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

I was a big fan of Rambo in college but in all honesty he should ONLY be in on 3rd and long situations for this team. His tackling, angles, and aggression isn't adequate enough for any shorter distanced downs. Do you agree?

Hopefully Meriweather comes back this week as well as a Reed Doughty sighting, who is much better in tackling and reading defenses.

I thought Rambo played pretty well. His tackling and angles are about 1,000% better than they were in the preseason, so I don't mind him staying in and improving on that.

He's a 6th round pick with all of the rough edges you'd expect with that. Still, he's probably better than our alternatives — yes, even Doughty — in my humble opinion.

Can't wait to see if we can finally get Merriweather in there for more than a dozen plays.

Irn-Bru wrote:I thought Rambo played pretty well. His tackling and angles are about 1,000% better than they were in the preseason, so I don't mind him staying in and improving on that.

He's a 6th round pick with all of the rough edges you'd expect with that. Still, he's probably better than our alternatives — yes, even Doughty — in my humble opinion.

Can't wait to see if we can finally get Merriweather in there for more than a dozen plays.

You were watching the Eagles game? I mean maybe he played well back there in coverage but continued from his preseason woes to miss tackles and just not play aggressive enough. I think he will be better than Doughty in due time but not now...curious to why you think he is better at this point with Doughty's experience and knowledge of the defense.

mastdark81 wrote:

Irn-Bru wrote:I thought Rambo played pretty well. His tackling and angles are about 1,000% better than they were in the preseason, so I don't mind him staying in and improving on that.

He's a 6th round pick with all of the rough edges you'd expect with that. Still, he's probably better than our alternatives — yes, even Doughty — in my humble opinion.

Can't wait to see if we can finally get Merriweather in there for more than a dozen plays.

You were watching the Eagles game? I mean maybe he played well back there in coverage but continued from his preseason woes to miss tackles and just not play aggressive enough. I think he will be better than Doughty in due time but not now...curious to why you think he is better at this point with Doughty's experience and knowledge of the defense.

Rambo and Doughty play different safety positions and despite that this defense at times uses them interchangeably you can't really compare the two. No question Doughty is better in the box, at tackling and reading plays but Rambo is the better choice at FS because of his ball skills and his speed. If anything, I question the use of Biggers at SS. I didn't see him provide much of anything in either the pass or run game. I'd have preferred both Doughty and Rambo on the field and think Doughty would help get Rambo acclimated.

As for Rambo's tackling, McCoy and Vick are about as tough as it gets in the open field and nobody had much success tackling them. Rambo missed some tackles to be sure but his biggest mistake actually seemed to be in coverage on the first TD to Jackson. All in all he wasn't our biggest issue in that game, IMO. I think he'll get better and better with more playing time and quite frankly we don't have an alternative right now at FS.

Merriweather feels great

Right now I feel great. Whatever coach says that’s what I go by. He’s a smart guy, he knows his players, he knows our movements. He knows us very well so if he feels I’m ready to play I’ll go play

I’m confident in my trainers, I’m confident they did everything possible to get me ready. I’m confident my coaches kept me out long enough and put me in at the right time. I’m confident I know the playbook well enough and I can go out there and perform whatever the coaches ask.

mastdark81 wrote:

Irn-Bru wrote:I thought Rambo played pretty well. His tackling and angles are about 1,000% better than they were in the preseason, so I don't mind him staying in and improving on that.

He's a 6th round pick with all of the rough edges you'd expect with that. Still, he's probably better than our alternatives — yes, even Doughty — in my humble opinion.

Can't wait to see if we can finally get Merriweather in there for more than a dozen plays.

You were watching the Eagles game? I mean maybe he played well back there in coverage but continued from his preseason woes to miss tackles and just not play aggressive enough. I think he will be better than Doughty in due time but not now...curious to why you think he is better at this point with Doughty's experience and knowledge of the defense.

Rambo made ten tackles against the Eagles. Sure he missed a couple against the most elusive ball carrier in the game, but ten tackles--give credit where due. I've about given up on Merriweather staying healthy. He's no option, in my opinion. I don't know where Doughty was. Frustrating.

Rambo is a rookie and made a lot of tackles. First regular season game against one of the best RBs in the league.
I say it was good experience and I am sure he will learn from it.

I think we need to pump the brakes here. Rambo is raw, but the coaches like him enough to start him. I think he just needs playing time to start believing what he is seeing.

If he is playing the same the next time we face the Eagle, then we have a problem, but for right now we all need to relax. And when we beat the Pack this weekend we will all need to pump the brakes too on the SB talks.

