not impressed with the start of this "new regime"

Never signed Bruce Campbell. He failed his physical here.

Apparently his boom stick kept falling off.
 
Rymanofthenorth said:
I question how much better off we are after shamahan. Frankly he took over an aging team that was really deficient on offence and needed to be more aggressive on defence, he took the one strength of this team and turned it into a weakness, and took 4 years to put us in a position for a 3 win season.

why? what exactly did we gain? we gained rg3, but at what cost? morriss was the only real highlite find because he came late in the draft. TW is solid but he was a very high pick.
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And he took our weakness and turned it into our one strength, so it's kind of a wash there. We've had a top ten offense for the last two years. And before I hear "yeah but our offense was ok on paper but it wasn't great on the field" the exact same claim can be made about our 'strong' defense before Shanahan took over. It was kind of ok ... but not really.

I'm not saying I like what we've done so far, or that I thought Shanahan was a great coach or did great things. But we shouldn't need to overstate our case if we have one.

Unless, of course, it's a rant for the sake of ranting.
 
Putting snyder in his place, cleaning the ridiculous culture of coming to washington to pad your retirement, filling the locker room with 'blue collar' type athletes, utilizing the draft in ways we hadn't seen in over a decade, restoring a franchise to a place that is run by 'football people', winning a division championship for the first time in 12 years, acquiring a franchise qb and left tackle.

I get that the end of Shanahan's tenure was amateurish. I get that he made some really questionable moves at the QB position before acquiring Griffin. And yes, his drafting wasn't perfect and mistakes were made. I also understand a lot of people blame Shanahan for the cap.

But I think far too many fans under appreciate the transformation the franchise made from the end of Zorn's second year until now. I also think far too many fans suffer from the error of recency. There were a lot of strange, yet strong, forces at work in his last year that put us at 3-13 and drama central.
 
MikeSr619 said:
He was a backup his first five years in the league. I'm willing to give a guy who dominated last year the benefit instead of trying to find something to pick apart because of past transgressions of the organization.
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"because of past transgressions of the organization."

but that's exactly what everyone is doing by focusing on the assumed self-control of not spending for a high end player or two. no one is wondering if the paradigm is changing. those FA excesses happened quite a while ago - pre-collective bargaining agreement; pre ramp up of offensive machines driven by multiple rule changes. learning from the past is a smart thing to do. generalizing that everything remains status quo ante can be a dangerous assumption.

I think Hatcher is a signing equivalent to the cofield signing. a net plus. right now....I don't see any game changers on this team other than RGIII when healthy and functioning on all cylinders and Williams. the next tier of very good players includes Garcon, Reed, Morris, Kerrigan, and Rak. Hopefully a young draftee or two like Amerson will mature into this very good tier and we'll draft a difference maker in May.

I'm with most folks around here in thinking Gruden is the real deal and...given time and a well stocked roster...can lead this franchise to good things. like many, however, I'm no longer going to play the off-season championship game. gonna wait and see how what they're building actually performs against the Ravens, Iggles and Seahawks of the world.
 
I'd also like to add that in addition to Morris and Griffin, we added a guy named Pierre Garcon, who led the league in receptions last year and eighth in yards. If Jordan Reed doesn't work out, Shanahan managed to solidify our QB, RB #1 WR and LT spots. If Reed does work out you can add TE to that list. Getting a team set at literally the four (or five) most important positions on offense is not insignificant.

Now I'm not super-happy-positive guy. I'm not saying this because I think everything is all rosy. MY point is that this team is in better shape than a typical 3-13 team should expect to be. Our record was the result of an implosion at the top, not lack of talent. With the offense we have, we should expect 8 wins. Minimum. If we solidify the lines like we should (not saying we have) and fill some holes on defense like we should (not saying we have) then we should expect 10 wins.

