Om Field: DeAngelo Hall Sounds Off - And I Like It

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Om

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While working on the requisite post-draft analysis piece (probably posting tomorrow), I stumbled on yesterday's PFT blurb about some comments from Redskins CB DeAngelo Hall.

If you haven't read them yet ...

DeAngelo Hall: "We'll dominate our division"

"It's based on the talent we feel like we've got. It's based on the improvements I feel like we've made. It's based on the scheme," Hall said. "The scheme alone is gonna give us four or five more wins. The games we lost by two, three points, we'll win those games, easy."

"We'll dominate our division, off of bringing Donovan McNabb in here, a guy who's dominated the division in the past," Hall said. "So that's just an educated guess. That's an educated guess, and I stand behind. I'll stand behind that. I'll fight and claw to try to make that happen."

Funny how the mind works...

More...
 
yawn.

Every year, every year, we hear the same crap from virtually the same players.

Yeah, yeah, THIS year we're gonna DOMINATE. FEAR. TEAM.

Blah, blah, blah

I, like you, used to like it. I liked when players talked smack, even though they probably knew it wasn't the truth.

But personally, I'm done with that crap

Show it in the win column or shut up
 
While I agree that there's probably not a whole lot of downside to comments like this, I think I'm largely in Sarge's camp on this one. Perhaps I can understand a little of where D'Angelo is coming from in that he's only been here for two coaching regimes and its hard for anything not to compare favorably to Zorn. However, for us longtime fans, the whole "this year feels different" mantra that we seem to hear every offseason gets a bit tiring when the end results don't jive.

And you know what else gets tiring? The whole "we've got so much talent" line. The claim that people largely base on the number in front of the dollar sign. Note to D'Ang: the other teams have talent too.
 
Meh. Sarge hasn't been happy with anything Redskins-related since Howard Milstein said, "Sure kid, you can be part of my group." :)

Don't read too much into this fellas. It's not about Hall, it's about the idea that it's okay to actually think your team has a chance once in a while.
 
Understood Om, but its hard for me to imagine that in late Aprils of year's past you've had players moping around saying "Yeah, I dunno.......I think we're going to suck next season." Last offseason, the mantra was "Yeah, this is going to be Jason's second straight full season in the same offensive system, etc." Even D'Angelo on his blog last summer said he was shooting for Night Train Lane's season record of 14 picks.......how'd that turn out?

Seems like its only AFTER seasons end in misery that players come out and say "Yeah, this just didn't feel right from that start." But for the record, I'm optimistic that Shanahan is going to build something pretty good here given time.
 
hail2skins said:
And you know what else gets tiring? The whole "we've got so much talent" line.
Click to expand...

So true. Remember last year we had a playoff roster? Our roster had so much talent that the new FO/Coaching staff:

Only got a 2012 4th rounder for our starting QB (thank god for Al Davis senior moments.)

Shortly after taking over, conducted a purge that would have put Stalin to shame.

Spent the draft madly trying to acquire a couple more draft choices because a 7th rounder is a step up for this team.

Let’s face it. In 2009 this team was broken from the ownership, through the front office, the coaching staff and down to the players.

The first steps of replacing the head of the FO and coaching staff were relatively easy. Rebuilding the roster and changing the culture is going to take longer and you can see the cultural upheaval in the form of one Albert Haynesworth.

We are not going to dominate our division. We are not a playoff team. I will be happy if we simply seem to be moving in the right direction and not embarrass ourselves.
 
Like I said, Hall's hardly the kind of guy that makes you stand up and take notice when he comes out with bold statements like this. If London Fletcher had made them, maybe, my point would have been a little easier to digest.

The point being that my reaction to the comments, which I would normally expect to be much like you guys', was not what I expected. And that considering the depth of the changes ... Shanahan, Allen, McNabb ... suddenly it's not so preposterous to think the team might actually have something going on.

And I really like the idea that maybe the players believe it. Not publicly, but privately.

