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Random Commanders Thoughts

I was able to watch the East-West Shrine game today and get a look at some prospects. I will do the same thing next week for the Senior Bowl. A few people I know (and have credentials) will be at the Senior Bowl and I hope to have some unique insights after next week.

Also, I was able to complete my databases of players who could be drafted and UDFA candidates earlier today (finally!). The rankings will change due to things like performances at the postseason all star games, the combine, workouts, and interviews. Another thing affecting the draft grades will be any potential off the field issues.

Here is what the databases look like on a part of my desktop. It looks like this every winter and spring. Several hundred prospects and their measurables are listed in these pdf files. Yeah, I have been very busy since just after the holidays. Fun, eh?

draftdesktop.jpg
 
Tell me now, why we let RJ Francois go ?
He's good enough to start on a Patriots AFC Championship team, but not considered good enough to keep, when you're signing guys like McClain and McGee to start.
And he actually played well here, so it's not all Bellichek.
I don't remember him wanting insane money either. Certainly not the money we paid the Mac twins in FA.
 
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Every coach thinks they can get the best out of a player. The Cheater is no different.

François is ON the team. He doesn't make them.
 
Never said he "made the team"

He's starting.
On a Bellichek defense.
In an AFC Championship game.

All that says something. It says a lot.
It says it's absolutely a player we could have used this past year,

Great coaches can get something out of players on the scrap heap.

Belichick saw some value in Francois and Harrison...and got contributions from them today.

Back in the day, Joe Gibbs used to do the same thing: get a player that everyone thought offered nothing, but Joe would get something out of them.

It's only rare to mediocre coaches...the great ones though...it's business as usual.
 
I forgot how good it was to watch games that were filled with passion, execution, and solid coaching.

I guess I should watch more than just Redskin games.
 
So...Nate Sudfield has taken a snap in a NFC Championship for the winning team.
 
Philly in the Super Bowl after taking a little less than three seasons to rebuild.

Meanwhile, in Washington, we're told to be patient, that it takes time to build the right way.

When Nate Sudfeld took a snap in that game, I hope Dan Snyder saw it and immediately became physically sick.
 
I really wish we already had made a decision on Kirk, there really is no reason to delay this thing out, do it before the super bowl, get it over with because it's time to focus on things other than whether capt happy feet is staying, it's my belief he's already packed his bags and out of here. Time for the team to take control, here's your offer, not what you want ok, best of luck to you. Then immediately start the search if we're not looking to draft someone to sit behind Colt next year. Yes I'm impatient but more impatient because I think the end result is already written in stone. Oh and Philly vs NE, first time I can remember wanting it to end in a tie, screw em both.
 
DieselPower, you hit the nail on the head.

It's not that the Redskins are not improving talent-wise, because we can all recognize that compared to the talent level on this team in 2013 or 2014 we are far better across the board now vs. then.

The problem is as you said that it is taking a VERY LONG TIME for this team to put it together and make a credible run for something important.

We go into the draft and find 1 or 2 starters and a couple of other guys that are contributing. Over time, that's fine, you replenish the departures you suffer and add younger depth.

BUT, it seems every team that is emerging has that ONE draft where they really hit the jackpot. Sometimes it is a combination of the one big draft put together with an outstanding free agent class.

We haven't had that.

We haven't had that draft where we get say our first 3 picks that come in and make an immediate impact and we go into free agency and come up with the Teshaun Gipsons, Malik Jacksons, Calais Campbells that say the Jaguars did.

Now, Malik Jackson came on board for big, big dollars from the Broncos after their Super Bowl win.

So, perhaps that move is one you don't make.

But Gipson was available after being a top shelf player in Cleveland and would have immediately improved the Redskins secondary at a time when we had NO SAFETIES on the roster worth a damn. And he was only 25.

But we said 'PASS'.

Ditto with Campbell. Campbell is 31 but is a player at 6'6 and 320 that presents the ability to play DE or DT in various alignments.

He is very strong at the point of attack and to me looks like a player that is going to continue to perform at a high level for several more seasons.