Have I been impressed this offseason? Not really. Hatcher and Porter are ok additions that we can expect will improve their spots, at least some. None of the other additions, in my opinion, are here for anything but depth or to tread water. And while I like depth, we really need to be upgrading starters, especially on defense. I can only assume that our FA approach is part of some overall plan that includes the draft and that it will make more sense later. But right now, our additions have been a bit underwhelming. But that's just me.
 
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Henry said:
And he took our weakness and turned it into our one strength, so it's kind of a wash there. We've had a top ten offense for the last two years. And before I hear "yeah but our offense was ok on paper but it wasn't great on the field" the exact same claim can be made about our 'strong' defense before Shanahan took over. It was kind of ok ... but not really.

I'm not saying I like what we've done so far, or that I thought Shanahan was a great coach or did great things. But we shouldn't need to overstate our case if we have one.

Unless, of course, it's a rant for the sake of ranting.
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agree.

Shanahan accomplished the one thing that was most important (but doesn't show up on the field) IMO: he took that circus of a locker-room and professionalized it. record aside...that locker-room stayed together though good and tough times. we see more leadership. we don't see the "me first" outliers that have been too common in the recent past.

There are a lot of good things happening - 3-13 notwithstanding. the big problem now, IMO, is raising the overall talent level and finding a couple more difference makers. like you...I'm having a hard time figuring out where they are headed at the moment. it's hard to tell whether they are being conservative with cash or that the better players simply don't want to come to DC unless a premium is added ala Oakland. I don't think the way things have unfolded was their original/preferred set of outcomes.

this is gonna take a couple seasons...maybe even three...before we are championship material. I think they see it the same way - one explanation for keeping our own as a priority. makes more sense in this light. so...we at least don't look like buffoons next season and depend on resurrecting an unstoppable offense (which will require another standout receiver IMO). too many holes to fix...too much work remaining raising the overall talent level. hitting on the next two drafts is gonna be even more important given the present approach. hope they are right in thinking Brown et al are top tier compared to their peers. really hoping!!!
 
very true mike (until the guys suit up). in that respect we are all saying the same thing.
 
Henry said:
I'd also like to add that in addition to Morris and Griffin, we added a guy name Pierre Garcon, who led the league in receptions last year and eighth in yards. If Jordan Reed doesn't work out, Shanahan managed to solidify our QB, RB #1 WR and LT spots. If Reed does work out you can add TE to that list. Getting a team set at literally the four (or five) most important positions on offense is not insignificant.

Now I'm not super-happy-positive guy. I'm not saying this because I think everything is all rosy. MY point is that this team is in better shape than a typical 3-13 team should expect to be. Our record was the result of an implosion at the top, not lack of talent. With the offense we have, we should expect 8 wins. Minimum. If we solidify the lines like we should (not saying we have) and fill some holes on defense like we should (not saying we have) then we should expect 10 wins.

Have I been impressed this offseason? Not really. Hatcher and Porter are ok additions that we can expect will improve their spots, at least some. None of the other additions, in my opinion, are here for anything but depth or to tread water. And while I like depth, we really need to be upgrading starters, especially on defense. I can only assume that our FA approach is part of some overall plan that includes the draft and that it will make more sense later. But right now, our additions have been a bit underwhelming. But that's just me.
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Agreed, but I'm a bit more optimistic, though those here that pay attention to my posts might observe that my view on the organization tends to change with the direction of the wind :) Right now it's blowing Positive - I'm having a good morning :)

I think 8 wins minimum is low. If Haslett really has been handcuffed, and we add a few key pieces to the side of the ball that (with the exception of Kerrigan) has been kind of ignored of the last few years as well as beefing up special teams (no where to go but up!) I think we could be a strong, strong divisional team and I would hope we'll win it. I also think we could be strong contender.

We're not a couple pieces away from being a dynasty or long term super bowl contender, but we're a couple of pieces away from being a couple of pieces away :)

We really need our drafts to pan out.

Scratch that. What we really need is a long term vision and a group that can stick to it. I'm hoping we've already figured out what we want to be (and that utilizes the big pieces we have in place) and we're already moving in that direction.

