Silver Linings Pla...er, Thread

[Goaldeje]

Tired of negativity? Post here!

I'm not sure if this injury could ever be spun as a good thing, but I do think it will bring about some needed changes. Our OLine performed admirably, if not incredibly well, for our rushing attack. Hopefully this injury will convince the Shanahans (either through design or necessity if Cousins starts next year) that we need a slightly more traditional passing attack, or at least elements of one in our arsenal. So hopefully this encourages ShanAllen to work on some big boys for the Line this offseason.

You know what's cool though? Griff is one of the only QBs in history I can think of who could make this adjustment this early in his career. You think it's a problem to make him more of a pocket passer? LOL. Go back and watch the games. Not only will he make the adjustment when the time comes and he his nice and healed, his will EXCEL at it. His completion percentage this year was the stuff 7 year QBs dream of. Vick was told time and time again to be more of a pocket passer to save his career, but he was unaware that QBs were allowed to complete more than 55% of their passes.

And I'm not advocating removing the zone read stuff from the playbook. If only so we can get a good chuckle at things like this, we need to keep that play in the book. But use it more judiciously, and not have it be the centerpiece of the offense. We may not be as exciting as a result, but I'll bet a sizable amount of money we will win games. Lots of them. The future is still bright folks. Part of the reason for that is that Griffin is an extraordinary athlete who is also incredibly intelligent. He can and will make the adjustments as needed.

 

[Henry]

Is this the thread for positive stuff? I'll throw this in just for good measure. Love this commercial.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqfg4dPEueI[/media]

 

[Bulldog]

Both Griffin and the offense have to change. We have to not only work hard but smart on the field.

As a 6'2 and 215 player you don't survive taking hits from 255 linebackers in the middle of the field.

You also don't survive if your head coach and GM can't assemble an offensive line that can pass block at a high level.

This current unit is challenged to pass protect in the main and showed that over 16 games. We need changes here. Not merely taking a flyer on a rookie free agent we felt should have been drafted or taking a guy in Round 5 or 6.

LeRibeus may be part of the solution at 6'3 and 315. He seems to have some size and power that Lichtensteiger and Chester do not inside.

But we need more.

Yes, I would expect to see a different offense in 2013. Kirk Cousins is likely to be the starting qb in the offseason work, camp and preseason and that to me means a return to the Shanahan-Plummer offense where we see drop backs and the misdirection bootlegs.

But the bootleg becomes an adjunct or counter to the defense and not a staple.

These kinds of changes would be positive for the future.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

I keep hearing the offense has to change, yet all of Griffin's injuries have happened on scrambles, and had nothing to do with the zone-read option. Just luck? Who knows. I don't think they need to change the offense one iota however.

To keep this positive:
The defense will be getting 3 key starters back, potentially four if Minnifield is ready to play. Hopefully either London has enough gas in the tank to play one more year, or Keenan Robinson/Perry Riley are ready to step in and take over. I'm pumped to see the D back at full strength!

 

[Neophyte]

I don't think you will see this change though, Goal. Not unless Griff's knee just can't handle the running anymore, and here is why.

He wasn't hurt on the zone read option. He was hurt originally scrambling on a busted pass play. Both aggravations of his injury this last Sunday came without contact.

No, I think you will see a renewed emphasis on Griff learning to slide and make better decisions on the run.

 

[Bulldog]

We will see. My gut tells me Griffin won't last in this offense long-term. In his rookie season he has already sustained a concussion and the various knee injuries.

Part of the issue is that when the team is NOT in the zone read and Mike has him drop back, he has little time to set up and deliver the ball. The line is simply not capable of sustaining their blocks.

I don't see this team going further in the playoffs with or without Griffin without upgrades on the OL and in the secondary.

And in re Minnifield - the micro-fracture surgery is very hard to come back from 100% and remain healthy. Malcolm Kelly who also had previous knee issues never came back from the micro-fracture.

 

[Goaldeje]

I don't think you will see this change though, Goal. Not unless Griff's knee just can't handle the running anymore, and here is why.

He wasn't hurt on the zone read option. He was hurt originally scrambling on a busted pass play. Both aggravations of his injury this last Sunday came without contact.

No, I think you will see a renewed emphasis on Griff learning to slide and make better decisions on the run.

OK, so first of all, this is my thread, I said it's a positive one, so therefore you CAN'T disagree with me.

Stupid mods.

Secondly, you may be right. However, if Griff misses significant time next season (more than one or two games), Kyle and Mike are going to have to do what BT is suggesting, and retool the offense to Kirk's strengths. I think Kirk is great, but I don't see a lot of zone reads in his future. By retooling the offense (if necessary), I'm not sure how effective we are going be switching back to the Griffin-based offense mid season or even the following season (worst case). Seems to me, a hybrid of the two might be in order, which is pretty much what I am advocating for.

The zone read give defenses too much to worry about to eliminate it completely. But I doubt we see it more than 5 times a game when Griff is healthy again.

 

[Bulldog]

If Griffin is as talented as we believe him to be, why can't he not be successful and lead us to a championship running another scheme?

Some of the posters here seem to be implying that the zone read is the ONLY way for Griffin to put on his cape in the NFL.

You don't think his arm strength from the pocket and his speed to the outside on the bootleg would be enough to win?

 

[Ax]

We have a pretty good team, that will only get better.

