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

sustained mediocrity

DEHog wrote:

sustained mediocrity

Well at least we have this going for us!!

Pittsburgh Steelers (103-57)
The Steelers have won at least 10 games in seven of the past 10 seasons, and have never finished below .500 during that span.

Green Bay Packers (106-53-1)
The Packers have finished the regular season with double-digit victories in eight of the past 10 seasons, and have made the playoffs going on eight years straight.

New England Patriots (126-34)
The Patriots have won at least 12 games for seven consecutive years, have missed the playoffs only once in the past 10 years (when they went 11-5 in 2008), and finished off an undefeated 16-0 regular season in 2007.

New England has been the NFL's best team over the past decade, and no one else even comes close.

DarthMonk wrote:
66-93-1 puts us at #26 over the past 10 years. The 6 teams worse than that are DET, BUC, RAD, JAG, CLE, and RAM.

aswas71788 wrote:Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Another off season telling us how great each Redskins player is, how this year will be the first all Redskins NFC Pro Bowl team, how the Reskins are a lock to win the Super Bowl and how great the team management is. And then comes the start of the season....

By Thomas Boswell Columnist January 12 at 1:58 PM
As you watch the NFL playoffs this weekend, feel free to scream as you realize again what you already feared last weekend: Except for Tom Brady, there isn’t a quarterback in the postseason who is significantly better than Kirk Cousins.

As I will show statistically later in this column, in the whole NFL only Aaron Rodgers joins Brady as entirely out of Cousins’s class. Over the past three years, Cousins has proved that he is in a clump of a half-dozen excellent QBs — eyelash close in total productivity — who compose the next-highest quarterback rank.

But as this weekend will underline, most of them have produced their numbers with gifted supporting casts of which Cousins only can dream in D.C. All the Kirk-comparable QBs on view in the next two days, such as Drew Brees, Matt Ryan and Ben Roethlisberger, have surrounding casts so electric that you wonder, “What would Kirk do if he could throw to Julio Jones or Antonio Brown, not Jamison Crowder, or simply hand it to Le’Veon Bell or Mark Ingram, not Samaje Perine?”

The Washington passer, who’s likely to leave D.C. in the coming months, could hardly have a better advertisement for himself than last week’s 10-3 Jaguars win over Buffalo, in which Blake Bortles and Tyrod Taylor threw 60 passes, many of them simple checkdowns, for a sickly 194 net passing yards. How many fans in Jacksonville and Buffalo are thinking, “Get us that free agent Cousins”?

Or recall the collapse of Kansas City, held scoreless in the second half of a 22-21 loss to Tennessee, as quarterback Alex Smith could generate nothing despite having the NFL’s leading rusher, Kareem Hunt (1,327 yards), behind him and Tyreek Hill (1,183 receiving yards) at wide receiver. The Chiefs’ dilemma? They had lost 1,038-yard tight end Travis Kelce.

What would Cousins, reduced in his final game to playing behind two third-string linemen, handing to fifth-string runner Kapri Bibbs and throwing to what-route-will-he-decide-to-run receiver Josh Doctson, give to have such “limitations”?

welch wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/the-numbers-dont-lie-kirk-cousins-is-elite/2018/01/12/bc9f04c8-f7c3-11e7-b34a-b85626af34ef_story.html?utm_term=.623b3eb477a3

By Thomas Boswell Columnist January 12 at 1:58 PM
As you watch the NFL playoffs this weekend, feel free to scream as you realize again what you already feared last weekend: Except for Tom Brady, there isn’t a quarterback in the postseason who is significantly better than Kirk Cousins.

As I will show statistically later in this column, in the whole NFL only Aaron Rodgers joins Brady as entirely out of Cousins’s class. Over the past three years, Cousins has proved that he is in a clump of a half-dozen excellent QBs — eyelash close in total productivity — who compose the next-highest quarterback rank.

But as this weekend will underline, most of them have produced their numbers with gifted supporting casts of which Cousins only can dream in D.C. All the Kirk-comparable QBs on view in the next two days, such as Drew Brees, Matt Ryan and Ben Roethlisberger, have surrounding casts so electric that you wonder, “What would Kirk do if he could throw to Julio Jones or Antonio Brown, not Jamison Crowder, or simply hand it to Le’Veon Bell or Mark Ingram, not Samaje Perine?”

The Washington passer, who’s likely to leave D.C. in the coming months, could hardly have a better advertisement for himself than last week’s 10-3 Jaguars win over Buffalo, in which Blake Bortles and Tyrod Taylor threw 60 passes, many of them simple checkdowns, for a sickly 194 net passing yards. How many fans in Jacksonville and Buffalo are thinking, “Get us that free agent Cousins”?

