Let me get it out of the way.....

[Art]

My worst fears for this season are as follows:

Steve Spurrier has great difficulty adjusting to the NFL. The speed of the game, not so much in personnel, but in the thinking of his opposing coach, takes him back a little and he can't hold it together.

I've never been a huge fan of Marvin Lewis, who I always felt was too vanilla and not a great in game adjustment guy, and, if I'm right not to like him, coupling him with a struggling head coach on the offensive side might signal a very poor season.

This is not a prediction, but it is a worry. I do understand the reasons behind getting Lewis in here and the players automatically believe in him. But, given how little he's proven able to bring talent to join him, my concerns are that we may not enjoy the upgrade on the defensive side that we hope for, in terms of coaching.

Now, in this case I think I may be happily proven wrong and needlessly freting because Lewis immediately commands the respect of his players who are not so much playing for Lewis as playing up to the standards that Lewis' defenses have previously reached. With the talent on this team, even if Lewis proves to be somewhat weaker in adjusting his schemes than we'd like to think now, the team will find failure to live up to his previous defensive rankings that ultimately they'll succeed no matter.

But, before the preseason starts I wanted to get my worst fears out of the way. Last year I said that while confident the team would perform well, my worry was Marty's methods would alienate the team early and a bad loss or two might cause the team to rebel and collapse. We saw that. Marty got it back together so my true worst fears weren't met, but, it was close.

I don't want to be close this year. .

[dchogs]

buzz kill.

but valid comments. let's hope this isn't the case. i imagine it will be somewhere in between your fears and the gator posters' predictions (not a cut on the gator posters in any way!).

[indyskinsfan]

Well Art you certainly got that Bromo Seltzer moment out there, now didn't you?

Drastic times call for drastic measures -- simply cut off the computer.

light candles around a warm tub (hottub, if you prefer). Grab the bottle of the best alcohol extraction available on the rack, put it in a bucket on ice, find your wife in the castle, ask her to join you, and cool out.

As for the worries - fogetaboutit

[cowboykilla]

Art, don't worry bud. With ME coaching the D, they would still have 5 pro bowlers and be at least 7th in the league. I think you should be worrying about Danny's noodle arm and getting picked off 9 times a game more than the D

[bulldog]

'wasn't able to get.....talent to join him'

I think that is an unfair characterization of Lewis. The best players from the Ravens that were available during the offseason were Sharper who went to Texas in the expansion draft, Starks who went to the Cardinals (and whom we didn't need at cb anyway), Ray Lewis who was going to sign in Baltimore because of his history there and Modell's love for the guy, and Peter Boulware, who like Ray wants megabucks and plays a position at OLB where there are capable players available each year for reasonable dollars.

The rest? You could make some good arguments none of these players other than Adams was really a blue chipper. In fact most were the 'coattail' players who complemented the stars mentioned above:

Webster? Average talent. past drug problems. part-timer who never gained a permanent spot in the order. 33 years old.

Dalton? Overrated as the #3 tackle. Rotating with Adams and Siragusa inside made Lionel look a lot better than he is going to look in Denver where they are going to count on 40 snaps a game from him.

Burnett? Another guy that is 34 years old and has had knee problems.

Woodson? At 38, Rod wanted to go to a contender and at the time probably felt the Skins didn't have enough stability to make it happen in 2002.

So, going through the filter, it either wasn't possible or didn't make sense for the Redskins to sign most of these players.

The two guys the Skins did make a real effort to court and whom they WERE interested quite a bit in were Sam Adams and Corey Harris.

We all know Adams was also looking for a large paycheck and after signing Trotter and Wynn, we didn't have the money left to pursue him in earnest unless he dropped his asking price by more than 50%. This one was about the money like Sean Gilbert. Adams doesn't care where he plays as long as he gets paid. Of course he wanted MORE to play in Cincinnati, but doesn't everybody? :laugh:

Corey Harris. Now here was a mystery. A 32 year old player that really came on later in his career to be part of a top defense. A guy who would have fit in here nicely for a couple of years. Somehow he became convinced that the Lions were the place to be. I don't know whether that was his yogi telling him to move to Detroit or him finding the Michigan phone number for the best **** he ever had in his life, but he signed with a 1-15 football team that looks as confused now as when last season ended.

