How the Hell is this happening!

While I like our WR's, I just laugh when someone says we have one of the best WR groups in the league.

Coles hasn't been the same since his toe injury. He was a playmaker that defenses feared before, now he's just another WR. I really have to wonder if he's ever going to be the same again.

Gardner is still too damn inconsistent.

McCants and Jacobs are still relatively unproven in this league.

Thrash provides good depth but he showed in Philly that he can't be counted on to be a go-to guy.

Matty, you were one of those people (like me) who said we had one of the best WR corps in the league.

How can y'all possibly judge the WRs given the QB play and the play calling? While they certainly aren't the best in the league, I really don't think that's a particular weak spot right now. But like I say, we don't really know: Peyton Manning makes WRs look great; Mark Brunell makes them look like do-do. We'll see with Ramsey. My guess is the WRs are going to start looking a lot better.

How can y'all possibly judge the WRs given the QB play and the play calling? While they certainly aren't the best in the league, I really don't think that's a particular weak spot right now. But like I say, we don't really know: Peyton Manning makes WRs look great; Mark Brunell makes them look like do-do. We'll see with Ramsey. My guess is the WRs are going to start looking a lot better.


As long as they keep on dropping balls, they're gonna be viewed as a "weak spot" on our team.

I think SC is absolutely right; especially about the wide receivers. Coles is good, but he hasn't shown the brilliance that he did in New York....but I'll give him the fact that he's been injured even though he had the same injury last season and I figured that would have been taken care off in the off season. Cooley has developed into a decent tight end, but as SC states, there is no one else to go to as far as passing tight ends. The RB position is fine, but one thing I would upgrade is the full back position. We need a big guy to come in on those third and ones or third and shorts...a Bettis type of guy. Portis would still be our number one RB, but his running style doesn't match up too well in these situations. Another thing that is missing that Gibbs had in his previous tenure (which goes along with the big full back) is the jumble package. On downs where the yardage was short, Gibbs would take out of his smaller quicker linemen and replace them with bigger linemen that could shove any D-line back...it was almost automatic that we would get the first down or TD (depending on the situation.) I haven't seen anything like that this year, but I think that is something that could help us to make those first downs easier when right now 3 and short is still a challenge.

Don't get me wrong, I do think our receivers have the talent, size, skills...but I think it comes back to what I said before... the sport is 90% mental 10% physical..and we need at least one Art Monk type of receiver on our team.

Instead of expressing shock and horror that someone - OK it's me - might suggest that the on-field talent is deficient, please explain to me how:

If the WR corps is "one of the best in the league" AND

If Patrick Ramsey is bordering on greatness with his courage and strong arm

The Redskins scored two field goals yesterday? TWO DAMNED FIELD GOALS!


By the way, the Redskins are now the lowest scoring team in the NFL - lower than the Miami Dolphins and the SF 49ers!! We KNOW that those teams have talent problems but for some reason when it comes to Washington, it isn't the talent on the field; it is something else. Wanna buy some beachfront property in Nebraska?


The offensive line - which is satisfactory to many here - generated all of 51 yards rushing yesterday. Remember, the weakness of the Eagles' defense was supposed to be that you could run on them. What happened?


It isn't worth the trouble to go and look up the exact numbers here but there have been 10 games so far this year. My guess is that the entire wide receiver corps has less than 10 TDs. I know Gardner has 4 or 5 and Cooley has 3 or 4 and Coles has 1. That's it; that's the list; none of the others has produced a point. Note, I'm being generous here and adding Cooley into the wide receiver stats so that they are not really embarrassing.


If I go to some other team websites, how many of them will have fewer than 10 TD by their WRs for the season now? A dozen? I'm not sure it is that high but it isn't worth the effort to go and check it out. We do know that the Eagles will not be one of the teams below 10 TD receptions because their lead receiver has 13 TDs this year and the Skins' lead receiver has 1. That's some kind of disparity.



Ramseyfan:


I wish you were right and that I was Danny Boy Snyder. The first thing I'd do is take a trip around the world and start enjoying my wealth instead of trying to meddle in a football team that I obviously know nothing about and making myself look like the village idiot. Correction, make that the metropolitan idiot!


