It's not all Bad

amerson is a positive in my book.

so is the age of the team. we're young.

which reminds me, darrell young is a positive too. he's just a true football player.

SilentThreat said:

the intention of the phrase is not up for debate here... the issue here is that a positive thread got turned negative, based on the same points that have been discussed, and quite frankly beaten to death, in seemingly the majority of the threads on the front page of the site. It's old. Some of us like to look at the situation and gain positive light. Having 6 players who, given the right surroundings, could be pro-bowl starters, is something to be proud of.

Yes, we understand there are negatives, but we would also like to give credit where credit is due. Taking a jab at Kyle in this thread did nothing more then hijack it. There was ZERO relevance to the original post wit that statement and that's why people are up in arms. It's old. It's been old for a while. Once again a thread has been de-railed because a negative comment has been thrown in there and we've got a whole page of bickering.

Yes Kyle is what slowed us down... but you sure as hell can't tell me the TEAM doesn't know how to run the football. Morris leads the league is YPC.... therefore we DO know how to run the ball.

Click to expand...

Attacking me for a flippant comment (complete with smiley) is hijacking the thread, not the other way around. Continuing to do so after I've said I'm moving on is hijacking the thread, not the other way around. But please, continue to police the thread. I'm sure it will get back on track.

i'm not sure if this is a positive or not.

deangelo hall is playing the best i think i've ever seen him play. he's stepping up and making tackles, taking on the best wr and shutting them down for the most part week in-week out. he still irritates the hell out of me letting a WR or RB get an extra 3-5 yards because he's trying to strip the ball instead of tackle, but all things considered he's been turned around as a player here.

He's going to be 30 later this month. He's still young enough to be a solid corner for us for another 4-5 years as long as he doesn't lose his speed.

i don't know if this year is an abnormality or if he's really maturing and is proud to wear the colors, but I'll sure as hell take him for another 4-5 years if he can make them like this year and late last year.

in addition to that his turnaround speaks to the culture of the locker room in my opinion. which, say what you want about shanahan, this is the best locker room we've had since Gibbs 1. Easily. I know that doesn't matter to some, but I'm a person that thinks culture/character in the lockerroom matters.

tshile said:

i'm not sure if this is a positive or not.

deangelo hall is playing the best i think i've ever seen him play. he's stepping up and making tackles, taking on the best wr and shutting them down for the most part week in-week out. he still irritates the hell out of me letting a WR or RB get an extra 3-5 yards because he's trying to strip the ball instead of tackle, but all things considered he's been turned around as a player here.

He's going to be 30 later this month. He's still young enough to be a solid corner for us for another 4-5 years as long as he doesn't lose his speed.

i don't know if this year is an abnormality or if he's really maturing and is proud to wear the colors, but I'll sure as hell take him for another 4-5 years if he can make them like this year and late last year.

in addition to that his turnaround speaks to the culture of the locker room in my opinion. which, say what you want about shanahan, this is the best locker room we've had since Gibbs 1. Easily. I know that doesn't matter to some, but I'm a person that thinks culture/character in the lockerroom matters.

Click to expand...

Absolutely with you on the locker room culture, in fact I've been amazed at how... "cooperative" Fred Davis has been. I honestly feared he was going to start throwin poop.

As far as D.Hall goes, I wonder how much of it has to do that he's not "learning to play safety" like they've been trying to do that last few years. I'll be the first to admit I was ready to cut ties with him after the ATL game that he got kicked out of, but he's been ballin, and appeared to get his head back. Fletcher is going to be heading out soon and maybe Hall can step into that role of veteran leader on the defense. With such a young secondary, and presumably getting younger if we don't retain Meriweather and Wilson, we're going to need someone in those meeting rooms with experience.

If I can add a particular positive I'm really enjoying...

Pierre Garcon is, of late, playing like he did when he was Peyton's second favorite target with the Colts.

We have younger building blocks at the skill positions, now we need to load up on big uglies in the offseason on the OL and DL.

