It's LaRon Landry!

The thing that's always bothered me about Williams' system is the almost total reliance on the secondary and linebackers for the pass rush. I know it all seemed to work fine in 2004, and to a lesser extent in '05.

It worked in his time with the Titans and Bills as well, and the roots of his scheme goes back to Buddy Ryan and the 46 which brought pressure from all over the field too. It may not be conventional, but it's also not a fad type of system either.

The Redskins got better with Landry. He's going to make our defense that much more versatile. He's an explosive player that loves to hit and make big plays. We made the absolute best possible pick by drafting the best defensive player in the entire draft. AA was there last year for gods sake, to say that's not a need position is nuts......

EXACTLY. I'm sick of the whining. We filled a lot of holes and needs with this draft: safety, LB, backup QB (unless you all WANT Todd Collins). The only unnecessary pick was the TE, but hey, how many 7th rounders ever make the team anyways?

We had a great draft as I see it.

I might like Landry a lot, but we needed the much anticipated pass rusher. We brought in nobody to do that....

I might like Landry a lot, but we needed the much anticipated pass rusher. We brought in nobody to do that....

YouTube - Laron Landry Hit (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R211e6JdVew&mode=related&search=)

Sherriff's piece is great. Top notch stuff. I would make this point about the yards per carry we give up. 3.1 in 2004 is superb. It means that teams simply couldn't run the ball. 4.1 in 2005 is okay. You're not stuffing people but you're not getting bulldozed either. 4.5 in 2006 puts you in dangerous territory. The .4 yards between 4.1 and 4.5 are far more significant than the 1 yard between 3.1 and 4.1. At some point, if the numbers keep going up, you pass a tipping point.

Think of it this way. If you went from throwing 40 TDs to 20 and then 10, the drop from 20 to 10 is much more devestating even though it's a numerically smaller decrease than going from 40 to 20.

I think what's significant is that the Redskins have gotten consistently worse and they should have done something to adress the negative trend after 2005.

Nice job RedskinP, and good follow-up Matty. But, I would have liked to have seen the stat on tackles as well. I think that would have also trended with the other years accordingly.

Sherriff's piece is great. Top notch stuff. I would make this point about the yards per carry we give up. 3.1 in 2004 is superb. It means that teams simply couldn't run the ball. 4.1 in 2005 is okay. You're not stuffing people but you're not getting bulldozed either. 4.5 in 2006 puts you in dangerous territory. The .4 yards between 4.1 and 4.5 are far more significant than the 1 yard between 3.1 and 4.1. At some point, if the numbers keep going up, you pass a tipping point.

Think of it this way. If you went from throwing 40 TDs to 20 and then 10, the drop from 20 to 10 is much more devestating even though it's a numerically smaller decrease than going from 40 to 20.

I think what's significant is that the Redskins have gotten consistently worse and they should have done something to adress the negative trend after 2005.

You have to consider LB play when looking at the yards per carry. I think that we all saw how much worse it got with Pierce gone and Holdman playing. Arringtons presence on running down late in 2005 solidified the run defense. It is easy for me to believewhat I am being told by the skins talking heads. They think the DL is not to blame for the poor run defense and they acknowldege that the DE position could be improved but not with late round draft picks.

It worked in his time with the Titans and Bills as well, and the roots of his scheme goes back to Buddy Ryan and the 46 which brought pressure from all over the field too. It may not be conventional, but it's also not a fad type of system either.

Yeah, I know his scheme isn't flavor of the month type stuff, but Buddy Ryan apparently found it important enough to build his defenses with top notch linemen like Dent, Hampton, Clyde Simmons, Jerome Brown and Reggie White.

You still have to have a decent front four. I know the coaches think everything is hunky-dorey with our guys, but we'll know for sure by August.

You have to consider LB play when looking at the yards per carry. I think that we all saw how much worse it got with Pierce gone and Holdman playing. Arringtons presence on running down late in 2005 solidified the run defense. It is easy for me to believewhat I am being told by the skins talking heads. They think the DL is not to blame for the poor run defense and they acknowldege that the DE position could be improved but not with late round draft picks.

I went to NFL.com and added up all the tackles by the four starters in 2005 (Daniels, Griffin, Salave'a and Wynn) and they totalled 118. Last year, Daniels, Griff, Salave'a and Carter all got 127. So while the run defense statistically plummeted, the front four actually made more tackles.

I know stats can be deceiving with defensive linemen, but I do think your point about the linebackers slacking last year has some validity.

Interesting to see the D-line actually had more tackles, but I guess we could also consider that teams probably pounded us more with the run since it worked so well. I guess we could always look up rushing attempts against our D from 2005 vs. 2006 to see if that holds any water.