Is it finally time to rebuild??

[takethecake]

The redskins ARE rebuilding. They cut a lot of older players last offseason, and I'm sure they'll cut more at the end of this season. I think everyone knows that they need to get younger, but I'm not sure it's as easy as it sounds. They will go with their best options regardless of age, and probably aim to add as much young talent as they can. We'll probably also see some different players getting snaps for the rest of this season.

The capitals didn't really have a profound "rebuilding." They just drafted well with their first and second round picks, and after four or five years of having high picks yielding quality players, they started to turn the franchise around.

2002: 1st round: Alexander Semin
2003: 1st round: Eric Fehr
2004: 1st round: Alexander Ovechkin, Jeff Schultz, and Mike Green
2006: 1st round: Nick Backstrom, Semyon Varlamov; 2nd round: Michael Neuvirth
2007: 1st round: Karl Alzner
2008: 1st round: John Carlson

It was only in the 2007-2008 season that things really started to come together for them. But your parallel with the caps shows what the redskins DO need: smart drafting in the early rounds over the next 3 to 4 seasons.

I question whether "dump older players and accept a couple of bad seasons as they get experience" is really a valid strategy for success. What is needed is young talent, not just young players. I'm all for giving younger players a shot, but you can't just throw a bunch of young guys with questionable ability together and expect that 2 years of experience will mold them into winners (especially not with the skins :P).

To answer your second question, it's less about coaches being rewarded for success and more about them being punished for a lack of production. While I think Shanahan's resume gives him a little more sticking power if next season goes downhill as well, I'm sure he understands that Snyder expects wins. He will utilize the players that give him the best chance to win, but I'm sure he's open to an influx of youth as long as it doesn't cripple the team's chances - this I am fine with. I guess overall I think that people cling on to the idea of "rebuilding" or "blowing up the team" as some sort of miraculous savior for bad teams, and that this team just needs strong leadership and good drafting over the next few years to reverse their current trend.