Catching Up With Pete Kendall; Could He Be Back?

i gotta disagree with ya a bit on the first part. zorn installing and sticking to the wco is not the problem. he needs the right people to run it effectively. he has the backs, the receivers, the TEs and a few o-lineman. he just needs to add to the o-line and most importantly have the right qb to run it. JC might prove to be that guy, if so then the offense is only a few o-lineman away from having all the pieces in place.

i agree with you on your comments about the defense.

I think that is an intelligent way to look at things.

No offense to Gibbs but the team had a lot of holes when Zorn took over and Zorn has filled a number of those holes so far. I fully expect us to add the missing pieces you described next offseason. Hopefully we'll be "good enough" on the o-line this season.

I think that is an intelligent way to look at things.

No offense to Gibbs but the team had a lot of holes when Zorn took over and Zorn has filled a number of those holes so far. I fully expect us to add the missing pieces you described next offseason. Hopefully we'll be "good enough" on the o-line this season.

Yep. They don't have to be great, just good enough. No excuses. Let's roll.

My point is that becuse our offensive line was so dominant in the 1980s, fans (of a certain age I suppose) think the only path to success is to have an offensive line that pitches shutouts. It's an unrealistic expectation. The QB has to pick his teammates up. The Cardinals are one example. I think Roethlisberger does a nice job of buying time. Ditto Romo, though he lacks consistency. It's the only thing McNabb does really well, IMO. As for the Pats, their offensive line is good but you can't tell me that Brady and the receivers aren't the straaw that really stirs that drink.

As for Zorn, his devotion to the outmoded WCO will be his downfall. Campbell can't run it the way Hasselback did and if he wants to survive he needs to get over the notion that you can run the Redskins offense exactly like they did in Seattle.

On the bright side, our defense may be good enough to carry us while they figure out how to score more than ten points.

Well, remember we're not running the WCO really because of Zorn. We're running it because of Cerrato. It was VC who said "Hey it worked when is in San Fran. Portis and Santana have each had success with it in the NFL, Campbell succeeded with it in college. I can bring Zorn in to run it as an offensive coordinator..."

Kendall would be a great addition right now for so many reasons, most of them obvious reasons.

I still don't know why we don't sign Levi Jones.

Anyone know of any teams that have a decent Olineman that is on the trading block?

As for Zorn, his devotion to the outmoded WCO will be his downfall. Campbell can't run it the way Hasselback did and if he wants to survive he needs to get over the notion that you can run the Redskins offense exactly like they did in Seattle.

I'm of the same opinion. I think Zorn is married to the WCO, do or die. It scared me last season and I have the same feeling about him this year.

I believe Zorn is fully capable of being a successful coach in the NFL, but I wonder if he needs all the right parts in place to make a championship contender. Furthermore, I'm not sold on this system being a good fit for Campbell. But one year can make a helluva difference.

I'm of the same opinion. I think Zorn is married to the WCO, do or die. It scared me last season and I have the same feeling about him this year.

I believe Zorn is fully capable of being a successful coach in the NFL, but I wonder if he needs all the right parts in place to make a championship contender. Furthermore, I'm not sold on this system being a good fit for Campbell. But one year can make a helluva difference.


well if the skins don't show much improvement this year, would you rather get rid of zorn or campbell or both?

I think you give some of these other offensive lines too much credit. However, if you're saying that Cerratto hasn't done his job and should be fired then I agree completely with that.Cerrato's biggest failure last year was the Jason Taylor trade without conferring with his defensive coordinator, whom he himself promoted, to see how Jason Taylor would fit.

The Devin Thomas selection was a close second.

Maybe we should lock his ability to touch his second round draft picks. Seems like with moves not involving a second rounder, he's done a pretty good job.

Well, the point is that no team last year started a line as poor as this:

lt-heyer, lg-kendall, c-rabach, rg-thomas, rt-fabini
I think you give some of these other offensive lines too much credit. However, if you're saying that Cerratto hasn't done his job and should be fired then I agree completely with that.Well we can test this. Starting with the assumption that the above Redskins line only had one player who could handle his position (assuming the Thomas injury disqualifies him from that designation).

The Bengals started this:

lt-anthony collins, lg-nate livings, c-eric ghiaciuc, rg-bobbie williams, rt-dennis roland

which is probably just as bad as our line above, but they only had that group for one start (compared to two starts for us).

The Seahaws had this:

lt-ray willis, lg-floyd womack, c-steve vallos, rg-mansfield wrotto, rt-kyle williams

which is also pretty bad, considering it's entirely backups. Wrotto is a Rinehart type, Willis = Heyer, and Kyle Williams was a UDFA. But Womack and Vallos are pretty good as far as backup lineman go.

Finally, when the Bills were at their worst, here's who they had to start:

lt-kirk chambers, lg-derrick dockery, c-melvin fowler, rg-jason whittle, rt-langston walker

I guess all of these lines were destined to fail, but I don't believe that just because a bunch of other bad teams had similar problems doesn't mean that we should pass the blame around.

Assuming Kendall can play right and left guard then I'd like to see him back. I think Thomas is done. The right side of the line looks like it's going to be a total mess.

Signing OL during training camp is too little too late.

This should have been the main focus during FA and the draft. Kendall coming in during training camp isn't going to make any difference in our overall OL production.


My personal opinion is that it is sad that everyone is placing this enormous expectation on Campbell to step up and be "pivotal" when all that mean squat if he constantly evading defenders every snap. The Skins knew Campbell had to "step up" this year and perform as expected but yet yielded no support in signing/drafting any OL help in the offseason.(Losing Kendall neutralizes signing Dockery)

Campbell possibly could have matured and become seasoned enough to where he could lead a team to the post season...we'll never know because management left him out to dry this season.


If you don't agree with that, then you can at least agree to this. Two years ago receiving was one of our major problems. We draft 3 receivers with our first 3 picks. Last year our biggest liability was obviously our OL. We sign/draft no one to additionally help the OL and then expect Campbell to "step up" and play well in his pivotal year?...yeah right.

Good luck to Campbell but I'm just not seeing everyone's expectation of success with our offense.

Well said! I think that most fans think that Jason Campbell should "step up" or this is "A make or break year", but truth be told unless the line play unbelievably we are destined to fail. The success of the Redskins doesn't lie on Jason Campbell's shoulders it falls on the OL. Jason Campbell's future falls on the OL. If they don't play well next year, Jason will be out of here and we will be stuck looking for a new QB.