not impressed with the start of this "new regime"

Henry said:

Sooo ..... you're in 'show me' mode ... unless we had signed some practice squad guys?

Click to expand...

Thats part of it Henry, i guess im just not sold on allen as a gm yet

I don't believe the football guys at Redskins park give a damn what the fans think or want. If there are any decisions being made with 'fans' on mind, we're doomed, because the only one who might care is Dan Snyder.

Rymanofthenorth said:

mid tier guys know who they are, if you go after them right off the bat they feel more important, and pillaging PR's should be a year round endeavour for a team as talent deficient as we are.

Click to expand...

in fact - everyone knows who the mid-tier guys are!

so...I was thinking there would be one top tier signing (preferably a safety) and then the mid-tier signings. I was wrong.

will have to wait and see what the strategy is for amp'ing up on some of the top end talent. at the end of the day - the only question that counts is whether or not the roster is getting better than the other teams it will face. if not...then this is going to be another long year. if so, then we should be in contention for the NFE this upcoming season since the division wasn't all that great to start with.

right now...can't tell. all I know is I can't definitely answer in the affirmative. obviously, we'll all have to wait for preseason to start figuring out what the gameplan has been and whether it was viable.

It's March. Everybody's team, is on paper.

Paper don't mean shit.

Unless you have to take one.

Answers won't begin to develop until late July. With the final answers not showing up until after September.

Enjoy the coming weekend. That's priority one.

Boone said:

I don't believe the football guys at Redskins park give a damn what the fans think or want. If there are any decisions being made with 'fans' on mind, we're doomed, because the only one who might care is Dan Snyder.

Click to expand...

You have more faith than me.

I think it's quite evident that this has mattered in the past.

Otherwise I agree with you, we are doomed if that's the case. Because fans are idiots.

tshile said:

You have more faith than me.

I think it's quite evident that this has mattered in the past.

Otherwise I agree with you, we are doomed if that's the case. Because fans are idiots.

Click to expand...

I'm inclined to agree with...both of you!!!

Except that fans aren't idiots. One doesn't have to be an idiot to know that the secondary has been a weakness, the interior linebacking has been so so, the center has been out "physical'ed" one game after the next, the RT is a liability, the receiving corps was weak......it's all out there on the field. where fans are off base can be the professional aspect of how bad/good things are. and for years the professionals have been telling the fans "it's better than you think." and for years, with the exception of that 7 game stretch, the fans have been closer to the truth.

I believe the "no-brain trust" of Snyderratto definitely listened to fans. Allen/Brown/Gruden, though? No chance.

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Lanky Livingston said:

I believe the "no-brain trust" of Snyderratto definitely listened to fans. Allen/Brown/Gruden, though? No chance.

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I guess I just keep waffling on how optimistic I am about this group.

I suppose you guys are right. Allen seems like a professional, and a football guy.

tshile said:

I guess I just keep waffling on how optimistic I am about this group.

I suppose you guys are right. Allen seems like a professional, and a football guy.

Click to expand...

Just the nature of the Grudens leads me to believe there's no chance. Just my take on him, though.

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I want very badly to believe that things will get better, but just watching us and how we seem to do things , I just don't see enough good things happening.

Merv (my dad) used to tell me that being intelligent is a curse because the less intelligent you are, the more you just enjoy life, as examples he would point out cousins of mine who were not exactly rocket surgeons who were " just happy to be here" and then ask me why I was always looking for something better instead of just enjoying what I had. I remember telling him " I don't like average things." I still don't and it boggles my mind that things that seem self evident to me about building an effective team, are not evident to people who are paying millions of dollars.

so...as I look at it in "the big picture"...what we will be talking about toward mid-season:

1) was the strategy employed a good one? generally, this is evaluated by wins and losses (especially against division opponents)

2) did the strategy elevate the talent level enough to turn this team into a winner?

The first question obviously depends upon the answer to the second question.

The second question is conditioned by how OTHER teams have improved.

This wickers in the idea that the Skins' strategy acquires significance (e.g., it's a good/bad one) only relative to how other teams have gone about building their teams.

Granted, it's a simple analysis. It leaves out relevant factors such as gameplans/scheme, game time adjustments, significant injuries, weather, schedule, etc. however, it has the virtue of tracking a very small number of variables (i.e., simplicity) and it has a significant (IMO) common sense property - it you're losing to your opponents more than winning, then ON AVERAGE your strategy SUCKS!!!!!

