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Perhaps nowhere on the roster is a better example of what NOT to do than at the running back position. What this team didn't do for the past 7-8 years at many spots is coming home to roost in 2010 at this position first.
It's been a bizarre year with Ryan Torain being cut at the end of the preseason and then him being brought back and installed as the starting runner by mid-season. One wonders why Torain was released in the first place and why Larry Johnson made the team for 2 weeks and was then unceremoniously cut himself.
I look at the Giants and where they have been drafting under Jerry Reese and see a team that in 2007 was able to put Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward on the field with Ahmad Bradshaw waiting in the wings and Ryan Grant on the practice squad.
And then I look at the Redskins whose backfield from 2004-2009 was Portis, Betts and Cartwright. In SIX YEARS the Redskins couldn't or didn't feel the need to find younger, faster players to challenge the incumbents? Amazing.
In NY and other places like Pittsburgh it seems they draft or sign backs every year to compete.
To Shanahan's credit he resurrected Torain who had been all but forgotten because of his knee injury and did sign Keiland Williams as an undrafted free agent.
But again there was the element of the prior regime characteristics in the signing of Larry Johnson and Willie Parker and all the time wasted in camp and the preseason on guys who couldn't play anymore.
Given all the injuries the team now has, wouldn't that time have been better spent getting Torain, Williams more reps and perhaps going out and finding that third back to come in and develop?
No one doubted that Portis was going to be the primary runner, at least to open the season but no one knew how long he could go.
So, with Johnson and Parker gone, Portis on IR and Torain still out with the hamstring, the Redskins are down to doing what they should have done over the summer, ie sign and work in that third younger back.
James Davis (#6 pick of Cleveland) and Andre Brown (#4 pick of NYG) have been signed and it appears Davis may get some carries sooner rather than later.
Good. We don't know if Torain, Williams, Davis, or Brown is a keeper for the long-term. Davis and Brown may be cut before the end of the season, although Davis did seem to have a number of suitors when he was waived by Cleveland.
But encouraging competition among younger players is what a rebuilding, oops sorry, 'retooling', team is supposed to do.
To bastardize a quote from Winston Churchill: 'The Redskins do what they need to do only after they have exhausted all other options'
At least that's the case with the RB position to date.
It's been a bizarre year with Ryan Torain being cut at the end of the preseason and then him being brought back and installed as the starting runner by mid-season. One wonders why Torain was released in the first place and why Larry Johnson made the team for 2 weeks and was then unceremoniously cut himself.
I look at the Giants and where they have been drafting under Jerry Reese and see a team that in 2007 was able to put Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward on the field with Ahmad Bradshaw waiting in the wings and Ryan Grant on the practice squad.
And then I look at the Redskins whose backfield from 2004-2009 was Portis, Betts and Cartwright. In SIX YEARS the Redskins couldn't or didn't feel the need to find younger, faster players to challenge the incumbents? Amazing.
In NY and other places like Pittsburgh it seems they draft or sign backs every year to compete.
To Shanahan's credit he resurrected Torain who had been all but forgotten because of his knee injury and did sign Keiland Williams as an undrafted free agent.
But again there was the element of the prior regime characteristics in the signing of Larry Johnson and Willie Parker and all the time wasted in camp and the preseason on guys who couldn't play anymore.
Given all the injuries the team now has, wouldn't that time have been better spent getting Torain, Williams more reps and perhaps going out and finding that third back to come in and develop?
No one doubted that Portis was going to be the primary runner, at least to open the season but no one knew how long he could go.
So, with Johnson and Parker gone, Portis on IR and Torain still out with the hamstring, the Redskins are down to doing what they should have done over the summer, ie sign and work in that third younger back.
James Davis (#6 pick of Cleveland) and Andre Brown (#4 pick of NYG) have been signed and it appears Davis may get some carries sooner rather than later.
Good. We don't know if Torain, Williams, Davis, or Brown is a keeper for the long-term. Davis and Brown may be cut before the end of the season, although Davis did seem to have a number of suitors when he was waived by Cleveland.
But encouraging competition among younger players is what a rebuilding, oops sorry, 'retooling', team is supposed to do.
To bastardize a quote from Winston Churchill: 'The Redskins do what they need to do only after they have exhausted all other options'
At least that's the case with the RB position to date.
