Vinny on the Radio
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:27 pm
Here's a recap of Vinny's interview on 980 this morning with Doc Walker....
http://blog.redskins.com/2009/03/27/friday-march-27-return-of-the-red-zone/
http://blog.redskins.com/2009/03/27/cerrato-on-the-draft-this-year-and-last/
Friday, March 27: Return of the Red Zone
"Inside The Red Zone With Vinny Cerrato" returned to the ESPN980 airwaves this morning, airing for an hour with Rick "Doc" Walker in the host's seat in place of Redskins beat reporter (and excellent T-shirt wearer) Frank Hanrahan.
The themes were familiar -- the Jason Taylor trade, the young wide receivers, the upcoming draft -- but it's always interesting to hear Cerrato face the questions head on.
(Also of interest in this particular broadcast was Walker's ever-evolving roster of imaginary call-in guests. "Louie from Landover and I want to know," he'd say, or "Luther from Landover." Or "Ray from Reston" and "Ray from Rockville." I was eagerly awaiting the thoughts of Quincy in Quantico, Yolanda in Yorkshire Knolls, or Wallace from Winchester-on-the-Severn.)
If you want to listen to the show, it's up in ESPN980's Audio Vault, but here are some of the more interesting answers.
On trading for Jason Taylor last year:
Cerrato: "Let's go back to the Jason Taylor thing: would I do it again if it were the same thing right now? Yeah, I think I'd have to. We're coming off a playoff year. First day, first drill, we lose our starting defensive end, and there's a pro bowl defensive end out there. To give up a two and a six the following year, which was really a seventh this past year...."
"And the other reason I pushed to do it is when Phillip [Daniels] went down, the air went out of the team. And I remember telling Jim and Dan, we need to give the guys some confidence. Give them something to feel like, all right, we have a chance again."
On re-signing Derrick Dockery after his performance flagged last year:
Cerrato: "You know, what we did was, we went back and looked at film.
"I went back to 2007 and watched him play. I watched him play the NFC East. I watched him play Dallas, Philly, the Giants and us and I thought against Dallas, I would have selected him to go to the Pro Bowl. I mean, he wore out Chris Canty that day.
"I mean Doc- the thing about it, the way he looked in his uniform, he wasn't soft looking. He lost his baby fat. He wasn't on the ground. He found his balance. He had a real good punch with the right arm, because I was sitting there watching it with Buges and Scott Campbell.
"Then I watched '08, where they said he didn't play as good. Maybe he didn't play quite as good, but he still played pretty good. Then we went back and watched him play in '06, when he got the big contract from playing with us and he improved so much. They paid him watching '06.
"Watching him play in '07 and '08, yeah I like that Dock. His body is in better shape. He lost the baby fat. His balance was better. He ran better. Everything he did was better. So we were excited about getting him back.
"The thing about it was, when we heard he was getting cut I called Buffalo and I said, are you guys trading him, because there was a rumor they were trading him to Detroit and they were trying to do this paperwork by 4 o'clock because he had a roster bonus and they didn't want to get stuck paying the money if he went somewhere and failed the physical. So I was on the phone with him until 4 o'clock and they said, oh we didn't get the paperwork in so he'll be on the wire.
"So then we went to working and Doc called me after he got cut. He said, look I want to be in there. My agent is going to play it tough, but just hang in there with me. I'll be back. And Chris Samuels is his boy and Chris is calling me. They're texting each other. And Chris is ecstatic he is back. I think that was a win-win for everybody."
On paying the money to DeAngelo Hall:
Cerrato: "I will say this, we got him with I think seven games to go. We had to pay him a prorated portion of his salary, which was like $490,000.... So we told him when we signed him, listen, if we like you at the end and you like us at the end and everything works, we will give you a market deal and he said okay.
"And you know what? He played his butt off.
"After the season I talked to London Fletcher and I talked to a bunch of the guys on defense and I said, do you want him back. How was he? He [London] said, 'he was great in the locker room. He was a great teammate. He took notes in meetings. He practices hard. Good competitor. Yeah, we want him back.'
"Everyone I talked to, unanimous, coaches wanted him back. So does he fit in? Yeah.