A separate thread on what we think the current strategy is would be useful. here's a start:

- Goal: let's set the goal as winning the Super Bowl

- Prioritized Risk: let's assume the Skins performed an internal analysis and decided their greatest problems are lack of sufficient depth and talent across the board to compete for a Super Bowl (as of end of last season)

- let's assume the team believes that from a fiscal point-of-view and a long-term competitive point-of-view the best approach is building a team through the draft

- let's assume the Skins operate under two constraints: the league imposed cap; a self imposed cap (that's what appears to be going on here)

- now comes the hard part: the strategy establishes the plan for building a roster that can compete for the SB given assumptions and constraints. There are many alternatives to accomplishing this. From where I sit it looks like the Skins have prioritized along the following lines

. use FA to add depth since it meets internally imposed fiscal constraints

. use the draft to elevate the talent level (over the long-term) because it's cheaper (on average)

Not rocket science....I know. All obvious. It does relocate where the areas of excellence have to fall.

- For FA, they better damn well be improving the depth. This team has not been successful in the past doing this as we well know.

- For the draft, they have to have a higher hit ratio on OUTSTANDING talent in order to lift the average talent level of the team. Two variables influence this: the number of picks and the quality of the picks. This is a big gamble IMO. what the Skins are really telling everyone is "We are very confident that our scouts and decision-makers are not only going to find the top talent we need in the draft...but we are going to do a better job than other teams will in their CUMULATIVE EFFORTS in both FA and the DRAFT."

that should be its own thread, because I think thats a blogworthy post

Way too complicated.

You throw the ball, you catch the ball. You tackle the guys WITH the ball.

Some skill + health + luck and you've got a shot.

Our main objective is to get passed the new-ness of the coaching staff, ASAP, and hope like hell this regime has a10 year run, minimum.

I don't care who the players are, or how we get them. Until we're not drafting and signing free agents for a new setup every 2-4 years, we don't have a very good chance.

It's that simple.

the thing I love about football is that it can be as simple as you want it, or it can be sublimely complex. what I will say is that all it takes a few brilliant moves and we can be competitive, but it takes brilliant moves, not " im just happy to be here" moves.

Words can't express how impressed I am with our FA this season.

These guys did an amazing amount of work in studying all of these players. And now a kicker too? Gruden isn't satisfied with Forbath's kickoffs. And he's not just going to sit back and accept mediocrity.

In the past, we were lazy. Go sign one or two popular FAs, and that was about it.

Not this year. This is the absolute opposite of lazy. This is thorough. And they are addressing an amazing amount of positions and holes. This is incredibly professional, and calculated imho.

McD i'm with you... i have to tip my hat to the approach here. Veteran bargains, as well as inexpensive depth. Big splash? I guess you could say Porter/Hatcher are splashes, but given the potential output of each player, we haven't spent a lot of money. Im liking what I'm seeing.

well......the goal..as Mike says...is to win. "Not spend like the past" is not a strategy. Not only that....but there is a continuum of options - not just spend too much/spend conservatively.

we know that they wanted one of the top safeties. they decided the price was too high...fine. the read, just the same, is that they saw a need not for mediocre or capable...but top tier. so they have already moved to plan B. happens. but I wouldn't say this is all an unqualified success. I think they had a list and moved down the list as options disappeared or became too expensive. we won't know what the original, ranked shopping list was. hatcher strikes me as the only immediate value signing. the others range from solid to depth to we're not risking much money types.

We also don't know if some of the "top tier" players told us they wouldn't come here for any price. Or at least double the price of any other team. We can WANT all the guys in the world. If they don't want to play here, we can't force them to.

Ax said:

We also don't know if some of the "top tier" players told us they wouldn't come here for any price. Or at least double the price of any other team. We can WANT all the guys in the world. If they don't want to play here, we can't force them to.

Click to expand...

that's true....though that would be interesting in and of itself to explore.

given what we have seen reported - the only top tier folks they were feeling out were safeties. and, for two years now, Talib.

fansince62 said:

that's true....though that would be interesting in and of itself to explore.

given what we have seen reported - the only top tier folks they were feeling out were safeties. and, for two years now, Talib.

Click to expand...

that's what we've heard... but like I said before, Hatcher/Porter essentially materialized out of nowhere. I hadn't heard EITHER one of those names tossed around until news broke that they had been signed/agreed to terms. I'm sure multiple players had been considered/courted but they were too expensive or determined they didn't want to come here for anything less then a blockbuster.