The top teams in the conference can get away with not playing their absolute best every week and still win 11, 12 games. Meanwhile, the Redskins aren't quite there yet. As we are currently built, we have a ceiling for what we can accomplish when we play at our highest level, yet can appear to be below average when all guys aren't firing on all cylinders. Why? Quite simply, we have a larger list of needs and holes on the roster that the better teams don't have. As we currently are built, we don't have enough juice to compensate in weeks where our best players aren't at their absolute peak. That's part of becoming a great team.

At the end of the day, considering that this team entered 2013 with essentially the same roster from a year ago, you take solace in the fact that your quarterback is starting to look like his old self and getting healthier and more confident each week. You smile at the fact that your Running Back is not a one-hit wonder. You hold your chin up, knowing that you have a WR in Garcon who can eventually generate top 5 WR numbers. Moreover, you allow your heart to start racing, knowing that you've found a dangerous weapon to add to the arsenal in Jordan Reed who can help this offense become truly elite with more seasoning and time together.

It truly could be worse. In 2013, we could have re-affirmed the fact that our defense is not championship caliper, and combined that with question marks in spots where we thought we were set for the next 10 years on offense.

With the likes of the 49ers, Saints, Packers, and Seahawks in the conference, this season was never about competing for a conference championship in my mind. It was about continuing to build on the positive momentum built a season ago and putting yourself in a position to legitimately establish long-term success in the NFC 2 to 3 years from now.

I suppose I'll take solace in the fact that I'm 100% confident that we have some Cadillacs sitting in the garage in Washington.

We simply need to accompany those Cadillacs with some pick-up trucks to pull us out of the mud when we get stuck going forward.

Canadian Hog said:

I suppose I'll take solace in the fact that I'm 100% confident that we have some Cadillacs sitting in the garage in Washington.

We simply need to accompany those Cadillacs with some pick-up trucks to pull us out of the mud when we get stuck going forward.

Click to expand...

I love this analogy!

we get a full margin of cap space back in the off-season. we can now compete on an even keel with the rest of the league in building/improving the roster.

oh…did I forget? FU Mara!!!

fansince62 said:

we get a full margin of cap space back in the off-season. we can now compete on an even keel with the rest of the league in building/improving the roster.

oh…did I forget? FU Mara!!!

Click to expand...

been making this argument to help understand our slow development all year..

fansince62 said:

we get a full margin of cap space back in the off-season. we can now compete on an even keel with the rest of the league in building/improving the roster.

oh…did I forget? FU Mara!!!

Click to expand...

This line of thought is where I have hung my hat as well. I hope this is a "blip" year and with a full SC we can see the great things we desire.

We are going to win this division.

Having money is great but we need to be careful and avoid deals like the one that costs us a $5M cap hit for Josh Morgan, now the fourth receiver and failed kick returner.

Yeah, you're going to miss. They've made some bad decisions, no doubt.

I wish we could know what moves were Allen and what moves were Shanahan. It'd make it easier to decide of Shanahan should stay or not.

Bulldog's Twin said:

Having money is great but we need to be careful and avoid deals like the one that costs us a $5M cap hit for Josh Morgan, now the fourth receiver and failed kick returner.

Click to expand...

Mike's got a point, Morgan could have gone either way. What wasn't going either way was a TE coming off an achilles injury with a history of clear discipline issues. We signed Fred Davis with 2 million that could have been dangled in Aqib Talib's face.

But, for every Fred Davis there is a Pierre Garcon. For every Josh LeRiebus there is an Alfred Morris.

Elephant said:

Mike's got a point, Morgan could have gone either way. What wasn't going either way was a TE coming off an achilles injury with a history of clear discipline issues. We signed Fred Davis with 2 million that could have been dangled in Aqib Talib's face.

But, for every Fred Davis there is a Pierre Garcon. For every Josh LeRiebus there is an Alfred Morris.

Click to expand...

I see your point, but to be fair, Morgan has had a litany of injuries over his career and is well known for being injury-prone. Davis, even with discipline issues, was a necessity given the unknown status of Jordan Reed and the lack of depth behind him. Davis' ceiling is much-higher than Morgan's also. That being said, I would have much rather had Talib here than either one of them, so who knows...