A Clarification on whether the Redskins are Re-Building

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Paintrain

To answer the final question, yes, I think there is a plan and has been since 2010. 2010 evaluate the roster and start the 3-4 transition, try to win with core players plus a couple of additions. 2011 focus on building a playoff defense through the draft and free agency. 2012 focus on building a playoff offense, focusing on skill positions (that's why I don't think an early pick on a RB is out of the question) and specify areas of need. The cap penalties probably derailed our full plan this offseason but we targeted players to address one of our major shortcomings in recent years, team speed and explosive players.

How would you rectify this outline with Shanahan's belief that he had already built a playoff offense his first two years here, and then obviously the talent upgrades from the 2012 draft?

Your outline seems to suggest that multiple issues have been targeted then solved, but I'm not even sure the Redskins ever correctly identified what was causing the losing. It seems like after the failure in 2010, they just attributed it to being too old/prone to injury/lacking in depth to compete in the modern NFL. So then they overhauled the roster with younger players, and when that didn't solve the problems, they attributed it again to injury.

I suppose its possible that the attribution is correct and that the annual injury problem was fixed by the 2011 (and 2012) youth injection, and that last years continuation of pretty much every problem from the last eight years was a coincidence. It's at least possible that Mike Shanahan is the genius and we're the fools who didn't see that he fixed every problem with the franchise during a 5-11 season. But on the other side of the coin is the chance that Shanahan was never right about where the problems were, and that youth can't cure the problems with the training staff and the coaching staff.

Am I wrong in that suggesting that any plan that follows the pattern that you suggest here necessarily requires that Mike Shanahan understood most or all the issues with the team from the beginning? But then you go to mid-season last year and post-2011 and comments at least suggest that he was off (by a lot) in his assumptions (and willing to admit that -- to a degree).

I think your plan to rebuild the franchise would be very rational in hindsight, I just don't think it's particularly relevant to what has actually occurred with the Redskins the last two years.