2025 Washington Commanders- All Things Defense

[method man]

Michael was cool to me, responded to my emails among other things. But yeah hated the tie to Dan and all that went down in the end.

Having said that, Bryan Colbert who is the defacto new Larry Michael -- but he goes below the radar because its now purely on youtube, etc -- is just as much a cheerleader IMO, probably more so than Larry, yet seems to know very little about football. Larry IMO beats Colbert. But others make up for Colbert on that show -- Logan is really good when he appears, Santana is good, etc.

I'd say though as for the media directly tied to the team. Logan Paulsen IMO is killer good. Santana is pretty good -- he's a bit too much of a homer, not charasmatic but likeable. Brian Mitchell who I've met before, cool guy, isn't an X's and O's guy so for me he adds very little IMO, he's not as critical as he used to be.

On the broadcast, I like Bram. Sometimes his excitable calls come off a bit canned but overall he's good IMO. He also does his homework on the opponent. i loved London Fletcher the player. The broadcaster is a bit boring for me. I miss Cooley in the both.

I’d never heard of Colbert before the preseason games this year. Based on what you are saying, thank goodness for that.

Again, I love listening to Logan and we are lucky to have him here. He is especially great at the draft because he can be more transparent. I like Santana for the grown man seriousness and the stories. Smoot is the mega homer but he is also the funniest guy in sports media

 

[method man]

Yeah Bram could certainly be negative at times. Heck some of my concern about how things were going to go early this season was based on Bram's shows where he lamented about the lack of energy in the camp compared to the past. He talked about Terry's contract being part of it. I talked about it back then in real time.

Bram and Larry ironically used to have a show together called Redskins Lunch. I used to call in to it from time to time. A big premise of that show was Larry the homer, Mr. positive versus Bram the cynic.

Fair on the macro pieces but I could do without the million excuses for Lattimore. I think I’d like him better if he didn’t work for the team.

 

[Chris]

Payne’s PFF grade in his 2022 Pro Bowl season was 59.2. There are clear issues with their grading system from the grading system to the graders themselves.

I know for a fact that the team doesn’t put much weight in their grades. Where teams get value from them is a platform that does the job that a QC assistant would’ve done cutting the tape after the game

I’m not a fan of PFF either. They assign ‘people’ to watch the games and grade every player on every down. To my knowledge those ‘people’ are not particularly ones with a coaching or playing background. Hell, they might not know more than the average fan here.

My point is outside of Suter I haven’t seen one person come to a similar conclusion that he had (or that you referenced). Maybe he is a stellar professional evaluator but I have some very serious doubts about that.

 

[skinsinparadise]

Fair on the macro pieces but I could do without the million excuses for Lattimore. I think I’d like him better if he didn’t work for the team.

The dude who is most sold on Lattimore is Logan Paulsen. I hope he ends up right.

As for PFF on Payne in the past. They've talked about why they haven't been infatuated with his play and that was in their minds consistency, up and down play but they also defended him by saying he was given so many more reps than other DTs, that the up and down play was inevitable because of fatigue but they can't grade him on a curve on that front. Right or wrong that was their take. Nick who works for PFf and is a fan of the team talked about it on Sheehan's show once.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I’m not a fan of PFF either. They assign ‘people’ to watch the games and grade every player on every down. To my knowledge those ‘people’ are not particularly ones with a coaching or playing background. Hell, they might not know more than the average fan here.

My point is outside of Suter I haven’t seen one person come to a similar conclusion that he had (or that you referenced). Maybe he is a stellar professional evaluator but I have some very serious doubts about that.

So, on the other board, I was famously the #1 anti-PFF poster on the board. If you need confirmation, you can ask Conn and skinsinparadise.

However, I've softened my view on them a bit. I think you have to take their grades with a gain of salt, and sometimes they get things right, and sometimes they don't. I heard one guy from PFF on Galdi (I don't remember which one), who said their grades will always be imperfect because they don't have the game-plan, and said what would really help them would be getting the game plans and the plays, which he then acknowledged would never happen.

That said, I think they are a useful tool. Not one I'm willing to sign in and get myself, or pay for. But they provide some type of a baseline. Their process doesn't stink. Another guy on Galdi actually ran through how they grade players, and it's a pretty robust process with either 2 or 3 different people having input and review, and they do get tons of training and some have football backgrounds.

So it's not perfect. But none of these guys are perfect. Unless it was Jon Gruden on his QB show, Chis Cooley (and he knew a lot of the plays for the Redskins because he was part of the team prior to doing film reviews), or Tom Brady, or that kind of person, just about everybody doing film study is at least somewhat unqualified. And PFF is at least a good enough baseline.

I would not make any decisions based on PFF grades. But using them as a bit of an indicator as to the tier the player in, or who had a really good vs. really bad game, I think that's somewhat fair.

I still hate Chris Collinsworth though. He's a bloviating idiot. And bought PFF years ago. I'm convinced that's why they sometimes have a "shock jock" approach to certain things. But their grades seem to avoid that.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

The dude who is most sold on Lattimore is Logan Paulsen. I hope he ends up right.

As for PFF on Payne in the past. They've talked about why they haven't been infatuated with his play and that was in their minds consistency, up and down play but they also defended him by saying he was given so many more reps than other DTs, that the up and down play was inevitable because of fatigue but they can't grade him on a curve on that front. Right or wrong that was their take. Nick who works for PFf and is a fan of the team talked about it on Sheehan's show once.

The fact anybody is sold on Lattimore is a shock at the moment. I think he played better against the Chargers. He has to string a few games together before he's worth discussing as being "good."

