Report: Grossman Starting on Sunday

Mistake 3: Not going after Houshmenzadeh or R. Moss when they were available and dirt cheap. We could have had them BOTH... these guys could've help evaluate McNabb (taking away the whole "he had no weapons" excuse... imagine Santana & Randy Moss on the outside, Housh in the slot, with Cooley & F. Davis as your TEs)Those two have been great this year.

I'm imagining our offense without Anthony Armstrong's contribution. It isn't pretty.

My take on Mike Shanahan is pretty clear... He is 100% ANTI "Superstar"... anti-"Special Treatment"

... meaning, he doesn't even entertain the idea of someone getting superstar treatment or being "grandfathered" in to leeway. Either you practice 100%, perform well, or you are sat down.

He's not going to budge at all to meet common ground or give in at all to a player.

That I can respect a little... but at the same time...

He has made some of the craziest bone-headed moves I could have imagined.

Mistake 1: 3-4 defense. If he evaluated the Skins at all last year he'd have known that we had the pieces for a 4-3... with some of our absolute best players thriving in it. And not just Haynesworth, but he, Carter, and Rak all used properly in the 4-3 may have helped us win at least 1 or 2 more games this year IMO.

Mistake 2: Benching McNabb vs Lions wasn't the mistake... it's how he handled it after that was... whoa dumb.

Mistake 3: Not going after Houshmenzadeh or R. Moss when they were available and dirt cheap. We could have had them BOTH... these guys could've help evaluate McNabb (taking away the whole "he had no weapons" excuse... imagine Santana & Randy Moss on the outside, Housh in the slot, with Cooley & F. Davis as your TEs)

Mistake 4: Benching McNabb right now. Everyone knows Grossman & Beck are not future Super Bowl winning QBs and now all we've done is ruin trade value we had for McNabb. If he's not your guy... fine... but whew... dumb.

#1: Do you really think going back to a 4-3 with the same players would make that much of a difference? Just line up Carter, AH, Golston, Orakpo along the front four; with Alexander, Fletch, and McIntosh back at LB and we'd be back in the top 10 defensively? I don't. Something happened with this group of players -- and we know that because they still play in 4-3 alignments. It didn't matter what the scheme was.

#2: Okay, so it was a public relations mishap. Shanny said the wrong things. And? So what? Might as well get used to this head coach being especially cryptic about the information he's willing to release.

#3: Point taken. Housh would have been nice. Randy Moss? Ehh. Not so much.

#4: I don't know what sort of trade value McNabb would have been worth even if he played the rest of the season out. He wasn't doing well. No matter what we would have been looking at a 5th - 7th round pick in the best of circumstances.

#1: Do you really think going back to a 4-3 with the same players would make that much of a difference? Just line up Carter, AH, Golston, Orakpo along the front four; with Alexander, Fletch, and McIntosh back at LB and we'd be back in the top 10 defensively? I don't. Something happened with this group of players -- and we know that because they still play in 4-3 alignments. It didn't matter what the scheme was.Agreed, an above average 4-3 defense requires, necessarily, a career-type year from AH. That's a HUGE assumption given where he is now that all we needed to do was stay in the 4-3 on RUNNING downs, and Albert would have terrorized quarterbacks while keeping blockers off of Fletcher better than Ma'ake and Golston (who would have been the DTs) have.

The defense failed because we weren't able to adequately replace Haynesworth's 2009 contributions. Assuming that a 40 front would have made the entire problem with AH disappear is to misunderstand both the Shanahan-Haynesworth dynamic and the natural aging of defensive players.

I think they both are still damn good receivers when in a halfway decent situation, yes. So they aren't being used or targeted much where they are right now....

R. Moss last year - 83 catches, 1,264 yds, 13 TDs. Please save any "he's a year older" or "that was with Brady" stuff... Those numbers mean he can still get it done in the right situation. Bottom line... Do I think he's better than Anthony Armstrong as a #2 receiver? ... umm, yes.

Housh - A minimum of 904 yds receiving per season over the past 6 years with sub-par QBs (IMO). If you want to try and tell me that Housh is a worse option than Roydell Williams or Joey Galloway at the #3 or slot position... please go ahead.

You, and everyone else, knows what I was getting at... I clearly stated that these guys would help evaluate our QB... I didn't say... "TJ Whoseyourmomma... Championship!"

I'd be interested in seeing what Orton gets as a Free Agent.

On another note we better pray that Andrew Luck ends up in the AFC. It's already a pain knowing we're going to have to deal with the likes of Ryan and Bradford for the next 10 to 15 years. I'd hate to throw Luck into that mix as well. I mean who is going to pass up an accurate strong arm QB with an ideal build that works hard and plays well in high pressure situations.



I think Carolina's got the fast track on getting Luck, simply because they have a legit shot at not winning another game the rest of the season and if that happens they've got the first pick. Fox will be gone next season and you can bet that w/e head coach they bring in will be tailored to help Luck become a franchise quarterback. This is what happens when the NFC is consistently the worse conference over the better part of a decade, eventually the balance of power will shift over to the NFC like it did to the AFC after the NFC's dominance over the 80's and 90's.

I think they both are still damn good receivers when in a halfway decent situation, yes. So they aren't being used or targeted much where they are right now....

