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I have had problems with Shanny from the start but he is an offencive Guru and we have been an offencive laughingstock for way too long. so when we brought him in, I was leery but hopeful. I went right to wtf when he stated he was running a 3-4 before even hiring a DC, then he hired a yes man in haslett and I yet again thought wtf.
Right off the bat though Shanny did things that concerned me, one was that he demanded all the power, he wouldnt be just the coach but also the president and the de facto GM, I havent seen any truly succsessful teams run like that. I believe that coaches want to win now, presidents want to be solid long term and Gms are a balance of both, one guy doing all three means more mistakes because the goals are conflicting.
This schizophrenia was seen in shannys immediate moves, a win now guy would have stayed with the 4-3 tweaked it to be more aggressive and reaped the benefits, but instead he blew it up which would suggest short term pain for long term gain if we invested ANY RESOURCES INTO YOUTH (which a person thinking long term would have done). but we didnt we simply signed other teams aging vets and cut our own.
we traded for an aging QB who on the surface looked a little like Shannys best QB elway, but we traded very valuable picks for him, suggesting again that we wanted to win now, trading future potential for an aging vet. someone looking long term would never have made that trade.
Then we went after a RT/LT in Brown, if he had been remotely healthy, it would have been a solid deal but he was coming off an injury and his own team was willing to go with a far less talented player to let him go. we ignored that and depended on him. again draft pick for aging /injury prone veteran. this was a win now move.
so we were caught in between, the biggest move by far was blowing up the defence but not spending any resources on it, this is simply not the way things are done when you want to win games. but then we pciked up Mcnabb and Brown which were both win now moves.
now we are 3 years in and we should be looking at what exactly we have and what exactly we dont have.
on Offence, we have a QB who singlehandedly might save shannys job and I will explain why later.
we have youth and depth at RB but some of the depth is injury prone (Helu) albeit spectacular when he gets on the field. we have morris who has been a revelation at RB, we have YOung at FB who is at least solid to decent and we have no real threat at TE. Cooley is a great roatation TE, Paulsen is not special, and Niles Paul is not ready for prime time. at Receiver we are still treading water, our big name free agent hasnt gotten on the field much and when he did, he has done much except for his first game, Hankerson flashed some talent but got hurt and hasnt looked the same, moss is aging and morgan is a great blocker but not such a great wr. so WR is still a position of need, its just that we have other holes which are so much more massive. this to me in year 3 is unacceptable.
Oline, this one really bugs me, because we look decent sometimes, especially against physically unimposing Dlines or teams that depend too much on speed. we have one solid player (tw) one decent player who could start on a lot of teams but would be an ideal 6th OLineman in MOnty, two wastes of space at guard in Lick and chester, neither of whom is capable of playing at a high level for longer than a game or two, neither of whomis a good pass protector and neither of whome gets good push in the run gam, then you add the turnstile in Polumbus at RT and our bandaid brown that we overpaid TWICE, and you have one of the weakest units on the team. we NEED at minimum one guard and a RT for this unite to become more than just barely good enough to get us beat. again year three and we have found one starting quality lineman, and one decent one?
so in year 3 some serious holes still on offence.
defence
this has been my bugaboo for years, we took the strength of the team and made it a weakness, then completely rebuilt it and yet in year three after a complete rebuild what do we have? a defence on pace to allow more passing yards than any redskins defence ever?
on the dline we have some depth and some youth, with bowen being very solid cofield being solid, carriker when healthy is very solid, jenkins shows flashes of being solid , but we lack any real star power on the dline, no huge space eater at NT, no beast pass rusher at DE. so even this, which is arguably the strength of the team, has holes.
Linebacker, we are aging here because we depend on Fletch to cover our inadequacies at NT, fletch has lost a step and for a guy who has always depended on his speed thats a bad sign. hes still very solid, but for how much longer? Riley at the other ILB spot is solid but is up and down, he is young though and should get better. at OLB Rak is overrated but is a hard worker who gets things done based on effort and strength, he just doesnt fit this scheme. Kerrigan is the gem, he is young, versatile and has shown diverse pass rush skills and is solid in coverage which is rare for a de convert.
again, year three and still holes, although here its more about depth and grooming a replacement for fletcher.
secondary
this is trhe bad spot, we have no youth other than Gomes who has flashed , but we have no youth at CB, minnifield hasnt recovered from his injury and might not ever, we have a bunch of journeymen playing safety and overpaid free agents at CB in wilson and Hall neither of whom is a #1 or even #2 quallity corner.Wilson could be a decent number 2 in the right scheme. but we have huge gaping holes across the board in this unit. after three years, there is no excuse to have such a terrible unit, especially when there have been several free agents who would have fit here.
now my contention is this, Rg3 needs continuity, nothing kills a young players potential like going through several coaches, BUT we need a defence and we need to be more active finding players in unconventional ways and places, neither of which seems to be a shanny forte. so we have to balance keeping Rg3 developing with building a team for the future and winning games now. I think Shanny has to demonstrate TEAM improvement, not just Rg3 driven improvemnet for him to keep his job.
so lets weigh the pros and cons.
Con number 1-sure enough Shanny immediately proved me right about his lack of knowledge on the defensive side of the ball, his decision to run a 3-4 defence based on one player (who as it turns out doesnt even fit the scheme) was an epic dumbass move, he then alienated our marquee free agent who was never stable to begin with and Took was was a strength of a weak team and turned it into a weakness. Teams make changes in scheme to improve now, not to improve in the future, you run the scheme that best fits your talent.
con number 2- we have been bad in free agency our bad moves under shanny and our no moves, have outweighed the good ones.
con number 3 we have not been creative in finding talent, other teams have signed cfl players and turned them into productive players, we have failed entirely.
