Offensive Lines in the Playoffs

Yeah Bridges. another great move by the FO. oh well

WaldSkins:

I liked the signing of Bridges the day they did it and said so here. The fact that the organization - - coaches, FO, owner, whomever - - chose to cut him and keep the stiffs they kept is a testimony to the incompetence of at least one decision maker.

That is why I said in another thread that no one - - as in NO ONE - - from the current coaching staff should be retained in the new "regime" and that there should be a very hard look at the people who do the talent evaluation for this organization.

Bridges was good enough to play LT for about half the year for a playoff-caliber team but he could not make it here over - - fill in the blank with the name of the stumblebum of the week.

Yeah Bridges. another great move by the FO. oh well

Atleast we still have Renaldo Wynn

Jeremy Bridges whom we cut during pre-season started much of the season at RT for the Cardinals.
Option #4: Better evaluation of players already on team roster.

Excellent point. Bridges would have been a big help to us this year. Instead we set him free and got nothing in return.

Bridges was good enough to play LT for about half the year for a playoff-caliber team but he could not make it here over - - fill in the blank with the name of the stumblebum of the week.


But but.....he was cut for a reason. Whats the reason exactly? I don't know but it has to be a good one.

Ok Vinny why did we cut him?

Vinny: Well you see I asked Jeremy after practice one day if he would be willing to play Wide Receiver, since you can never have to many skilled players. So he kind of gave me this funny look and told me he was an offensive lineman not a receiver. Anyway long story short I asked Dan if I could cut him and he said yes, especially after I told him the Receiver story.

But but.....he was cut for a reason. Whats the reason exactly? I don't know but it has to be a good one.

We wanted to shore up the D-line with Renaldo Wynn

With the zone blocking coming to DC, doesn't that take Okung out of the picture for us?

There are multiple ways to build a good offensive line.

Way #1: Spend high draft picks (Rounds 1 and 2) on offensive linemen, develop them and hope they don't blow out a knee.


Way #2: Look for "hidden gems" in the laste rounds or in the UFA ranks, develop them and hope they don't blow out a knee.


Way #3: Draft or get via UFA two - - or even three - - good OL and then sign via free agency a couple of Pro-Bowlers none of whom blows out a knee.


Now, tell me which of these three avenues to a GOOD offensive line the Redskins have followed over the past decade? The answer would be Way #2 - - except for the minor problem that the Redskins' hidden gems seem to have turned out to be Fools' Gold!


The Skins tried "Way #2" - - - but the folks who did the evaluation of the potential "hidden gems" seem to have been wrong close to 100% of the time. [If you want to argue with that, please look at the 2009 roster and tell me which of the "hidden gems" played like a "real" NFL quality OL for 16 games or so. After you can't find one, just admit that the evaluation process was probably faulty from the beginning.]

Or maybe it wasn't the evaluators' fault; maybe their decisions were overriden by some goofs in the FO at draft time or at UFA signing time or at the time when it became obvious that they had to sift through the culls of other teams.

Or maybe it was the coaches' fault.

Or maybe - - to use a couple of the classic whipping boys of the Warpath - - it was Mike Florio's and Jason LaCanfora's fault...or maybe the Redskins acquired top level FA talent (Rabach, Thomas, Dock) and re-signed their own (Samuels, Jansen) that didn't last as long as anticipated due to unforseen injuries to players who were previously pretty injury free.

Redskins starting OL Game 1 2009:
LT - Chris Samuels, Rd. 1, over pick # 3
LG - Derrick Dockery, Rd. 3, pick # 81 (let go in FA because contract demand was too high, returned as a FA with reasonable contract)
C - Casey Rabach, Rd. 3, pick # 92 (signed as FA in 2005)
RG - Randy Thomas, Rd. 2, pick # 57 (signed as FA in 2003)
RT - Stephon Heyer, UFA

Give the FO bashing a rest. :bdh: We get it, the OL broke down, bad decisions were made. Vinny was fired, Zorn and the rest of the coaching staff are gone. Let's move on.

Fast-forward to the present....95% of the folks here approve the Shanahan hiring, a strong majority approved of Bruce Allen. As I've said before if $hit goes South I don't want to hear those who agreed with these hirings bashing Snyder.

and yes all the problems can be traced to Florio and JLC. They suck.

I find the NO line especially impressive because somehow w/o using high draft picks or big FA acquisitions the unit performs at a very high level. The evaluation and coaching there is working!

Speaking of knees getting blown out -- I was watching a little bit of NFL Replay last night of the game between the Jets and Colts a few weeks ago. On one of the plays, the Jets RT Damien Woody got his knee rolled up when Freeney sacked Mark Sanchez. Dan Dierdorf said Woody was lucky to be able to walk off the field on his own power. Well, Woody is still playing now.

That's an example of pure luck -- the football gods shining down on the Jets; because if it were the Redskins, recent history says that a similar play to anyone of our linemen would have meant a season-ending injury. Perhaps even career ending.