Thank you Santa For...

[KazooSkinsFan]

Yes, there are three games to go, but I think we have the gist of the season. What are my fellow Redskin fans thankful for this year? No sarcasm or negativity from the scrooges.

1) We have a veteran coach who's won and is committed to building a quality organization rather then chasing the latest low experience prodigy coach and the Past Their Prime Time Players. And he's ignored the Danny wannabe's who have endlessly advocated the policies of the Danny which have failed for a decade. These are the ones who'll be posting snide comments ignoring the point of the thread to follow.

2) This year's Draft - Wow, Kerrigan and Helu are already quality regulars. Hankerson appeared and looked good before he went down. We saw other guys like Paul and Gomez with potential. And we haven't even seen our #2 Jenkins who was roundly praised before he went out.

3) Focus on character. Goodbye Fat Albert and no thanks Chad Ocho Nutso and Terrell Owens.

4) Defense. What an improvement. We went from #30 to last I saw #11 in our second year and the D is starting to get the pressure it completely lacked before. Seems to be headed the right way.

5) Heart. Screw you neggies, there's been no quit in this team no matter how desperately you're going to try to manufacture it.

6) Next year's draft. A perk of building a solid team rather then renting one is that we made strides, but we'll pick up a high #1 and a #2 which is essentially almost a low #1. With what we did in this year's draft, I can't wait to see what we add next year.

7) Last and least in terms of how far we came, we finally started to get some pass catchers other then Moss and ey and we're starting to get some reliable O linemen. We still have no QB and a long way to go on O, but you don't sign a new quality O line in one year.

That's my list, what are the rest of you skins fans grateful for?

And the rest of you who claim to be fans, before you click "submit" read your posts and note that most of what you demand, you've attacked Danny for doing.

[SprintRightOption]

I'm thankful we have a back-up quarterback that can throw a touchdown pass greater than 48 yards. The double reverse wide-receiver option was the best play of the year. I have watched the replay 20 times and it was expertly executed at all positions. I hope we see it again.

[Irn-Bru]

The fat has been (almost entirely) trimmed from the roster. I am hopeful about our future.

[SkinsJock]

Thanks Kaz - we have a lot to be thankful for

with all the injuries a lot of 'fringe' players here are getting valuable time to show what they can do

We beat the giants twice this year - how great is that

we are not far off the pace and will be in the playoff chase next season


just love the fact that we beat the giants twice

[welch]

Yes, there are three games to go, but I think we have the gist of the season. What are my fellow Redskin fans thankful for this year? No sarcasm or negativity from the scrooges.

1) We have a veteran coach who's won and is committed to building a quality organization rather then chasing the latest low experience prodigy coach and the Past Their Prime Time Players. And he's ignored the Danny wannabe's who have endlessly advocated the policies of the Danny which have failed for a decade. These are the ones who'll be posting snide comments ignoring the point of the thread to follow.

2) This year's Draft - Wow, Kerrigan and Helu are already quality regulars. Hankerson appeared and looked good before he went down. We saw other guys like Paul and Gomez with potential. And we haven't even seen our #2 Jenkins who was roundly praised before he went out.

3) Focus on character. Goodbye Fat Albert and no thanks Chad Ocho Nutso and Terrell Owens.

4) Defense. What an improvement. We went from #30 to last I saw #11 in our second year and the D is starting to get the pressure it completely lacked before. Seems to be headed the right way.

5) Heart. Screw you neggies, there's been no quit in this team no matter how desperately you're going to try to manufacture it.

6) Next year's draft. A perk of building a solid team rather then renting one is that we made strides, but we'll pick up a high #1 and a #2 which is essentially almost a low #1. With what we did in this year's draft, I can't wait to see what we add next year.

7) Last and least in terms of how far we came, we finally started to get some pass catchers other then Moss and ey and we're starting to get some reliable O linemen. We still have no QB and a long way to go on O, but you don't sign a new quality O line in one year.

That's my list, what are the rest of you skins fans grateful for?

And the rest of you who claim to be fans, before you click "submit" read your posts and note that most of what you demand, you've attacked Danny for doing.

I agree with almost all of this. I think Grossman is a good number 2 QB...OL and DL seem to be improving, and I agree with Joe Gibbs that OL and Dl are the engine that makes a team move.