Or recall the collapse of Kansas City, held scoreless in the second half of a 22-21 loss to Tennessee, as quarterback Alex Smith could generate nothing despite having the NFL’s leading rusher, Kareem Hunt (1,327 yards), behind him and Tyreek Hill (1,183 receiving yards) at wide receiver. The Chiefs’ dilemma? They had lost 1,038-yard tight end Travis Kelce.

What would Cousins, reduced in his final game to playing behind two third-string linemen, handing to fifth-string runner Kapri Bibbs and throwing to what-route-will-he-decide-to-run receiver Josh Doctson, give to have such “limitations”?

DEHog wrote:

welch wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/the-numbers-dont-lie-kirk-cousins-is-elite/2018/01/12/bc9f04c8-f7c3-11e7-b34a-b85626af34ef_story.html?utm_term=.623b3eb477a3

By Thomas Boswell Columnist January 12 at 1:58 PM
As you watch the NFL playoffs this weekend, feel free to scream as you realize again what you already feared last weekend: Except for Tom Brady, there isn’t a quarterback in the postseason who is significantly better than Kirk Cousins.

As I will show statistically later in this column, in the whole NFL only Aaron Rodgers joins Brady as entirely out of Cousins’s class. Over the past three years, Cousins has proved that he is in a clump of a half-dozen excellent QBs — eyelash close in total productivity — who compose the next-highest quarterback rank.

But as this weekend will underline, most of them have produced their numbers with gifted supporting casts of which Cousins only can dream in D.C. All the Kirk-comparable QBs on view in the next two days, such as Drew Brees, Matt Ryan and Ben Roethlisberger, have surrounding casts so electric that you wonder, “What would Kirk do if he could throw to Julio Jones or Antonio Brown, not Jamison Crowder, or simply hand it to Le’Veon Bell or Mark Ingram, not Samaje Perine?”

The Washington passer, who’s likely to leave D.C. in the coming months, could hardly have a better advertisement for himself than last week’s 10-3 Jaguars win over Buffalo, in which Blake Bortles and Tyrod Taylor threw 60 passes, many of them simple checkdowns, for a sickly 194 net passing yards. How many fans in Jacksonville and Buffalo are thinking, “Get us that free agent Cousins”?

Or recall the collapse of Kansas City, held scoreless in the second half of a 22-21 loss to Tennessee, as quarterback Alex Smith could generate nothing despite having the NFL’s leading rusher, Kareem Hunt (1,327 yards), behind him and Tyreek Hill (1,183 receiving yards) at wide receiver. The Chiefs’ dilemma? They had lost 1,038-yard tight end Travis Kelce.

What would Cousins, reduced in his final game to playing behind two third-string linemen, handing to fifth-string runner Kapri Bibbs and throwing to what-route-will-he-decide-to-run receiver Josh Doctson, give to have such “limitations”?

Couldn’t agree with him less, IMO this shows that you don’t have to pay for an elite QB. The 1st , 2nd and 4th best defenses are in the conference championships. Conventional wisdom would say spend the money on defense. I really like Cousiins, but not at the cost he wants, maybe there will be a “correction” in the QB market after what has happened this year. I mean would you really give Case Keenum or Blake Bortles $100 mil contracts?? The only part of the article I agree with is that Brady and Rodgers may be the only QB’s who elevate their teams. He can talked all he wants about Cousins playing for the Jags, Steelers, Chiefs..etc…But I would argue if those teams gave him the big contract they would become more like the Seahawks and Ravens after they give big contracts to their QB.

LET'S BUILD A FREAKIN' DEFENSE !!!

DarthMonk wrote:
LET'S BUILD A FREAKIN' DEFENSE !!!

DEHog wrote: Couldn’t agree with him less, IMO this shows that you don’t have to pay for an elite QB. The 1st , 2nd and 4th best defenses are in the conference championships. Conventional wisdom would say spend the money on defense. I really like Cousiins, but not at the cost he wants, maybe there will be a “correction” in the QB market after what has happened this year. I mean would you really give Case Keenum or Blake Bortles $100 mil contracts?? The only part of the article I agree with is that Brady and Rodgers may be the only QB’s who elevate their teams. He can talked all he wants about Cousins playing for the Jags, Steelers, Chiefs..etc…But I would argue if those teams gave him the big contract they would become more like the Seahawks and Ravens after they give big contracts to their QB.

welch wrote:Redskins need:

- Defense everywhere. DL, LB's, DB's. They have some keepers, but the D looks a long way from, say, Jacksonville defense.

- OL. Not just depth.

- RB's. Awful.

- WR's. Even worse than the RB's.

- Maybe TE's, since Reed has not played a complete season more than (Once?)

Like filling the holes in a mesh. Even worse with Colt McCoy replacing Cousins, and why did they bother tagging Cousins this season? Miserable organization.

oj wrote:What do you expect from an organization that kept Gruden and let McVay go? An organization that took a hard look at all things, this was their very best decision. The decision makers that passed on Hunt as an RB and chose Moriority for special teams play.
How can a team attract true talent when lead by mediocrity.
There, thats my rant, I'll try to be more contructive from now on. Really, I'll try hard.