A new offense/defense scheme will give us an advantage the first few weeks. If we're a legit organization we'll ride that advantage through the season and probably come out 2-3 wins ahead of where we should be just because of that.

I mean for crying out loud, Zorn went 6-2 with a vanilla offense just because no one knew what he was going to do. With this roster and this staff I could easily see a start like that, and no reason why we can't continue close to that path instead of an epic collapse of 2-6.
 
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nice post T.

they have to raise the overall talent level. agree with you that this and next draft are going to be very important.
 
the raiders took their lumps, cut a lot of big contracts and suffered a bad season, now they have a PILE of cap space and good draft picks to start a real rebuild. whether they do it or not depends on their management but they went through the same sort of bad season we did but are in a much better sitaution for rapid improvement and long term build. other teams have gone from worse spots than we were in to much better.
 
The last 11 seasons since they lost to the Pats in the AFC Championship game, they have had two 8-8 seasons. The rest were double-digit losses. All of them.

Why are they so much better off now just because they have cap space? They have proven even less than the 'Skins, much less to deserve any benefit of the doubt.

Nick
 
Rymanofthenorth said:
the raiders took their lumps, cut a lot of big contracts and suffered a bad season, now they have a PILE of cap space and good draft picks to start a real rebuild. whether they do it or not depends on their management but they went through the same sort of bad season we did but are in a much better sitaution for rapid improvement and long term build. other teams have gone from worse spots than we were in to much better.
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This could be said about any team in the league. The difference is management; I'm not sure what you've seen from the raiders recently to suggest they're somehow going to turn it around, but okay.

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk
 
The Rayduhs are hot garbage.

Like the Rayduhs, we too have been hot garbage in the FO department.

I firmly believe all of that has changed.

Our HC's lifetime W-L season record as a player and coach is 28-3. 28 winning seasons. Only 3 losing. And those 3 losing seasons? He was an assistant to his brother. The man simply doesn't tolerate losing.

The losers have been thrown out of DC. The winners have been brought in.
 
my point is that in order to build a real dynasty, you have to actually take your lumps.

Look at Dalass, they went 1-15, but they built an oline, invested talent, had one really significant blockbuster trade and built a multi year contender. with the right moves the raiders could do something similar.

we were 3 -13 but we have massive holes on this roster, and not much cap space considering the lack of elite talent. im ok with being at or near the cap if it means having talent, im not ok with being near the cap with a roster that needs an almost entire defensive makeover yet again.
 
The first thing the Raiders did with their new-found cap dollars and brilliance was either jettison or allow young guys to walk and bring in some overpaid guys on their last leg.

Looks more like the 'Skins circa '99 than Dallas circa '89.

Nick
 
Rymanofthenorth said:
the raiders took their lumps, cut a lot of big contracts and suffered a bad season, now they have a PILE of cap space and good draft picks to start a real rebuild. whether they do it or not depends on their management but they went through the same sort of bad season we did but are in a much better sitaution for rapid improvement and long term build. other teams have gone from worse spots than we were in to much better.
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What specifically have the Raiders done that you think the redskins should be doing?

The Raiders went 4-12 the last 2 years in a row and haven't had a winning season since 2002. Since then they've gone 4-12 five times, 5-11 three times, 2-14 once, and 8-8 twice. As bad as the Skins have been over the last decade, the Raiders have been much worse. You want to follow their lead?

I respect your right to have your own opinion, but have you considered you might be overreacting a little pre-maturely here? It is the first month of the first off-season for a new head coach, and you can argue that Allen has been hear longer, but he wasn't picking the players until now, Shanahan was.

I'm going to wait until the draft before I even thinking about freaking out. I want to see what the product on the field looks like. We might have a number of young players that thrive under this staff that didn't under the previous one. There's no way to know right now.

The fact that you want to be more like the Raiders is a sign of panic to me.
 
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