Toughest off-season ?

This offseason has been one of the better for the skins to bring in some quality players who want to play and that can play. We have some off the field problems but what team that hasn't. We are on the come up for real. Gibbs will get this ship going believe that.

Could look at it this way:

- Fixed our most fundimental need ASAP by signing best center available

- Accuired players along two lines of thinking. 1. Mentally tough players who execute when the pressure is on, 2. Players who are depth and will push starters at the same time ecell on special teams.

- Didn't panic and make whole sale changes. They believe in the team, and the team knows it. Players weren't whinning to the league, they believe the work is worth it because they believe in Gibbs.

- Drafted a good QB who will fight Ramsey every season ...the same way Gibbs coached the first time.

- Strengthend our ability to knock people back at the point of attack and short yardage situations by getting lots of FBs/HBs/TEs (if they are good enough they will be on the field; position is irrelivent)

- Brought in a proven QB coach to help Ramsey and the staff play and coach smarter (Gibbs took that job away from one of his longtime friends - Joe will put nothing before the good of the team)

- I mentioned this earlier but it needs to be a seperate bullet, has improved the talent on our special teams a huge amount.


Bottomline: the way I look at it is we addressed our biggest issue with in the first tow minuets (center) then added small talent / attitude upgrades, depth and special teams. That means we are very close.

Good post Kope. I agree.

I like the offseason, i don't know what happened, it comes over me every year but this year it is different. every year near the beginning of June i feel it, i call it redskin summer, all of the summer i know that we are going to be great, i can't think of any way that a team could beat the compendium of a team, the washington redskins. This year is different, i can't say that we got big players like last year, brunnel and portis, hmmmm, this year i can say that we were consistant and we got our bases covered.
Defense- we were good we still are good, i know we can always get better but we will be at the same level as last year or better with bowen, arrington and daniels in most every down.

OK offense- How does a team that has a rusher who rusher 1300+ yards still be ranked 30th? cause they can't through for sh%#, so what we needed was more time in the pocket, ok, how do we get that?---- O-line, we get rabach and janson this year and that makes our line 40% better, then we may need deep threat, ok who has the deep threat ability, lets look at the leaders last year. hmmm with all recievers with 40+ catches (all the good ones) in ranking of yards per average, ok number 1 ashley lelie, number 2 with 18.6 is SANTANA MOSS AND NUMBER THREE IS DAVID PATTEN WITH 18.2. But i am sure that we have 2 out of the top three in that catagory due to coincidence. No we got them to improve on deep passing and that is the bottom line we got better where we sucked.
IF RAMSEY IS TRULY THE PROBLEM THEN JUST PLUG IN CAMPBELL. this is GIBBS'S work, and it is skill

I disagree completely. I feel that Casy "f-ing" Rabach is the savior of this off season. hahhaa


I believe he's better than what we had, but is he really the kind of mauler we need inside? I hope so, but that's something he will have to prove.

it seems to me that there has been more bad than good this offseason. all those reasons they mentioned above were great and all, but far and few between. hopefully it will settle down some.

With all the controversy this off season and the lack of signing "Big" names like they have in off season’s past creating huge expectations maybe this year they will be underestimated and surprise a bunch of people including us!! :)

Coles/Gardner = We're getting rid of guys who dont wanna be here +
Gardner we can call a wash, but Coles said he'd play hard if he came back and we gave up a lot of precious cap room to send him packing. I'm still not sure if that was the best way to handle that situation. Like it or not Coles will play hard for you every second he's on the field, I know it's hard for us to fathom someone not wanting to be a Redskin, but it happens. At least he didn't go blaring things all over the media like LaVar.

Gibbs being called into question = by noone of any importance + If many nationwide media outlets is no one of importance, who exactly is of importance in the sports world? Us posters at the warpath?

The loss of Pierce and Smoot = guys who took front loaded contracts
over their "team" offering practically the same money +
I believe Pierces offer was pretty much bigger, and I know you know that front loaded contracts is where you actually get paid. So though the salary for Smoot seemed about the same, his take home with MN is much greater. It's parity in the NFL, we can't have our cake and eat it too. We paid Griffen, Springs, and Washington last year to come here. These guys are mercenaries, not soldiers for a particular team. They go to who's paying. (Like how I worked the army reference in for you Winslow fans out there! ;) )

The draft = In years to come will be proven a great one +
This could be true. However I think it's a bit early to start calling this a great draft, I expect one of the 3 FB types we drafted to work out, and I expect McCune, Rodgers and Campbell to have decent careers. Rodgers could be one of the better players in the league within a year or two. I'm excited about him (even though I think we made a mistake not taking BMW.)

Sean Taylor the felon = the unconvicted... Completely agree here. How much has this story changed since the first we heard of Sean shooting up a house. I still don't think the media really knows what's going on and the DA's office still has to go through the evidence to see if they can continue. I believe the stat I heard was that in Dade county only 25% of felony charges get prosecuted (I could have that wrong that 25% slip through, can't remember! Either way that's a large chunk that they just drop.)

