The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

Will Redskins Party Like It's 1991?


Sanders, Clark, Monk By: Rich Tandler
Editor-in-Chief
Date: Jul 5, 2006

By all indications, the Redskins are headed for a special season in 2006. But how special? Can they come close to matching the performance of Joe Gibbs' last championship team, one of the best NFL teams of all time?

Let’s see here. The 1990 Redskins, coached by Joe Gibbs, went 10-6 and made the playoffs after a multi-year absence. They were a Wild Card entry, having finished behind the division-champion New York Giants They won a Wild Card game on the road before traveling west to San Francisco and bowing out in the divisional round. Gibbs also coached the 2005 Redskins and last year they went 10-6 to end a playoff drought as a Wild Card entrant having finished second to the Giants. The ’05 Skins also won a road playoff game prior to going to the West Coast and losing to Seattle.

As we all know, the ’90 Redskins became the 1991 edition, one of the best teams in NFL history. They went 14-2, outscoring the opposition by better than a 2-1 margin. After steamrolling their way through the playoffs they crushed the Bills in Super Bowl XXVI.

The question that must be asked is the obvious one—will history repeat? To start to look at the possibilities here, let’s look at each area of the team and compare the ’91 and ’06 editions.

Offensive line
The 1991 line gave up a mere nine sacks of Mark Rypien, hardly the most mobile of quarterbacks. While they had help from a lot of max protect schemes that Gibbs utilized it was still an amazing performance. Even with a more mobile quarterback in Mark Brunell, that number would be pretty hard to match in today’s blitz-happy NFL; the fewest sacks allowed by a team last year was 20 by the Colts. Washington would do well to come close to that number in 2006.

There isn’t a lineman on today’s Redskins who is as good as Jim Lachey, who could have been a Hall of Fame left tackle had injuries not cut his career short. Jeff Bostic at center and Joe Jacoby, who played most of the year at right tackle, were past their primes but still had enough in the tank to get the job done. You’d have to think that they would start over Casey Rabach and Jon Jansen. Randy Thomas might be ready to get the Pro Bowl recognition that the man who played his position in ’91, Mark Schlereth, got that year. Raleigh McKenzie would certainly get the nod over Derrick Dockery at left guard.

Maybe this current line will live up to all the hype that I’ve been giving them for the past year, but for right now you have to think that the ’91 line is clearly the superior unit.

Quarterback
Just as there are question marks surrounding Brunell’s ability to stay healthy and lead a deep playoff run today, similar doubts surrounded Rypien going in to 1991. Rypien had missed six games in ’90 due to injuries and hadn’t shown that he had the ability to win the big ones. On top of that, he held out for the first part of training camp, drawing the ire of fans and coaches alike in the process. He turned the question marks into exclamation points by passing for 3,564 yards and 28 touchdowns. It would not be unprecedented for a quarterback to post something close to such numbers at the age of 36, which is how old Brunell will be by Week 2 next year.

Running back
Ernest Byner ran for 1,048 yards in 1991 and rookie Ricky Ervins chipped in 680. Clinton Portis could exceed that combined total by himself this year. He combines Byner’s power and Ervins’ elusiveness into one package. All due respect to Byner, Portis’ current position coach, but the running back position is far superior now to what it was in 1991.

Receivers
Please don’t take this wrong, but Art Monk was past his prime in 1991. He was still an excellent receiver, but his peak season was in 1984, seven years earlier. Ricky Sanders was not quite at his peak either as he had enjoyed his two 1,000-yard seasons in 1988 and 1989. Those two complimented Gary Clark, who had his best season in 1991, just as Santana Moss had his best in 2005. It will take some doing for Moss, Antwaan Randle El, and Brandon Lloyd to match the productivity of the Posse, as that trio combined for 186 catches for 2,969 yards.

Defensive Line

When Andre Carter appeared on the field at minicamp it appeared at first glance that we were back in Carlisle in the late 1980’s and Charles Mann was going to work. Like Mann was, Carter has a tall, angular build (actually, at 6-4 Carter is two inches shorter than Mann) and, like Mann, he takes a cerebral approach to the game. In 1991 Mann was entering his ninth year in the league and would make his fourth trip to the Pro Bowl. Carter has yet to go to Hawaii, but he’s entering his fifth season. That’s the same year that Mann broke through with is first appearance. In short, Andre Carter isn’t Charles Mann at this time, but he could be soon.

On the other hand, Tim Johnson is no Cornelius Griffin. Johnson was a nice player and a hell of a teammate, but he didn’t have the ability to blow up the middle of the line on a consistent basis like Griffin does. Tackle Eric Williams and end Fred Stokes were good journeyman players as are Joe Salave’a and Philip Daniels. It could be argued that the ’91 unit was deeper, especially with Jumpy Geathers coming off of the bench. That’s true, but it would be a mistake to underrate the likes of Demetric Evans and Renaldo Wynn who can play both inside and outside.

The 1991 defense racked up 50 sacks. This year’s unit, which tallied 35 in ’05, could easily reach that total if the team operates with as many large leads as the ’91 team did.

Linebacker

There is no pair of players on the two teams we’re comparing here who are as similar as Marcus Washington and Wilbur Marshall. They’re both Pro Bowl caliber, fast, athletic, every down strong side linebackers who are equally adept at going sideline to sideline in run defense and in dropping back in pass coverage. In the middle, linebacker Matt Millen was clearly a more accomplished player than Lemar Marshall is, but in 1991 Millen was well past his prime and was usually out of the game in anything remotely resembling a passing situation while Marshall is solid against the run and exceptional in pass defense. Andre Collins probably is better than whoever will start at the other outside LB spot.

