Backup center discussion

That's really all I was trying to say all along. And like I said, if we have an "average" injury season, it will be far less than last season. Maybe '07 was evening out how healthy we stayed in '05 when we won 11 games (including playoffs). I wasn't trying to imply we'd be injury-free in '08 because of '07. But the Law of Averages is in our favor in the health department compared to last season.

As far as the gambler's fallacy, I guess it's a good thing I don't bet. I understand what you mean as far as probabilities are concerned. I'm not trying to take the Warpath down a road of flawed logic or anything. Trust me, I'm not that complicated.

OK yeah I think we're on the same page. It's just the math and probabilities discussion wandered into my area of expertise, so I went apeschneed on it. My bad.

Here's to the Skins staying healthy and mauling D-linemen in 2008. Let's just pray a little harder for Rabach.

OK yeah I think we're on the same page. It's just the math and probabilities discussion wandered into my area of expertise, so I went apeschneed on it. My bad.

Here's to the Skins staying healthy and mauling D-linemen in 2008. Let's just pray a little harder for Rabach.

Apeschneed on it... LOL! Good stuff.

Cheers man. And yes, Rabach's health is one of the most important things for our team this year.

None of you guys mentioned the fact that Pete Kendall can play center and is most likely will be the top back-up, provided that Rhinehart works out. Right now it is Jansen because we do not know if we have a back-up guard, but the team is more comfortable with Kendall there (Buges and Cerratto said as much). Therefore, people need to stop panicking, since we will most likely sign another vet back-up as well. I wanted to sign Newberry, who was excellent with the Raiders last year, but he got picked up last week for vet min.

Angry's 5 best lineman argument makes some sense. However, though Heyer has the makings of a solid RT prospect, I don't think we can consider him in the same class as the veteran starters. Therefore, if Rabach got hurt, we would obviously play the best four linemen, and a sub.

By moving Jansen off of RT, we are opening up a potential hole on the offensive line much greater than the Center position would be. Having a good RT is more important than having a good C, and as we saw, we could lose the ability to run to one side or the other if we don't have a battle-tested tackle.

I think Schneed might be over-exaggerating the problems that Jansen would have as a Center -- If he's healthy, he should do fine, height shouldn't be an issue. But with the relative fungibility of NFL Centers, it would make more sense to have a competition and find a guy who you feel most comfortable to back up Rabach, then to stretch your team thin at the tackle position in trying to back up your Center.

Not to mention, if no one is getting reps at Center in practice besides Jansen and Rabach, this creates a really bad situation if/when Jansen goes down. Now, you have Heyer in at RT, but no one besides Rabach would even be able to handle Center in a game, and that could be disastrous.

Right.

So now Heyer has secretly beaten out Jansen before training camp even starts and Jansen has been bumped over to center.

Please.

:doh:

I don't know about all that now. Heyer did a great job last year as a rookie. If something happened to Rabach then move Jansen over there and let Heyer step in at Right Tackle for a little bit. I don't think Heyer has taken the job from Jansen, but he's more than capable of playing it if something happened.

Heck, if this did happen I could see Buges running 50 gut a few more times a game. :)

Angry's 5 best lineman argument makes some sense. However, though Heyer has the makings of a solid RT prospect, I don't think we can consider him in the same class as the veteran starters. Therefore, if Rabach got hurt, we would obviously play the best four linemen, and a sub.

By moving Jansen off of RT, we are opening up a potential hole on the offensive line much greater than the Center position would be. Having a good RT is more important than having a good C, and as we saw, we could lose the ability to run to one side or the other if we don't have a battle-tested tackle.

I think Schneed might be over-exaggerating the problems that Jansen would have as a Center -- If he's healthy, he should do fine, height shouldn't be an issue. But with the relative fungibility of NFL Centers, it would make more sense to have a competition and find a guy who you feel most comfortable to back up Rabach, then to stretch your team thin at the tackle position in trying to back up your Center.

Not to mention, if no one is getting reps at Center in practice besides Jansen and Rabach, this creates a really bad situation if/when Jansen goes down. Now, you have Heyer in at RT, but no one besides Rabach would even be able to handle Center in a game, and that could be disastrous.
Didn't we have a game either last year or the prior year where our C went down and the othe teamd D just expoled right through the middle of our line? Buge said on the Riggo show that heyer is playing both RT & LT and has really improved over the past year. From the way he was talking Heyer will play a bigger role in the ine this year and has come into camp around 330 and is probably the strongest man on the team. I hope this is true because it will have been a great find for our team.

I'd much prefer to see Crummey or Rinehart get those 2nd team reps. I really feel that both will have a significant place as O-line starters eventually. Crummey was a great FA signing out of Maryland. He might have been drafted in the 2nd or 3rd round had he not broken his leg last season.

I think that right now the reasoning behind moving Jansen to center would be that we could do that, substitute Heyer or Wade at tackle and still have 5 guys with starting experience, for the Redskins playing, on the o-line.

Bugel knows what help Heyer and Wade need when they are in because of last year. He sees the best o-line talent at the tackle position (Jansen, Wade, Heyer, Fabini, Reinhart). Looks like he wants to spend all Reinharts time being developed for guard, Jansen is the best option at this time. Plus Jansen is stuck here for a whilewith his salary and if his abailties fall off at tackle, he needs to be able to contribute as a "super-backup" at multiple positions.

I still say we sign a back-up center before the season starts.

someone earlier mentioned L. bentley. He's back in camp w/the browns:

ESPN - Bentley passes physical, conditioning test on road to rejoining Browns - NFL (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3435161)

someone earlier mentioned L. bentley. He's back in camp w/the browns:

ESPN - Bentley passes physical, conditioning test on road to rejoining Browns - NFL (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3435161)

Good to hear, he was a great player before he got hurt.