Continuity of the coaching staff; 99% particiaption in the OTAs; Rodgers, Holdman, Rabach, Patten (actually, I ilke more than these, but all these seem solid); Samuels restructure; return of Jansen; return of Daniels; return of Bowen; return (hopefully) of Lavar;
Besides Bowen, who is a great blitzer but more of a liability in my eyes, I agree. Those were definitely some strong points of the offseason.

addition of zone blocking schemes and shotgun Why does everyone refer to it as the addition of zone blocking? We ran some zone blocking plays last year and it averaged over 5 YPC. Yet, for whatever reason, we seemed to abandon it. I hope that it is utilized well by the coaching staff. Hopefully they've adapted the system for Portis a bit more. As far as the shotgun, sounds great, hope to see it!

no more bitching and whining from Coles who caught a ton of passes, couldn't run, wouldn't get his toe fixed, etc
Who did Coles complain to? He tried to keep everything quiet for the most part till that whole deal went to hell in a handbasket. Yeah, Coles caught a ton of balls but it's hard to get good YAC when you're standing still or catching a tiny little screen/hook. I don't feel it was all his fault. So many people defended Coles for not getting surgery because hey, we're not doctors, right? It could have ended his career, and though I also wanted him to get surgery, I can understand him not wanting to.

not in cap hell--didn't break the bank for palyers (I really liked Pierce, but the gints overpayed...)
I agree about Pierce, and I think the Redskins are one of the best teams in the league for manipulating the cap.

no more 50/50 breaking our hearts Don't be so sure, he hasn't been cut... yet.

Don Warren to the FO--reaching out to the oldtime skins This is a great signing provided he can spot talent. I don't care if we hire Jerry Jones if he's getting us good talent for cheap!

n offseason for the hardest working coach in the NFL (name me one who works harder than Gibbs) to get to know his team and to improve things--Rome wasn't built in a day. By far the most important part of the offseason. Revising his offensive strategy, going into a season knowing exactly what he has, and having time to bond with players. I think if we start winning that this is the key factor to that.

We were so close to winning several games last year. We are not nearly as bad as the pundits think. We've been close in a lot of games for a lot of years. Spurriers second year was a lot like last year. Every game very winable but we couldn't pull them out. If we could win the close games we'd be winning the NFC east every year!

Gibbs didn't just "lose it"--he faced a serious struggle (which we are still in the midst of)--and he's approaching it like he always does, by working hard and doing the right things. It may not work, but my bet is that it will. And this isn't some blind faith in Gibbs. Look at most of the winners around. THat's how it's done. Sure, super-talent is important (and We've got some of that), but the rest is attitude and mindset. It takes time to go from losers to winners. Hang in there.
Amen.

1. Mentally tough players who execute when the pressure is on
My biggest fear isn't the mental toughness of our team. It's the fact that we gave up one of the toughest players in the NFL (Coles) for one of the most touchy players in the NFL (Moss). I just hope we sign a #1 receiver who can stay healthy.

Drafted a good QB who will fight Ramsey every season ...the same way Gibbs coached the first time.
I just can't believe another QB controversey is a good thing. Some players don't play as well pushed. How about we give Ramsey a YEAR TO START where he's not pushed the whole time. Let him know that he's our guy and give him some confidence. Maybe he doesn't play his best scared.

Defense- we were good we still are good
Im a bit worried about the defense a bit. We lost two critical pieces in a Greg Williams defense. MLB who calls the plays (though I think Marshall will do a fine job.) And CB. I know we drafted one, but Im not sure Walt Harris can be a reliable #2. Great #3, but #2 may be pushing it. Considering how we like to put our CBs out on islands this could prove to be bad. I hope everything works out, and I think eventually Rodgers will be an upgrade to Smoot, but this year I'm a bit concerned to see how Harris/Rodgers (whichever starts) plays.

OK offense- How does a team that has a rusher who rusher 1300+ yards still be ranked 30th? cause they can't through for sh%#, so what we needed was more time in the pocket, ok, how do we get that?
Though Raymer was atrocious last year, I think our offensive problems stem deeper than not enough time. There were times when we seemed to have plenty of time but just couldn't get it done. I think we were a bit too simple and predictable last year. Hell, the 2nd Eagles game the CBs were just running across the line of scrimmage on the snap to try to pick off the screen pass. I think this will be a big and important change to this team. If we have a more dynamic passing attack to make them at least respect the passing game and let the playaction crush teams. I want us to be a run first team, but everyone can admit that you need a good passing game.

I don't feel this off-season was the lack of big names. I think as skins fans we were getting sick of the big names. I love the Griffens (kinda big) and Marcus Washington signings (kinda big) young guys that still haven't hit their full potential. You get them for a reasonable price and the upside is nearly limitless. If they flop then you don't have a Brunell-esque contract sitting on your cap. I feel that we were disappointed because we felt we had a pretty damn good team, especially on defense, and we let some key parts get away. The draft also left a lot of us scratching our heads. Hopefully our defense can at least stay the same and if our offense improves just a little bit then we could easily be a playoff team.

When it comes down to the playing field here is what we got:

Bad: No Smoot, Pierce, Coles, Gardner.

Good: Jansen, Rabach, Rogers, Holdman, Moss, Patten.

Also Good:
Gibbs 2nd year
Players 2nd year in Gibbs system
Better Special Teams players
Jacobs moving into the 2nd receiver role (maybe)
Barrow? McCune?? Could be nice in the middle...
Ramsey in the full year (with some protection)
Portis (with more zone blocking)
Short yardage backs!

I really could go on, but I don't want to sound like I'm blowing smoke up your butts!

Bet your a*s, Gibbs has looked at what kept us from winning each game last year and has filled the holes. It may not be the way or what we had hoped, but he seems to have a record of doing his homework and making the correct adjustments. It is this fact that gives me the most hope for next season.

Longest post ever? Glad to see you worked in a Spurrier refernce, Daseal! I was getting worried! ;)

Good post!