Q: How closely did the team follow your draft/FA board this offseason?

McCloughan: To a T except for one pick.

“He’s a good player,” McCloughan told Mike Pritchard and Cecil Lammey. “Is he special? I don’t see special. But also, we were still building a roster around him to make him special. Jay Gruden does a great job play-calling. [Former Redskins offensive coordinator-turned-Los Angeles Rams Coach] Sean McVay did a great job play-calling to put him in positions to be successful. He’s talented. Talent is good at quarterback in the NFL. He’s won games. I know his record overall is not over .500. I know he has not won a playoff game. But he’s competitive. He works his tail off. He’s so methodical. Every day he has planned out. He’s always in the building, he’s always watching tape, he’s always talking to coaches, he was talking to me. From the standpoint of the tangibles, they’re excellent. You just need to have some talent around him because you don’t want him to be throwing the ball 35-40 times to win the game. You want to have a running game, have a good defense, good [special] teams, and then let him do what he does.”

The Redskins have gone 24-23-1 since Cousins was named the starter before the 2015 season. Cousins has thrown for 81 touchdowns and 36 interceptions during that span, while throwing for at least 4,000 yards in each of the last three years.

“The thing about him that’s unique, and you don’t really see it too often, he’s a pretty good athlete with his legs,” McCloughan continued. “He can make plays moving around the pocket and running for first downs. He’s got a strong enough arm, there’s no doubt about it. He’s been through adversity. When he was there, he got drafted the same year that Robert Griffin [III] got drafted. And Robert was the guy and of course he deserved it. He was offensive [rookie] of the year and Kirk got to sit back and just wait and wait and wait. He wants to play. He’s highly, highly competitive. He comes across as a real nice guy, like Alex Smith did in interviews — and they are. But they’re both highly competitive and they want to win. But they want that stability too. They want to know they’re in some spot where it’s not just a one-year deal, one-year deal, one-year deal. He wants a long-term deal.”

“I can promise you this,” McCloughan said. “He has done his homework, probably too much, about each roster, who his receivers are, who his backs are, who his o-linemen are, who the coach is. Not just the head coach, but the coordinator, position coach, the system they run. I promise you he has notebook after notebook for each team. He is very, very intellectual about knowing what’s best for him. He understands he’s getting older, he’s been in the league a little bit. He wants to win. I know that. Personally, knowing him, it’s not about the money. It’s about the right fit, where he knows he has stability, he has good coaches, he has good players and he has a chance to be successful. I don’t blame him. He’s put himself in that situation with what he’s done the last three years.”

The prevailing thought is that Cousins is as good as gone, which is why so many mock-draft makers — ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. included — currently have the Redskins selecting a quarterback with their first-round pick, No. 13 overall. Kiper, who released his first mock draft of the year on Thursday, predicts Washington will take Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield. It would mark the second time in six years the Redskins drafted a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from the Big 12.

Kiper’s reasoning for the pick:

This all depends on Kirk Cousins. Is Washington going to franchise tag him again? Remember, if the Redskins do it for the third straight year, he would cost more than $34 million in 2018. Could Washington let him test the free agent market? He could get a huge deal, but it might not be from the Redskins. If Cousins walks, there’s no ready-made replacement. They would have to scan the free agent market or draft a quarterback. Don’t count out the Heisman Trophy winner being taken this high. He is going to get a chance to impress scouts at the Senior Bowl, and I know they’re interested in seeing how he performs. If Washington keeps Cousins, inside linebacker is a clear position of need.

The brash Mayfield put up gaudy numbers (43 touchdowns, six interceptions) while leading the Sooners to the College Football Playoffs as a senior. There are questions about his size, and to a lesser extent his maturity level, but Mayfield, who was disciplined for a crotch-grabbing incident against Kansas in November, hopes to put some of those concerns to rest at the Senior Bowl next week.

Kiper has the Browns taking 6-foot-5 Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen at No. 1 and the Giants selecting UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen at No. 2. The Broncos, who have the No. 5 pick, are also in the market for a quarterback this offseason, and Kiper suspects John Elway will look to USC’s Sam Darnold. Denver is also considered among the more likely landing spots for Cousins if he’s not in Washington next season.

“I can promise you this,” McCloughan said. “He has done his homework, probably too much, about each roster, who his receivers are, who his backs are, who his o-linemen are, who the coach is. Not just the head coach, but the coordinator, position coach, the system they run. I promise you he has notebook after notebook for each team. He is very, very intellectual about knowing what’s best for him. He understands he’s getting older, he’s been in the league a little bit. He wants to win. I know that. Personally, knowing him, it’s not about the money. It’s about the right fit, where he knows he has stability, he has good coaches, he has good players and he has a chance to be successful. I don’t blame him. He’s put himself in that situation with what he’s done the last three years.”