Young Redskins' Players

I don't think not putting the young guys on the field is a technique to not harm their development. Putting them on the field would accelerate their development because its reps in and above what they are getting in practice.

The real issue is that if you are going to make them earn it behind veterans, you need to make sure the vets you have can actually play a bit. The Redskins season was doomed early by lackluster production from the QBs, RBs, WRs, and LBs, and the team actually drafted really well at RB and WR this year. Benching those veterans has been as much a part of the recent success as the development of the young guys.

Yes and no, depends on how ready they are. If they are clueless you could kill their confidence and at the same time you're only hurting the team by playing someone who clearly shouldn't be on the field.

Yes and no, depends on how ready they are. If they are clueless you could kill their confidence and at the same time you're only hurting the team by playing someone who clearly shouldn't be on the field.

Like Philly did with Mathews. He was clearly not ready to play at the beginning of the year and the only thing they did by playing him was hurt both his development and the team's defense.

Yes and no, depends on how ready they are. If they are clueless you could kill their confidence and at the same time you're only hurting the team by playing someone who clearly shouldn't be on the field.I suppose that's true. Still, I think that player development without playing time is a waste of the time of both the coach who is responsible for the players development and for the player himself. With that said, I agree with you that there is a wrong way to do it, and I would also suggest that if there is a wrong way to do something that results in a loss of confidence, the Redskins will find that way.

Hurting the team is the obvious reason to not play a guy before they are ready, but you'd be hard pressed to convince me that Rocky McIntosh and DeAngelo Hall don't hurt the team on a week to week basis, yet we let a 3-1 start evaporate in part because we went out of our way to feature those players. That start could have gone wrong just as easily with guys like Perry Riley and Kevin Barnes starting, but I do think there was a right decision to be made there. And the Redskins didn't make it.

It's very simple. Shanahan doesn't want to put young guys on the field until they earn it in practice.

This is the bottom line right here.


You aren't going to see the playing field on a Shanny led team until you can show it on the practice field.

Like Philly did with Mathews. He was clearly not ready to play at the beginning of the year and the only thing they did by playing him was hurt both his development and the team's defense.If Philly made a mistake with Matthews, I don't think it was that they tried to develop him aggressively, I think it was that they misvalued him as an NFL linebacker in the first place. No team wanted him in the first four rounds, but Philly thought he was a starter.

They were out on that limb by themselves.

I really like Darrell Young. Not sure why, he is just a fullback afterall, but I think he is a really good talent for a player that had never played the position prior to coming to the Skins.

In the end this is all very easy for us to analyze from a distance. We don't get to see these guys in practice, or how they conduct themselves off the field, in the film room, etc. Plus with no offseason, that definitely set some guys back.

I actually think Shanny/Allen have done a nice job building this team with young studs ... i know losing sucks and I love Brian Mitchell and his brutal honesty but hey let's BE REAL .. if you aren't in a playoff hunt and you have a chance to build this puppy and turn around VERY QUICKLY .. I like what I see big time .. Helu is obviously a fan favorite and a bad ass .. Kerrigan & Orakpo duh ... Gomes is nice and will get better .. Hankerson will be strong next season .. Davis & Williams will also be great (who give a crap about the suspensions) ... You put another solid draft (we have lots of picks) and a FA or 5 .. man o man .. Just imagining RGIII or Barkley is so money .. keep grossman as backup for sure ... i have an odd love for sexy rexy .. and if we didn't get a bum call Moss would have caught that tying touchdown and Shanny would have went for 2 and we could have one !

In the end this is all very easy for us to analyze from a distance. We don't get to see these guys in practice, or how they conduct themselves off the field, in the film room, etc. Plus with no offseason, that definitely set some guys back.That's correct of course, but we get to see the result on Sunday. I think if you're going to nitpick with the job the coaching staff does on a day to day basis, you need to be more of an insider than fans get to be. But if you're going to point out that things don't change over a two year span and the mistakes being made in Week 14, 2011 are the same mistakes being made in Week 8, 2010, then the nitty gritty details of how the Redskins coaches run the day to day operations of the team aren't really relevant.

I continue to believe that all the evidence shows that the movement towards young players is not a reflection of a great organization rebuilding philosophy, but because the coaches simply ran out of options. And so: good for the young players who are getting their opportunity. But the Redskins future under Mike Shanahan is not apparently tied to any of these young players, but rather to NFL veterans who have not yet been acquired. I think that is just the history of Mike Shanahan as a coach suggests that he'll win or lose with veterans.

And so the youth movement feels good right now, but it's going to take another really good draft in 2012 and a significantly better job of getting the right vets in here to win with Mike Shanahan as head coach.

Get out of my head 'mudgeon!