Skins Sign O-Lineman Mike Williams

I love how we only talk about the mess ups of the FO. How about the Santana Moss trade? How about Griffen, Springs, and Daniels signings. I will not bore everone on the board with this discussion any longer but I think that to say things like our FO is stupid or retarded just doesn't really hold water with me. They have areas where they can improve. You cant just compare us to Indy, Pitt, and New England every time. These are elite franchises with years of stability in coaching and systems. If we stay the course we could eventually get there. I actually am happy with our offseason. We have gotten younger at a lot of positions and have upgraded both our offensive and defensive lines (and we aren't done yet). And our O-line shoudl be better just with the improvement of the guys already there. Lets have some faith.

HTTR

Dude, how about 68-76 over ten years? How about 22-26 over the last three seasons?

Faith is believing in something you know ain't true.

I love how we only talk about the mess ups of the FO. How about the Santana Moss trade? How about Griffen, Springs, and Daniels signings. I will not bore everone on the board with this discussion any longer but I think that to say things like our FO is stupid or retarded just doesn't really hold water with me. They have areas where they can improve. You cant just compare us to Indy, Pitt, and New England every time. These are elite franchises with years of stability in coaching and systems. If we stay the course we could eventually get there. I actually am happy with our offseason. We have gotten younger at a lot of positions and have upgraded both our offensive and defensive lines (and we aren't done yet). And our O-line shoudl be better just with the improvement of the guys already there. Lets have some faith.

HTTR

OK, first off, we traded Laverneous Coles for Moss, who (talking about Coles) at that time was a more productive receiver. so, it can be argued, that the Jets actually came out on the better side of that deal. That's number one.

And as for the other names you mentioned... Even a blindfolded person, given enough darts will hit the bulls-eye at some point. Those were more of on the dart board hits though, Springs was a beast WHEN he wasn't injured, same goes for Daniels, but Griffen is solid. And the only improvement we made so far is the Dockery signing. WHICH IS GOOD, don't get me wrong, but that line needs a makeover.

And just read what the experts (yes, the experts, who, like it or not know more about football than any of us do) have to say about our draft compared to Indy's and New England's, we don't have the FO talent to draft like they do.

This dude is WAY outta shape...he currently weighs about 410 pounds, according to Zorn. When he last played in the NFL, he was 360 pounds.

This is really bad news...there is no way this guy can drop 50 lbs in 2 months.
It is a shame...to bad he didn't get his lazy butt into shape over the winter.
I really doubt he makes the team

It's been said many times, many ways - your examples are old, (except JT, and nearly everyone on the board at the time at least understood the move, it was not the same as AA, but we did pay too much). The FO has filled 3 of 4 areas of need very effectively (GTripp I am not counting Hall). LB -good prospects (especially if Wilson can switch to SLB at all), DL - bowing to GTripp again, assuming the scheme and players are used well, the FO has acquired what would appear to be top notch talent that should be here for 3-6 years. Yes the OL is a need, the offseason is not over, but Dockery was a passible start. STs - I love Hunter, and the late rounders all "look" to be aggressive, and maybe one will be a standout.

they may be old, but they are valid. JT was 34 years old, we gave up to much, and payed too much for him. And what do you attribute our second half demise to last year? our defense? Thats where our "holes" have been filled. Last time i checked they were ranked 4th in the league. Ok, well, then how do you miss the playoffs with the 4th overall defense?

Um context is good, we drafted Offense last year, so rather than throwing out last year's 3rd round prospect for the 5th rounder you apparently have so much faith in, they are going to keep developing our guys (isn't this called building through the draft? or are all late rounders supposed to be starters in the 2nd year? I must have missed that lesson)

Ok, here's the thing. Where were they last year? Kelly was on IR with his DEGENERATIVE knee condition. what does degenerative mean? It means he has the knees of an 80 year old man, according to doctors anyways, google it. Thomas has the most potential out of that draft, and as for Davis, well, I hope he does turn out good, then we can draft him for a 2nd rounder we can use. Yes, i guess i am in the minority here when I say I am like Cooley as a receiving TE and Yoder as a blocking TE? But, let's not worry about these issues yet, they aren't our pressing needs (that was defense right?).

I will EVEN go as far as ignoring Jason Campbell's obvious flaws as QB (Even the respected FO doubts him). I believe, as does every expert in the modern world, that our second half collapse can be attributed to our OL. Yes, I know, i am showing my weakness here by saying I wish we have addressed our real weakness, but I just can't help myself. Dockery was nice. But last time I checked, the right side of our line is still how old? (Jansen and Thomas are both 33)And last time I checked, they weren't the most durable players. But hey, I don't know anything. What was I missing? Oh right! The defense and our special teams was our main issue, since that is what we addressed in this draft.

And the only thing I am growing impatient with, is waiting for players to develop (i.e. Campbell, going on 5 years, our entire draft last year played how many snaps?) At the rate we are developing players, we are going to develop our All-stars (Portis, Samuels, Moss) into retirement. You can keep the patience, I personally believe someone needs to light a fire under the FO's ***.

First - you defend the fact that you are using old examples by beating a dead horse on JT, when I had said that that one everybody agreed with, and was clearly, in hindsight, an overreaction to losing our 2 DEs on the first day of training camp.

Second - saying we had the 4th ranked D, does make a good sound bite, But we lost SSprings, who was our true shutdown corner -when he played, MW/LF are already going into retirement status (sorry 53Fan), and we ranked I think 30th in sacks and that was clearly an irritant to the fan base and the FO.

