Tomel

I'm the OP on this thread. Does the recent F- ratings and actions taken by management this week provide some support for the observations that I offered? I really think that an assessment of "injury proneness (I realize that's not a word)" and having staff and facilities that focus on player health (and, therefore, availability) are critical factors in any team's success.

I did a search here on the term durability but could not find exactly what I was looking for. Sorry if I missed it. In my mind, an athlete's history of durability should play an important role in the selection process, both in the draft and in free agency. It does a team no good if they have the best QB, tight end, linebacker (name a position), if they only play a small percent of the time. Give me second best who plays almost every play for an entire season. Obviously, injuries will occur in football, but it seems that some players are more prone to injury than others. Is it their physical make-up? Is it a matter of technique? Certainly, sometimes it's pure dumb luck. Given the Commanders history with injured players over recent years, I'm wondering durability was not even considered in the selection process. Doing a web search, it looks like the Commanders consistently rank in the top 10 for most injuries. Any thoughts?

I finally gave up this year, having been a fan since the 1950's. Didn't watch the draft, didn't follow pre-season stories, don't follow team any more or less than teams in other markets, didn't even tune in Thursday night. As a result, I'm having a much more relaxing Fall this year. Sorry a franchise with such a great history has fallen this far.

Has anybody compared the current roster to the roster that Ron inherited? How about the coaching staff? Trainers? Etc. How many of the folks are Ron's folks? My impression is that most are Ron's selections. Therefore, Ron owns the win / loss record. I worked in private enterprise and, on a number of occasions, took over major areas of the business. After introducing myself to the staff, my first order of business was to evaluate my key personnel and make sure I kept the good ones and replaced the others. I had about a year to take care of business, then my boss either rewarded me or got rid of me based on the results. I don't get the impression that Snyder is managing day-to-day affairs like he did in the past. Am I wrong? If I'm right, then 3 years in, the team and the results are Ron's and he has to live with the consequences.

I remember when Snyder bought the team. He said he had been a Redskin fan growing up and that being able to buy the team was like a dream come true. If Snyder was REALLY a Redskin fan, he would admit to himself that things had not turned out as he had planned, and he would voluntarily sell the team to somebody else that might be able to restore the glory days. I'm not a person that admits defeat easily, but after all these years I believe I would move on and return to the role of a fan rather than the owner.

Since starting this thread and after reading all of the responses, I've come to realize that I don't care and I do care, both at the same time. I really don't care about the team anymore. That's hard for me to say, but it's true. I expected the results from the Dallas game. I knew it was highly likely we would lose, but not sure exactly how. A few big plays? A defensive collapse? An offensive collapse? Poor play-calling. No, this week it was penalties. Wonder what it will be next week. While I don't care about the team anymore, I realized that, year after year, I DO care about a few talented players. There are certain players who go above and beyond. Some do it year after year. And you know what? I care that their talent, that their skills, that the effort they exhibit week-after-week is all going to waste. Maybe eventually they'll move to another team and have success. Unfortunately, that appears to be the rare case, since they have already wasted their prime years with Washington. For those players, I care. But I don't care for the Washington team.

Longest thread I ever started!!! I titled this thread "Do you really care anymore?" After looking at all the comments, I just want to add a few things. 1. Do I care anymore? No, not from the standpoint of getting upset when they lose and lose badly. I expect it. Why let it spoil my day or week? 2. Do I still follow still follow the team? Yes, but on a very limited basis these days. After all, I grew up in No VA not far from Ashburn. I went to a Carlyle training camp the year Lombardi was the coach. I've visited training camp during Gibbs second stint. I visited training camp in Richmond (I live in the Richmond suburbs). I attended a Redskins / Dolphins game at the Orange Bowl (50-yard line seats, a few rows back!!!) while living in Miami. 3. I'm really tired of the excuses made by the head coaches. I don't recall Gibbs making excuses after a loss. Rivera, you're in charge, so fix it -- no more excuses. In case you didn't notice, here's a few suggestions (from somebody who has never played or coached football): a. There are major blown coverages in almost every single game (not just this year) - should you replace your defensive coordinator? Should you consider altering some schemes to at least make the opposing team work a little harder to move down the field. b. Your new and costly QB is going to be sitting on the bench with injuries unless you do something NOW. Maybe call just run plays. Maybe put in your 2nd or 3rd QB until the offensive line protection issues are fixed. Probably won't impact the win / loss record much. c. The team has been injury plagued for years - figure out why or hire somebody who can figure out why, d. Etc., Etc. It's not exactly rocket science! Anyway, the Skins (sorry, I mean Commanders) will always be my team. I'll continue to watch games when I have nothing better to do. But do I care when they lose -- no, I don't. Frankly, I'm surprised when they win.

