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Free Agency, Mock Drafts, Camps, Roster Predictions, 2018

I'm sure that was a factor, but I actually think not having Jordan Reed out there, particularly as a safety valve target, has always turned Cousins from an impressive QB to just a good one. Reed, when he is healthy (I know, I know...) is the best pass catching TE in the league. He gets open, almost on every play, has great hands, and is one of the most athletic TEs after the catch the NFL has ever seen. If it weren't for his game-changing skills, the Redskins would've cut bait on him a long time ago. I'm very skeptical he will ever be able to overcome his injury issues as I know a lot of us are.

I don't think Cousins really suitably demonstrated an ability to adapt to new Receivers when his comfort blankets were removed.

He's moving teams for the first time to a totally new situation so it'll be interesting to see how he handles it.

Smith on the other hand has moved around and knows how to integrate new team mates. He could be the man to make the most of Doctson and Quick and get on the same page as Richardson. For QB and Receiver chemistry they're all starting at zero (except Davies who he played with in SanFran)

Be interesting to see who he gels with predominantly. I'm really keen for the season to start!!!!


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There's no doubt that we know for sure Smith can adapt. We don't yet know that about Kirk. Only caveat (to be fair) is that last year, we had 3 things going on (on top of moving on from Jackson and Garcon). Reed was unavailable most of the year - which was a huge negative for Kirk, Doctson was very slow to develop, and Pryor was a total bust. If it weren't for Crowder, Vernon, Chris Thompson, and Ryan Grant, we may have really struggled in the passing game.

I know people want to blame Kirk for not getting the ball to Josh Doctson consistently during the year, but what I saw is that Doctson wasn't ready. His routes looked tentative at times and he struggled to get open. I think with a year of health and working out the rookie nerves, and with a QB who isn't afraid to fire the ball into tight windows, he could have a breakout year.

3 keys to success in the passing game in 2018. Reed's got to play at least 12 games, Paul Richardson needs to prove he's the guy the Skins think he is - a true WR2 (that means 60+ receptions), and most importantly, Doctson needs to have a breakout season. They have got to expand Doctson's repertoire - he can't just be a post-pattern guy. Need to get him doing some curls, some across the middle stuff, in the Art Monk mold imho. We know he can run post and fade patterns. It's the other stuff we haven't seen from him. Some of that is on Gruden. I also want to see what Jeremy Sprinkle can do for God's sake.
 
I know people want to blame Kirk for not getting the ball to Josh Doctson consistently during the year, but what I saw is that Doctson wasn't ready. His routes looked tentative at times and he struggled to get open. I think with a year of health and working out the rookie nerves, and with a QB who isn't afraid to fire the ball into tight windows, he could have a breakout year.

3 keys to success in the passing game in 2018. Reed's got to play at least 12 games, Paul Richardson needs to prove he's the guy the Skins think he is - a true WR2 (that means 60+ receptions), and most importantly, Doctson needs to have a breakout season. They have got to expand Doctson's repertoire - he can't just be a post-pattern guy. Need to get him doing some curls, some across the middle stuff, in the Art Monk mold imho. We know he can run post and fade patterns. It's the other stuff we haven't seen from him. Some of that is on Gruden. I also want to see what Jeremy Sprinkle can do for God's sake.


Honest question, how much of it was Doc, and how much of it was Kirk being a 'by the book' type QB?

More than a few times I saw instances where Kirk would hit his first read because it was 'open' but the third read in the progression was running free? Is it possible that he was so stuck on his process, that he wouldn't then look for the same situation and make the effort to deviate from the scripted progressions?

The play to Doctson vs Seattle, I honestly thought he had taken that step. He was quoted saying that if Doc was man to man, they would hot read to a fly route and it would be there.... and it was. Ended up winning us the game. I guess we will never know, but I can easily see Kirk wanting to stick to a the read progressions without ever deviating from that... which could have opened up the chances for Doc to be more of a contributor. Did Kirk in fact make pre-snap reads, or was he walking to the line with a play called, and regardless of how it looked, he followed the playbook?
 
Honest question, how much of it was Doc, and how much of it was Kirk being a 'by the book' type QB?

More than a few times I saw instances where Kirk would hit his first read because it was 'open' but the third read in the progression was running free? Is it possible that he was so stuck on his process, that he wouldn't then look for the same situation and make the effort to deviate from the scripted progressions?

The play to Doctson vs Seattle, I honestly thought he had taken that step. He was quoted saying that if Doc was man to man, they would hot read to a fly route and it would be there.... and it was. Ended up winning us the game. I guess we will never know, but I can easily see Kirk wanting to stick to a the read progressions without ever deviating from that... which could have opened up the chances for Doc to be more of a contributor. Did Kirk in fact make pre-snap reads, or was he walking to the line with a play called, and regardless of how it looked, he followed the playbook?

