[sportscurmudgeon]

Big Haired Asistocrat:

As a matter of fact, I'm really in a good mood today - - been with family and friends for the Holidays and I'm relaxing at a solitary weekend house in south-central PA mountains. Thanks for your concern about my mental state...

The Internet allowed me to have a website because I paid the price that it demanded to permit that to happen. Nothing more than that; nothing less.

If "tall" was the reason to take Devin Thomas over Desean Jackson and nothing else, then the person(s) making the decision should have their job in jeopardy. I understand how that can be the rationalization after the fact when Jackson is a productive receiver and Thomas still has to show he belongs in the NFL as a starter, but if that is the only reason you have on draft day, you got problems in the FO that go deeper than just Vinny the Goofball.

The scouts don't determine contract terms; that's for sure. But if the scouts were to tell the "contract people" that someone like DeAngelo Hall just isn't a top flight shut-down corner at the NFL level, you would like to think that the "contract people" might listen to that competent judgement and not offer the guy $20M+ in guaranteed money. If that isn't the mechanism, there are a boatload of problems. But if the scouts thought Hall was a "bona-fide shut down corner" and passed that message along to the "contact people", you have a simpler problem to resolve...

Bruce Allen will make all contract decsions now? Are you sure? How are you sure? Did Danny Boy swear "Scout's Honor" that would be the case? What if the New Coach wants a player "really bad"? Does Allen have the "ace of trump" over the New Coach? [If so, expect a top-shelf coach to stay here about 18 months to two years.] What happens if Danny Boy gets another "hankering" to sign a player that Allen doesn't think is worth all that much? Will Danny Boy step back and allow 100% of the final decision to rest with Allen? If you say yes, how do you know that? Please recall that Danny Boy has never done that before for very long...

Scouts make mistakes; that's for sure. I used to be a scout for an NBA team and I made several mistakes about players who I thought were marginal talents and who turned out to be stars whose names you would surely recognize. I - - and my comp0atriot scouts - - made far fewer mistakes about players who simply could not play than the Redskins scouts plus front office seem to have made in the last 3 years.

I didn't say I didn't like the scouting dept. I said that the new administration had better take a look at what the individual scouts said about a couple of dozen specific players to see if those individual scouts are worth keeping around. Even if you are ready to anoint Bruce Allen as a "football genius" - - before he does anything here in Washington more complex than finding the men's room at Redskins' Park - - he has to rely on the summary notes of the individual scouts and the folks who aggregate players under consideration for him.

Vinny was and is a "football goofball". Maybe he was even more "exposed" in his lack of insight by an imperfect scouting department/system? Might it be possible...?