Anyway, figured I'd be honest about my reaction while I still felt it. If I post again tomorrow retracting it and falling in line with the "we've sucked for 10 years so just shut up and play" mantra it's so easy for Redskins fans to have these days, I'll be the first to poke fun at myself.
 
MikeSr619 said:
I'm totally down with this. Going in to the summer and then camp we need to have a little swagger to us and a little chip on our shoulder. We were embarrassing last year and every team out there clowned us for losing to the Lions.

Sarge, I often wonder if you still even like this team. Not being rude but it seems like you and a few others are always negative no matter what happens.
Click to expand...

20 years of suckage does that bud. I guess it's harder on those of us that lived our teen years during the glory years. As they say in Missouri, "Show me"
 
Sarge,

I was 22 when the Redskins beat the Dolphins in SB XVII, brother.

Not sure I get what you're saying.
 
I'm saying you're six years older than me:)

Point being, those of us that were of that age when Gibbs came to town grew up with winning. It was expected and became common place.

For some of the younger generation, they've known nothing but losing. Twenty years is almost a generation. It's become common place and almost expected
 
I like confidence and swagger, and if making such bold statements will keep him focused and hungry, why not. But at the same time, it is kind of a laughable statement.

We didn't win a division game last year, we haven't finished higher than 3rd in the last 4 seasons, and our last division crown over a decade ago. Yet, by adding a coach and a QB who was owned by the division winner the last two times he faced them, and by taking the first steps toward rebuilding, we're going to (not improve, not surprise, not generally have success but) dominate? It'd be like saying the Nationals are going to dominate the National League East now that they have a new manager and a decent pitching prospect.

All that said, while this is all certainly laughable now, we dominate Dallas opening night (not beat, not play well against, but embarrassingly DOMINATE), the rest of the division will stop laughing.
 
Vaucous yappery! An Om-ism if I've ever heard one. ;) "Dominate" is a pretty strong word but not one I've heard from any Redskin in recent memory. While it does make me slightly cringe, I definitely get excited that Hall seems to be totally "buying in" to everything Allen, Shanahan and Co. have done thus far. He's psyched and it's still April. To me, THAT is DEFINITELY a GOOD thing.
 
For all the optimism about Shanahan and McNabb, one also has to remember that it was only six short years ago when the Redskins, off of a disastrous 2003 season, brought in an HOF coach (albeit one, unlike Mike, who had been away from the game for quite a while) and a QB who had been a pretty solid player up to that point in his career. How'd that 2004 season turn out?

I think this team will be improved from last season (will be hard NOT to be), but I'm not going to automatically proclaim this team as double-digit winners yet just because D'Angelo Hall is optimistic. After all, on the other side of the coin, I'm not hearing a lot of positivity coming from another high-priced defensive player that wears #92.
 
I agree that "dominate" thing is pretty silly to say ... particularly for a semi-diva type a little shy about contact ... but dammit, maybe if some of the key players on the team believe they can (privately, preferably) dominate, that wouldn't be a bad thing. I want my players to be borderline arrogant. I want them to be athletically arrogant.

I think maybe that's what I caught a whiff of in Hall's commentary.

At least I hope it was that.
 
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I don't like it at all, especially considering the source. Dh just shut up and play.

It's pretty simple for me. Confidence hell even arrogance is OK especially coming from pro Athletes. I have no problem with that at all. But here's the thing that makes it so simple for me...

Not every single thought that enters your head needs to make its way out of your mouth.

Know when to talk and when to shut up and play. Coming off a 4-12 season in which you personally have allowed others to use you to put on a clinic about how to execute a double move and have been anything BUT dominating, you should shut your pie hole in public. Privately saying those things among teammates? Fine...but to the freakin media? I'm sorry but that's stupid on so many levels it's painful.
 
I'm fine with it as long as he can back it up with his play.

If this team plays like it did against Dallas and NY in 2009.....then there will be some royally angry fans.
 
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