The point is that the team has a lot of money invested in and tied up in players who are good - but not good enough. If they were good enough they would be just a tad better than 8 - 18 in the past two seasons.


The secret to winning in a salary cap era for more than one year is to be able to identify and sign and train YOUNG talented football players who do not cost much versus the cap. Then you can sign some "high paid talent" - and it damned well better be the right ones - and you can blend them together. When one of the guys who has played well but not great for you wants a big contract, you thank him for his services and release him. When one of the guys who has played really well for you has time left on his deal, you get him signed to a long term cap-freindly deal. That's how it's done and it all begins with the identification of young talent.

Note, young talent is often low round picks and undrafted free agents and not big-name draft picks that get a lot of play on the mock draft boards. The Eagles starting DTs yesterday were both undrafted free agents. They were spelled by another DT who was an undrafted free agent and a first round draft pick. They do not have a lot of money tied up there, but they have played decently, this year, no? Or would you argue that the Redskins' DL is better than the Eagles' DL?

And that is what has been in short supply here for the past 5-8 years and that is why the records in that period of time have been "discouraging". And the only way to change it is to start getting many more young players who are much more capable and starting the blending process with those high paid vets who are worth retaining.

Does that sound like "blowing up the team"? It should. Because that's probably what it's gonna take. But there are all those folks who think the Skins are one or at most two players short of being a Super Bowl contender, and so to keep them happy, maybe all we need to do is sign a couple of glitzy free agents in March and draft someone we can fly in on a helicopter in April and then go 5-11 again next year.

still... just the fact that the team is so pathetic offensively shows me that there is an inherent flaw in the system. this is to be expected from someone who's been away for a while. its just spurrier-effect (a horrible system) except magnified. even spurrier drew up some decent gameplans with his unorthodox passing system. it just might be that the super conservatism doesnt fly anymore....

even with our own team we see williams takin no namers and puttin up a top 10 D... maybe we arent 1 or 2 against philly but overall easily top 5 or 10...

gibbs on the other hand has some pretty good players to work with... im sure hed rather work with samuels, portis, and coles over... marshall, clark, and evans

based on even a simple observation like that, we are seeing a flawed, flawed system...

i still feel that gibbs will work through it... but im not about to say that we all of a sudden have no talent offensively. im gonna actually face the facts

The Eagles starting DTs yesterday were both undrafted free agents. They were spelled by another DT who was an undrafted free agent and a first round draft pick. They do not have a lot of money tied up there, but they have played decently, this year, no? Or would you argue that the Redskins' DL is better than the Eagles' DL?

Aren't Antonio Pierce, LeMar Marshall and Ryan Clark all undrafted free agents?

I would say our DL is better than the Eagles DL, especially when you consider who the Eagles have on the DLine.

SC, you mentioned two undrafted free agents. You also might want to note that they have JEVON KEARSE, Corey Simon, Darwin Walker, and Hugh Douglas. You might also want to note that until last week, their Dline's rush defense couldn't stop squat.

Salavea, Haley, Noble, Pierce, Marshall, Clark, & Co. weren't exactly 1st rounders.

SC,

#1 I never ever ever said that Ramsey is playing like some super stud. In fact, I thought he was going to get his arse handed to him yesterday (I posted a thread about that).

#2 I did say the playcalling sucks; which might explain the disparity between this team's talent and its record.

#3 I agree that you need to draft well to build a good team.

#4 You have said we need changes at QB, WR, or 8 or so positions. Sorry, you're not going to be able to do that in 1, 2, or 3 drafts. How do you actually expect to really mix up those 8 positions without spending a boat load of money or waiting 3 years (when half our coaching staff will be in nursing homes)?

You've critiqued Daniel Snyder, which is sort of like stealing the mentally retarded kids lunch money (so easy). You've said that we need to build through the draft (which few argue with). BUT, you simultaneously want to revamp our roster. I just want to know how you would go about doing that.