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Random Commanders Thoughts

Does the injury to Alex Smith save Jay's job if the Redskins miss the playoffs?

His job was safe when almost the entire O Line went down. It bought him one more year, which is another year we have to watch the deer in the headlights look after a loss
 
Gruden should get coach of the year for winning the number of games he has this season with the obstacles put in his way.
 
Gruden should get coach of the year for winning the number of games he has this season with the obstacles put in his way.

Actually the last 2 seasons. Whoever would have thought that after last season, we would have topped that, and the very next year ?
We may already have.
If not, there's still 6 games left, which makes ya wonder.
 
You mean to tell me this guy wasn't available to sign? I remember that time he led Washington to a great comeback win against Dallas on national TV.

SKhbVdM.jpg
 
My point is - the plan was for Smith to be our starter for 3-4 years - and the injury doesn't necessarily change that plan. Theismann's injury was 33 years ago. Orthopedic surgery and recovery has come a long way since then. Smith's projected recovery time is 6-8 months. He'd have plenty of time to get ready for the 2019 season. Sorry, I just don't see how this kind of injury changes things when we just signed the guy. It's in the Redskins interest for him to come back. If he doesn't, I believe we are on the hook for his entire contract in 2019. If that's the case, not trying to bring him back would be insane.

We needed to draft a young QB to groom behind Smith before the injury. You're right that we still do.

With all due respect Boone, why was it in the Redskins interest to sign him in the first place? Conceding Cousins wanted out, we all know the FO screwed up the whole QB situation for years. I'll also concede that I didn't pay attention to the contract. I assumed Smith was a 33 year old stop-gap. Didn't realize the team actually invested a huge amount for five years ($55 million guaranteed? wtf! was he seen as that good? or was the FO that depserate to chnage the conversation?) - did they see Alex as a SB QB? While Andy Reid obviously didn't? Yup, easy to arm-chair this. But, we are in the post-mortem phase of this.

As for Gruden, I'm not sympathetic. I've seen enough and heard enough. He's defintely a step above his recent predecessors (except Shanahan for obvious reasons). But that's hardly a scintillating recommendation. Academic anyway with this FO.
 
As for Gruden, I'm not sympathetic. I've seen enough and heard enough. He's defintely a step above his recent predecessors (except Shanahan for obvious reasons). But that's hardly a scintillating recommendation. Academic anyway with this FO.

And speaking of "academic", will you please let Gruden finish the academic year and his final exam, before giving him a final grade ! :)
 
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Actually the last 2 seasons. Whoever would have thought that after last season, we would have topped that, and the very next year ?
We may already have.
If not, there's still 6 games left, which makes ya wonder.

This is called a "trend". Perhaps it's time to toughen up a little, cut out the non pad walk thru's in bunny slippers and T Shirts. Might be a good place to start. Then maybe he can learn about halftime adjustments as well
 
With all due respect Boone, why was it in the Redskins interest to sign him in the first place? Conceding Cousins wanted out, we all know the FO screwed up the whole QB situation for years. I'll also concede that I didn't pay attention to the contract. I assumed Smith was a 33 year old stop-gap. Didn't realize the team actually invested a huge amount for five years ($55 million guaranteed? wtf! was he seen as that good? or was the FO that depserate to chnage the conversation?) - did they see Alex as a SB QB? While Andy Reid obviously didn't? Yup, easy to arm-chair this. But, we are in the post-mortem phase of this.

As for Gruden, I'm not sympathetic. I've seen enough and heard enough. He's defintely a step above his recent predecessors (except Shanahan for obvious reasons). But that's hardly a scintillating recommendation. Academic anyway with this FO.

He hadn't had a great season prior to the injury - we all have noted that. But based on his previous career, he was easily the best available QB. Say what we will about his 'production' - he did enough to get us to 6-3, which is sure as hell beyond anything Cousins was able to do. Who is it that they should have signed? Fans might have considered him a 'stop gap' but I promise you the FO signed him to be the QB for the next 3-5 years. I don't know if they overpaid for him, but give other vet QB salaries, I'm not 100% that they did. Bottom line - if you think what we got from him through 9 games is Smith's 'ceiling', then you're right to call it a huge mistake. I don't give him a total pass, but as I've said 100 times, losing more than half your starting offense (when the talent there wasn't elite to begin with) isn't helpful to a QB new to a team no matter who it is.
 
