Darth Tater

In his 7 tries against us, its more about us not being that good. In fact, in games against us where you could call him Steve Young 2.0, he is 1-1-1 and our biggest beat down at the hands of a Jones-led Giants was a day he was well below par for an NFL QB.

Don't understand why anybody prefers Crowder on punt returns. Outside of 2016, Crowder's punt return performance has usually been worse than having no punt returner. There is a reason that from 2018 to last year, Crowder was not the primary punt return guy. I am still upset about our performance but not as upset as I was during the game and right at the end of the game. Our defense gave up only 6 points. The three turnovers by our offense made up 10+ for the Cards and -3 at a MINIMUM on us. Despite an ugly performance by the offense without the TOs, we would have won the game 23-6 minimum and 31-6 at the high end. So that's something because we are more likely to be able to clean that up than our other ugly issues (though Sam may learn to not be such a sack magnet). Was pretty mad that the defense was not creating turnovers until the last quarter as failure to create turnovers was the one sore spot I had with the defense last year. Tress Way may need to find a new cornhole partner. Brian Mitchell said it took him a while to even start consistently catching punts so I'm hoping that Allen gets enough practice at that and can prove he can at least play a Sunday 5 spot WR so that by mid-season we don't need Crowder or Milne. I hate on Crowder as a return guy and don't think he holds Dax's jock strap in this regard but he offers much more than Milne as a 4 or 5 spot Sunday WR. I guess there is some possibility is that the 2016 version of Crowder comes back as I also suspect that much of our punt return problem is not fully on the punt returner.

However, analytics indicates that a guy who doesn't make the big mistakes in the punt return game (muffs and fumbles) is better than a guy who can make some big returns but fumbles all the time. Crowder fumbles 1 out of 10 or so opportunities while Dax has never fumbled and rarely even makes a return error. On top of that, with the exception of 2016, Crowder really has just only been just slightly better than Dax on the actual returns. At the GAMEDAY 4/5 spot, Dax has been solid though not spectacular and GAMEDAY 4 looks to be Brown's now if he avoids injury.

When we were playing will he/won't he with Chase last year, I actually became concerned about his future. Put it badly but I was convinced that was either ready or he'd never be. I think his surgery/rehab went bad (where he is now very physically fragile), he was psychologically scared (has Chase ever suffered a severe injury like that before?) where minor pain that his old self would play through worry him into thinking it might be a career ender (he is still basically a kid) or maybe both. Remember, Smith's injury prematurely ended his career (he played with Smith and his injury was roughly on the same part of the field). Arrington, our previous #2 overall pick, had a nickname of Wolverine because he always seemed to play his best when playing in pain and playing through pain was probably part of what cut his career short.

Its seems we usually can deal with Dallas in most big games even when both teams must win but we always seem to have problems against the Giants in games when even just our team needs a win.

I hope it is that Ron loves to speak and be transparent but also does not like to throw people under the bus and hold himself accountable for his staff's mistakes. Notice that you rarely here EB or Del Rio speak to the media other than rah-rah. I would think that EB came here because the offense was HIS to run, not to be Ron's yes-man.

What if Gibbs had gone with the Jets trade package for Champ. That included a pick that could have been Jackson, would have already had the pick for Cooley and maybe some depth pieces for the oline. Natural pick for Cooley would have let us keep the pick that should have been used on Campbell (though we could have gone Schaub in 2004 with what was in that trade). Along with that, what if he just waits for the Jags to cut Brunell or just lets Patrick Ramsey play himself out of the league or not.

I disagree. A large part of the credit for how good we were at beating the bushes during the Beathard years goes to him. Further, Beathard and Gibbs are a large reason our draft cupboard was bare in Casserly's first few years and even then he made a few good moves. His greatest weakness as a GM was that he always gave into the HC even if he believed the HC was wrong (Desmond, Andre). Remember, Desmond is fully on Gibbs and Andre is fully on Turner. Our picks could have been Troy Vincent or Bob Whitfield (not great but did play till 2006 and 1 pro-bowl), Pickens (to start prepping for life after Art) and Smith. No Desmond, maybe McCardell is kept. He was key to building what should have been the team of the second half of the 90s if not for Norvousness (the 1996 team was probably the best team of the Norv tenure). His only big miss was on QB (and that was in part due to having the pick for a QB but no big time QB available). He was key to getting the 1999 trade done that go us Champ and picks that should have set us up for the early 2000s. Having us over a barrel because the NFL drug its feet (so bye-bye Green), he was a key player in getting us a QB for that year (even though I'll admit it was expensive). Not a great GM but mostly is very underrated, at least on this board.

