Lets play Redskins Owner... (This is a long rant)

[diehardskin2982]

Although this is the halfway point of the season, I have to ask this question what needs to happen for this club to be a powerhouse in the league if you are able to come up with a vision put it out there. As for me it would go as such

First it would start with the Front Office, I'm sorry but Vinny has to go, alot of u may argue with me on this but I feel all he has done is pursued and goten big names we need a recruiting team with substance who will find those late round picks or undrafted gems like a Tom Brady, Atwann Randle EL, Priest Holmes, or more Antonio Pierce type players. Secondly we need someone who can actually negotiate some contracts that are equally beneficaial to the team and the player, and are equal to what the market would pay. Although we are the most profitable team in the NFL. We spend the money like a fantasy football rookie in his first online season.

As for coaching we need to give our coaches time and not fire them as soon as we put them in because as we can see with dallas there are no true instant results, sooner or later u gota pay the reaper. I would hire an Young offenseive assistant with an expertise in the passing game, just to bounce ideas off of Gibbs and to keep his mind fresh. Like business, a head coach is only as good as his assistants. Our teams playcalling looks sluggish at times, and in my opinion is a refelection of the age and thought process of our coaching staff which is old. Lastly Keep Williams at all cost.... don't take away what positive point on the coaching staff this team has.

As for the offense. I would answer our problems through a little freeagency and the draft. I would completly restructure our line and complement the stars on this line. We need other players who can hold their own, if we need to steal any players in the offseason it needs to be from other teams that have successful line play like the steelers, Chiefs, or the Patriots. We could draft a first round lineman with a real mean streak. but we need to have a group here who can stay in for the long run, and learn to play with each other to get better.

The Qb situation for me is like this if ramsey is the future we need to treat him as such. If not move on now and him and brunnel off of the team. No other qb that has came out during this era has been treated with such a lack of trust as he has. Carr, Harrignton, Boller. None of them are in better situations with their teams the franchises have just chose to build around there qb's talents and let the players grow with there teams. I would not chase after a big name free agent or anything else like that. I would hire a coach to work on Ramsey's footwork and mobiltiy skills and make a sound investment in his intellegence and his arm. He can be a Peyton Manning calaber player with proper growth. His relationship with Coles, McCants, the line, and Portis will get better over the years. but it takes a commitment to him and the team we have. The Texans have had a commitment to Carr, Detroit to Harrington, and we need to do the same. Remember before Manning and the colts were the coldest team out there on offense, there was a decesion to build around manning, James, and Harrison. It took atleast three years for that tandem to have the connection they have with each other. I would invest in the best Tight end in this years draft, because that position has become the focal point in the offenses this year with the addition of the new 5 yrd rule other than that every team has growing pains.

Defense we need to keep the guys who made play (Ryan Clark), drop the guys who aren't (Barrow) the money going to guys who don't deserve it can go to guys who do. I would just pick up depth in the draft and patch the whole with people that work inthe system. Lets keep Smoot please.

What esle would you do, what changes would you make and please critique what I would do. I think we have a good nucleus we just need to invest in what we have and stop going after instant success.

[FRPLG]

I think Gibbs is doing this right. He is building a TEAM and that takes more than one off season of personell moves and 9 games. I believe they made a conscious decision to do this right from the beginning. There are a lot of one hit wonders in this league simply because the parity so great. Teams like carolina can have one good year and fall of the face of the earth the next year. Teams like New England are RARE and DIFFICULT to build. It takes time an patience and I think Gibbs is giving us both. I really think it was totally recockulous to expect the Skins to have a good season considering the state of the team Gibbs was getting. I would say if we are playing like this next year then we can start hollering and bitching and moaning about Gibbs but for now we march foward in the direction Gibbs has set knowing full well that he is giving his all and getting the all from a 3 time super bowl head coach is better than any other team in the league right now.

My wishes for our team would be this...continue with Ramsey as QB the rest of this year. He can be a successful QB in this league giving the right situation. That situation is providing adequate protection and play making WRs. I think with Coles healthy next year we are greatly improved since his (currently lost)speed adds an aspect to the offense that is greatly missed.