Look there are plenty of people that had forgetable games (or atleast ones they wish they could forget) Monday night. Lets see how the team is playing in October or November before we over react.

skinsfan#33 wrote:I think we need to pump the brakes here. Rambo is raw, but the coaches like him enough to start him. I think he just needs playing time to start believing what he is seeing.

If he is playing the same the next time we face the Eagle, then we have a problem, but for right now we all need to relax. And when we beat the Pack this weekend we will all need to pump the brakes too on the SB talks.

Look there are plenty of people that had forgetable games (or atleast ones they wish they could forget) Monday night. Lets see how the team is playing in October or November before we over react.

I know I know but I'm all about keeping the best 53 players, playing the players that give the Redskins the best chance to win barring any set backs!

He's still messing up and "not ready", but as others have said, he's improving. If you want the best of Rambo, you're going to have to sit through the worst of him; he won't grow into a game-changer on the practice squad...that's only obtained with the big boys.

Keep him thrown in the fire. He's coachable, which means he'll learn faster this way.

If he's doing too many mistakes in a game, just rotate him with Doughty. Just don't bench him while you're trying to teach him the ropes of the NFL.

Just to add one last thing, Rambo needs to start playing as a "tackler" not a "hitter". At least moreso in the run game.

Some mistakes I saw from him on Monday was trying to bring a man down with his shoulder, but not wrapping his arms around him as well. Worst case, you grab the dude, he stays up, is slowed down, another Skins player comes up and knocks him into next season. "Thanks for coming out!"

In the oh-so-short time we had him, Sean Taylor pretty much ruined us for any other safeties, Free or Strong. His untimely demise goes WAY beyond the gridiron, of course, but between the hash marks it was the NFL equivalent of Len Bias and the Celtics. The 'Skins were set for DAYS back there....and then they weren't.

I don't believe anybody who's patrolled the deep middle - not Reed, Lynch, Polamalu, Atwater - none of em had the skillset and the potential ST did.

I miss ya Sean. But I'll see you again, eventually.


EDIT: Apologies. I know this adds nothing to the discussion on the table, but I got a little wistful there for a sec. Carry on -

BigRedskinDaddy wrote:In the oh-so-short time we had him, Sean Taylor pretty much ruined us for any other safeties, Free or Strong. His untimely demise goes WAY beyond the gridiron, of course, but between the hash marks it was the NFL equivalent of Len Bias and the Celtics. The 'Skins were set for DAYS back there....and then they weren't.

I don't believe anybody who's patrolled the deep middle - not Reed, Lynch, Polamalu, Atwater - none of em had the skillset and the potential ST did.

I miss ya Sean. But I'll see you again, eventually.


EDIT: Apologies. I know this adds nothing to the discussion on the table, but I got a little wistful there for a sec. Carry on -

He'd be the antiGronk and the antiGraham just to name a few.

BigRedskinDaddy wrote:In the oh-so-short time we had him, Sean Taylor pretty much ruined us for any other safeties, Free or Strong. His untimely demise goes WAY beyond the gridiron, of course, but between the hash marks it was the NFL equivalent of Len Bias and the Celtics. The 'Skins were set for DAYS back there....and then they weren't.

I don't believe anybody who's patrolled the deep middle - not Reed, Lynch, Polamalu, Atwater - none of em had the skillset and the potential ST did.

I miss ya Sean. But I'll see you again, eventually.


EDIT: Apologies. I know this adds nothing to the discussion on the table, but I got a little wistful there for a sec. Carry on -

None the less, an excellent post. Literally brings a tear to your eye.

As you said, his demise goes well beyond the small world of football, but its understandable to see things from the football perspective because of how much we love this team; and how much we loved him on account of the greatness he brought to the team.

There will never be another ST

BigRedskinDaddy wrote:In the oh-so-short time we had him, Sean Taylor pretty much ruined us for any other safeties, Free or Strong. His untimely demise goes WAY beyond the gridiron, of course, but between the hash marks it was the NFL equivalent of Len Bias and the Celtics. The 'Skins were set for DAYS back there....and then they weren't.

I don't believe anybody who's patrolled the deep middle - not Reed, Lynch, Polamalu, Atwater - none of em had the skillset and the potential ST did.

I miss ya Sean. But I'll see you again, eventually.


EDIT: Apologies. I know this adds nothing to the discussion on the table, but I got a little wistful there for a sec. Carry on -

Yes, this post does add something to this discussion. If you remember correctly you will remember that Sean wasn't a good trackler his first couple of years and he would get beat in coverage at times too. It wasn't until his last couple of seasons that ST became the player most of us remember.

