Daseal's thoughts on everything...

My thoughts on the draft, and the upcoming season:

Here’s a slight change from the current threads passing around the warpath right now. First of all, I would like to commend the front office on a fairly solid draft considering our lack of draft picks. We also didn’t start sending picks to other places to move up for the guys we wanted. Palmer is a great pick simply because of the risk versus reward factor. He could end up being a great pickup for us. The linebackers I see as an attempt to find Fletchers eventual replacement. Plenty of time to add bulk, learn from an impressive veteran, and not be forced into the lineup. A big blocking tight end is something we’ve needed for a while. I think he might end up being a great piuck for thr 7th round. After all of that, LaRon Landry was THE correct pick at the 6 spot.

Our defense hasn’t had a defensive line since Charles Mann, yet we’ve had top flight defenses many years between then and now. Williams’ scheme puts a lot of the pressure on our corners and secondary to lock up their man. This means our defensive line needs to eat blocks to let the linebackers roam free and make the big plays. That along with unpredictable blitzes from every position and angle means trouble. Last year, our starting secondary never really got on the field. Springs waited far too long to have surgery, Carlos was young and still played solid, PP went down early which I feel is what really hurt us. We couldn’t find another safety to fill in, so we were playing a scheme that was far from what G Will likes to do.

Gman, TMC, and myself may be the conductors of the Rogers train. This kid is a player. Yes, he’s cocky in his interviews. It’s part of being a cornerback, if you get beat you have to get up and say you’ll get them next time. Overall, he didn’t play that bad. He had a few bad games, but then he had a few games where he played well. All I see on this site is people constantly complaining that we don’t build through the draft, yet we don’t want to let players develop. Lets remember that Rogers was only in his 2nd year. It takes a while for players to get playing to an NFL caliber, especially corners. So either sit there and be patient with players as they develop, or shut up about building through the draft and be happy trading picks for vets.

I think the offense will be fine as long as Saunders is allowed to work with them and get everything rolling this offseason. Besides a huge hole at LG, I’m extremely happy with what we have. Moss/Lloyd/ARE/Cooley are good receivers, our line is solid, and Portis/Betts need no explanation. I’m looking forward to seeing the power run game from KC only with way more options in the passing game. In my opinion, the offense and the season hinge on Jason Campbell’s performance this year.

In closing, I’m not a very optimistic person, especially when it comes to football. Fact is, this team hasn’t shown us anything that should lead us to be optimistic. Every year we talk Super Bowl. However, I love a lot of the young players on this team and I feel our offense could be potent. This comes down to the coaching staff NEVER letting a team catch up. As sad as it is, for the past few years I was happy to be behind in the 4th quarter, because it was the only time we tried to score. We need the killer instinct to succeed in this league.

Great post Daseal. I generally agree w/ everything you said (I can't believe I'm saying that! ;) )

Something else I'd like to add.....

Yes we didn't draft any d-lineman this year and many of us here thought that was the way to go. But in the end we came out with what many rated as the top defensive player in the draft. I'm really excited to see him and Taylor back there taking heads off.

The best part of this weekend IMO is the fact that we have all our picks in tact (barring any trades) for 08. I'm almost 100% sure that after this season, we will not be hearing the names Daniels, Griffin, Salave'a, and Wynn around here anymore. Clearly the FO is giving these guys one more chance to prove themselves and if it doesn't workout, heck we'll have 7 draft picks to find replacements.

My thoughts on the draft, and the upcoming season:

Here’s a slight change from the current threads passing around the warpath right now. First of all, I would like to commend the front office on a fairly solid draft considering our lack of draft picks. We also didn’t start sending picks to other places to move up for the guys we wanted. Palmer is a great pick simply because of the risk versus reward factor. He could end up being a great pickup for us. The linebackers I see as an attempt to find Fletchers eventual replacement. Plenty of time to add bulk, learn from an impressive veteran, and not be forced into the lineup. A big blocking tight end is something we’ve needed for a while. I think he might end up being a great piuck for thr 7th round. After all of that, LaRon Landry was THE correct pick at the 6 spot.

Our defense hasn’t had a defensive line since Charles Mann, yet we’ve had top flight defenses many years between then and now. Williams’ scheme puts a lot of the pressure on our corners and secondary to lock up their man. This means our defensive line needs to eat blocks to let the linebackers roam free and make the big plays. That along with unpredictable blitzes from every position and angle means trouble. Last year, our starting secondary never really got on the field. Springs waited far too long to have surgery, Carlos was young and still played solid, PP went down early which I feel is what really hurt us. We couldn’t find another safety to fill in, so we were playing a scheme that was far from what G Will likes to do.

Gman, TMC, and myself may be the conductors of the Rogers train. This kid is a player. Yes, he’s cocky in his interviews. It’s part of being a cornerback, if you get beat you have to get up and say you’ll get them next time. Overall, he didn’t play that bad. He had a few bad games, but then he had a few games where he played well. All I see on this site is people constantly complaining that we don’t build through the draft, yet we don’t want to let players develop. Lets remember that Rogers was only in his 2nd year. It takes a while for players to get playing to an NFL caliber, especially corners. So either sit there and be patient with players as they develop, or shut up about building through the draft and be happy trading picks for vets.