There's been a lot of innuendo regarding Cousins in terms of a lot of his 'cautiousness' being fear of making mistakes and even implying that he didn't want to throw picks because it might hurt his statline or undermine his reputation. The first few times I saw or read that, my reaction was 'oh come on - he's not focused on that'. But in retrospect, I think there's some truth to it. You can sense it in some of Gruden's comments about Kirk being hesitant to trust his receivers and let go of the ball in anything other than ideal circumstances. I guess if one is pro-Kirk, you'd characterize it as him not being able to trust his WRs. If you are a harsher critic of Cousins you'd probably characterize it as Kirk playing scared and needing a security blanket of WRs who he's played with for years.

I do think that the skill level and available talent of the WRs last year was a factor. Doctson came on late, but he was definitely tentative early on.
 
There's been a lot of innuendo regarding Cousins in terms of a lot of his 'cautiousness' being fear of making mistakes and even implying that he didn't want to throw picks because it might hurt his statline or undermine his reputation. The first few times I saw or read that, my reaction was 'oh come on - he's not focused on that'. But in retrospect, I think there's some truth to it. You can sense it in some of Gruden's comments about Kirk being hesitant to trust his receivers and let go of the ball in anything other than ideal circumstances. I guess if one is pro-Kirk, you'd characterize it as him not being able to trust his WRs. If you are a harsher critic of Cousins you'd probably characterize it as Kirk playing scared and needing a security blanket of WRs who he's played with for years.

I do think that the skill level and available talent of the WRs last year was a factor. Doctson came on late, but he was definitely tentative early on.



I'm not speaking in terms of risk... more in terms of robot.


There was a play vs Dallas (I believe) that Thompson had a on a dig style route, Kirk hit him, CT was immediately tackled for a 4 yard gain. The play clearly was written for the first read to be CT, he had an opening, and Kirk took it. The play 'worked.' When they did the breakdown of the play, the camera panned back and Doctson was running free on a post route with no safety over the top. The Safety had crashed down to assist on the TE and the DB had gotten beat. Watching the replay I remember seeing Kirks head never go to the left side of the field where Doc was. You could almost tell he was doing his progression, and he saw CT 'open' so he never went past his first read. Did the play work? Sure.... but my thinking is how many times Kirk was just not capable of deviating from the read progressions the way they were practiced? That he didn't come up to the line and see Doc lined up man to man... and have it enter his mind that despite that fact that Doc is the 3rd read in the play... maybe they have a chance for a mismatch there? I just wonder if he was so set in the way the play was in the playbook, that he never made an adjustment based on the coverage, or defensive alignment. That if he would have got out of his own head a bit about execution of 'progression' that there were some bigger plays to be had.... and not necessarily 50/50 balls, or high risk plays, just more of an ability to see a matchup and take advantage.
 
I'm not speaking in terms of risk... more in terms of robot.


There was a play vs Dallas (I believe) that Thompson had a on a dig style route, Kirk hit him, CT was immediately tackled for a 4 yard gain. The play clearly was written for the first read to be CT, he had an opening, and Kirk took it. The play 'worked.' When they did the breakdown of the play, the camera panned back and Doctson was running free on a post route with no safety over the top. The Safety had crashed down to assist on the TE and the DB had gotten beat. Watching the replay I remember seeing Kirks head never go to the left side of the field where Doc was. You could almost tell he was doing his progression, and he saw CT 'open' so he never went past his first read. Did the play work? Sure.... but my thinking is how many times Kirk was just not capable of deviating from the read progressions the way they were practiced? That he didn't come up to the line and see Doc lined up man to man... and have it enter his mind that despite that fact that Doc is the 3rd read in the play... maybe they have a chance for a mismatch there? I just wonder if he was so set in the way the play was in the playbook, that he never made an adjustment based on the coverage, or defensive alignment. That if he would have got out of his own head a bit about execution of 'progression' that there were some bigger plays to be had.... and not necessarily 50/50 balls, or high risk plays, just more of an ability to see a matchup and take advantage.

Sure - I'm with you - that's a great take. Only thing I might add though is that it's not just about Kirk pre-reading the defense and IDing a vulnerability, or even going through progressions instead of just hitting the early obvious target and 'playing it safe'. Some of the ability to assess which WR to throw to is dependent on the QB's perceived ability to 'wait', trust in his OL, etc... Now whether Kirk should've had more faith in his OL or if the truth is, the protection wasn't always there to afford him options beyond the primary, that's open to debate.