"And I think the thing about the guy here is, he's home. And I saw him yesterday and I said, 'I heard you're going to buy a big house.' He said, 'I'm trying to sell my house down in Atlanta because I want to move home.' You know, so he has his family here. He can go home for Thanksgiving to have Thanksgiving with his mom. So I think it is a different environment. Plus, he's older and we have the London Fletchers around, we have Griff, we have these veteran guys around he can talk to.
"London told me many times he had conversations with him, just sat him down, you know what happened in Oakland, and those kind of things and how we practice and I think he has a great relationship with Jerry Gray. And we let him play defense, Greg Blache's philosophy is let our guys do what they do best. DeAngelo, what he does best: play off. How do you perform best? And I think that is what we saw when DeAngelo played. He got his hands on the ball a lot. He had what, three picks when he was here and a fumble.
"So I think with us getting Albert [Haynesworth] also, DeAngelo has the chance to have a huge year. I mean, Doc, you saw him in college. The guy has phenomenal ball skills. He can go get the ball. He can make turnovers. He can make plays. So I mean, we are happy. The first day of the off season he is here working out. He is here everyday, so I mean, everything that we have been exposed to, he has been outstanding."
On how Albert Haynesworth differs from previous free agent signee Dana Stubblefield:
Cerrato: "What was interesting, when I was with San Fran, we came and played a Monday night here Stubby's first year and all he did was, he was taking all the players around before the game and saying 'See my suite up there? I got that.'
"He was just fat and happy. He got paid and that was it.
"The thing is, Albert, he says, I want to be the best. When people talk about defensive tackles in this league, I want to be mentioned. I want to go to the Hall of Fame. That is what he wants to do. You notice the number he wears. He's from Tennessee, and it's Reggie White's number and, Doc, I was in San Fran when Reggie was a free agent, when he went to Green Bay. And we were trying to get him and he went to Green Bay. I think he was older than Albert is at this time and what he did to that defense and what he did to that team...
Walker: "Super Bowl."
Cerrato: "Right."
http://blog.redskins.com/2009/03/27/friday-march-27-return-of-the-red-zone/
More from Vinny Cerrato's radio appearance this morning.
Rick "Doc" Walker -- who did a terrific job during this show -- asked point blank about the Redskins' upcoming draft selections, and Cerrato was surprisingly frank. So here's something to factor to your future draft speculation, as well as some more insight into the thinking behind last year's draft.
On if University of Texas DE Brian Orakpo will be there at the thirteenth pick:
Cerrato: "No. He will not be there."
On Andre Smith, who Walker calls "the nastiest guy I saw on film," and if he would be a viable pick if he dropped to thirteen:
Cerrato: "He would be a definite candidate Doc.
"You know what, the thing about it was, prior to the season ending in college he was projected to go as high as two. And then he got in trouble with the agent thing, so he got suspended for the game. Then the combine, he left early and then at his workout, I don't know who advised him to run without his shirt on.
"But then the thing about it is, what happens, Doc, is you make those thoughts at that time. Then what happens is when you get into the meetings in April, you go back to the tape -- and the tape don't lie -- and then you start watching the tape and say you know, this guy is pretty good. He probably won't be there at thirteen, either, Doc. The guy is a talented player.
"Who is going to be there? I don't know because, Doc, there is so much time yet.
"Let's just take us through kind of where we're at, what our schedule is. The scouts come back in the end of March, on that Sunday. And then we meet from then, basically until the week prior to the Draft. And that is kind of when we're taking our board and ranking each position and that is when all the scouts are in there.
"The pro scouts, college scouts, because everybody is responsible -- the staff is in there too. Coaches are in there, too. When we are in there it is like, you say what you have to say now because if you don't say it now, in a week I don't want you to come back and say, you know what? I like this guy better. It ain't happening.
"If you want to say something you say it in this room when we are talking about him, otherwise it don't change. Because then you know what happens is, after the meetings, then coaches, they go talk to their friends. 'How did you like this guy? How did you like that guy?' And then they'll say, 'Oh, maybe I'm wrong,' and then we'll start second-guessing ourselves.
