Admittedly, everything I'm about to write is a pipe dream, it's as likely to happen as me winning the lottery but then again, I do buy a ticket every week. First things first, I'd blow this team up from top to bottom - FO, coaching, players. The Redskins are an old team that have being built making the same mistakes time and time again. Snyder has to remove himself completely from the football operations side of things. If he were to do that then hopefully he'll blame Vinny for the hiring of Zorn (Vinny pushed hard for him) and he'll fire the pair of them. If Zorn has to be sacrificed in order to get rid of The Carrot then sorry Jim, but bye bye.... One of the most frustrating things for me is the problems on offense. It's not so much the play calling but more things like the formation errors and inability to get the play into the huddle - this is basic stuff and should be well bedded in by now. Bring in a GM and for me it would be Marty Schottenheimer. Ok, Snyder fired him but they left on good terms and if Snyder would butt out completely Marty might go for a front office role. Remember, he said before taking the job he could never work for Snyder. Getting Marty as GM also means you have a much better shot at attracting Cowher as coach and he has to be the number one target if the Skins want a new head coach. Obviously, if the above were to happen, they would decide the personnel decisions but for the sake of ranting here is where I would go with the roster: 1, Trade Jason Campbell. One year removed from being a free agent he is never going to be more than an average QB in my opinion. He has not picked up the slack since Portis got ran into the ground and will never be prolific. He's also one year removed from being a free agent - I'm not keen on the Skins committing $20m guaranteed and near $10m a season for an average QB but that;s the going rate for up and coming young QB's. QB is a position teams will always take a chance on and pay over the odds for in a trade. I think you can squeezer and first rounder and maybe more out of potential partners. It means handing the reigns short term to Collins and then possible Brennan down the road but you cover the basis and add another prospect too. 2, Cut/let go the following: Shaun Springs - good player, aging, often injured, big salary only one year left on his contract. Jon Jansen - lost it completely. Thanks for the memories. Casey Rabach - average player. Pete Kendall - a free agent, don't re-sign, too old, let Rhinehart try for the spot. Jason Taylor - I know he cost a 2nd round pick but he's not the player he was and because he was traded for their is no cap hit in letting him go, just a $9m salary saving. Marcus Washington - see Shaun Springs. Antwaan Randle El - I like ARE but he's an average player for us and hard to justify keeping him with the investment in receivers last year, we need to see if they can play and a new punt returner is needed. Phillip Daniels - 35 coming off a serious knee injury. Cornelius Griffin - I like Griff but he's past his best and costs a lot of cap dollars. Also, I'd look to trade Ladell Betts and Fred Davis. We won't get much for Betts, maybe a 5th rounder but I'd look to get a new back in to share the load with Portis (more later) and Davis was a wasted pick, if they can get a 4th back, I'd take it. 3, Bring back: DeAngelo Hall - he's not a great cover corner but he does make plays and all defenses need that. Carlos Rogers, Stephon Heyer and Rocky McIntosh should all be tied up long term now rather than letting their contracts run down. 4, Fix Special teams: They are terrible, average kicking pair and average return and coverage units. In any rebuild, getting the teams fixed to set the tone and win the field position battle is vital. 5, Draft for both lines and linebackers. It'd help if the extra draft picks could be acquired by dealing the players as pointed out above. 6, Get a back to share with Portis. And I mean share!! Like Fred Taylor or Marcus Allen, Portis can survive and be more effective for longer in this league if he isn't run into the ground like he has being this year. He should be opening and closing games and a new back filling in in between. I really hope my numbers come up What will actually happen: Zorn fired and Jim Fassel or Mooch gets the gig. Campbell gets a record breaking contract, Jason Taylor gets a new deal and the Skins spend their few draft picks on WR's and secondary players. They go 2-14 the following season.
Good stuff ChrisBob. Zorn was definitely not the right choice for HC. I partly feel that Campbell is getting a fair shot in his football career. He's had something like seven different OC for the last 8 years (Auburn/Redskins.) ... That's tough. I'd like to see him get some consistency in that department, but if you could get a nice pick for him, I wouldn't be against that.
if you guys sucked like you were supposed to from the gate, and then built up to this current record, then it would just be considered a building year and you would move on, but because you got out to a fast start and tapered off, it's time to revamp??? that is the same old redskins. Instead of understanding that putting a system in place takes time and allowing that time to take place, you guys get impatient, assume the worst in all situations and figure that the only solutions are the drastic ones, lol. The Dolphins went from one win to possibly winning a division, is there really that much different from last year to this year? I still say that you guys need time to grow and learn to build on this year as a positive. and remember you guys were supposed to be terrible this year, you can't forget that.
