Redskins trade for Jason Taylor (updated)

My Hat Is Off To Dan And Vin.it Just Goes To Show This Franchise Really Wants To Win And Win Badly.hail To The Redskins And Welcome Mr. Taylor To A Great Place To Play Football.in This Great Country Of Ours.

I would have preferred to draft a young DE but there were none worthy when it was our turn to pick. I have two concerns with this pick up:
1) While this move greatly improves our pass rush, we now do not have a stout run stopping DE. Carter and Taylor are not very strong against power running teams, they are barely over 250 and will get pushed around from time to time. We have basically two very similar DE's and the other teams will run right at them.
2) Another old guy. Taylor has been dancing on TV for the last several months and might not be in the best shape of his life. Injury is a concern.

While I share in the excitement of a potentially strong pass rush. But if you can not stop the run you are in for a long season. You have to be able to run the ball and stop the run, if you can not do that you are playing for next year.

1. The Giants may not have been planning for Strahan's retirement when they picked Osi in '03, but they sure have been ever since. Even with those bookends they continued to draft DEs in '04 (Reggie Torbor), '05 (Tuck), '06 (Mathias Kiwanuka) and even '08 (Robert Henderson, albeit in the 6th round). They have even played Tuck at DT and Kiwanuka at LB to get those guys reps on the field, Kiwanuka will probably go back to the D-line, but his experience at linebacker gives Spagnuolo even more flexibility.

2. I totally agree with you on Taylor dancing, he was doing that on his own time. Shawn Springs didn't come train at Redskin Park the past two years, but he's been our best corner. Parcells dissing Taylor was an old school move, kinda like GW and Lavar, or Schottenheimer and Centers. Pick one veteran to make an example that no one is bigger than the team.

3. Evans and Wilson will definitely get reps. James too, if he can get healthy. I like that our D-line got stronger from the top.
Great points and I totally agree with you especially on point #2 regarding Parcells old style and making an example of a veteran from the team to send a message that no one is above the team.

Perfect example of this is when he first took the job as coach of the Cowboys, he first order of business was to RELEASE Emmit Smith. And Emmit went to Arizona.

1. The Giants may not have been planning for Strahan's retirement when they picked Osi in '03, but they sure have been ever since. Even with those bookends they continued to draft DEs in '04 (Reggie Torbor), '05 (Tuck), '06 (Mathias Kiwanuka) and even '08 (Robert Henderson, albeit in the 6th round). They have even played Tuck at DT and Kiwanuka at LB to get those guys reps on the field, Kiwanuka will probably go back to the D-line, but his experience at linebacker gives Spagnuolo even more flexibility.

2. I totally agree with you on Taylor dancing, he was doing that on his own time. Shawn Springs didn't come train at Redskin Park the past two years, but he's been our best corner. Parcells dissing Taylor was an old school move, kinda like GW and Lavar, or Schottenheimer and Centers. Pick one veteran to make an example that no one is bigger than the team.

3. Evans and Wilson will definitely get reps. James too, if he can get healthy. I like that our D-line got stronger from the top.

I never understood the big deal over the dancing deal. It was the offseason and he didn't miss any mandatory work as far as I know. It was vintage Parcells as you said. Just his way of putting his stamp on the team and sending the message that he's in town. Nothing more. It's funny how vilified Taylor has been over this whole thing. Two years ago he was defensive MVP and last year he was the NFL man of the year, and here he is getting shit on for going on a TV show during his offseason.

I never understood the big deal over the dancing deal. It was the offseason and he didn't miss any mandatory work as far as I know. It was vintage Parcells as you said. Just his way of putting his stamp on the team and sending the message that he's in town. Nothing more. It's funny how vilified Taylor has been over this whole thing. Two years ago he was defensive MVP and last year he was the NFL man of the year, and here he is getting shit on for going on a TV show during his offseason.
You know if the Dolphins were 11-5 or 10-6 I could see that point of view. But when a team is 1-15 and the clear-cut leader of the team is "other-wise occupied" during the off-season, it kinda sends a mixed signal to the younger players on that team.

Don't get me wrong, I do think Parcells should not have made a big deal about this. But look at it this way.

Let's say the Redskins went 1-15, hired a new coach, coordinators etc. Having to put a new system in place, how would you feel if Clinton Portis did something like that?

I just think that there is a better time to commit to these off-season things than when your team is 1-15 and you are supposed to be setting the example. If they had a winning record, there would not be such a big deal about it.

Yeah, Taylor is a stand up guy. I remember a couple of seasons ago when he spoke out about Merriman using..or testing positive (wink*wink) for steroids.

I think he's going to come here and play his guts out for this team. Nice to have another Taylor on the team, by the way.

Parcell's must be one of the top worst people to work in the country. His type of management style is a thing of old.

That type of mgmt style has always made me work hard but I never went the extra mile for that type of boss but if I had a boss that was really cool and treated me with respect I wil l go to the end of the earth to get the job done for them.