 

[method man]

I’m not a fan of PFF either. They assign ‘people’ to watch the games and grade every player on every down. To my knowledge those ‘people’ are not particularly ones with a coaching or playing background. Hell, they might not know more than the average fan here.

My point is outside of Suter I haven’t seen one person come to a similar conclusion that he had (or that you referenced). Maybe he is a stellar professional evaluator but I have some very serious doubts about that.

How many people do you know of who are doing weekly tape breakdowns? Logan, Bullock and Suter.

So, on the other board, I was famously the #1 anti-PFF poster on the board. If you need confirmation, you can ask Conn and skinsinparadise.

However, I've softened my view on them a bit. I think you have to take their grades with a gain of salt, and sometimes they get things right, and sometimes they don't. I heard one guy from PFF on Galdi (I don't remember which one), who said their grades will always be imperfect because they don't have the game-plan, and said what would really help them would be getting the game plans and the plays, which he then acknowledged would never happen.

That said, I think they are a useful tool. Not one I'm willing to sign in and get myself, or pay for. But they provide some type of a baseline. Their process doesn't stink. Another guy on Galdi actually ran through how they grade players, and it's a pretty robust process with either 2 or 3 different people having input and review, and they do get tons of training and some have football backgrounds.

So it's not perfect. But none of these guys are perfect. Unless it was Jon Gruden on his QB show, Chis Cooley (and he knew a lot of the plays for the Redskins because he was part of the team prior to doing film reviews), or Tom Brady, or that kind of person, just about everybody doing film study is at least somewhat unqualified. And PFF is at least a good enough baseline.

I would not make any decisions based on PFF grades. But using them as a bit of an indicator as to the tier the player in, or who had a really good vs. really bad game, I think that's somewhat fair.

I still hate Chris Collinsworth though. He's a bloviating idiot. And bought PFF years ago. I'm convinced that's why they sometimes have a "shock jock" approach to certain things. But their grades seem to avoid that.

The last paragraph is one of the few things you and me agree on 😆

I saw an article a year or two back that the company has not been doing well.

The only two PFF personalities I can stand are the local guy (Nate?) and Sikkema. With Sikkema on Stock Exchange, it’s a lot of straight up scouting and he and Rogers are hilarious together

 

[Chris]

How many people do you know of who are doing weekly tape breakdowns? Logan, Bullock and Suter?

None that have come to the same conclusion about Payne’s performance. 😉

 

[Conn]

Does make you wonder how Quinn vs. Raheem Morris will shake out a few years from now, given we never got the chance to interview him but wanted to. Morris started with a better roster overall, but at a major disadvantage just due to not having Daniels, but it’s worth watching

 

[COWBOY-KILLA]

We seem lost defensively in general. Besides the talent we are losing the Scheme and Coaching battle week after week. At least that's the way it seems to me.

 

[method man]

Does make you wonder how Quinn vs. Raheem Morris will shake out a few years from now, given we never got the chance to interview him but wanted to. Morris started with a better roster overall, but at a major disadvantage just due to not having Daniels, but it’s worth watching

Well Raheem fired Jimmy Lake after last season and went to his former colleague on the DQ coached Falcons Ulbrich while we were complacent keeping our guy around.

 

[method man]

Sainristil at nickel is a real problem. He got worked today. This guy is probably not going to become a top 10 NFL nickel. I would love to here Keim actually spell out why he shouldn’t be an outside CB

 

[DWinzit]

Does make you wonder how Quinn vs. Raheem Morris will shake out a few years from now, given we never got the chance to interview him but wanted to. Morris started with a better roster overall, but at a major disadvantage just due to not having Daniels, but it’s worth watching

Morris's defense sounds similar to what Whitt was envisioning and promising.

However, two years later, here we are. I don't think Whitt knows how to put a defense like his vision together.

In fairness AP made decisions on addressing the offense more heavily than the offense. Also some of the players brought in on the offense and defense don't really fit the system and others were more after thought low grade roster fillers opposed to players that would be upgrades to last years roster

 

[Kel Varnsen]

Sainristil at nickel is a real problem. He got worked today. This guy is probably not going to become a top 10 NFL nickel. I would love to here Keim actually spell out why he shouldn’t be an outside CB

I don’t know what happened with him, but I feel like I’m not watching the same guy from last year. He just really seems to struggle in coverage.

 

[Conn]

Not much out there right now, but:

 

[DWinzit]

Not much out there right now, but:

Too little too late but he is what is available without giving up assets.

 

[Dah-Dee]

Probably too late to get him into football shape for any kind of meaningful impact, but it sure does look like they should have bitten the bullet weeks ago and paid Justin Simmons.

 

[CuredFromBatteredFanSyndrome]

The fact of the matter is this defense is slow.

But they believe and try hard, and that leads to the sporadic dominance against backups and backups of backups.

Clearly doesn’t cut it against legitimate opponents though. And none of it can be fixed midseason. What scares me is I cant find a straight line to fixing it in the offseason either.

 

[method man]

Probably too late to get him into football shape for any kind of meaningful impact, but it sure does look like they should have bitten the bullet weeks ago and paid Justin Simmons.

It’s not too late. If he is still open to coming here, we can add him to the practice squad the next few weeks as he ramps up.

 

[method man]

The fact of the matter is this defense is slow.

But they believe and try hard, and that leads to the sporadic dominance against backups and backups of backups.

Clearly doesn’t cut it against legitimate opponents though. And none of it can be fixed midseason. What scares me is I cant find a straight line to fixing it in the offseason either.

They can start by sitting Bobby on obvious passing downs for Magee