I think the offense will be fine as long as Saunders is allowed to work with them and get everything rolling this offseason. Besides a huge hole at LG, I’m extremely happy with what we have. Moss/Lloyd/ARE/Cooley are good receivers, our line is solid, and Portis/Betts need no explanation. I’m looking forward to seeing the power run game from KC only with way more options in the passing game. In my opinion, the offense and the season hinge on Jason Campbell’s performance this year.

In closing, I’m not a very optimistic person, especially when it comes to football. Fact is, this team hasn’t shown us anything that should lead us to be optimistic. Every year we talk Super Bowl. However, I love a lot of the young players on this team and I feel our offense could be potent. This comes down to the coaching staff NEVER letting a team catch up. As sad as it is, for the past few years I was happy to be behind in the 4th quarter, because it was the only time we tried to score. We need the killer instinct to succeed in this league.

Daseal - I agree with a lot of your qoute but calling Llyod a good reciever I can't go along with. Lloyd had the worst stats among all number 2 WR's in the NFL - 0 td receptions and 23 total receptions for 365 yds is terrible. And to rub salt into the wound the guy has an attitude problem - I can see a lot of WR's that have stats are hard to deal with. But Lloyd has done nothing in Washington and he did nothing in San Fran but piss off his teammates. How can you term him a good WR?

When I was at the game, I saw Lloyd getting separation from the CBs. The fact is, you can't catch what is thrown to you. I find it interesting that Lloyd was called a character guy, nothing but supportive, etc. Then after he wears the hat that says **** in big letters on it, Gibbs yelling at him, all of a sudden he's a terrible person and player?

Chris Cooley on EITM gave the above story. I really think Lloyd will make a huge comeback. If he's going to fail, I want him to at least get a shot to catch balls. I think it was the Houston game where he caught everything thrown to him in the first quarter, which was a lot. Then we didn't look his way again.

EDIT: The **** was his hat saying the F word. F FILTERS!

I like what you said too, although I'm not too high on Landry. I'll wait and see what he plays like before I reserve judgement. I just think that having Landry, who is similar to Taylor in the fact that he's a big hitter and a flashy guy, isn't the guy who will help Taylor back there. We need a guy to complement Taylor's attributes, not someone who plays the same as him. I could and (hopefully) will be wrong when I say that, but i'm not too high on that pick as of now.

In my opinion, Landry will allow us to see why Williams calls Taylor "Swoop".

When I was at the game, I saw Lloyd getting separation from the CBs. The fact is, you can't catch what is thrown to you. I find it interesting that Lloyd was called a character guy, nothing but supportive, etc. Then after he wears the hat that says **** in big letters on it, Gibbs yelling at him, all of a sudden he's a terrible person and player?

Chris Cooley on EITM gave the above story. I really think Lloyd will make a huge comeback. If he's going to fail, I want him to at least get a shot to catch balls. I think it was the Houston game where he caught everything thrown to him in the first quarter, which was a lot. Then we didn't look his way again.

EDIT: The **** was his hat saying the F word. F FILTERS!


Daseal - I remember seeing that a bunch of his teammates in San Fran could not stand the guy and he was a pain the a** and a lot of his teammates were glad to see him gone when the trade happened.

I hope the guy makes an amazing comeback next year but if he puts up those same stats I can't see the Skins retaining him. You can blame the qb, system, coaches, whatever but in order for the SKins to flourish they need somone to step up and take the pressure off of Moss.
I still don't think he is a good wr though. My term of a good wr is someone who can consistently make catches and more importantly convert 3rd downs and TD's. If he puts up similar stats next year I can't justify why the Skins would retain him.

Down the road, we really won't be regretting the Landry pick, at all. He should become a probowler. But the issue for me is this: come 2008, we are still going to have a poor defense with should-be-retired vets mixed with rookies (hopefully). People will we wondering how we have a second year Landry and a 5th year Sean Taylor and still suck. Well, the simple answer is that our rookie DLineman will be inexperienced, and the older guys no longer serviceable. By 2009, we should be getting some decent return out of our 2008 draft class. But by then, Gibbs will be gone, and our offensive line will be really old, and likely in rebuilding.

We really needed for the short term future to get a young, talented DL like Amobi Okoye so that if this season is another sour one on D, we could use the 2nd half of the year for some on the job learning.

Lets say we have a rough first half of the year again this year. Well, now what do we do to improve our DL situation? We can't. It becomes a wasted season defensively. We have to wait a whole year until the draft again and then use 2008 to break in the rookies.

This is all moot if our defense plays well in spite of our DL again this year, because we will be able to draft DLineman next year. But if things don't go well for us, this could very well become another wasted season defensively.

And if we don't address the DL next year...then this problem amplifies exponentially.

Lloyd was a 4th round pick who has yet to prove otherwise. I wouldn't hold out hope for a statistical maturity anytime soon, Daseal.