The need / desire to draft a QB worries me. The last time the Skins were really bad and went got the best QB in the draft. his name was Heath Shuler. (Previous time was Norm Snead, who was pretty good...)

Overall, Shanahan and Allen seem to be going the right direction. A litt;e better each week, and many losses that could have been wins if this ir that. Today, the Redskins got the breaks to start to make up for the bad ones...

My draft wish?

A QB, an OL, and a CB. Further: get good players from the 4th and 5th rounds...not just the 1st.

[The Hogster]

Thankful for

Kerrigan
Helu
Hankerson

Opportunity to draft a franchise QB.

Jarvis Jenkins to add to the mix.
Perry Riley coming on strong
London "Energizer" Fletcher

[StorminMormon86]

I'm thankful we swept the Giants. Also thankful that this team will be in contention in the near future.

[KazooSkinsFan]

I'm thankful we swept the Giants. Also thankful that this team will be in contention in the near future.

A full offseason will really help. I think the lockout hurt us more then most teams for three reasons.

Defense: The switch to the 3-4 and our lack of ability to build on last year's progress.

Offense: Lack of time to gel the O-Line more and that we had several young receivers with talent who had little work with our QB's.

Injuries: A big reason we had so many this year is probably highly linked to the great number we had last year and that the staff couldn't work with them on rehab.

[Chris Luva Luva]

And the rest of you who claim to be fans, before you click "submit" read your posts and note that most of what you demand, you've attacked Danny for doing.

This. This. This. I thought I was the only person who noticed this. Awesome post.

[Irn-Bru]

You aren't the only person who's noticed, CLL.

[langleyparkjoe]

Thankful that I have a football team up the street from me so I don't have to root for some other squad that's hundreds or thousands of miles away.

.. .. and thank you for letting us have a different color theme than any team in the league.

[CanesSkins26]

1) We have a veteran coach who's won and is committed to building a quality organization rather then chasing the latest low experience prodigy coach and the Past Their Prime Time Players. And he's ignored the Danny wannabe's who have endlessly advocated the policies of the Danny which have failed for a decade. These are the ones who'll be posting snide comments ignoring the point of the thread to follow.

I agree to an extent. I think that Shanahan is committed to building a quality organization, I just have doubts that he is actually capable of going it. After Elway (who he inherited) Shanahan did very little in Denver. He also struggled in the role of GM, so I think the jury is still out on his ability to turn this franchise around. He's made some very good moves (last year's draft) and some very poor decisions (McNabb trade and the handling of that whole situation, drafting Williams is starting to look highyl questionable). In many ways I think that this offseason will be "make or break" for Shanahan.

2) This year's Draft - Wow, Kerrigan and Helu are already quality regulars. Hankerson appeared and looked good before he went down. We saw other guys like Paul and Gomez with potential. And we haven't even seen our #2 Jenkins who was roundly praised before he went out.

I agree. The Kerrigan pick was fantastic. Obviously (Go Canes) I love the Hankerson pick. I'm not as high on Helu as some others, but at the very least he gives us great depth moving forward. This past draft did a lot of help some of our depth issues.

3) Focus on character. Goodbye Fat Albert and no thanks Chad Ocho Nutso and Terrell Owens.

I agree less with this. Getting rid of Albert was good, but it was a season too late. I also think that Shanahan needs to take a harder line with some of Hall's nonsense, and we still have to see how they deal with Williams and Davis. If Williams really tested positive as many times as he did we have a real problem with him.

4) Defense. What an improvement. We went from #30 to last I saw #11 in our second year and the D is starting to get the pressure it completely lacked before. Seems to be headed the right way.

The improvement has been very solid from the front 7 and there is a lot to build on there. I'm interested to see what they do with the secondary and I hope that we find Fletcher's replacement soon and not wait until Fletcher is done. [/quote]

[KazooSkinsFan]

I think that Shanahan is committed to building a quality organization, I just have doubts that he is actually capable of going it

I think Shannahan did more in Denver then you give him credit for. But I agree with you so far as I'm not convinced he'll take us all the way to Super Bowls here. But I think he's going to make us a solid organization. He could be a Jack Pardee who left Gibbs 1.0 with a quality organization. Many never recognized in criticizing Gibbs that 1.0 got a Pardee organization and 2.0 got a Spurrier organization. A world of difference.

[KazooSkinsFan]

drafting Williams is starting to look highyl questionable

...