Agreed. The Skins are implementing a WCO without the major components, minus Cooley. The top WR's arent WCO WR's and Campbell is not a WCO QB. What made it work early was that they had a dominant running game, and that made life easy for Campbell/Moss. I dont think much blowing up needs to take place. Your guys future is Brennen/Thomas/Kelly
Chrisbob. Why Trade Davis????? Get rid of Yoder. WE NEED A YOUNG LB To replace Washington. Heck we can trade springs, washington for a 2nd round pick.
Once Kelly & Thomas grow into the system and The system has time to grow itself, things will get better, but it's time to employ a new tactic unknown to most redskins fans...patience.
The point was that this is a team that Gibbs built and it's being allowed to gather age and taper off. I like Zorn in a lot of ways but if he has to be sacrificed for Vinny to get the bullet then sorry Jim, see ya! You use the Dolphins as an example, I don;t care if we have 9 wins or 7 or 1 - this is an average team that has run out of steam and if allowed to continue will be rotten next season. The Dolphins blew it up - Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, Trent Green, Kevin Carter - age removed and got someone in who knew what he was doing in the draft (something the Redskins lack completely). Here's the link for the Redskins draft history, look at how many low picks are still on the roster, look at how many times they have gone into the draft with 3 or 4 picks - it's stupid, especially when you then draft crap anyway, especially lower down. In the other thread you point to the cap savings with Yoder but when you factor in rule 51 it's almost a wash. The Skins won;t get draft picks for aging veterans because they are the only team in the league that gives up draft picks for aging veterans. We can't trade the likes of Springs and Jansen to ourselves can we? No one will trade for them and their large salaries, they'll wait for them to be cut and then do a deal that is more appealing. I'd like to keep Davis but the bottom line is Cooley is tied up long term and he is a young player with potential we could deal for a pick or some lower picks. I also think they could get a lowish pick for Betts and given they only have four picks in next years draft if they could deal Campbell, Betts and Davis for say three picks next year and a pick in 2010 - especially if one of the Campbell trade picks is a 1st rounder, I'm all for it.
I dont really see a point in trading Davis, your gonna get terrible value for him. No where near where he was originally drafted. Thats the danger of drafting a #2 TE high (trust me, us Dallas fans know all about it) Look at Fasano, we drafted him in the second, he contributed for 2 years and then we could only get a 4th for him
Maybe, but it's possible we could squeeze a 3rd out of someone and if that pick was spent on a DL or LO or LB who can help more than a back-up TE then it's a risk worth taking. I don't believe you let a mistake linger. Davis and Jason Taylor are two 2nd rd mistakes that need to be just done with.
you missed the whole point of my post. If the team sucked from the gate and came on strong, your view would be completely different.
Possibly but this team has been built wrong for years and its something that has needed to be done for a long time. I don't think the changes should be quite as extreme as Chrisbob says but I agree with most of it. They have neglected the draft for far too long which has resulted in an old team with very little depth.
they really did blow the team up from last year to this year and that as the reason why so many believed that it would take time for the team to develop, then they developed too fast for their own good and once they crashed back to earth, everyone wants to start over again. You guys just need to have the philosophy that you had before the season began, which was patience. Older players are not the answer, and the draft really helps, but older players tend to disappear anyway and there is another draft coming up. Such drastic measures are not the answer. The redskins always seem to take the drastic approach, Campbell's 5th or 6th offense in as many seasons. I think it's time to try something new, consistency and patience.
Patience? I've being waiting for this team to draft a defe3nse lineman high for 11 freaking years! Patience? We've ran the same system defensively for five years and can't get pressure on the QB? Patience? I've being waiting for this team to draft consistently well and gain value for picks for a decade, it doesn't appear to be happening any time soon (only 4 picks in next years draft). Patience on offense? The line is older than than my dead grandparents. The Receivers and backs I can live with and maybe Campbell does needmore time and maybe all the systems he has had to learn have hecked him up but then again maybe he just isn't that good? Eli Manning is the same age, Romo is a year older, Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco have shown more in their rookie seasons than Campbell. Maybe patience will just get us more of the same. I'd rather start completely over.