In terms of the draft, the Redskins have had some good fortune with top picks such as Trent, Ryan, Brandon, etc.

But we have also come up with speed bumps that either take a very long time to acclimate to the NFL or are guys that are mild to mid busts.

Take 2016.

In 2017 we got very little out of the top of our 2016 draft order. Josh Doctson was very average, showing physical talent but a lack of refined skills, route running and hands that are going to translate to being an impact player soon.

Su'a Cravens walked away from the team as the #2 pick and who know whether he comes back and whether he comes back to the Redskins.

This past year we took Jonathan Allen and paired him with 2016 #5 pick Matt Ioannidis to form an effective tandem inside.

Great.

But then we took Ryan Anderson in Round 2 at a position, outside linebacker, where we really need someone to step up to balance Ryan Kerrigan on the other side.

Anderson played very few snaps with the regular defense (Redskins were ranked in the mid-20's) and was tasteless, colorless and odorless as a rookie. There seems to be a real question of whether he has the skills to fit into a 3-4 scheme as an outside linebacker.

It may not be quite fair, but it seems running down the rosters that the Rams, Eagles and other teams that are emerging get MORE out of these early picks overall.

While they miss on some players, each year they seem to add a NUMBER of players via draft and free agency that come in and become part of the 'core'.

That's how the Eagles have gone from 4-12 and 7-9 to being 13-3 in 2017.

After Chip Kelly broke this team down and traded away or released most of the talent and brought in guys Pederson and Rosenbaum have either released or traded for picks.

So, to me they were starting from a talent/core base as low as or even LOWER than the Redskins.

But by being aggressive they not only were able to move up and taken Carson Wentz but were able to trade away Sam Bradford and recoup a #1 pick in 2017. They flipped guys like Kiko Alonso and Eric Rowe for picks.

The Redskins meanwhile have not been as aggressive.

Rather than taking decisive action to resolve the Kirk Cousins contract situation after 2015 or 2016, the team sat there and talked about having time on their side to working out a long-term deal.

Now, we sit with a quarterback that has all the leverage and who is going to be harder to trade this offseason than he would have been in 2016, where we turned away potential suitors by saying he was not available.

A good front office doesn't take 3 years to figure out if a guy is a franchise quarterback and how much they can afford to pay him.

They don't leave their head coach twisting in the wind on who he is building an offense around.

So, again here we wait.

We wait for the Redskins to be decisive and aggressive in improving - and making it pay off finally!!

We wait for that one killer draft where we come up with #2 picks that rise to the level of a top 10 performer and give the team pro bowl performances at bargain prices for 2-3 years.

So far our #2 picks have been less than stellar.

Preston Smith is OK. An inconsistent player who goes 4 or 5 games putting up numbers and then disappearing for long stretches.

Trent Murphy was perhaps a stretch as a high #2 pick. But he has improved and can come back from his injury to again be a solid performer.

But again, he is not a player that is going to help turn the tide of a defense.

Su'a Cravens? Right now he is a bust/write-off. If he does come back to the NFL he is going to have to prove he is not in fact the 'flake' everyone thinks he is. And then he is going to have to find an NFL position as he is undersized to be an NFL linebacker and seems to shy away from taking the hits inside.

He has never played safety for any length of time, so anyone projecting him there at this point is simply guessing and hoping.

Ryan Anderson? Yet another #2 pick that the Redskins took like Murphy based on college production but not necessarily on how well he fits into what the team is tying to do on defense.

When I look around the league I see that the Redskins had chances to take guys like Garroppolo, Michael Thomas, DeMarcus Lawrence.

Guys like Thomas that have already proven they are at a pro bowl level or like Garroppolo or Lawrence that they have the NFL skills to be difference makers going forward.
 
I really wish we already had made a decision on Kirk, there really is no reason to delay this thing out, do it before the super bowl, get it over with because it's time to focus on things other than whether capt happy feet is staying, it's my belief he's already packed his bags and out of here. Time for the team to take control, here's your offer, not what you want ok, best of luck to you. Then immediately start the search if we're not looking to draft someone to sit behind Colt next year. Yes I'm impatient but more impatient because I think the end result is already written in stone. Oh and Philly vs NE, first time I can remember wanting it to end in a tie, screw em both.

