Kudos to Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato

[sportscurmudgeon]

Let me be clear. The title of this thread is not sarcastic. I want to praise these two men for what they have done in this off-season.

Everyone here knows that I have been more than slightly critical of these men in the past for their football decisions. Now I want to say they did something very good for the team.

Let me begin by defining what I mean by a "starter" in the NFL. A "starter" is someone who a team puts in a starting position on opening day. If that "starter" has a season ending injury early in the season - - say the second game - - and another player steps in and starts all or most of the rest of the games at that position, then that second player is also a "starter".

With that definition, I believe there are only two teams in the NFL who have not lost any of their "starters" in this off-season. Those two teams would be the Cleveland Browns and the Washington Redskins.

Continuity is important to a football team; the Redskins have not had a lot of that in recent years. Building on your team via the draft is important to a football team; the Redskins have not done that very well in recent years.

But this year they have done it and so Kudos to Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato.

[That Guy]

we definitely took the shotgun approach to trying to fix our WR issue, but draft history has shown that to work plenty of times before (like when the broncos used 3 3rd rounders on cbs and got 2 quality guys out of it).

i mean, they swung for the fences on CJ, but i honestly think 3 years from now (long term) they did better by using the draft, and our TE depth is definitely better now too.

still need a stud DE and young OL starters, but reinhart was a good pick, and getting EJ was great (free low end starter/good backup). The young guys we have on the OL (alexander/heyer) have shown improvement, and i REALLY like the UDFAs they got this year (crummey, kerry brown).

we'll be fine on the DL, but there really isn't any chance of playing better than last year without EJ performing miracles after a bad start to a career (it's happened before, but not often).

i also really liked signing SS from the raiders to shore up the safety position/depth along with the 3 draftees that are probably good #4s and #5s, but not much more. at least they'll be better than jimoh and can help on teams.

I really wished they had signed some more vet min LB depth though... the dropoff between our starters and backups is pretty drastic and a brandon short/random vet warm body could at least be respectable while someone was injured... we've seen highway 57, and it's not a good place to be.

i do like zorn so far. no game footage yet, but there have been zero warning flags and the norv alert hasn't gone off yet, so we'll have to see, but i'm hopefully he's the real deal.

anyways, it's hard to say anything bad about this offseason overall, though i know some people would have preferred a DE in the 1st etc, we definitely did get better as a team.

[Daseal]

SC must have the flu like me, he's obviously not feeling well.

[J. Spanky]

agreed. kudos on a job, thus far, seemingly, well done.

but hey, vinny, if you're reading this - please sign takeo spikes. and re-sign lemar marshall. vet min, of course

appreciate it. thanks.

[sportscurmudgeon]

Daseal:

Actually, I'm feeling just fine. I thought that in the spirit of most of my posts - keeping it real to use the vernacular - Snyder and Cerrato deserved praise for this off-season.

Might I have drafted different players or players at different positions? Truth be told, I think Davis was a "luxury pick" when the team could have used help at another position. But that's nit-picking.

They kept the "starters" together AND they added talent through the draft. Even better, they added talent to the position that I have thought for the last two years was a huge weakness for the Skins - - wide receiver.

When Snyder and/or Cerrato did something dumb in the past, I called them on it. So, now that they did something very good, I thought it was intellectually honest to point it out and offer kudos to them.

Hope you get over your flu soon...

[Giantone]

Don't you think you should wait and see how this turns out,I understand you might like things so far but anytime Vinny is around things tend to get screwed up.

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by Giantone

Don't you think you should wait and see how this turns out,I understand you might like things so far but anytime Vinny is around things tend to get screwed up.

good prospects are good prospects, a good draft is a good draft. a good offseason and lack of new injuries are good too. stability in the coaching staff and a good first impression from zorn are what they are.

yeah, it can all go south, but both of us have said, so far, so good.

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by Giantone

Don't you think you should wait and see how this turns out,I understand you might like things so far but anytime Vinny is around things tend to get screwed up.

Really? Like when he won a superbowl as head college scout in San Fran? Or when Notre Dame won a national title when he was head of recruiting? Yeah, the guy has no talent for sure and an awful track record.

[Skinny Tee]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

Let me be clear. The title of this thread is not sarcastic. I want to praise these two men for what they have done in this off-season.

Everyone here knows that I have been more than slightly critical of these men in the past for their football decisions. Now I want to say they did something very good for the team.