Well, I did work with a girl named Bich, said exactly like it spelled (her parents didn't hate her, she was a nationalized US citizen from Vietnam). I did have a friend in HS last name Head whose mother had wanted to name him Richard (so you know what kids would have called him if that had happened). My uncle was named Gerald Dean, he hated school because all the kids called him Geraldine.

The real initial 53 will not be set any earlier than Thursday at around 4:00 when you can IR guys with rights of return. Looking at a couple of positions we went much heavier than I thought makes me wonder if we plan to IR certain players for return (and that scares me as we went heavier than I expected at TE and WR with guys who will not be active on Sunday unless we plan to IR somebody). We are very light at OL so I think some guy(s) from another team we have an eye on is a cut candidate. Don't understand why they kept Tinsley so I won't be surprised if he is cut soon (after much is settled and getting him to the PS is easier). If Terry is worse than reported, maybe we want to get him to IR and go with 6. Won't be surprised if Armah is resigned by Thursday evening and another one or two linemen are picked up along with some additional cuts and/or sending players to IR.

I think the only way we keep just 3 TEs is if we carry a FB like Armah. My roster breakdown: 2 QBs (Fromm has a few years in and looks like he has peaked. A third QB most at risk now would be some young gun who might develop into something.) 4 RBs (Includes Armah as he can also play move TE. Of our next 3 RBs, I think they are probably no better than any other teams top 4-5 so 2 should be available to PS) 3 TEs (For game 1 and 2, this sort of depends on Logan's real status but Armah can also play our #4 TE) 6 WRs (after the top 6, no one WR on our roster is better than any other teams top 6) 9 OL (2-3 of our best after the first 9 with development potential will make it through waivers. After 9, I don't really see anyone who would make another teams best 8-10 without further development) 24 on offense. 11 DLs (this is the main position where guys at the bottom of our roster may actually be better than the guys at the bottom of other teams 53) 4 LBs 11 DBs 26 on defense. Of course, LB, DB, RB and WR fills also depend heavily on which group offers the greatest teams contributions at the bottom. For a player to be reactivated from IR, don't they have to be on the 53 for game 1? This might end up being another driver behind day 1 roster construction.

Reid's offense did not historically heavily feature a TE until Kelce forced his hand which is interesting because he started as a TE/offensive line coach.

The biggest problem was that Gibbs was a targetter. He had a history of overpaying for draft picks either to move up or to trade for a guy (even back in the day, 2 #1s for a guy who gave us 3 years and 2 1000 yard seasons and several times gave up a #1 for a guy that NEVER played for us and sometimes never played in the NFL). Free agency might have been a boon for Gibbs as long as he had a personnel guy who could keep him out of the franchise-tag market. He had a big hand in devaluing the RB (he heavily used role players) but always overvalued the RB position. Champ plus a 2 for Clinton? Champ played 2 more years after Portis was out of the NFL and played at a high-level till 2012 while Portis last high level year was 2008. We have not had a CB even approaching Baily since 2003 but in the years after CP, we have had multiple one or two year wonders at RB. However, I am pretty certain that had Gibbs come back in 1999 (and no Snyder), we'd have been pretty dominant till 2007 (assuming that was his retirement year). My only question is if he runs the draft as smartly in 1999 (or if he salivates over Ricky Williams almost as much as Ditika) as we did and actually take Chris Samuels over Arrington at 2 and maybe moved up to take Urlacher or waited and taken Petersen with our 2nd first rounder.

Our first team guys that disappeared from the NFL and there is no information about. For example, Melvin Jones started at guard in 1981 and then wasn't even on the roster in 1982 (May was moved to guard that year and his backup was some journeyman) nor ever played for anyone ever again. Pretty sure that has to do with injury but no confirmation. My big what-if. What if the ownership group in 1999 that included Joe Gibbs had won? Would Joe have become HC? While I have my worries on him running the FO (either official or de facto), I like to think the period between 1999 and maybe 2007 would have been awesome for a Redskin fan. BTW, Monte Coleman was considered very raw. He did not play much HS ball IIRC and was a Safety for most of college. While he didn't start much, he did seem to get a lot of playing time, often more than the guy who started in front of him. Petitbon learned how to run defense from George Allen (so lots of nickel, aggressive play and situational defense) and was one of the first to heavily rely on defensive situational packages.

Ron had very little to do with running Trent out of town most of that was on Allen, Snyder and the fans. Scherff was not going to resign period and we kept him as long as we could. This was more a product of Snyder and us fans.

