If he comes back and bites us well so be it.... I'm willing to take the chance... You can say also, what if he doesn't pan out? Then it will bite us for not trading him years earlier? We already hung on to one WR for his potential too long (Westbrook)... I don't really want to do it again..

oafusp · Post by **oafusp** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 12:08 pm

BringThePain! wrote:
Well other than Milloy...they got rid of Bledsoe...and they just let go of Washington this year... he had a pretty good year for them...

But you can't say Gardner even compares to those players... those are top notch well known guys.... I doubt anybody outside that doesn't keep up with the washington sports scene knows who gardner is... If he comes back and bites us well so be it.... I'm willing to take the chance... You can say also, what if he doesn't pan out? Then it will bite us for not trading him years earlier? We already hung on to one WR for his potential too long (Westbrook)... I don't really want to do it again..

Well, Bledsoe was released do to the emergence of Tom Brady combined with his salary cap...Nobody has emerged here yet (McCants and Jabobs have never been a #2, and Thrash is not as talented as Gardner in my opinion)

Washington was only a 1 year player, signed to fill the need last summer.

Westbrook had no trade value when his contract was ending, his peak value was after the 1999 season...then it went downhill. But he was on the team for many years with the same coach (offense) and had Brad Johnson..... In Gardner's case he has only been on the team for 3 season and has had 2 coaches with horrible schemes and 5 bad QB's.

With Gardner we should just play this season, his contract season, out and see what he has...even if it is his 3rd coach and possibly another new QB. You've gotta pitty Gardner...since he was drafted he has not been in a stable enviorment to show his skills, and now as his contract expires he has another new system. It would only be fair to keep him this season and it is all on him to make it or break it.

OR we can trade him for a 2nd round draft pick and let Vinny blow it....you know how good Vinny is with his 2nd round picks

redskinz4ever · Post by **redskinz4ever** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 12:18 pm

KEEP HIM!under gibbs his focus could improve.he could be the keep the chains moving type wide receiver.REDSKINZ4EVER!!!

FootLongHog · Post by **FootLongHog** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 12:27 pm

I keep hearing complaints about his systems and coaches but spurrier PASSED the ball all the time. LC played with pennington and a jets team that made the playoffs before he came here, and his stats were almost identical to his stats in the spurrier offense. what about gardner's numbers???

So what, he had one pretty good year ( NOT a great year by any means). wr's like rod gardner are not hard to come by, especially wr's who are terrible blockers and don't contribute on special teams.

Add on to that the fact that he has been dropping clutch balls since his college days and I say if we could get a 2nd rnder, you have to take it, if you can get a 3rd then you have to consider it.

However, I doubt that teams will want to trade a 2nd or him, which tells you that teams think that taking a chance on a 2nd rnd. wr in this draft is better than getting rod "don't-throw-to-me-on 3rd-down" gardner.

oafusp · Post by **oafusp** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 12:40 pm

FootLongHog wrote:I keep hearing complaints about his systems and coaches but spurrier PASSED the ball all the time. LC played with pennington and a jets team that made the playoffs before he came here, and his stats were almost identical to his stats in the spurrier offense. what about gardner's numbers???

Actually, Spurrier TRIED to pass the ball.
Most plays ended by the time the QB dropped 6 steps back.

TopHawg · Post by **TopHawg** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 3:26 pm

excellent post oafusp