Our protection will be greatly improved next year as long as we can keep Samuels and they stick with Raymer. That would give us 4/5 of the same line through two seasons. They will of course get Jansen back which is good since he and Thomas have played together before. I expect the line to provide good dividends next year and down the road. They will need to bring in a quality backup also since lacking one this year has been a problem.

On defense they will need to add a speed rusher. Williams has ben successful with the defense this year but I am fearful we are producing with a gimicky defense. Gimicky never works. The best defenses can apply pressure one week with safeties and LBs and sit back the next wekk as needed. Our defense can't sit back against anyone as our DL just has no ability to put pressure on tehe qb adequatly without support from the secondary. We also need some depth at DL.

The biggest thing we need next year is...
health.
This has been a terrible year for the Skins' health. Our defense has played well without Barrow, Arrington, Bowen, Lott, etc..but I think it is reasonable to think they would have been better with these guys in. Rememeber the backups were backups for a reason...they weren't as good as the starters. I think it is reasonable to expect that our defense would have been a much more play making type defense with barrwo and Arrington in there.

The key to next year is Health Health Health

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

I really think it was totally recockulous to expect the Skins to have a good season considering the state of the team Gibbs was getting.

Don't be surprised if last year's 5-11 team turns out to be better than this '04 Gibbs-coached team. We'll be lucky if we can match that win total.

Although I was not a fan of Schottenheimer when he was here, especially his offensive philosophy, after much thought, I have to agree with SC. Hindsight being 20/20, if there's one moment in the past where this team made the wrong turn, it very well might be when Snyder lost his patience with Schottenheimer. Sometimes I feel like sticking it out with Marty could have been the key to turning this franchise around. His discipline, his fundamentals and fierce and fiery ways might have been just what this team needed. That goes back to Dan Snyder, and that was all on him.

This is in no way meant to be an example of jumping off the Joe Gibbs Bandwagon. I don't want to be construed into one of those people who comes crawling back when things start getting better -- because I know they will with our coach. It's just going to take some time.

With just a few adjustments in his offensive system, sometimes I just feel like we'd be in the hunt right now if Schotty was still coaching this team.

[offiss]

I don't know why everyone is getting on Ceratto, the only real bad move we have made talent wise over the last 3 year's is Brunell who is Gibb's choice, in fact I believe Snyder and co. where against Brunell but allowed Gibb's to make the final decision, who else is bad? Ceratto didn't hire SS, Coles, Thomas, Jacob's, Dockery, where partly his decision but how many player's has he had an opportunity to draft or trade for? Marty made all the decision's when he was here, Snyder drafted Ramsey, I really don't think he has had much of a say the last few year's, our talent isn't the problem, it's been coaching, now we are in the process of being taught how to play in the NFL rather than college, and the biggest key to making that happen is Ramsey, the sooner he get's comfortable in Gibb's system the better we will be as a team, we will see player's start to live up to their hype, tough for a WR to excel when no one can get him the ball, tough for a RB to produce when you can't throw, everything run's through the QB one way or the other, a lot of fan's here are going to be very surprised on how much talent we really have once Ramsey start's hitting his reciever's, which he will do against Philli, but it will take some time for him to become very consistant and mistake free.

[sportscurmudgeon]

offiss:

You conveniently ignore some of Cerrato's blunders.

Remember those defensive linemen we had out there last year who could not stop an Ivy League school running game? Who assembled that crew - outside of Bruce Smith who was Danny Boy's baby?

Who managed the cap such that they were forced to get rid of Dan Wilkenson? Wilkenson is not very good but he was and is a whole lot better than anything they put in behind him last year?

Who went out and did the "investigating" to assure the team that Darryl Russell was "reformed" so they could bring him in here?

Who gave up a draft choice for Lionel Daulton?

Who gave up a draft choice to the Saints for one of their useless DTs who stunk in spades here all last year?

Who discovered Man-Mountain Kenyatta Jones? (He worked out pretty well here.)

