Stand Pat or Balls to the Wall at Trade Deadline?

[DieselPwr44]

I just think back to all the veiled references towards Young from this staff of playing your assignments. No freelancing.

And then you think about all the camps and functions he skipped to do his own thing. Dude was not committed to this team or his craft.

 

[Canadian Hog]

Initial reaction to the trades...big smile on my face.

How many times in the last 24 years were we chasing false hope, thinking we were a few players away from being elite?

I am glad that this ownership group was honest with itself, and acknowledged who the Commanders are currently under Rivera - a failure. You can't slice it any another way.

Acknowledging your own faults is often the first step towards improvement. I suspect that if we play our cards right moving forward, we will be thankful for swallowing what some will perceive to be a bitter pill today and letting go of some guys with talent.

 

[burgold]

Totally agree.

I fully expect to hear how great Sweat and Young are doing as the season progresses. We will be marked as losers of the trade and ridiculed for getting rid of high quality DEs with pass rush skills. And it'll be both fair and wrong at the same time.

The only way for Washington to advance is to face pain. Mind you, I don't know that the defense will take a huge hit. They've been so awful and impotent despite having Young and Sweat. So, bring on a terrible season. Bring on the mockery and shame of a terrible season. Then, let's clean house and let the knew brain trust build this team back towards something we can be proud of.

Sadly, it is time to lose.

And just to be contrarian... there is still a lot of talent on this team. We have very good wide receivers, very good defensive tackles, and a good safety group at the least. Maybe after this slap in the face, they start playing up to their potential because they can't lie to themselves and say "We're better than this. Look at us on paper." I can't tell you how sick I was of game announcers saying how amazing our D Line was only for it to almost never dominate, control, or even show up. Maybe no names will actually fight and play better. It's more likely that we'll fall to a top five draft pick. I'm okay with that.

 

[Miles Monroe]

Don't get me wrong folks, I could give a rats furry butt how Young does from here on out. Just don't want the asshole attitude looking for revenge against us.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

The only way for Washington to advance is to face pain. Mind you, I don't know that the defense will take a huge hit. They've been so awful and impotent despite having Young and Sweat. So, bring on a terrible season. Bring on the mockery and shame of a terrible season. Then, let's clean house and let the knew brain trust build this team back towards something we can be proud of.

This is such a good point. The defense hasn't been good with them this year. Losing them isn't going to change much of the outcome for the rest of the season. If it means losing 1 or 2 more games, then so be it. It's time to kick the rebuild into gear. It started at the top and will need to continue all the way down.

 

[Knightingale]

I’m shocked…a little. But I’m not disappointed.

At the end of the day, even with Sweat and Chase we were one of the worst D’s in the league. Do we think the drop off is going to be that much? Neither lived up to their ‘impact player’ billing. Maybe it was coaching, maybe the player, who knows.

I’m not sure it’s going to make much difference to our results this year. It often seemed our offense was (shockingly!) keeping us in games this year.

We all knew Ron and co were likely gone this year, so I’m happy to set up the next regime with as much cash and draft picks we can give them.

I’m not unhappy about this at all.

 

[DieselPwr44]

I just think back to all the veiled references towards Young from this staff of playing your assignments. No freelancing.

And then you think about all the camps and functions he skipped to do his own thing. Dude was not committed to this team or his craft.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

Interesting that they put that in an article where they call it a low risk pick up. I know it’s just a reporter, but still odd to call it low risk while also listing a big risk stated by his former team.

 

[burgold]

I wonder if part of the reason they traded Young was to remove the temptation or even the necessity of re-signing him.

Pretty much everyone thought we’d trade one and keep/sign the other. Well, maybe the brain trust didn’t want to get trapped into signing a monster-siz d bad deal.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

I wonder if part of the reason they traded Young was to remove the temptation or even the necessity of re-signing him.

Pretty much everyone thought we’d trade one and keep/sign the other. Well, maybe the brain trust didn’t want to get trapped into signing a monster-siz d bad deal.