Pro- Rg3
Pro- the ZBS has covered our lack of an Oline somewhat.
Pro- we have more stability as a franchise.
Right off the bat though Shanny did things that concerned me, one was that he demanded all the power, he wouldnt be just the coach but also the president and the de facto GM, I havent seen any truly succsessful teams run like that. I believe that coaches want to win now, presidents want to be solid long term and Gms are a balance of both, one guy doing all three means more mistakes because the goals are conflicting.
This schizophrenia was seen in shannys immediate moves, a win now guy would have stayed with the 4-3 tweaked it to be more aggressive and reaped the benefits, but instead he blew it up which would suggest short term pain for long term gain if we invested ANY RESOURCES INTO YOUTH (which a person thinking long term would have done). but we didnt we simply signed other teams aging vets and cut our own.
we traded for an aging QB who on the surface looked a little like Shannys best QB elway, but we traded very valuable picks for him, suggesting again that we wanted to win now, trading future potential for an aging vet. someone looking long term would never have made that trade.
Then we went after a RT/LT in Brown, if he had been remotely healthy, it would have been a solid deal but he was coming off an injury and his own team was willing to go with a far less talented player to let him go. we ignored that and depended on him. again draft pick for aging /injury prone veteran. this was a win now move.
so we were caught in between, the biggest move by far was blowing up the defence but not spending any resources on it, this is simply not the way things are done when you want to win games. but then we pciked up Mcnabb and Brown which were both win now moves.
now we are 3 years in and we should be looking at what exactly we have and what exactly we dont have.
on Offence, we have a QB who singlehandedly might save shannys job and I will explain why later.
we have youth and depth at RB but some of the depth is injury prone (Helu) albeit spectacular when he gets on the field. we have morris who has been a revelation at RB, we have YOung at FB who is at least solid to decent and we have no real threat at TE. Cooley is a great roatation TE, Paulsen is not special, and Niles Paul is not ready for prime time. at Receiver we are still treading water, our big name free agent hasnt gotten on the field much and when he did, he has done much except for his first game, Hankerson flashed some talent but got hurt and hasnt looked the same, moss is aging and morgan is a great blocker but not such a great wr. so WR is still a position of need, its just that we have other holes which are so much more massive. this to me in year 3 is unacceptable.
Oline, this one really bugs me, because we look decent sometimes, especially against physically unimposing Dlines or teams that depend too much on speed. we have one solid player (tw) one decent player who could start on a lot of teams but would be an ideal 6th OLineman in MOnty, two wastes of space at guard in Lick and chester, neither of whom is capable of playing at a high level for longer than a game or two, neither of whomis a good pass protector and neither of whome gets good push in the run gam, then you add the turnstile in Polumbus at RT and our bandaid brown that we overpaid TWICE, and you have one of the weakest units on the team. we NEED at minimum one guard and a RT for this unite to become more than just barely good enough to get us beat. again year three and we have found one starting quality lineman, and one decent one?
so in year 3 some serious holes still on offence.
defence
this has been my bugaboo for years, we took the strength of the team and made it a weakness, then completely rebuilt it and yet in year three after a complete rebuild what do we have? a defence on pace to allow more passing yards than any redskins defence ever?
on the dline we have some depth and some youth, with bowen being very solid cofield being solid, carriker when healthy is very solid, jenkins shows flashes of being solid , but we lack any real star power on the dline, no huge space eater at NT, no beast pass rusher at DE. so even this, which is arguably the strength of the team, has holes.
Linebacker, we are aging here because we depend on Fletch to cover our inadequacies at NT, fletch has lost a step and for a guy who has always depended on his speed thats a bad sign. hes still very solid, but for how much longer? Riley at the other ILB spot is solid but is up and down, he is young though and should get better. at OLB Rak is overrated but is a hard worker who gets things done based on effort and strength, he just doesnt fit this scheme. Kerrigan is the gem, he is young, versatile and has shown diverse pass rush skills and is solid in coverage which is rare for a de convert.
again, year three and still holes, although here its more about depth and grooming a replacement for fletcher.
secondary
this is trhe bad spot, we have no youth other than Gomes who has flashed , but we have no youth at CB, minnifield hasnt recovered from his injury and might not ever, we have a bunch of journeymen playing safety and overpaid free agents at CB in wilson and Hall neither of whom is a #1 or even #2 quallity corner.Wilson could be a decent number 2 in the right scheme. but we have huge gaping holes across the board in this unit. after three years, there is no excuse to have such a terrible unit, especially when there have been several free agents who would have fit here.
now my contention is this, Rg3 needs continuity, nothing kills a young players potential like going through several coaches, BUT we need a defence and we need to be more active finding players in unconventional ways and places, neither of which seems to be a shanny forte. so we have to balance keeping Rg3 developing with building a team for the future and winning games now. I think Shanny has to demonstrate TEAM improvement, not just Rg3 driven improvemnet for him to keep his job.
so lets weigh the pros and cons.
Con number 1-sure enough Shanny immediately proved me right about his lack of knowledge on the defensive side of the ball, his decision to run a 3-4 defence based on one player (who as it turns out doesnt even fit the scheme) was an epic dumbass move, he then alienated our marquee free agent who was never stable to begin with and Took was was a strength of a weak team and turned it into a weakness. Teams make changes in scheme to improve now, not to improve in the future, you run the scheme that best fits your talent.
con number 2- we have been bad in free agency our bad moves under shanny and our no moves, have outweighed the good ones.
con number 3 we have not been creative in finding talent, other teams have signed cfl players and turned them into productive players, we have failed entirely.
Pro- Rg3
Pro- the ZBS has covered our lack of an Oline somewhat.
Pro- we have more stability as a franchise.
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