Whos to say that hasn't already happened?

I dont think the decision regarding Kirk is up to us anymore... If they've decided to move on, we won't truly know til we get the report that he's agreed to a deal with another team, or if someone were to come out publicly and announce it. I don't put anything past this organization, and I have a hard time believing they're going to 'handle it correctly' regarding the way this works out, but I believe Kirk's foot is out the door already.
 
Great coaches can get something out of players on the scrap heap.

Belichick saw some value in Francois and Harrison...and got contributions from them today.

Back in the day, Joe Gibbs used to do the same thing: get a player that everyone thought offered nothing, but Joe would get something out of them.

It's only rare to mediocre coaches...the great ones though...it's business as usual.

Certainly true. But I'm not sure we're approaching it from the right angle. Pluck mediocre player from mediocre team. Place mediocre player on great team. Mediocre player looks a lot better than he did on mediocre team.

It's not rocket science.
 
I'm in a rare group of about 5% of Redskins fans who believe the team has *mostly* been on the right track since moving Shanahan out but has simply been confronted with a combination of some bad luck, a few mistaken choices on players, and what I would call bad timing.

The injury bug this year was certainly bad luck. Ending up with the league's toughest schedule after a non-winning season. Having your brightest coaching talent plucked for a head coaching gig just when you needed him most. Having a bright high draft pick turn out to be a psych case (Cravens).

There have certainly been bad decisions too. The penultimate bad call pre-dated the current regime. Griffin set the franchise back 5 years. It took Gruden a year to clean the stench of that one from the lockerroom. I think bringing in Joe Barry as DC was one the worst and most impactful mistakes we've seen. Barry's pre-Redskins resume screamed 'marginal talent' - that was a total head scratcher, but the Redskins did rebound to bring in competent defensive coaches (imho). Some of our draft choices, Cravens (obviously), were big mistakes. I'll be bold and say that Jordan Reed may be another - a guy who is an amazing talent, but a physical disaster. Pryor certainly looks like a mistake. And Doctson may still prove to be largely a bust. There are others who haven't risen to expectations that we are all aware of.

And then the 'timing' issue... we decided to part ways with out top 2 WRs at the same time. I don't put this in the 'mistake' column by default as most Skins fans would (although one could argue letting Garcon was) because I think it may prove to have been the right call in the long-term. But the timing of it was a killer, in that we had no proven replacements, and the guys we brought in didn't get the job done. It may also have cemented Kirk's departure. And while most want to heap the blame for losing Cousins (if he goes) on the Front Office, I also see this as a timing issue. Due to his delayed timing of becoming a starter, we didn't get the normal timeframe in which we'd have gotten a great QB for a very cheap and productive period, and once it became obvious he could be the guy, he became exorbitantly expensive to retain (probably impossibly so).

Bottom line. The Redskins have made their share of mistakes. Guess what - all teams do. I don't buy the Philly comparison entirely. I'm not going to minimize the accomplishment - but they found (you could argue 'lucked into') what looks like a great starting QB, have a former Pro Bowler in Foles as a backup, and stumbled into a hot coach. It's not like their roster sucked - the Eagles have always had a good talent base and even during some down years recently could not be written off. This season looks a lot like the surprising Giants Super Bowl run a few years back. I don't believe it signifies they'll now dominate the NFC East for the next 10 years. I believe it'll continue to be a yearly call as to which NFC East team surges in any given year.

In general, when I step away from the frustration of this past season, I *mostly* like what I'm seeing. I think Gruden is a pretty good coach. Great? No - but is Doug Pederson 'great'? Is Mike Zimmer 'great'? Some will say yes - but I don't think those teams are better than the Redskins entirely because of their head coaches. I think we've added talent and we're stockpiling draft picks every year to get a truly great roster - we're just not there yet. Honestly - if we had elected to keep Garcon (or both Jackson and Garcon for 1-2 more years), if we'd had 4 or 5 fewer season ending injuries, and if we'd maybe not lucked into such a tough schedule - I think it could easily have been the Redskins this year that shocked the league, instead of the Eagles.