Many of the faults people are accusing Rambo of having we're some of the same traits Taylor had his first couple of seasons. Now I'm not saying Rambo well be the next ST or even half the player Sean was, but what I am saying is Sean was ruff abound the edges his first couple of seasons and became a player that would have been a Hof player had he not tragically been killed.

Let's revisit this thread in six or eight weeks. Rambo is going to be a good one.

mastdark81 wrote:

Irn-Bru wrote:I thought Rambo played pretty well. His tackling and angles are about 1,000% better than they were in the preseason, so I don't mind him staying in and improving on that.

He's a 6th round pick with all of the rough edges you'd expect with that. Still, he's probably better than our alternatives — yes, even Doughty — in my humble opinion.

Can't wait to see if we can finally get Merriweather in there for more than a dozen plays.

You were watching the Eagles game? I mean maybe he played well back there in coverage but continued from his preseason woes to miss tackles and just not play aggressive enough. I think he will be better than Doughty in due time but not now...curious to why you think he is better at this point with Doughty's experience and knowledge of the defense.

Rambo made ten tackles in the Eagle game. How many do you claim he missed? Funny, I don't remember more than a couple. What I remember are the tons of tackles missed by our front seven.

skinsfan#33 wrote:Yrs, this post does add something to this discussion. Of you remember correctly you will remember that Sean want sgood good tracker tracker his his first couple of years and he would get beat in coverage at times too. It wasn't until his last couple of seasons that ST became the player most of us remember.
Many of the falls people are accusing Rambo of having we're some of the same traits Taylor had his first couple of seasons. Now I'm nit saying Rambo well be the next ST or even half the player Sean was, but what I am saying is Sean was ruff abound the edges his first couple of seasons and became a player that would have been a Hof player had he not tragically been killed.

I understand every player goes through a learning curve. The NFL must be incredibly challenging even for the hardest-working, most gifted athletes there are...HOWEVER, in my humble, inexpert opinion, the eye test tells me that even should he eventually max out his ability, Baccari Rambo would probably still be a Chrysler to ST's Lexus.

But that's nothing to be ashamed of; as I said in my earlier post, that description applies to 75-80% of all the other safeties as well. I am still struck by how much the players have evolved from a mere 3 decades ago. One of my favorite all-time 'Skins is Alvin Walton, an undersized, not particularly fast but deadly hitter who for me is one of the core Gibbs 1.0 blue-collar, never-say-die players. Even in his day AW was smallish, but the biggest FS of that era was Steve Atwater at 225 lbs. He was thought of almost as an OLB in the secondary, he was so big. ST was, what - 235 at least, and faster than Atwater.

And we all know how well he used that mass/speed combo. Ronnie Lott to the 3rd power...but I digress. We'll never know, but it's very probable ST would have made his full career into a first-ballot HOF ticket - and IIRC there isn't another Redskins S who has even come close to that level of sustained excellence. There may never be another, for that matter. Once in a generation talent is, by it's very definition...you know the rest. Rambo's not it. But maybe he comes close to a Brad Edwards, or a Mark Murphy?

Which would be pretty cool with me.

crazyhorse1 wrote:

mastdark81 wrote:

Irn-Bru wrote:I thought Rambo played pretty well. His tackling and angles are about 1,000% better than they were in the preseason, so I don't mind him staying in and improving on that.

He's a 6th round pick with all of the rough edges you'd expect with that. Still, he's probably better than our alternatives — yes, even Doughty — in my humble opinion.

Can't wait to see if we can finally get Merriweather in there for more than a dozen plays.

You were watching the Eagles game? I mean maybe he played well back there in coverage but continued from his preseason woes to miss tackles and just not play aggressive enough. I think he will be better than Doughty in due time but not now...curious to why you think he is better at this point with Doughty's experience and knowledge of the defense.

Rambo made ten tackles in the Eagle game. How many do you claim he missed? Funny, I don't remember more than a couple. What I remember are the tons of tackles missed by our front seven.

There was one play in particular that made Rambo look like a high-schooler out there. He came up to face McCoy at the LOS and started tap dancing, and McCoy just ran right around him. It was really ugly.

Deadskins wrote:

crazyhorse1 wrote:

mastdark81 wrote:

Irn-Bru wrote:I thought Rambo played pretty well. His tackling and angles are about 1,000% better than they were in the preseason, so I don't mind him staying in and improving on that.

He's a 6th round pick with all of the rough edges you'd expect with that. Still, he's probably better than our alternatives — yes, even Doughty — in my humble opinion.

Can't wait to see if we can finally get Merriweather in there for more than a dozen plays.

You were watching the Eagles game? I mean maybe he played well back there in coverage but continued from his preseason woes to miss tackles and just not play aggressive enough. I think he will be better than Doughty in due time but not now...curious to why you think he is better at this point with Doughty's experience and knowledge of the defense.