Who else could it be? EB was hired on Feb 17. Harris could not legitimately influence about hiring until July. Yes, he probably could have thrown a little weight around in March but no earlier. Snyder could have forced it but that is not likely. Nothing fishy, Rivera just has a history of foot in mouth disease.

EB doesn't have to be all that, yeah, it would be nice but all he has to be is marginally better than Turner. In fact, another mediocre year is the worst case for us. We either want to be good (not great, however) or really bad (blow it up bad). We won 8 games in 2023 handicapped by having no QB (well, that is not new), another host of injuries at the oline, a RB who got shot, the worse starting field position in the NFL, a terrible OC and a defense that could not generate turnovers (we were near the bottom despite having an elite defense otherwise). Our QB room is at least marginally better than last year, I just can't see us with a 3rd straight injury ridden season, a RB getting shot like he did is almost certainly a fluke, we at least tried to upgrade our return game, we brought in an OC who should at least be better than the last OC (this is not a high bar) and brought in guys who should fix the TO issue. Further, we have several guys who are in "put up or shut up years" or, at best, will be on prove-it deals somewhere in 2024.

Indemnification just means Snyder wins a bit bigger than he already has.

Yep, to assume Rivera is gone after this year requires you to assume final performance. Obviously, if we win the SB, it is going to be Ron's decision. If we just get to the SB, so close to being only on Ron that we almost should just assume it is up to Ron. Lose the NFCG, probably about a 98% prob Ron is here (most of that 2% uncertainty is on Ron's decision). Just win a game in the PO, still most likely Ron going forward. In those cases, it is almost a sure thing that EB gets tapped by somebody else. If you really want EB going forward you are probably talking a 1 and done playoff or another year as a team just getting a sniff.

Turner was known for not designing his offensive schemes to hide the offensive lines flaws (or any offensive flaws for that matter). An argument can be made that Reid's schemes do just that so an argument can be made that EB will do the same. So, maybe that? Much of our oline woes did really start when Roullier went down (and went further south when Larsen went down) and we have three possible above average center options. Turner's oline was really dependent on the center getting the right line calls. Gates is supposed to be one bad SOB (of course, that does not address whether he's a good lineman or not) and Stromberg is supposed to be good (but as a outsider, one can't really call that till at least they get pads on). Wylie was the KC guy that EB decided to go after, so I guess that means if you think EB is an upgrade there's a good chance that Wylie is also.

I thought it was pretty obvious in late March that TE was not seen as a top priority and since then, it just keeps getting confirmed. Cole Turner had more catches as a rookie than Kelce had as a rookie. The guys who would know best that Logan Thomas was good to go kept saying they thought Logan Thomas was good to go. Especially with our oline issues, Bates is critical. At the time, Rogers was healthy. We also know that they are impressed by Curtis Hodges. By THEY, I'm really saying Eric Bienemy is the one (or I'd have to believe that EB is a mistake).

Yep, we had two of the best tackles we ever had during SOS period and two above average guards in year 2 (albeit one was a rook). Problem was that we were terrible at identifying rushers (I believe that was the line that gave up a quick sack when they rushed 3 and we had 5 blockers). We often had 5 blockers looking at 7 rushers and no hots for a QB not known for mobility. Pretty much from 1981 to 2018, offensive line talent-wise was not an issue except for much of mid 90s (and that was as much about injury as lack of talent).

Apke will still be here in 30+ years.

On the floor, its not optimism, its realism. Our defense is top of the line and alone would probably get up to 7Ws even if our offense doesn't improve. Howell/Brissett are almost certainly at least the equal of Wentz/Heinicke. Not assuming any bad luck (like critical injury), cannot see how you could expect any less than 7 (1.5 games worse than 2022) unless you are not a realist though maybe one could argue the assumption of no critical injury (sort of funny and sad that in 2022 what was most likely the most critical injury, Wentz, turned out to be the reason that we were still technically in the race in week 17). On the ceiling, that can be called optimistic. Assumes that Howell/Brissett are at least good at game management. Assumes that we have upgraded OC significantly. Assumes that Forbes is at least half of what we think he is and other changes make the defense able to at least get in the top 20 in terms of TOs. Assumes that we fix the return spot, at least to above average. We don't lose games we should have won. In any case, here is how I see it. 7 games we should win (should, not will), 5 we should lose and 5 toss-ups.

I think 7 is our floor baring critical injury while 12 is our ceiling. I am a bit torn because if EB is all that and Howell proves to at least be an average starter, it is somewhat likely we will have a new OC next year and not because we have a new HC.