Biggest challenge we face is addressing Cousins possible departure. The decisions involved there will play a big part in what the team's future success looks like. But I can still see this team being competitive at the top of the NFC East going forward if we make some good decisions over the next 2 years and keep building.
 
Whos to say that hasn't already happened?

I dont think the decision regarding Kirk is up to us anymore... If they've decided to move on, we won't truly know til we get the report that he's agreed to a deal with another team, or if someone were to come out publicly and announce it. I don't put anything past this organization, and I have a hard time believing they're going to 'handle it correctly' regarding the way this works out, but I believe Kirk's foot is out the door already.

It quite possibly could have already happened but if it did I think the team should advise the fans with a simple statement. "We put forth an offer to Kirk which Kirk declined to accept, we appreciate his years here as a Redskins and wish him well." However, that to me would go against how we've operated in the past, I don't think the FO has made any offer or decision and we're gonna caught with our d*** out and get slapped when we're too late to really figure out where we are headed.
 
I'm in a rare group of about 5% of Redskins fans who believe the team has *mostly* been on the right track since moving Shanahan out but has simply been confronted with a combination of some bad luck, a few mistaken choices on players, and what I would call bad timing.

Biggest challenge we face is addressing Cousins possible departure. The decisions involved there will play a big part in what the team's future success looks like. But I can still see this team being competitive at the top of the NFC East going forward if we make some good decisions over the next 2 years and keep building.


Luck has a funny way of following people around, be it good or bad. I don't think we can even quantify the effect that the cap penalty and the RG3 trades had on us and how far back it set us..


I do agree, that we're better off than we were when Gruden got here. That's very apparent regarding cap space, and young talent. We don't seem to have leaks every week, we appear to be a team that competes weekly, and we appear to have a level of depth that we've lacked for a LOOONNNGGGG time.

That said, I still have less then glowing feelings about the front office and seriously lack confidence. Bruce has had his hands in some things that would appear to be positives, but don't pay for filet mignon and settle for salisbury steak, regardless of how long it's been since you've actually eaten a hot meal.
 
Luck has a funny way of following people around, be it good or bad. I don't think we can even quantify the effect that the cap penalty and the RG3 trades had on us and how far back it set us..


I do agree, that we're better off than we were when Gruden got here. That's very apparent regarding cap space, and young talent. We don't seem to have leaks every week, we appear to be a team that competes weekly, and we appear to have a level of depth that we've lacked for a LOOONNNGGGG time.

That said, I still have less then glowing feelings about the front office and seriously lack confidence. Bruce has had his hands in some things that would appear to be positives, but don't pay for filet mignon and settle for salisbury steak, regardless of how long it's been since you've actually eaten a hot meal.

Totally agree. We need to see major improvements on the field in the next 2 or 3 years. My only real argument is that sometimes teams catch lightning in a bottle, but the absence of that doesn't mean we are doomed. I'm not sure that the past 2 seasons for the Redskins equates to them 'doing it wrong' or 'organizational failure'. As fans, we tend to heap 25 years of mostly poor performance on the current regime. If we want to saddle Dan Snyder with it - I think that's fair. But even the hated Bruce Allen doesn't own the vast majority of that time. I like more of what I've seen over the past 4 seasons than I hate.
 
Bad luck and bad coaching are hard to overcome.

Nothing you can do about luck. It'll be what it will be.

Hopefully the bad coaching is in it's final season here. Gruden enters 2018 as the 3rd best coach in the division. (Worst record)
4th if the Giants hire Shurmur.

He needs to get lucky to stay, cause he's not that good.
Good luck, coach!
 
Promoting an offensive coordinator would probably extend Gruden as well. If Gruden is OC again our record will be trash and he'll be gone at seasons end.
 

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