Go figure.

But, back to my belabored point. Tough to find a player in the top rank of those available from Marvin's former defense that either really wanted to leave Baltimore or necessarily were worth the kind of dollars they were asking for.

As far as the 'complementary' players go, teams always seem to make the mistake of overpaying or overrating the services of solid players like Harris and Burnett and to a lesser extent Dalton and Webster that were just in the right place at the right time.

Remember the Raiders signing Larry Brown after the Cowboys/Steelers Super Bowl?

Everyone that was an NFC East watcher knew Brown was no franchise corner. In fact the Cowboys had been looking to replace him because he lacked footspeed to cover some of the better receivers, but based on one game the Raiders gave him a large contract. :shootinth

I am really glad we weren't the ones to give Adams, Starks or Boulware the kinds of contracts they were looking for

As for Marvin, I think he did well enough to impress 3 former pro bowlers in Trotter, Armstead and Gardener to join the team.

[Reaganaut]

Art, this is real simple. You have two new head coaches on this team. Lewis is an assistant HC. You can't expect them to be show stoppers in their first year period. I think the out years will be good for this team even if we lose talent because their systems are taking hold. Mark my words.

[Hoosierskin]

I have never heard Marvin Lewis and "vanilla" used in the same sentence. The fact of the matter is that Lewis should be a head coach by now and without him the Ravens would not have won a Super Bowl. I think he is a brilliant mind and will cater to his player's strengths just like he did with the Ravens. He is so good of a coach...most of us in this forum are worried about losing him after only one season here. So Art, you have nothing to fear, but fear itself.

As far as Spurrier goes...the man is for real...the league will have to adjust to him...not vice-versa. Martz will look boring by time Spurrier is done in this league! Spurrier and Lewis will turn out to be as formidable as Gibbs and Petitbon..if not better. Only time will tell!

[bulldog]

I think it is certainly fair to plot a scheme were you put talented football players on the field and then ask them to do what they do best unvarnished.

that's what happened in Baltimore under Lewis. He didn't need the kind of mix and match schemes Richie Petitbon or Jim Johnson in Philly runs because he didn't have the same kinds of gaps in the defense to cover.

in some ways Marvin's defense was like the Cowboys offense in the mid-1990's. you knew Emmitt was going to get a certain number of carries on two or three of his favorite calls and then Aikman was going to look short and intermediate for Irvin and long for first Harper and then other speedsters the team added later on.

it wasn't rocket science, merely talented players executing and dominating at the same time.

some of these colorful DC's are the way they are because they just don't have adequate talent to play teams straight up.

I'm personally glad we aren't in that position anymore

[Art]

Hoosier,

I hope so. Again, I'm not a huge Lewis fan. I think his best selling point is he can point to his past defenses and shame this defense into performing like them out of personal pride. But, as for not hearing about his schemes being relatively vanilla, here's just one tidbit, small and inconsequential in a positive piece, about that.....

http://www.profootballweekly.com/content/features/features_archives/spin_021202.asp

Again, I see the merits of bringing him in. I think he's more creative than Kurt Schottenheimer was. I just have a small bit of worry that I wanted to get off my chest so I could concentrate on the year now .

[skinsanity56]

art,sit down relax,count to 10,okay that's better.

the glass is 1/2 full,not1/2 empty.

after reading that quote i'd leave to.you've got equal talent here and twice the money.hell he didn't even have to move..

