Thats All She Wrote Skins Fans
*This is a pretty stream of consciousness rant…but I need to get all this off my chest*
A season that started out so promising at 6-2 has essentially come to a close with 2 games left and a mediocre record of 7-7 that, at this point, looks to be better than it should be the way the Redskins have played the last 6 weeks. The most brainwashed of Redskins fans will take the glass half full approach. They will say “Before the season started, we would be happy to have this record, quit your whining”. That is sad if someone thinks that.
Personally, I am not ever happy with a team I am a fan of being average at best. How did it get to this point? In my youth this team was a three time champion, now as an adult, this team is a joke…and why? Well, here’s why.
Daniel Snyder, he of good intentions and a full pocketbook, has no idea how to actually run a football organization. He may or may not know this and that is scary. What is even more frightening is that Daniel Snyder doesn’t hire good football people to run his organization either. But, you say, he hired Joe Gibbs! Who is more of a football person than Joe Gibbs? I have an answer for that…Joe Gibbs when Snyder hired him wasn’t a football person anymore, he was a NASCAR person so shut the hell up. People don’t leave the game of football for 15 years and suddenly jump right back in and know what the hell is going on, its impossible, and that was proven as he slowly hired people to do his job for him in his tenure here.
Snyder then makes Vinnie Cerrato the GM and allows him to run the draft. What happened there? Disaster. 3 picks in the 2nd round has turned into 3 receivers who have caught a combined 18 passes for 127 yards. Awesome. What other receivers could we have taken in the 2nd round? Jordy Nelson ( 30 catches, 330 yards), John Carlson (51, 601), Eddie Royal (75, 847), or Desean Jackson (53, 775). We picked 3 receivers, none of them combined are as good as any one of those rookies. You have to try really hard to fail that bad.
The offensive line is old, they knew it would be old, it was old everywhere. They picked 1 tackle. The defensive line is old, they knew it would be old, it was old everywhere. They picked 1 end…in the 7th round. They picked 1 cornerback who couldn’t even be effective on special teams, they picked a punter in the 6th round that was cut in the middle of the season, they picked a quarterback they didn’t need, as a matter of fact, the only pick that apparently was a steal was Chris Horton, their last pick, which looks like pure dumb luck since they were so bad at the previous 9 picks.
So they didn’t fix any problems from the previous season in the draft. They also signed their running back who has more wear than 95% of the other backs in the league to a multi-year extension. They have 1 good wide receiver and 1 good tight end who both get double teamed because they have no other threats. They have no pass rush because their line is old and slow, which puts too much pressure on their surprisingly solid linebacking corps, which in turn puts a ton of pressure on their corner backs to play man defense, neutering their best defensive player Laron Landry because he has to play center field all day to cover for anyone’s mistakes. And they hire their rookie offensive coordinator to be their rookie coach.
That might still be a good move but right now Zorn has much to prove, the hiccups in the installation of his offense are quite apparent. Right now, the team isn’t build for the Zorn version of the “West-Coast” style of offense. It was built to be a power running/play action team (and wasn’t good at that either). On top of that, after Zorn surprised the league with his play calling in the first 8 games, the league caught up to him like a rookie pitcher the 2nd time around. It is almost like everyone know what play is coming except the Redskins’ since they’re always offsides, lining up wrong, blocking in the wrong protection mode, or running the wrong routes.
The team is not very disciplined right now, the offensive playcalling has been stagnant and if Greg Blache wasn’t such an amazing defensive coordinator, the Redskins would never, ever have a chance in this year’s NFL.
So since everything is wrong with the Redskins, what needs to be done? More pain and misery before the gettin gets good. The team needs to take a hard look at the players on the team and make some cuts…a lot of them. This team needs to be gutted, the front office and scouting department needs to be fired and a real football mind needs to take charge. Veterans need to be traded for draft picks if possible or cut if there are no takers. This team needs a complete overhaul and it has to be done as soon as possible because putting it off is not the way to have sustained success in this league.
Yes, i’d rather lose with a bunch of promising rookies and found talent than lose with these high priced has-beens. At least one way, you can see the future growing, right now, the only thing growing is my discontent.
Filed under: Chris Horton • Cincinnati Bengals • Clinton Portis • Dan Snyder • Greg Blache • Jason Campbell • Jim Zorn • Joe Gibbs • NFL • Santana Moss • Vinny Cerrato • Washington Redskins
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
The problem is the front office. Daniel Snyder simply sucks. Even the middle of the road Washington Post today called for his ouster. His experiment in ownership has failed. What the team now needs is a football person, not a business person.