Rambo made ten tackles in the Eagle game. How many do you claim he missed? Funny, I don't remember more than a couple. What I remember are the tons of tackles missed by our front seven.

There was one play in particular that made Rambo look like a high-schooler out there. He came up to face McCoy at the LOS and started tap dancing, and McCoy just ran right around him. It was really ugly.

The same thing seemed to be happening time after time to most of the front seven. Why pick on Rambo, who made ten tackles and played well in coverage. In fact, this pointing fingers at Rambo is starting to make me angry. Someone has even compared him unfavorably with Sean Taylor, which is way beyond absurd and deep into stupid. I have no connection with Rambo at all and am no fan of his, but I can't stand a guy getting a bad rap.
If you harp on a bad play or two and don't mention a slew of good ones, you are giving a guy a bed rap and your opinion is worthless.

crazyhorse1 wrote:Someone has even compared him unfavorably with Sean Taylor, which is way beyond absurd and deep into stupid.

Ehh. You say deep into stupid, I say making conversation while waxing nostalgic.

'Sides, 99% of what I say is stupid. The other 1% I just don't know what I'm talking about. Take it easy, big guy, It's just chatter, can't harm anyone...

crazyhorse1 wrote:

Deadskins wrote:

crazyhorse1 wrote:

mastdark81 wrote:

Irn-Bru wrote:I thought Rambo played pretty well. His tackling and angles are about 1,000% better than they were in the preseason, so I don't mind him staying in and improving on that.

He's a 6th round pick with all of the rough edges you'd expect with that. Still, he's probably better than our alternatives — yes, even Doughty — in my humble opinion.

Can't wait to see if we can finally get Merriweather in there for more than a dozen plays.

You were watching the Eagles game? I mean maybe he played well back there in coverage but continued from his preseason woes to miss tackles and just not play aggressive enough. I think he will be better than Doughty in due time but not now...curious to why you think he is better at this point with Doughty's experience and knowledge of the defense.

Rambo made ten tackles in the Eagle game. How many do you claim he missed? Funny, I don't remember more than a couple. What I remember are the tons of tackles missed by our front seven.

There was one play in particular that made Rambo look like a high-schooler out there. He came up to face McCoy at the LOS and started tap dancing, and McCoy just ran right around him. It was really ugly.

The same thing seemed to be happening time after time to most of the front seven. Why pick on Rambo, who made ten tackles and played well in coverage. In fact, this pointing fingers at Rambo is starting to make me angry. Someone has even compared him unfavorably with Sean Taylor, which is way beyond absurd and deep into stupid. I have no connection with Rambo at all and am no fan of his, but I can't stand a guy getting a bad rap.
If you harp on a bad play or two and don't mention a slew of good ones, you are giving a guy a bed rap and your opinion is worthless.

No, the same thing did not happen to the front seven. Yes, there were plenty of arm tackles attempted by the front seven, but that's not even near the same thing. And I'm not down on Rambo at all. In fact, I started him in my fantasy league, and he had a great game, statistically. I was merely commenting on that one play that was really ugly. If I had been picking on him, I would have commented on the TD he gave up when he tried to tackle by throwing his shoulder in there, or when he was nowhere to be seen on the Smeagols first score.

I'm curious as to how many more drafts and/or trades/FA/waiver pickups it's going to take for the Skins to finally field a secondary that doesn't routinely get torched like So Cal forests every summer and fall. It appears they've failed to fix this gaping hole in their D every way a team can. Maybe they should draw names out of a hat, or put 'em on a dart board, or....??

Because, this B******T is getting hard to watch. How's that for beyond absurd? Not that I care about those who would remonstrate with and ultimately scold me for voicing (what they see as) inanities. Even a tiny little bit.


EDIT: And JUST as I'm about to jump off the bridge, I read a few of Grampi's pearls and recall something I said VERY RECENTLY, to wit:

"for the first time in yadda yadda yadda...I feel the Skins can WIN blah blah blah....and this is THE year gush gush gush..."

And it hits me: 1)Thank you Jesus that I'm not THAT guy, who has to be miserable to think he's happy, and 2)next time I'm gonna get all happy and make a RIDONKULOUS claim before even one game has been played....shut up. Wait. Shut up.

And wait some more.

Amerson got torched today.. rookies learning the trade, anyone who expected them to shut down monster offenses out the gates was #trippin

- Rambo was available in the 6th for a reason. This isn't a slight against him.

- He was selected by a team that was desperate and put into a position he wouldn't be in normally.

- The Redskins need to push to get Tanard Jackson back ASAP. JUST to evaluate the possibility of his return.