One great aspect of Alex Smith's game? He is far more adept at avoiding the rush, moving the pocket to give himself a precious split second or two, or even taking off on the run. That's one reason I believe our WR corps is suddenly going to look a lot more capable in 2018.
 
Sure - I'm with you - that's a great take. Only thing I might add though is that it's not just about Kirk pre-reading the defense and IDing a vulnerability, or even going through progressions instead of just hitting the early obvious target and 'playing it safe'. Some of the ability to assess which WR to throw to is dependent on the QB's perceived ability to 'wait', trust in his OL, etc... Now whether Kirk should've had more faith in his OL or if the truth is, the protection wasn't always there to afford him options beyond the primary, that's open to debate.

One great aspect of Alex Smith's game? He is far more adept at avoiding the rush, moving the pocket to give himself a precious split second or two, or even taking off on the run. That's one reason I believe our WR corps is suddenly going to look a lot more capable in 2018.

That's fair... that he wouldn't even want to wait for the route to develop because he wasn't sure he'd still be on his feet long enough to get a solid throw.... It's all speculation.

I think Smith has a longer leash too... he hopefully will have the ability to audible, hot route, and play off the script a bit more than Kirk did. I oft thought Kirk wasn't allowed to make those calls, but I wonder if he just chose not to... because he's such pattern and routine oriented person.
 
On many of the long pass plays that Kurt did hit, he was often late. He wouldn't throw the ball until the receiver was clearly open. By the time the ball got their, often underthrown, the play would be closer than it should have been. With better anticipation expected from Smith, the ball should be in the air sooner, more often hitting the receiver as he's blowing by. Instead of having to break stride and wait for the ball.

Of course, in fairness to Smith, if he doesn't come out of the gates doing this right away, he gets some slack. I expect by midseason for him to really get it going.
If it happens sooner, though, it won't be too surprising.
 
On many of the long pass plays that Kurt did hit, he was often late. He wouldn't throw the ball until the receiver was clearly open. By the time the ball got their, often underthrown, the play would be closer than it should have been. With better anticipation expected from Smith, the ball should be in the air sooner, more often hitting the receiver as he's blowing by. Instead of having to break stride and wait for the ball.

Of course, in fairness to Smith, if he doesn't come out of the gates doing this right away, he gets some slack. I expect by midseason for him to really get it going.
If it happens sooner, though, it won't be too surprising.

This! Yes - in fact, I would actually watch Kirk early on in games. If he was releasing the ball right away, in rhythm, I knew he was going to have a great day. When he held onto it, I knew we were in for one of the middling outings. That's a great point.
 
Since everyone's mentioning the Kirk, has there been ANYONE in the organization especially players saying we shoulda tried harder to retain him? I've heard nothing of the sort, though I live a tad outside of DC.

It seems to me the silence is deafening.
 
Since everyone's mentioning the Kirk, has there been ANYONE in the organization especially players saying we shoulda tried harder to retain him? I've heard nothing of the sort, though I live a tad outside of DC.

It seems to me the silence is deafening.

Have wondered the same thing.
 
Since everyone's mentioning the Kirk, has there been ANYONE in the organization especially players saying we shoulda tried harder to retain him? I've heard nothing of the sort, though I live a tad outside of DC.

It seems to me the silence is deafening.
Heard a ton of love for Fuller... no noise for Kirk or any other free agents

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Ball security and poorly timed INTs were a couple of the concerns with Cousins.

In 2015 and 2016 he had a pretty darn god pass blocking line and yet in those instances where he did get hit he coughed up the ball in some critical circumstances.

Then there was the specter of the 4th quarter interception that dogged Cousins.

In 2016 we lost games to Dallas and NY when we were in scoring territory because of a couple of poorly timed throws into coverage in the end zone.

He and the offense also failed to score a single touchdown at home in their one playoff game against Green Bay, a team whose real strength was on offense with Rodgers.
 
Has an attitude too... nasty knee injury worries me but worth kicking the tires....

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He's 30 and has the scars but the real question is HOW MUCH?

Bowman did return in 2017 to play in Oakland and if LB depth is shored up for 2018 it could mean we are in fact targeting Payne, Vea or Derwin James at #13 .
 

According to wiki (always true) he's a long time friend of Lavern's. Gonna go with vet minimum or not at all. That or write a contract clause he has to stay atleast 100 yards away from Arrington, and no electronic contact either.
 
I am surprised we didn't snap up Crabtree and put ALL of the ex-49ers in the barrel for 2018 here in Washington.
 
I am surprised we didn't snap up Crabtree and put ALL of the ex-49ers in the barrel for 2018 here in Washington.

...maybe saving some room for more ex-cowboys...
 

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