Today’s team doesn’t have anyone like Monte Coleman or Kurt Gouveia, who provided depth and excellent pass defense in 1991.

Defensive backs

This is the one area on defense where today’s team has a clear advantage. Danny Copeland and Brad Edwards made up a decent pair of safeties, but they were not of the caliber that changed offensive game plans as Sean Taylor and Adam Archuleta will. Darrell Green had another excellent season at corner and Martin Mayhew had a career year but as a pair they aren’t clearly superior to Shawn Springs and Carlos Rogers, especially if Rogers starts reaching the upside of his potential.

Specialists

Even if John Hall comes back to his old form following surgery to repair some muscles in his upper leg he still won’t have the range of Chip Lohmiller in 1991. Lohmiller was money in the bank inside 50 yards and a threat all the way back to midfield. It won’t be hard for the Skins to get somebody who can punt as well as Kelly Goodburn did in ’91, but that somebody probably isn’t Derrick Frost.

In 1991 Brian Mitchell, who was a quarterback in college, broke through as a premiere punt returner, averaging 13.3 yards and scoring two touchdowns. Antwaan Randle El, also a former college QB, could well have similar production this year.

Intangibles

One of the legendary aspects of the 1991 team was the presence of a core of veterans who had been around since Joe Gibbs’ first Super Bowl win in 1982. Coleman, Monk, Jacoby, Bostic, Grimm, and Warren provided leadership and big-game experience. The current team is not lacking in character by any means, but there aren’t many Super Bowl rings in the possession of players.

The ’91 team also was blessed with excellent health. They used 15 starters on offense and 17 on defense with several of the changes in starters being made for strategic reasons and not because the usual starter couldn’t play.

SHalter20 wrote:Good post man... well what do you think? How do we stack up against the 91 team? Can we be as good? Can we go all the way?

skinsfan#33 wrote:While I think that the 91 team was better at every stating position other than RB (I still would give the 91 RB the edge in short yardage/goal line stituation) the biggest difference was in depth. I mean Joe Jacoby, Mark Schlereth, Monte Coleman, Kurt Gouveia, Jummpy Geathers, and Gerald Riggs were all back ups at the begining of the season. I give my run down of each position as a whole:

O-line - 91 -No contest (Jim Hannafen could have fielded all backups that would have performed better than our current group)

WR - 91 -Again no contest. I love Moss, but he and Clark would be a push at best, Monk and Sanders (well lets just say if LLoyde, Randle-el, or Patten perform half as good as Monk and Sanders we will be great this year!

RB - 05 - Portis is much better than Byner, the same with Betts over Ervins, but Gerald Riggs makes this a close match. I would love to have him for the Heavy Jumbo package.

TE/HB - Push -you could make an arguement either way.

QB - 91 -Again no contest. Brunnel in his entire career has never matched the kind of season that Ryp had in 91. This isn't even counting Stan Humphreys at backup. Campbell may end up being better than Stan, but at this point no way.

Offense - 91 -by a MILE or two!

D-line - 91 -As a whole they were just better.

LB - 91 -Again no contest. M. Washington is great, but Wilbur Marshal was even better. M. Millen/Gouviea combo was very good, but if someone wants to say L. Marshal is better I wouldn't argue, but I say it is a push. There is no way anyone plays as well as Andre Collins and Monte Coleman did that year.

DB - push - Green was better than Springs is now, the same for M. Mayhew over Roggers. Copeland and Edwards are truly mismatched physically by Archulleta and Taylor, but Taylor has yet to turn in a game as good as Edwards had in SB XXVI and Edwards played great all year. Copeland, you some times forgot he was on the team, because he NEVER gave up a big play (A.A. ARE YOU READING THIS), but seldom made a big play.

Defense - 91 - They didn't give up a single point the entire month of September at home. Think of that!!! Three straight shut-outs and one was a 45 - 0 blow out of the eventual no 2 seed, the 12-4 Detroit Lions and a 23 - 0 thumping of an 10 -6 Eagles. The 91 squad was #3 in yardage and #2 in points allowed that year on D.

ST - 91 - Kicker - Chip "shot" Lowmiller (he scored more points that year than the entire Indy Team). KR/PR - B. Mitch!. Punter both Frost and Goodburn suck:(

A note in favor of the 05 team - the competion level is just so much weaker now that some of the advantages that the 91 team had were nuetralize by the fact that they played in a division were the 4th place team went 8 - 8, 3rd was 10 - 6, and 2nd was 11 -5. Before free agency there were have and have nots. And any good team had guys at the back up spots that could start for most teams now and a lot of teams then.

JPM36 wrote:Arent we getting a little ahead of ourselves....

1niksder wrote:

JPM36 wrote:Arent we getting a little ahead of ourselves....

Just a wee bit

Receivers
Please don’t take this wrong, but Art Monk was past his prime in 1991. He was still an excellent receiver, but his peak season was in 1984, seven years earlier. Ricky Sanders was not quite at his peak either as he had enjoyed his two 1,000-yard seasons in 1988 and 1989. Those two complimented Gary Clark, who had his best season in 1991, just as Santana Moss had his best in 2005. It will take some doing for Moss, Antwaan Randle El, and Brandon Lloyd to match the productivity of the Posse, as that trio combined for 186 catches for 2,969 yards.