Burner's Burning Questions: Weekly Grades, Evaluations, Questions - 2017

That may be true while at the same time not necessarily being a bad thing Several of us have argued that a) having a big name WR or two doesn't necessarily equate with winning, and b) that it's more about the offensive production vs. WHO is getting the balls. I think the ceiling on Pryor and Doctson is high, neither is a finished product so there is a lot of room for improvement there. But in the absence of a proven #1 WR, our leading 'receivers' have been Chris Thompson and Vernon Davis.

I think the biggest concern shouldn't be who is getting Cousins passes. It should be the disappearance of the offense after halftime allowing teams to get back into games we should already have salted away, and the average or below average running game. Just my opinion.

Well according to my untrained eye, and the asshole Cooley's film breakdowns, TE blocking, or extreme lack thereof, is the #1 reason our running games isn't badgering people.

Reed is the worst. Only when he can dominate in the pass game, which so far he has not come close, is he worth having on the field.
Davis is producing more than Reed, but his blocking is real bad too.

We need Sprinkle to develop ASAP.

Boone said:

I think the biggest concern shouldn't be who is getting Cousins passes. It should be the disappearance of the offense after halftime allowing teams to get back into games we should already have salted away, and the average or below average running game. Just my opinion.

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I agree wholeheartedly with this. The discrepancy in our scoring from half to half is huge.

I think my concern on the WR's stems from the fact that last year we KNEW that Garcon and Reed were money. And Kirk knew that too. If we needed crucial yardage on any given down, those two were the ones that we knew were going to get the yards and catch the ball. Garcon especially, and especially going over the middle.

Right now, who do we have that gives you 100% confidence in that role.

I agree that the more targets we can spread around to the better in general offense play as it keeps up unpredictable, but we did that last year too. Garcon and Jackson when over 1000 yards, Crowder threatened to go over 1000 and Reed and Davis were always on the money. I know you can't complete every pass, but last year in Reed and Garcon I felt we had that Go-To receiver. I don't feel that this year at all.

When Grant is your most reliable target... worrying to me.

I'm hoping that Reed's disappearance ends soon, and as you say Boone, I agree that Pryor and Doctson have high ceilings. I'm actually really liking Doctson especially the more I see him, I think we'll see a real breakout game from him soon. And I still have faith in Crowder too.

I think what we are finding out is Crowder was the beneficiary of Jackson's threat of downfield speed and Garcon's overriding consistency.

With these two producing and Reed scaring defenses nobody paid attention to Crowder.

Now they are game planning to take him out of the play on third downs and in the red zone and it's working.

Last Saturday started the process of watching prospects in college football games. Today I have been focusing on QBs. If anyone suggests Sam Darnold as a possibility for the Redskins, just shoot them. There are at least eight QBs better than him right now.

Week Seven Grades, Evaluations, Questions​

Greetings from BBQ. The weather continues to get colder and the football continues to heat up. This week's version of grades, evaluations, and questions will be abbreviated due to dual roles this week.

Week seven is in the books and now we take a look at how the entire team fared against the Eagles. Anger and frustration has hit the fans in the face this week. We will try to make some sense of it all as BBQ hands out grades, evaluations and questions. Feel free to offer your own grades, evaluations, questions, and opinions.

Let's take a look at week seven.

Quarterbacks:
Question: Why do fans blame him for the loss?
Answer: That's the nature of the NFL and it is not fair.
Grade: B

Running Backs:
Question: Will the rushing offense be listed on a milk carton soon?
Answer: It's long overdue.
Grade: D

Wide Receivers:
Question: What wide receivers?
Answer: Speaking of milk cartons.
Grade: F

Tight Ends:
Question: How about that lethal combo on Monday night?
Answer: Reed and Davis were stellar.
Grade: A

Offensive Line:
Question: How many injuries can they endure?
Answer: We've lost count, but we're giving them a good grade this week for a valiant effort under such circumstances.
Grade: A

Defensive Line:
Question: Do we miss Jonathan Allen that much already?
Answer: Definitely.
Grade: D+

Linebackers:
Question: Did we find a weakness in Zach Brown this week?
Answer: Yes, he is a liability in coverage.
Grade: B-

Cornerbacks:
Question: How much do they miss Josh Norman?
Answer: A lot.
Grade: D+

Safeties:
Question: What happened?
Answer: They looked lost, took poor angles, and performed poorly.
Grade: F

Special Teams:
Question: How was the new kicker?
Answer: He looked good in his first start. Someone tell Jamison Crowder how to secure the ball.
Grade: C

Coaching:
Question: What can we say about the coaches for this sixth game of 2017?
Answer: Offense. Jay Gruden is proving that he is incapable of making in game adjustments or at halftime. This is why he will always be a .500 coach.

Defense. It was a determined effort, but injuries have taken a toll.

Special teams. Kicking was good. Returns were decent with the exception of a fumble.
Grade: D+

How would you grade each position and the coaching staff? How do you feel about this team after losing both matches against the Eagles? Will the defense regain their swagger this coming week? Does Josh Doctson starting over Terrelle Pryor mean anything? Should Trent Williams shut it down now and give himself a full offseason to heal? What are you expecting against the Cowboys? On to week eight. We'll see you next week with grades, evaluations, and questions.

Hail to the Redskins!