I loved to see Parcell at boot camp as a solider.

Wanted to weigh in with my thoughts:

1) I'm surprised to hear the Skins had the cap room to accomodate this. They must have made some other cap moves that me and CC (and another source, PCINOZ) were not aware of.

2) Given that Cerrato seems to be privy to information indicating Taylor will play beyond this season, I'll gladly give up a 2 and a 6 for two seasons of Jason Taylor.

3) I am slightly concerned with Taylor being asked to switch from RDE which he played in Miami, to LDE here. It's a slight concern, but I can't imagine he's going to go off for 15 sacks when making that switch.

4) But still, if we can get 8 sacks from him on that side, it will make a huge difference. The impact should not be underestimated. Because of his presence, our DTs will see more one-on-ones. They should be freed to be more active and make more stops. Our corners won't be asked to cover for quite as long. But the biggest impact of all: turnovers. What wins in the NFL? Turnover margin. It's the single biggest factor in winning. Pressure from Taylor and Carter, combined with Landry's range in the secondary, should produce more INTs. The chance of QB fumbles goes up, too.

I think we just went from a 7-9 team to a 9-7 team. This swung me around, consider me an optimist. Good move.

In response to a few complaints I've seen on here:

1. I know this is really jarring to some people's mindsets, but draft picks really aren't guaranteed to work out....not even in the second round. (See Taylor Jacobs)

2. I don't know what dancing with the stars has to do with any of this. Are we really going to criticize a guy for doing something that didn't require him to miss any time with his team? It's the off-season......he's free to do whatever the F- he wants. It's not like the guy was sitting at home playing Madden all spring (or perhaps you'd be happier with that?). It's up to every individual player to keep themselves in shape during the offseason and I've seen absolutely zero indication that Taylor is in any way out of shape.

People are saying ridiculous things like "what kind of leader goes off dancing....he should be helping his 1-15 team to get better." When dancing with the stars was being filmed there wasn't any team organized training or team organized events that Taylor was somehow skipping out on. If he had been working out at the Dolphins facility at the time, there probably wouldn't have even been anyone else there.

3. Can we please look at this from a (perish the thought) football perspective. Any argument that Taylor doesn't represent a significant upgrade over anything we've had at DE for the last 10 years is completely unsupportable. Is someone going to tell me that the ESPN overhype (not sure where that comes from) is responsible for his 100+ sacks? Did ESPN somehow give Taylor 11 sacks last year? Give me a break.

4. Bruce Smith? Really, you want to go there? Ok, lets look at some facts. Bruce Smith came here in his 16th year in the league. Taylor is coming in his 12th. In Bruce Smith's 12th, 13th and 14th years he had 13.5, 14, and 10 sacks respectivley. Oh, and when he came here in his 16th year, he gave us 10 sacks (followed by 5, 9, and 5). And Smith was given an huge new contract......Taylor is playing under his old contract. This is NOT Bruce Smith all over again. In fact, the two situations have almost nothing in common.

In response to a few complaints I've seen on here:

1. I know this is really jarring to some people's mindsets, but draft picks really aren't guaranteed to work out....not even in the second round. (See Taylor Jacobs)

2. I don't know what dancing with the stars has to do with any of this. Are we really going to criticize a guy for doing something that didn't require him to miss any time with his team? It's the off-season......he's free to do whatever the F- he wants. It's not like the guy was sitting at home playing Madden all spring (or perhaps you'd be happier with that?). It's up to every individual player to keep themselves in shape during the offseason and I've seen absolutely zero indication that Taylor is in any way out of shape.

People are saying ridiculous things like "what kind of leader goes off dancing....he should be helping his 1-15 team to get better." When dancing with the stars was being filmed there wasn't any team organized training or team organized events that Taylor was somehow skipping out on. If he had been working out at the Dolphins facility at the time, there probably wouldn't have even been anyone else there.

3. Can we please look at this from a (perish the thought) football perspective. Any argument that Taylor doesn't represent a significant upgrade over anything we've had at DE for the last 10 years is completely unsupportable. Is someone going to tell me that the ESPN overhype (not sure where that comes from) is responsible for his 100+ sacks? Did ESPN somehow give Taylor 11 sacks last year? Give me a break.

4. Bruce Smith? Really, you want to go there? Ok, lets look at some facts. Bruce Smith came here in his 16th year in the league. Taylor is coming in his 12th. In Bruce Smith's 12th, 13th and 14th years he had 13.5, 14, and 10 sacks respectivley. Oh, and when he came here in his 16th year, he gave us 10 sacks (followed by 5, 9, and 5). And Smith was given an huge new contract......Taylor is playing under his old contract. This is NOT Bruce Smith all over again. In fact, the two situations have almost nothing in common.

Good points.

I don't see this as another Bruce Smith either. Totally different situations.

And with the dancing thing, again I could really care less. Look at his football resume. It speaks loud and clear.