R. Moss last year - 83 catches, 1,264 yds, 13 TDs. Please save any "he's a year older" or "that was with Brady" stuff... Those numbers mean he can still get it done in the right situation. Bottom line... Do I think he's better than Anthony Armstrong as a #2 receiver? ... umm, yes.

Housh - A minimum of 904 yds receiving per season over the past 6 years with sub-par QBs (IMO). If you want to try and tell me that Housh is a worse option than Roydell Williams or Joey Galloway at the #3 or slot position... please go ahead.

You, and everyone else, knows what I was getting at... I clearly stated that these guys would help evaluate our QB... I didn't say... "TJ Whoseyourmomma... Championship!"Both are better options at the no. 3 receiver than we currently have. But why bring guys in here to play once or twice per offensive series? The difference between Roydell Williams and T.J. Houshmandzadeh in a third down receiver role isn't even a half point per game. But to get that improvement, you have to overpay the receiver by nearly five million, give him a roster spot guarantee, and make him happy in his role.

Changing the team culture doesn't mean overpay a receiver for incredibly limited performance. Sometimes, it's better to save the money and have the lesser performer as the third down receiver. I think this is one of those times.

Having Joey Galloway make this team was ridiculous though.

I think Carolina's got the fast track on getting Luck, simply because they have a legit shot at not winning another game the rest of the season and if that happens they've got the first pick. Fox will be gone next season and you can bet that w/e head coach they bring in will be tailored to help Luck become a franchise quarterback. This is what happens when the NFC is consistently the worse conference over the better part of a decade, eventually the balance of power will shift over to the NFC like it did to the AFC after the NFC's dominance over the 80's and 90's.Carolina is going to get Luck if he comes out, no doubt. But he's a 21 year old kid who would be passing up a legitimate shot to win the national championship to go first overall in a year where he doesn't even get to read the CBA under which he will sign his contract before he declares. That's a terrible deal for the kid.

His major is architectural design at Stanford. You don't study that for three years to decide to get your degree later. Just saying.

Carolina is going to get Luck if he comes out, no doubt. But he's a 21 year old kid who would be passing up a legitimate shot to win the national championship to go first overall in a year where he doesn't even get to read the CBA under which he will sign his contract before he declares. That's a terrible deal for the kid.

His major is architectural design at Stanford. You don't study that for three years to decide to get your degree later. Just saying.

Very true. It all depends on Luck coming out no doubt. He seems like a very smart kid, but you never know, he's going to have to make a decision, which is either stay in school to get his degree, or go pro and make a lot of bank as the first overall pick. It just depends on what he wants more. But I have no doubt he'd be the first overall pick if he went out, because both Carolina and Cincy want a franchise quarterback (back in 2005 I never would've envisioned saying that about Cincy lol).

I'll predict that Carolina passes on the opportunity to draft Ryan Mallett, taking instead A.J. Green first overall. Mallett gets drafted by the Bengals at no. 2.

#1: Do you really think going back to a 4-3 with the same players would make that much of a difference? Just line up Carter, AH, Golston, Orakpo along the front four; with Alexander, Fletch, and McIntosh back at LB and we'd be back in the top 10 defensively? I don't. Something happened with this group of players -- and we know that because they still play in 4-3 alignments. It didn't matter what the scheme was.

#2: Okay, so it was a public relations mishap. Shanny said the wrong things. And? So what? Might as well get used to this head coach being especially cryptic about the information he's willing to release.

#3: Point taken. Housh would have been nice. Randy Moss? Ehh. Not so much.

#4: I don't know what sort of trade value McNabb would have been worth even if he played the rest of the season out. He wasn't doing well. No matter what we would have been looking at a 5th - 7th round pick in the best of circumstances.

#1: Completely disagree. Name ONE TIME when we had the front 7 you described for an entire game this season. I know when Haynesworth WAS in the game in 4-3 setups he was dominating as always. I don't remember any time where Rak, Haynesworth, Golston, and Carter were on the line at the same time. And you think our defense would be worse than 32nd in the league, which we are?? Allowing 135 rushing yards and 260 passing yards a game while allowing 23.8 points per?? That's 23 more rushing and 53 more passing yards per game compared to last year. We also have allowed the most 10+ play drives in the NFL. As Keyshawn would say... "Come on, man!" I am not saying we'd have been top 10... why are you jumping from 32nd to top 10? I'd be happy with 15th right now. We'll just disagree on that one.

#2: He TWICE fumbled with an excuse. It put a huge dent into the whole "new regime, new attitude... out with dysfunction, in with professionalism." For a guy who expects his players to be stand up, stand behind your work guys... then shouldn't he? If he was disappointed in McNabb's play, just say so... why go with 2-minute offense and cardiac endurance craziness?

#3: Explained in my other post.. Do I think he'd be better than Armstrong... especially when Armstrong is mostly used for deep passes... yes. Just my opinion.

#4: I think if they know he doesn't fit what they want to do and they want to go in a different direction, then you play him... hope he plays well enough over the last 3 games that between the Vikings, Cardinals, Bengals, Panthers, Broncos, Titans, etc there could have been SOME competition to drum up trade value is all I am saying. Evaluate Grossman & Beck? Do you honestly think either will be our starting QB in 2012?