"Why do that work then if you're just going to talk to your friends? You have to be about the work that you have done and what you have seen and what you have seen at that time because the thing about it is, we are sitting in there and ... say Andre Smith. We are taking him and we're making a tell-a-story tape and a tell-a-story tape is like 40 plays and after you watch the tell-a story-tape.. and the reason I don't call it a highlight tape is because it's not highlights. It's tell-a-story. You put it together and show what he can do and what he can't do, so when you are done watching you say, alright you know his strengths and his weaknesses.
"So if he can't pass block, you show him getting beat a bunch of times in pass pro. If he is a great run block, you see all the drive blocks. We watch the tell-a-story tape then we watch about three regular games of him and then what we'll do is, Scott Campbell will run the projector and what I like to do is take notes the whole time. It's like I'm writing a report again.
"And then after we get done watching the tape Scott will go around the room and ask everybody their opinion, what they think. And then we will write one Redskin report on the guy and put a Redskin grade on it and then we'll put him up on the board. Then we'll watch the next guy and so on and so forth, all the way down. And it's a lot easier to compare them when you are watching them one right after another, bam bam bam, all the way down and you get a pretty good comparison."
On selecting Devin Thomas over Virginia Tech (and now Denver Bronco) WR Eddie Royal in last year's draft:
Cerrato: "We liked Eddie Royal, Doc. What it came down to is, Eddie Royal is about 5'9", okay? Santana [Moss] and Antwaan [Randle El] are both that size. We wanted bigger guys. We did not want another little guy because we already had two. We wanted bigger guys. We wanted a couple bigger guys, so that is why we went in that direction. We weren't looking for another little guy because we had Santana and we had Antwaan and we wanted bigger guys. We already had that mold and we didn't have the big guy. In the west coast offense, there are a lot of slants and a lot of those things and having a bigger presence was what we were looking for."
On drafting Chad Rinehart, and his performance last year:
Cerrato: "I liked him at the Senior Bowl, because you saw him playing guard and you saw him pulling....
"The thing about it is basically during the whole [2008] season he ran the other team's plays. He was on the scout team. What plays did he get with the starting team? Really none. Well, he did the last two weeks because he got to dressing, and what the players and what Buges told me is he really improved a lot the last two weeks because he was getting in the real reps. Because otherwise they are running the other team's plays. As you are running the other team's plays, you're not worried about your steps, your fundamentals, all those things."
[At this point, Doc Walker asked who filled in for Pete Kendall during his regular Wedensday non-practices.]
Cerrato: "[Jason] Fabini, because of the guys that were dressing. Rinehart wasn't dressing. The reason Fabini was dressing was because he could play right tackle, right guard, left guard, because as you know, we were dressing seven, so you have to be versatile, so you always- [Justin] Geisinger was always dressing because nobody else could play center. Fabini dressed because he would play all three spots.
Walker: "Couldn't that retard a young kid's growth? How can a rookie learn 5 positions?"
Cerrato: "That is basically impossible. Because a rookie coming in, they know nothing anyhow, they are overwhelmed, especially an offensive lineman. He's playing left tackle, left guard, right tackle ... and as you know, all the positions are different.
"Fundamentally, the steps are different. At guard the guy is on him right away. At tackle he has the wide rusher. At guard he has two guys next to him to help him. Everything is different. It takes time to develop so what you are going to see, like what you are going to see now, Devin Clark, those guys, they are going to play guard in the offseason now.
Walker: "What about Stephon Heyer?"
Cerrato: "Stephon is playing right tackle. That's it. He is a right tackle. He is playing right tackle right now. I said, 'hey, Stephon. Take that job. Go get that job.'
"He weighed in at 330 pounds and he looked good. What Stephon needs to do is just keep working on his fundamentals. When he would bend his knees, Doc, he has arms that would go from here to down the street. As a pass rusher if he gets his hands on it, he's good, but if he just sits down and got his hands tight -- and I'm sure you heard that many times, tight hands -- now if he does his fundamentals right he is hard to beat. But when he stands tall, doesn't bend his knees, you can walk him back. So strength and fundamentals is what he is going to be working on this whole offseason."
http://blog.redskins.com/2009/03/27/cerrato-on-the-draft-this-year-and-last/
couldn't have been the system 
I was gonna say something similar.. that's the first time i've agreed with everything he said.. from Jason Taylor on down.