Can I submit a question on the grades for next time ?
What does Crowder have to do to lose his job ?
That's 3 total in 6 games, an average of one every 2 weeks, and 2 against the Eagles.
After his 2nd one, Gruden literally guaranteed he would never do it again.
Now he's saying he keeps the job because noone else can return punts. I find that hard to believe.
All someone would have to do is field the ball, and it would be an improvement.
He's getting far more slack than Matt Jones did.
The one on Sunday didn't make a difference in the game. But eventually it will, and we shouldn't wait for that to happen, when it's obvious there's a problem.

I will include that in the questions next week if he has another poor showing.

Question: Would we be better off calling up Maurice Harris and making Pryor inactive?

I thought Harris was a young,promising bright spot last year and he's actually a wr, not an athlete trying to become one.

Thoughts?

DieselPwr44 said:

Question: Would we be better off calling up Maurice Harris and making Pryor inactive?

I thought Harris was a young,promising bright spot last year and he's actually a wr, not an athlete trying to become one.

Thoughts?

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Yeah, it seems like the Pryor experiment is approaching failure status levels.

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Burgundy Burner said:

Week Seven Grades, Evaluations, Questions​

Quarterbacks:
Question: Why do fans blame him for the loss?
Answer: That's the nature of the NFL and it is not fair.
Grade: B

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I don't blame him for the loss, per se. But he does get some blame for "not winning" the big game. Splitting hairs, I know. But he's been getting paid like "the man" for a second season now. But when it comes to carrying a team, he's been anything but.

Doesn't help that our HC has a plan A, and nothing else.

Only quibbles are your DL and Kicker grades. DL sacked Wentz 3 times and came oh so close to having 3 or 4 more, and inches away from giving us a chance late until Wentz escaped. I'd probably give them a C because Wentz may be the most elusive QB currently playing. On the kicker, I think C is pretty tough considering who the guy is, coming in with less than a week to prepare, and having to kick in a huge game on national TV. He probably gets a B+ from me.

Horseshoes and hand-grenades. í ½í¸‰

3 TEs (Paul had 1 too) combined for 13 catches on 15 targets/163 yds. Cousins went 30/40 for 303 yds. So 6 other guys combined for 17 catches on 25 targets for 140 yards.

Davis has been getting an insane amount of separation. Maybe sit stone hands Pryor and split Vernon outside of Reed once in awhile. Reed an over the middle guy and Davis a seam splitter. Doctson is coming along and getting a few more looks but overall your most reliable WR is - Ryan Grant.

Burgundy Burner said:

Quarterbacks:
Question: Why do fans blame him for the loss?
Answer: That's the nature of the NFL and it is not fair.
Grade: B​

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They don't. At least most I've seen. Most think he's a good quarterback but not worth money around the $30M mark (or 1/5 of our cap space). For me, anyways, anything between 20-28 is negotiable.

Linebackers:
Question: Did we find a weakness in Zach Brown this week?
Answer: Yes, he is a liability in coverage.
Grade: B-

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You lost me. Why is he a liability in coverage?

Cornerbacks:
Question: How much do they miss Josh Norman?
Answer: A lot.
Grade: D+

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Lost me again. Dunbar and Breeland played relatively decent for guys who were asked to play man coverage all game long with the pass rush not exactly lighting the world on fire and Wentz playing like Houdini.​

Go back and watch the game and you will see that Zach Brown was a liability in coverage for much of the game.

Yes, many fans were on Cousin Kirk's case after the game on social media.

Breeland had a good game, but Dunbar and Fuller struggled too much at critical times.

The grade for special teams does not include the kicker all by himself.

Burgundy Burner said:

Go back and watch the game and you will see that Zach Brown was a liability in coverage for much of the game.

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I watched the game from the press box. I don't see it. He did relatively decent for being stuck in man to man coverage all game.

Breeland had a good game, but Dunbar and Fuller struggled too much at critical times.

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Again, we played almost exclusively man with a pass rush that totally disappeared.

The grade for special teams does not include the kicker all by himself.

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What's this in reply to? lol

This can be my only reply for the rest of the day - super busy here.

Zach was late on crucial passing plays, including a late TD where he looked totally lost. I can't defend that or blame other units.

Yes, pass rush dwindled as the game progressed, but I will not blame another unit for what the DBs did or didn't do.

The kicker response was for someone else as you can probably see.

Burgundy Burner said:

Zach was late on crucial passing plays, including a late TD where he looked totally lost. I can't defend that or blame other units.

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you mean the one where Wentz threw a jump ball and the receiver caught it with Brown directly in his face?

Yes, pass rush dwindled as the game progressed, but I will not blame another unit for what the DBs did or didn't do.

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They're a team. They all benefit or hurt one another. They work together. Norman is a game changer and may make that less noticeable.

The kicker response was for someone else as you can probably see.

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I didn't. It's why I asked.

Zach Brown has never been great in pass defense - he does other things exceptionally well but not that good in coverage. Playing him in a CB spot (diagram below) wasn't a great idea and hopefully won't be repeated.
Seems there was some confusion at times in the secondary with Dunbar, Fuller & Nicholson as far as who was passing off receivers to whom when Swearinger called out adjustments. Maybe not awful but not real clean either. This is a fairly new unit working together so there's going to be rough spots.

Manusky is trying some different things especially with Allen going down but:
McGee trying to contain from the outside hasn't worked all season. Don't hang him out there without backup.
Galette as an ILB. He's seriously lost trying to play in the middle. He needs to stay out of the middle.
Zach Brown in coverage - not by his lonesome.