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

[sportscurmudgeon]

Someone said that our DL this year is fantastic with only the addition of Griffin.

Last year we had Bruce Smith, Lionel Daulton, Regan Ushaw Reynaldo Wynn, some useless guy from the Saints and Darryl Russell and Jermaine Haley.

Only Wynn remains and plays regularly from that assemblage of futility. Noble was not playing last year (injury to be sure, but he was not there) and Saalve'a did not play and Demetric Evans did not play. Yes, Gregg Williams is far superior to everything the Skins had last year on the defensive coaching staff. But to say that all they did was to plug in Cornelius Griffin on the field is simply wrong.

I can think of 9 defensive linemen on the roster at the moment and I believe only three of them were on the roster last year (including Noble). That's a whole lot more turnover than just the addition of Griffin.

Why focus on lower paid guys? Because that is how teams have to be built to win in a salary cap envionment. For examples, see Patriots, New England and Eagles, Philadelphia. Don't jump ugly about how the Eagles went out and signed TO and Kearse last off-season. They never made any big signings before that and have been to the NFC title game three years in a row without them. How many times have the Redskins been to the NFC title game since the salary cap went into effect? I believe Zero is the correct answer.

If all it took were high paid stars with recognizeable names and gaudy stats, then the Skins would have already won 3 Super Bowls since Danny Boy bought the team. That's all they've done for the last five years; focus on the "names" and the "reputations".

Has that strategy been fun in the off-season allowing fans to speculate and imagine great things for the team next year? Sure has.

Has it worked? Well, tell me what the cumulative record for the Skins has been since Danny Boy bought the team and brought Vinnie in to light the way to the Promised Land. I'm too lazy to go and look it up now, but my guess is that the Skins have lost more games than they have won over that period of time.