I don't think a team can afford to set the bar that low.

To indicate that Smith didn't do anything to get in the way of Adrian Peterson and the defense getting us to 6-3 before everyone on the team went down with an injury to me is not enough.

The problem with this team is how management thinks. Yes, Cousins was about to leave. We all knew that. Management realized they had screwed up by not trading him the year before and getting a top pick for him and select another qb.

So, in a move to show the team was not going to be impacted by Cousins leaving they aggressively moved to get Smith.

But why was that so important?

It's not like this team was 14-2 quality and simply plugging in a veteran qb was going to mean a Super Bowl run.

This team still had and still HAS growing to do in a number of areas before we are 'there' so to speak.

My original thought was we should have let Cousins go and then look to draft a future starter and go with McCoy for 2018.

And if we were going to trade for Smith, then by all means let's make him prove that 2017 wasn't the outlier (which it was) where he turned into a playmaker and downfield passer by letting him play on the final year of the $17M contract he had in KC.

Now, we have a guy who will be coming back at age 35 from a major injury who showed when he was healthy that he was at or just slightly above replacement level.............for $71M guaranteed.

So, delaying it a year the Redskins are most likely going to have to invest in a young passer in the 2019 draft and develop him and hope he is ready to play in 2020.

All we did was kick the can down the road a year or so in having to invest in a younger qb.

In the meantime if a 9-7 or 10-6 finish for one year is that important then it was worth it.

If you are looking (as the organization indicated) that they were trying to free up salary cap space at QB to use to build a complete team with the Smith move, you then have a $23M a year investment in Smith in 2019 and 2020 and hope against hope that either he comes back better than before or we get a younger guy in here on a cheap rookie deal that can get on the field.

What I didn't like or trust most about the move for Smith was the sense of panic that surrounded it.

It was as if Bruce Allen was in a race against the clock to cover himself and the team vs. ESPN and social media critics who were going to focus on the departure of Cousins and the 'empty' cupboard we would then have at qb.

I never thought running a sports business to avoid criticism was a recipe for success.

We shall see.
 
He hadn't had a great season prior to the injury - we all have noted that. But based on his previous career, he was easily the best available QB. Say what we will about his 'production' - he did enough to get us to 6-3, which is sure as hell beyond anything Cousins was able to do.

I know it's neither here nor there at this point but Cousins did get us to 6-3-1, which is better than the 6-4 Smith was heading for before his season-ending injury. Not sure I'd use that as a selling point.

At best I'd call it a push.
 
Drafting young QBs is never a bad idea. But I don't think Smith's broken leg changes anything in terms of the Redskins short-term plans. He'll be back ready to move into the starter's role next season. It's a broken leg. I don't know why Theismann decided to retire when he did, but typically this is an injury that heals and shouldn't be career threatening.

I don't really see how it changes next season and beyond. Whatever the plan is tentatively in place to find a long-term successor, I doubt we deviate from it. I personally don't see how Smith's broken leg is a rationale for feeling like we have to draft a youngster in a draft that is supposedly quite weak at that position. If it were a torn labrum, or a fracture throwing shoulder, or even an ACL - maybe I could see it. But it's a broken leg and it will heal. I don't see Alex Smith ending his career on that kind of a note.

I always thought he didn't come back because of #5 in this article. His leg became a little shorter and helped him fail the physical. http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...t-know-joe-theismann-gruesome-broken-leg-1985
 
I know it's neither here nor there at this point but Cousins did get us to 6-3-1, which is better than the 6-4 Smith was heading for before his season-ending injury. Not sure I'd use that as a selling point.

At best I'd call it a push.