I don't know about them, but that's a huge reason I am happy they traded him. That temptation is gone to re-sign, franchise, transition, etc. He'd have to have an all-pro year the rest of the way for it to be worth it. That just wasn't going to happen on what will be a losing team.

 

[Canadian Hog]

I am particularly curious to see if the acknowledgement of basically being in a partial tear down mode with the trades of Sweat and Young means that maybe we also see Rivera on his way out the door within a few weeks too...

Not sure if there really is any benefit to doing that, but I wonder if something could potentially materialize sooner rather than later with his coaching career now on its very last legs...

 

[Knightingale]

Question for those more clues up than me…

Are there any good prospects in the first couple of rounds as replacements for Swear/Young?

Would the powers that be have taken a look at the draft and figured their production is replaceable?

 

[Om]

It's the right question, Knight. Along with OL and LB, of course.

But to the actual question ... at least this early, there aren't any consensus "generational" DE prospects. One or more might rocket up the boards during the pre-draft silly-season, of course.

NFL Draft Big Board

PFF's Big Board for the 2027 NFL Draft offers three-year player grades, combine measurables, position rankings, and in-depth player analysis for all of the top draft prospects.

www.pff.com

 

[burgold]

I don’t think that’s the right way to go. That’s how we wound up drafting Charles with the pick we got for Trent.

Preordaining your selection too often backfires.

 

[Om]

Not advocating, for what it's worth. Just gathering intel.

 

[Boone]

We are in the bottom 3rd of the league in every defensive stat (and 31st in points allowed) WITH Sweat and Young healthy and playing. That’s not necessarily because of those two, but the point is, having them ensures nothing. We have used our top draft pick on defense 6/7 times in the past 7 drafts. In a league dominated by offense, that approach is insane.

Of course the most important aspect of drafting is selecting the right players regardless of position. So there’s that.

 

[Om]

Pretty good bet we won't be using our #1 pick on a DE in 2024. New leadership presumably will see the bigger picture. Will not surprise me one bit if we go there on day two though ... which is what I think Knight was thinking before I changed the direction by talking about the top-rated types.

 

[Boone]

Yeah, that was just a general comment not a reply to you two. I don’t think you trade these two though if you are super concerned you may not be able to ‘replace them’.

 

[Chris]

Some really good thoughts here from some fans from across the pond.

Washington trade Montez Sweat and Chase Young

The Commanders traded both starting DEs in Washington on Tuesday. Here at UKHTTC, founder Christian Burt and regular contributor Andy Eckert discuss the exits of Montez Sweat and Chase Young and forecast the longer-term plans for the burgundy & gold. First up, Andy Where to begin? In a word...

www.ukhttr.com

 

[Boone]

Yep - definitely some smart takes. On firing JDR and/or Rivera, I can’t agree. It might make fans feel good, but what other benefit would it provide? ‘Deserves got nothing to do with it kid’ to quote Clint.

It would inject an element of chaos into the remainder of the year that I can’t see as helpful in any way. And who takes over for the rest of 2023? JDR could if you only go halfway. But if they both go, you cannot promote Bienemy for a lot of reasons.

Firstly, Bienemy has his hands full with the offense with very mixed results. There’s not a lot of evidence he can handle more on his plate.

Why pull EB away from our young QB when arguably his biggest impact on this 2023 team is going to come from how far along he can bring Sam Howell entering the 2024 season?

It would be dysfunctional - a Snyder-like move - because it would put tremendous pressure on the next GM to ‘give Bienemy a chance’ when that might end up being a horrible call and it certainly isn’t the way to start out with a new GM.

And it would be patently unfair to Bienemy himself to thrust him into a role under bad circumstances with no off-season to build a supporting cast and plan.

And if not JDR or EB, who?

As far as it giving you ‘a head start’, I don’t follow the logic - a head start to what?

A full blow up is coming next January. All we can do is ride this out until then and rebuild this organization the right way.