Let me begin by defining what I mean by a "starter" in the NFL. A "starter" is someone who a team puts in a starting position on opening day. If that "starter" has a season ending injury early in the season - - say the second game - - and another player steps in and starts all or most of the rest of the games at that position, then that second player is also a "starter".

With that definition, I believe there are only two teams in the NFL who have not lost any of their "starters" in this off-season. Those two teams would be the Cleveland Browns and the Washington Redskins.

Continuity is important to a football team; the Redskins have not had a lot of that in recent years. Building on your team via the draft is important to a football team; the Redskins have not done that very well in recent years.

But this year they have done it and so Kudos to Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato.

I think you're forgetting some rather important starters like your head coach and a defensive coordinator.

Losing them negates any of the hold over starters we have on the field.

I like our offseason moves and have no gripes with Danny and Vinny, but I'm not sure I want to be singing their praises just yet. I'd like to see what kind of product we put on the field this year and what we hold over going into next year.

...If Zorn stinks it up this year will he still be around if Cower wants to come back to coach? If we make another head coaching change next offseason I'll be ready to start building the gallows. So for now I'll save the praise.

[Paintrain]

Originally Posted by Skinny Tee

I think you're forgetting some rather important starters like your head coach and a defensive coordinator.

Losing them negates any of the hold over starters we have on the field.

I like our offseason moves and have no gripes with Danny and Vinny, but I'm not sure I want to be singing their praises just yet. I'd like to see what kind of product we put on the field this year and what we hold over going into next year.

...If Zorn stinks it up this year will he still be around if Cower wants to come back to coach? If we make another head coaching change next offseason I'll be ready to start building the gallows. So for now I'll save the praise.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I don't think losing the head coach and defensive coordinator are that huge of a deal when we are returning 22 starters from last year's playoff team, keeping the defensive scheme in tact and changing only half of the offense. As much as we all love and revere Gibbs and (most more than me) Grilliams, let's not forget the 6 blown 2nd half leads last year, including the playoffs.

While those ultimately fall on the players, G & G set the tone respectively for their sides of the ball. Grilliams defenses gave those games up. Gibbs/Saunders offense stopped attacking and let teams back into games.

The only way Cowher ever comes to Fed-Ex in the next few years is as an analyst or an opposing head coach. Snyder won't do a 'one and done' with Zorn unless we go 1-15.

[Cowell]

I do give them a bit of praise. Snyder realized the coordinators he had were not going to cut it. Therefore he let them go, that sounds like a good call to me. Even if these next set of coaches don't pan out the last coordinators (especially on offense) weren't doing us any favors either.

And I too am thrilled that we didn't go out and blow huge money on a mediocre player(s). I think this year that actually had a plan going into the offseason and they seemed to have executed that plan to the best of their abilities (that meaning which players were available and what not). So, big time kudos to Danny and Vinny THIS year. Let's only hope this "making the team better" thing can continue.

[Giantone]

Originally Posted by GMScud

Really? Like when he won a superbowl as head college scout in San Fran? Or when Notre Dame won a national title when he was head of recruiting? Yeah, the guy has no talent for sure and an awful track record.

You need to look back at those two teams and see who else was there,but fine ...lets just go on his record ....with the Skins.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by Giantone

You need to look back at those two teams and see who else was there,but fine ...lets just go on his record ....with the Skins.

In the past few years he's quietly done a pretty good job at stocking the team with some quality young talent through the draft and with undrafted free agents. Anthony Montgomery, Rocky McIntosh, Reed Doughty, Kedric Golston, H.B. Blades, Stephon Heyer, Chris Wilson, etc. I think Danny getting out of the way and giving Cerrato more power was the right thing to do.

[sandtrapjack]

This is a "glass half empty/glass half full" subject.

There are those that will say the glass half full is that the optimism of a pretty good draft is showing that the team may now be building for the future through the draft. This is further solidified by the unusually "quiet" (By Snyder standards) Free Agent signing period.

Then there are those that say the glass is half empty, stating that the team did nothing in the off-season to address thier immediate needs.

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by sandtrapjack

This is a "glass half empty/glass half full" subject.

There are those that will say the glass half full is that the optimism of a pretty good draft is showing that the team may now be building for the future through the draft. This is further solidified by the unusually "quiet" (By Snyder standards) Free Agent signing period.

Then there are those that say the glass is half empty, stating that the team did nothing in the off-season to address thier immediate needs.

DE WR right? we tried for cj and got the 3 highest rated pass catcher in the draft, so... also covered safety with ss and drafted some warm bodies, got 3 quality OL depth prospects, and even got a couple DEs that won't do us all that much good.