The Kerrigan pick was fantastic.

That's drafting in the NFL. All failures doesn't work, but even in the first round no one's a sure thing. If on Williams you mean the testing failures I'm not sure how he's know that. From a skill perspective I think on average he's done pretty well with the top pick. And this year has had players who hit the field all through the draft.

[welch]

Sometimes you trade a future first round to draft a current third round pick, and everybody says you are nuts, and the third round guy is Russ Grimm. (And the first is Mark May...some draft!)

Some things are hard to predict.

[CanesSkins26]

drafting Williams is starting to look highyl questionable

...

The Kerrigan pick was fantastic.

That's drafting in the NFL. All failures doesn't work, but even in the first round no one's a sure thing. If on Williams you mean the testing failures I'm not sure how he's know that. From a skill perspective I think on average he's done pretty well with the top pick. And this year has had players who hit the field all through the draft.

I agree to an extent. However, the signs were out there with Williams and we still chose to draft him in the top 10. It's very rare that you see a player's college coach come out and say that a player doesn't have the best work ethic, and that's exactly what happened with Williams. I'm not sure if you've seen this already, but this is from Oklahoma's strength and conditioning coach:

On one hand, Schmidt made clear that Williams has incredible potential. On the other, well, we'll let Schmidt's words speak for themselves.

"He's one of those guys, he's definitely not a gym rat. If he was, there wouldn't be anybody even close to him," Schmidt said. "If he really committed himself, it wouldn't even be close. He'd be the best ever. That's how much talent he's got. There's a lot of talent there that he just hasn't tapped."


Schmidt said that Williams walked on campus as a freshmen and immediately impressed everyone with his abilities.

"He's got a lot of natural, God-given ability. He's got great feet, balance, which allows him to play both guard and tackle," Schmidt said. "Even as a young player, you could tell right away how talented he was. He has a great upper-body, just real natural strength. You look at him, the way he runs, there's not many athlete that big who can run like that. He's a very talented guy."

The key, he says, is maximizing that talent. That will take a sincere personal commitment from Williams. Some people around the league have questioned whether a big contract and an immediate starting position would push Williams to work hard as a pro. But Williams is already talking about Pro Bowls and Super Bowls, which you don't earn by simply setting foot on the Radio City Music Hall stage and holding up an NFL jersey.

"My biggest thing with him, right now he's got the talent to be the best that's ever come out of here. He was one of the best," Schmidt said. "If he put his mind to it and really went after it, the sky's the limit for him. He could go to the Pro Bowl as many times as he wants. But it's on him, how hard he wants to play, how much he puts into it, how good he wants to be."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/redskinsinsider/the-main-knock-against-left.html

The signs were there of issues with Williams work habits, so the Skins knew that there was risk to drafting him.

[StorminMormon86]

Sounds like another Haynesworthless to me.

[langleyparkjoe]

Why ya'll breaking down what people are thankful for? LOL

[The Hogster]

Thankful that our Defense jumped back up this year. I was beginning to think--last year--that Haslett didn't know how to coordinate an effective 3-4 Defense.

[ROBDOG66]

I am thankful for getting some quality playing time for our young players, albeit at the cost of injuries. But they are showing they want to ball and be what a true Redskin is

[KazooSkinsFan]

I am thankful for getting some quality playing time for our young players, albeit at the cost of injuries. But they are showing they want to ball and be what a true Redskin is.

Excellent point. Yes, the circumstances weren't good. But we did get some real playing time and we seem to have found some keepers. It's going to not only give us starting options but depth going forward.

[Chris Luva Luva]

Why ya'll breaking down what people are thankful for? LOL

LMAO, right!!! I couldn't believe it but then I thought about it, and I could. lol

[Redskin in Canada]

I am thankful for progress and, most of all, for not having Dumb and Dumber making personel and on-the-field decisions for this Team anymore.

[1niksder]

You aren't the only person who's noticed, CLL.

+1 more

[SkinsJock]

And the rest of you who claim to be fans, before you click "submit" read your posts and note that most of what you demand, you've attacked Danny for doing.

This. This. This. I thought I was the only person who noticed this. Awesome post.

thanks Chris
it will be interesting to see what happens over the next 5 months here as this FO get's to have another great draft
AND brings in more free agents that can help here

WITHOUT giving away draft picks

and .... HOPEFULLY not behaving like Cerrato & Snyder did