Boy, as the OP, I'm glad and at the same time sad that I'm not alone in my feelings for what's happened to OUR team. As I mentioned, I started watching the skins in the mid 50's when I was about 10 years old. My grandfather, mother and uncle were big Skins (and Senators) fans -- my uncle even had season tickets. There were a lot of so-so years before the Gibbs era, but for some reason I never felt the team, coaches or team management let me down. I moved to Miami for work and stayed 10 years before moving back to Skins territory. The Dolphins became my 2nd team, but the Skins were always #1. I guess what disappoints me most is that I'm 75 now and it's been 30 years since our last really good playoff run and Super Bowl. I've come to realize that I may not see another great Skins (sorry, Commanders) team. That's basically why I decided I can't really care about OUR team anymore. Life's too short!

I don't. At least not very much. I've been disappointed too many years, having started watching skins games in the 50's. This is the first year I really didn't follow the team in the off-season. I've semi-watched (just out of habit) some or part of the preseason games and the first three regular season games. I've multi-tasked this year, just watching in the background and not even waiting until a game is over to turn it off. Haven't bothered with the pre- or post-game shows. Not a chance I'll waste any more money on memorabilia, much less actually attend a game. I'm tired of hearing injuries as an excuse for losing. I saw some stats showing that the team has been one of the most-injured teams for many years now. Can't anybody figure this out -- does the team need to hire some smarter coaches and employees. Are we recruiting or signing too many players with an injury history (I'd rather have a B-list player that's available than an A-list player at an A-list player's salary who's often sitting on the bench. Is our conditioning regime wrong? Is our training schedule so demanding, injuries are more frequent. Surely, someone can figure this out -- or am I the only one who notices there's a pattern. Well, that's my rant for now. Guess I'll go for a walk, watch a movie, anything but suffer through another Commanders game. Call me when things turn around.

https://www.weisspaarz.com/nfl-injuries-over-five-seasons/ I'm trying to respond to some of the comments in this thread (which I take as being constructive comments, since we're all fans of the WFT and would love to see better results). Take a look at the above web site showing injuries by team for the period from 2014 through 2018. During this period . . . o The WFT ranked 8th in terms of total injuries (after Seahawks, Patriots, Colts, Ravens, Jaguars, Giants and Saints). o Looking at the combined injury rank of each team for each year individually, WFT ranked 5th (after Ravens, Colts, Jaguars and Giants) Based on this data, injuries are certainly one WFT's problems . . . but clearly not the only problem since some of the teams with more injuries have done much better than the WFT.

Sorry everybody. I agree that I didn't put a good title / topic. Hope this is better. Thanks for the suggestions.

Seems like every year that injuries are a major problem, more so than most other teams. Over the last 5-10 years, I would bet WFT is in the top 5 in terms of games missed by expected starters prior to the start of the season. Why? There's got to be an answer. Are practices too easy? Or too hard? Is the training staff incompetent? Are we always going for the best players without regard to injury history? Maybe we should go for a just pretty good players who are durable. Solve the injury / availability problem and the results will be much better in my opinion.

Let's see, we have professional football players concerned about getting a vaccine that has been received by over half the U.S. population and shown little or no serious consequences to date. However, these same individuals continue to play football despite the real, proven risk of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) which has been shown (unfortunately by autopsy) to result from repeated concussions. If it were me, I think I would be a lot more concerned about CTE than the vaccine. Of course, if the players wanted to avoid eventually facing CTE they would have to stop playing football altogether. However, not getting the vaccine would only cost them maybe a single game check and probably, given their young age, not serious medical consequences. Kudos to the players who step up and think of the coaches, other teammates, their families -- not to mention the fans. To those who haven't gotten the vaccine, do your own research. Look at the research done by numerous scientific and research bodies in many countries, not just the U.S. Don't rely on news pundits looking to create notoriety and an audience. Consider the fact that over half the population has already had the vaccine with few negative outcomes. Consider the risks you take every day, especially as a professional athlete, in comparison to the vaccine risks. Then make an informed decision.

Probably has already been covered, but in lieu of reading all of the pages of replies to this thread, I'll just add my 2 cents as a fan of the team since the 50's. This year's team seems like it might have the best chance we've had for a serious playoff run in decades. It would be a real disappointment if we forfeited one or more games or had some key players quarantined and missed out a possibly great season as a result. We all take a lot of risks over our lifetime and pro athletes probably take more health risks than most of us. In other words, a message to the players, how about taking a risk with the vaccine so we don't miss out on a potentially great season. The added benefit is that it might actually save you and / or members of your family (especially the older members or those with other health issues) from serious illness. Maybe they'll ultimately determine that there were problems with the vaccine that occur down the road. However, "down the road" won't matter for those who never make it "down the road."