Third - can you please provide some links for your understanding of Kelly's knee condition. He was not on IR, although there was talk about putting him on, they did not. I have not seen any talk, except you, that his condition is degenerative in nature.

Fourth - you cite elite teams and gripe about our FO, but look at how those franchises reached their talent level. I will try and speak slowly.
build a scouting department
let scouting department evaluate talent over the year
look at results
trust competent staff
draft accordingly.
(a proof of this method is: it was announced today that Scott Pioli fired a majority of the KC scouting department (http://nflnr.com/2009/04/27/chiefs-scouting-staff-sent-packing/))
Look for above market talent at below market price
Develop backups at major positions.

Can all of that be done in one draft? no, two-probably not. If last year we took players that we are now counting on contributing, that is not a negative against the FO at this point. If Rinehart and Heyer completely fail, and the 2nd rounders have the same type year, then I will be unhappy, but the fact the FO is depending on players from last year to continue their development, that is not a negative.

Fifth - Patience in football terms is how you develop strong long term programs, we have not been a patient team, and that is what accounts for our up and down seasons. I give every Kudo to the Skins if they learn the lessons of patience from Pitt, NE, and Indy. (again, these teams develop a talent base let it grow and now have reaped the benefits for many sustained years.)

I know -Superman- that you and others may weep and gnash teeth about our FO, and I do not agree with every move, but I don't get paid daily to go evaluate talent, to plan and look at the best ways to improve our team. Most, not all, critics here complain because our FO did not do some "obvious" moves, I tend to have faith that they have researched those moves and maybe, just maybe, they know better than a guy working 50 hours at his primary job and catching the latest internet buzz words.

Only time will tell, but in April/May, I can accept that we have solidly filled 3/4s of our needs going into the offseason, and that we will make strides on that last 25% in the months upcoming.

Kelly was on IR with his DEGENERATIVE knee condition. what does degenerative mean? It means he has the knees of an 80 year old man, according to doctors anyways, google it.
Kelly was not on IR
I can't find any evidence that supports your claim Kelly has a degenerative knee condition
I did google it, and could not find a useful article, there was one where Rocky's condition was questioned, but seems like he was on the field playing last season with his "degenerative knee condition".
Any chance you will acknowledge that you may be wrong about this?

just read a story that states that Williams is well over 400lbs. so much for him helping this season

Haha, but you are forgetting the main factor. Polian and Belichek know how to evaluate talent. That is one thing our FO has never been able to do. I mean there were a couple blatantly obvious ones with our safties (Taylor RIP, and Landry). But other than that? mediocrity. So I'll gain patience when the FO learns to evaluate talent. Deal?

Never mind that the Taylor draft was pretty evenly split among fans and experts between Taylor or KWII or that many wanted Okoye instead of Landry. Never mind Cooley, Golston, Montgomery, Horton, Blades. I guess we should just assume that Kelly, Thomas, Davis, Orakpo, Barnes, will all be busts then?

I think the Redskins (like most other teams) have made some very poor personnel decisions, but let's not act like the good decisions they make are always obvious decisions they back into. It's funny how it's always just good luck when something goes their way, but never bad luck when something doesn't.

just read a story that states that Williams is well over 400lbs. so much for him helping this season

I take it you stopped reading posts in this thread three days ago

I'm surprised about the 410 pounds though. I thought I had heard he was 375 last week. Guess I misheard.

375 is where they want to get him down to.

As per Vinny's presser the other day yes he's over 400 folks for the 100th time. He's going to be working on conditioning for the next month to get him down.


"When we signed Mike Williams [on Friday] and the way he looked at the workout," he said, "that kinda helped that. Where we were picking there really weren't -- it really wasn't a deep draft for offensive linemen. For guards it was not a very good draft. There were good centers, but they all went late first round and we didn't have a second round pick. When we got to the third round with [Kevin Barnes], that was the highest rated guy we had on the board. That's why we went that direction. There really wasn't an offensive lineman at that spot."

On how much Mike Williams is expected to participate in minicamp:

"We used to have Bubba Paris and other guys like that in San Francisco. What we are going to do with Mike is, for this first month he will just work with the strength coaches and the rehab guys, work on conditioning and work on some drill work with [Joe Bugel] to get ready for June OTAs."

On how the Redskins decided to work out Williams:

"He's been living over at Derrick Dockery's house. [Derrick] told me about him and said 'Will you contact him?' We said we wanted to bring him over and work out before the Draft and see what he looked like so it may help us decide when we're in the Draft what we're gonna do.

"He came over on Friday, worked out, took a physical and signed a minimum contract deal. When you get past the point in the Draft where you don't feel like there is a starting guy there, then we just went to other positions."

On why Mike Williams was not successful in Buffalo:

"I don't know. I'm not sure why it didn't work. We're giving him the opportunity and putting him in the mix with our guys, put him in the mix at right tackle."

On why the Redskins did not take an offensive lineman in the Draft:

"Stephon [Heyer] is doing a great job. Now it's time for [Chad] Rinehart, Devin Clark and some of the guys from last year that we've been training for a year to step up."


After Day 2, Vinny Cerrato Still Seems Happy (http://blog.redskins.com/2009/04/26/after-day-2-vinny-cerrato-still-seems-happy/#continued)

I just hope that Williams runs with a shirt on!