No - good catch. But then I have to counter with Cousins losing 4 of the final 6 including a pathetic final home loss against that Giants that we needed to get into the playoffs (in which he completed just 22/35 passes and threw 2 INTs). He also had a healthy Chris Thompson, Jamison Crowder, Pierre Garcon, Ryan Grant, and Desean Jackson (on top of Reed and Davis) all year long, not a mishmash of different guys every week.

The point is - Smith got dealt a shitty hand all year long this year. It's not an excuse for why he didn't play better. But he did get us to one of the best starts in recent memory, despite the challenges.
 
No - good catch. But then I have to counter with Cousins losing 4 of the final 6 including a pathetic final home loss against that Giants that we needed to get into the playoffs (in which he completed just 22/35 passes and threw 2 INTs). He also had a healthy Chris Thompson, Jamison Crowder, Pierre Garcon, Ryan Grant, and Desean Jackson (on top of Reed and Davis) all year long, not a mishmash of different guys every week.

The point is - Smith got dealt a shitty hand all year long this year. It's not an excuse for why he didn't play better. But he did get us to one of the best starts in recent memory, despite the challenges.

Well, the obvious counter to that is that Cousins had to keep up with the 28th ranked defense. Imagine if Smith were healthy and Dallas puts up 31 points on Thursday. God help him. :)

I think the point here is that circumstances are different every year, and Smith has been pedestrian at best in his role this year. Not an upgrade over Cousins in my opinion. Again, at best a push.

Looks like Reid pulled one over on us again. Shame on us.
 
The point is - Smith got dealt a shitty hand all year long this year. It's not an excuse for why he didn't play better. But he did get us to one of the best starts in recent memory, despite the challenges.

No "he" didn't. The difference between this year's record and last is the defense. He did just enough not to lose anymore games.
 
hmmmm....you're a forgiving person! And I applaud that.

Me? It's been four years now. I think there's better - and realize full well we coulkd end up with worse. It is our FO afterall.
 
He hadn't had a great season prior to the injury - we all have noted that. But based on his previous career, he was easily the best available QB. Say what we will about his 'production' - he did enough to get us to 6-3, which is sure as hell beyond anything Cousins was able to do. Who is it that they should have signed? Fans might have considered him a 'stop gap' but I promise you the FO signed him to be the QB for the next 3-5 years. I don't know if they overpaid for him, but give other vet QB salaries, I'm not 100% that they did. Bottom line - if you think what we got from him through 9 games is Smith's 'ceiling', then you're right to call it a huge mistake. I don't give him a total pass, but as I've said 100 times, losing more than half your starting offense (when the talent there wasn't elite to begin with) isn't helpful to a QB new to a team no matter who it is.

Boone..all points well taken. I personally like Alex.

My point is that the FO put the etam in this position. We should have solved our QB issues a long time ago. I don't think this team can thinkk out of the box when it comes to building a championship roster - and it certainly has a hard time finding game-chaging gems in the lower rounds.
 
Who wouldn't love this quote from Ryan Anderson.
Talks like a veteran.
That has to come from Alabama and Saban.

You don't want to focus on winning,” Anderson said, just 25 minutes after Washington's 16-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “You want to focus on dominating. You can win a game, 55-50. You didn't dominate it. So I really focus on dominating, and I feel like if we're dominating, we control our box. Winning follows. You don't think about the end result first. I don't wake up every morning and say, ‘Win this game.' What is that? First, it's, ‘What do I got to do to win it?' I've got to practice. I've got to watch film. I've got to get to the ball. I've got to hold guys accountable, and guys have to hold me accountable.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...2fdbf9d4fed_story.html?utm_term=.28cbf722f182
 
Who wouldn't love this quote from Ryan Anderson.
Talks like a veteran.
That has to come from Alabama and Saban.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...2fdbf9d4fed_story.html?utm_term=.28cbf722f182

I wonder if the Bama boys will stick around after we've squeezed their contracts for every season we can out of them. I can only imagine they come here and see how poorly this organization is run, in comparison to the success they saw at Alabama and think, "I can't wait to get out of here."
 

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