Wasn't Vinnie here to help orchestrate the Jeff George era in Washington? I think he was.

Who ran Stephen Davis out of town? Vinnie? or Spurrier? Davis is not as good as Portis, but he might have been just a tad better than what the team was left with last year in Canidate, Morton and Cartwright.

Oh yeah, who traded for Canidate? That worked out really well.

I don't think Vinnie is worth the salary they pay him but I'll admit he has done a few things right. But for you to say that "the only bad move we have made talent wise in the last 3 years is Brunell" is hiding your head in the sand.

[cpayne5]

Gibbs is the President of the team right now. For the owner to do anything, Gibbs would either have to be fired or give up some power.

[RedskinRat]

This is our baptism of disappointment and painful lessons. One day we'll (Ok, the ones left here who stuck it out) look back and laugh.

[jdlea]

I hope you're right

[Big C]

i would def. keep some consistency. i think the o line should remain the same, with the addition of jansen again. dockery is growing, and we need to get a chemistry with raymer and the other players. on defense, we could use a pass rusher on the d line

[SkinsRock]

The key is consistency. Let someone else "win" in the offseason. I believe this is what Gibbs has in mind. Our only real big needs after this season will be a big blocking TE, a pass rushing end, and maybe a back up RB that can actually block (bye-bye Betts). Other than that, just depth at the other positions. Let's build on what we have, not re-build yet again!
As for the FO, Gibbs having final say is fine. It is being run like a business, with a QUALIFIED football person in charge....Isn't this what we all wanted??? From how I understand it, Williams, Cerato, and Bugel give their input, with salary cap/negotiating advice from Snyder and his "cap experts", and the final decisions are made by Gibbs. Sounds good to me.

[redsk1]

Diehardskin is exactly right. Lets get some consistency in our football team! You can't win by changing schemes EVERY year!!! Gibbs will bring that consistency back. Lets use the draft for the o-line. Imagine how accurate Ramsey could be with an offensive line like the Steelers or Pats.

[That Guy]

williams is looking to be a better GM than gibbs... we didn't make many moves on offense (barring portis, who, in hindsight, is the guy i'd want every time), and i guess last years O just wasn't that great...

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

We need stability and I think Gibbs is bringing that, so don't worry about that one.

I don't believe that we should revamp our entire O-line. We need a solid guard who can also play center. But other than that, I wouldn't touch the O-line.

I strongly agree with the idea that we need to give Ramsey a solid chance to develop. Harrington, Carr, and Brees have been given a lot of time to mature. We haven't given Ramsey that chance yet. There are a lot of people who want instant gratification and expect Ramsey to play like a Pro-Bowler. Well, that ain't gonna happen if he's riding the bench.

I take issue with the claim that Vinny needs to go.

First, people often say that our best picks have been high round picks. True, but making good choices in the 1st and 2nd round isn't that easy. There are a TON of busts at the top of the draft and we haven't gotten any since Vinny has been here.

Second, we're not going to find great picks each and every time we draft in mid to late rounds or pick up an undrafted free agent. FB Johnson (who was traded to the Bears), WR McCants, RB Cartwright, LB Pierce, and SS Clark are just a few of the guys that Vinny's picked up in late rounds or as undrafted free agents.

Third, since 2000, I think our offseason acquisitions have, on the whole, been very good. Sure there are guys like Trotter, Fiore, and Brunell that turned out to be mistakes, but there wasn't much criticism of the additions during the offseason on this fansite.

Fourth, Vinny is responsible for getting this team talent, not putting a W in the W-L column and we haven't been short on talent in quite some time.

[That Guy]

i remember a lot of people here asking what was up with giving brunell so much d*mned money... and i've also talked to plenty of people that were down on trotter from the start... no one had any real opinion on fiore that i've talked to though... gamble and a loss i guess, but he wasn't grossly overpaid.

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Fiore was paid 4.5 million for 3 years with a 1.5 million signing bonus (pretty cheap considering his abilities). He was considered one of the league's better guards and perhaps the strongest guy in the NFL. It was a gamble we took (and was reflected in his salary) and we lost.