formerskinzfan
04-23-2005, 09:37 PM
let me begin by saying that until today I was a lifelong resdkins fan. After Gibbs left the first time, I moved from my hometown of washington d.c. and moved to CA to attend college. While here, I stood by my team and suffered in silence through the norv turner(good luck with him Oakland b/c that dog doesn't hunt!) and terry robiskie (who?!) era. I even stood behind them as the "ballcoach" and Dan Snyder made every boneheaded, kid at a candystore, ruin our salary cap situation, signing that they possibly could. (you remember when Dan Wilkinson, Dana Stubblefield, Deion Sanders, Jeff George and any other under-achieving, over-rated, past his prime bum that came along were all hailed as the signings that would lead us back to the promised land). Well in a way, they did lead us back to the promised land; first round draft picks and our old master Joe Gibbs back as head coach. I had really hoped this would be the start of a second golden era for my beloved skins. I couldn't have been more wrong. In consecutive years, my hopes have been dashed by a drafting pattern that only makes sense if we're a soccer team that hopes to force a 0-0 tie every week and have the game come down to penalty kicks. Last year, we miss out (err...ignore) on the single best tight end to come out of college since Kieth Jackson to take an alcoholic malcontent safety who apparently wants a new deal already (although I'm not sure if he's holding out on the District Attorney or Joe Gibbs, who must have been drunk himself when he passed up on Winslow) in spite of the fact that he's only had one decent season in this league. Hey Taylor, the only safety worth holding out is a young Ronnie Lott. When you win three superbowls like him, you can hold out but until then, bring your drunk, crying, holding out butt to practice and shut the hell up and play. As if that indignity wasn't enough, I had to stare at my computer today and see us pass on the best wide receiver in the draft so that we could take another cover corner. Gee, I seem to remember us having the best cover corner in the league....Oh that's right, we traded him (because we didn't want to give him what we will end up paying for the unproven Rogers) so that we could get an overpriced and over paid speed back in Clinton Portis and make him the feature back in Gibbs' signature power running game. Does the term square peg in a round hole ring a bell? Then we give up draft picks and major money for Laverneus Coles, who was less efective last year (in spite of his blazing speed) than a condom with a perforated tip. In spite of that, and Arrington's injury, we still had the best defense in the league last year but one of the worst offenses. So it stands to reason that this year we would use the great luxury of two first round picks on skill players to compliment our "quarterback of the future" P-Ram right? Wrong. We allowed Fred Smoot to walk w/no compensation and instead decide to "strengthen" our secondary with another unproven rookie (who by the way will demand as much if not more money than smoot or bailey in two years, if he does prove to be as effective as either of them, which is highly unlikely) instead of helping our anemic and emaciated offense with a franchise caliber wide out like Mike Williams! And I don't give a damn about his 40 time. The 40 time is one of the most over-rated stats in the world. Joey Galloway and Terry Glenn both ran impressive 40's and where are they now? By the way, does anyone remember Michael Irvin's time in the 40 yard dash? I don't. But I do remember him jumping over Darrell Green and killing us on comeback and deep post routes during the last cowboy golden era. What about Chris Carter, Jerry Rice and Art Monk? Does anyone remember or care about what they ran in the 40 yard dash? And besides, I don't need to outrun you if I can impale you with a stiff arm and run you over. All of those guys are hall of fame wide outs who didn't posess anything close to the size, strength and good hands combination that Williams does. And when was the last time a "physical speed corner" like Carlos Rogers could cover any of them. Never. And remember,Darrell Green ran the fastest 100 yard dash time in the world the year he was drafted and he could never win the match up with super physical receivers like Irvin and Carter. And Joe Gibbs doesn't throw the ball deep that often anyway. I went to a lot of SC games and Mike Williams is the best red-zone, possession touchdown making receiver I have seen since Michael Irvin and he will be much better thant Irvin. Forget his speed. He's a football player. Almost every corner in the speedy PAC-10 ran a better 40 than Mike Williams and it didn't stop him from torching them for two touchdowns per week. No 175 lb corner or 200 lb safety in this league can stop Mike Williams going up for a ball over the middle or in the red zone. And no linbacker in this league has the feet and lateral quickness to cover him either. He's an unsolvable match up problem every week for the next 12 years and we missed out. If the NFL were as about speed as they say, we'd be recruiting wide outs from track teams and not footbal programs. The position is wide receiver. Not wide track star or wide 4x100 relay team runner. I know this. You all know this. The only people who dont' seem to know this are Dan Snyder and Joe Gibbs. We could and should be going into this season with Kellen Winslow Jr. and Mike Williams on offense (and take pride in having the two biggest offensive match up problems in this league on the same side of the football) while Lavar Arrington and Champ Bailey or Fred Smoot anchors what is still one of the leagues best defenses. But instead, we are going to be the Miami Dolphins of the NFC East. A lack luster offensive club that in spite of its fast, physical defense, can still be beaten if you put up 13-15 points. And for the record, I don't give a rat's ass how good taylor and rogers turn out to be. If they aren't first ballot hall of famers considered among the best of all time at their positions, their careers will always pale in comparison to those of Willams and Winslow jr; especially if they spent 10 years together on the same team. And all of us redskin fans who wandered through the wilderness waiting for this chance will have to wonder what could have been. I never thought this day would come, when the team I was raised to love, the team that I saw in three super bowl parades would become like an ex girlfriend that I really loved before she broke my heart. I still care about her..but I will never trust her again and nor should I. That is why I am no longer a redskins fan. I will always care about them. But I will never love this team again.