We WILL contend for the NFC East title next season.
With either Griffin, or Cousins.

We have another offseason filled with lively debate and discussion to enjoy.

And, I can eat 50 eggs.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

He doesn't even need to be full speed for this offense to work; we saw that against Philly & Dallas.

 

[Neophyte]

I am not trying to be negative, far from it in fact. And I absolutely believe that Griffin can run any NFL offense he is asked to run. He is that talented.

However, the fact remains that the read option has just been too effective to ignore or shelve. Period. We put up 14 points and 200 yards of offense of the best scoring defense in the NFL in two drives on Sunday. They had NO answer for this offense, with an Offensive Line that most here think needs marked improvement even while it gets the job done.

This is the NFL guys, and winning is everything. Not just winning but winning now. Coaches rarely get a half decade to turn a franchise around anymore and even for proven, winning coaches, two down years in a row can spell disaster and unemployment. The pressure to be successful is too great to stop using something no one can stop consistently, at least until someone figures out how to stop it.

And Griffin is the perfect read option QB.

Will it change some? Sure. Will Griffin run the ball as much? Probably not. But we will run it and he will will carry the ball. Whoever his coach is will need to win too much not to use it.

Hell, all it will take is a couple of games lost without a single read option call, with a healthy Griffin under center and we, the fans. will be screaming for it.

 

[Miles Monroe]

Robert will 100% for the begining of training camp, and all this discussion will be moot...

The O will not be changed much, and we will go 14 & 2, take the east again, and advance to the NFC championship game...

Cheers !

 

[Goaldeje]

Now THAT'S more like it! Hail, Pete!

 

[Dead Money]

I get railed for being negative all the time when it comes to the team's performance but looking around this week ? Man I feel like I'm farting rainbows and puppy dogs right now compared to many many in the NFL fan/media world.

I wished our field was in better shape but hell who am I to stand on a soapbox about it? If you want natural turf in a climate where it dies every winter, you pay the price.

I felt like Robert should've been pulled when he couldn't run to the sidelines without wincing but I'm not down there I don't know all the details, I sure as hell am not qualified to call for anyone's head over it.

We've got a good backup QB, we've got some depth at OL starting to show a little something, we've got an absolute DIAMOND in the Butler, we got to the payoffs in a year when I really thought 8-8 would be like winning the Superbowl.

I'm finding it hard to read anything Redskins right now without having serious doubts about our collective humanity. Seriously? The calls for people to lose their jobs from the grounds crew to the head coach of a team that seriously over-achieved this year are just irresponsible.

Mostly a realist, I'm not a blind homer and I'm not the angry, ignorant we-got-cheated-all-the-time fan either. I'm like the Redskins, I'm in the middle. I'd like to think my attitude, like their game has been elevated. Here's to the hope that the ascension of both will continue in 2013.

 

[Yusuf06]

And, I can eat 50 eggs.

Stop Feeding Off of Me!

I'm more optimistic than I've been about our team in quite some time. Hopefully Griff comes back full steam and Capt. Kirk develops into a legit franchise QB for whom we can get multiple picks.

As for the read option stuff, my personal preference would be to find another running QB as 3rd stringer to eventually replace Capt. Kirk. We could then use the 3rd string QB to run some of those read option plays to take a little bit of the load off RGIII. For that role we don't need another RGIII. He just needs to be a good runner and capable of completing passes here and there.

We've definitely got to improve our OL though. Griff's mobility masked a lot of our inability to pass protect but there will always come a time, whether due to injury or needing to play catchup, where we'll need to do more plain vanilla dropback passing.

The good news is that I think overall we've finally got a F.O. in place capable of gettin 'er dunn for the first time ever in the Daniel Snyder era.

 

[Yusuf06]

UGGGH. I hate NCAA football for just that reason Mike.

 

[Bulldog]

The offense is a gimmick. Like the run and shoot it will be successful as long as you are willing to have your qb take shots.

Individual shots may not by themselves end a guy's career but like many running backs the cumulative toll limits the player's longevity.

Why not simply develop Griffin and put him in an NFL offense.

Gibbs learned early on that if you protect your qb you always have a chance, but if you don't assemble a line and scheme to keep guys from teeing off and getting free shots your team is going nowhere.

That's why the Redskins and Giants won the Super Bowl in the 80's and early 90's and the Eagles with Cunningham did not.
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[Bulldog]

Silver linings? Josh LeRibeus showed me the past two weeks he has the moxy to compete for a job in the NFL. After being inactive for 13 weeks I was beginning to have my doubts.
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[Bulldog]

Hey, getting a quality interior lineman in here under Shanahan has been a major headache. The vet free agents have been disappointments and the rookies and younger players have been slow to move up the depth chart.

If LeRibeus is the real deal and can replace Lichtensteiger or Montgomery the team will be that much better off.
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[Lanky Livingston]

The offense is a gimmick. Like the run and shoot it will be successful as long as you are willing to have your qb take shots.

You sound like the "experts" in the PRE-season. Kyle has been running this offense for years, they just added some wrinkles like the zone-read and the pistol. Its the same basic route trees & running scheme that Kyle has been running his entire OC career, and the zone stretch run play is older than dirt (aka Mike Shanahan).

Also, just a reminder (you seem to forget) - Griffin has taken all his serious shots on scrambles that came out of non zone-read plays.