[Yomar]

Is Phil Jackson a truly great Head Coach? I don't know if Marvin Lewis could elevate an ordinary defense to extraordinary heights, he has always had amazing talent both at Baltimore and Pittsburgh, he has never had to (that I know of). And now he has arguably as talented a group as he has ever had. He has a proven track record for reaching expectations with superior talent. And even that isn't completely fair, before their SB year and the ascendence of Ray Lewis to the great LB pantheon of the NFL, the Ravens had a highly respectable D. I would share those fears if the Skins had mediocre or merely good talent on D, but the talent is special, it's best players are young and on the cusp of greatness. Its role players are dependable vetrens, with the one exception of FS where Terrell is neither established, nor on the cusp of greatness, but he certainly has the potential of say a Corey Harris (a solid player I feel whose rep benefited greatly from playing an a record breaking unit). But regardless, I am digressing, the bottom line is that the talent is great, and Lewis has a long established track record for getting a supremely talent unit to achieve to expectations. And part of that is leadership from the players, and Lavar and Trotter could lead this team up a hill in battle.

Spurrier might not put up a lot of points with this unit, but he knows how to call a football game, and that goes a long way. Say what you want about Norv's teams, but his playcalling was one of the Skins greatest advantages during his years here and I expect Spurrier to be better because I think he will be looser. Dictating pace and keeping a D Coordinator off balance is essentially the same from college to pro, its the talent that changes, on the field and in some cases in the booth, but the NFL also recycles a lot of its coaches and not all of them are that great, its not like Spurrier's feel for the game still won't be superb, and that will be a valuable asset when working with a team that has some question marks.

My worst fears all center around the players...the QB position...the interior O-line...the D-Line's health, I'm not at all worried about the coaching

[DeathByLinebacker]

Marv's defense was somewhat vanilla in '00 in terms of x's and o's. Marv does rub many people the wrong way - that's why he isn't a head coach already.

That being said, he coached one of the greatest if not the greatest defensive season in NFL history. I don't want to get into a 85 Bears/Steel Curtain argument here, but that season is obviously one of the best ever. True he had a ton of talent then, but he also does now. If Marv Lewis' coaching is the biggest concern we have going into a season, we are in great shape.

Spurrier is much less proven than Lewis simply because he is an NFL rookie. He has been churning out great offenses for almost 2 decades now, so he certainly has something on his resume. He has proven that he can adjust and adapt to circumstances in the past.

Certainly most of us have heard the story of him becoming Ground Steve and rushing Fred Taylor 2000 times against Penn St. as well as how he came up with the rotating QBs gimmick to beat FSU, ran a formation where the tackles are split all the way to the sidelines to win a SEC championship game, went from hating the shotgun and refusing to use it to winning a national championship almost exclusively from the shotgun in a period of a few weeks, ran option plays successfully with Danny Wuerffel at QB, as well as the many stories of Spurrier drawing up plays in the dirt at critical times in critical games. NFL defensive coordinators are definitely going to get the better of him at times, but I have trouble believing that they are going to do it consistently or that he will be slow to adjust. Again, if this is one of our main concerns, we are in great shape.

[NavyDave]

The speed of the NFL effecting S Double?

Uh we have NFL players with experience on the field so how are they going to be effected when they are used to the speed already?

A Keep It Simple Steve offense would still compliment our defense which will be agressive

[fansince62]

art.....you can't win without talent: that's a fact. but there have been many who had talent (like the skins 2 seasons ago) and still couldn't win. mariven has distinguished himslef as a coach by taking the ingredients, mixing in the right schematic recipe, and cooking up a winner: very consistently. i think you're underrating his abilities to understand what he has in front of him and his ability to draw the most from it.

[Larry]

Art,

I'm another one of the people who thinks SS isn't guaranteed to be a hit (especially right off).

But, I see a safety net to put under these fears: As long as we're willing to pound Davis and play defense, I don't see us possibly doing worse than 8-8, just using last year as a guide.

The only way I see us doing worse is if The Spurrier System doesn't work, and SS is too stupid to fall back on Davis. (And, I've seen SS be stuborn. But not too often).

[Dirk Diggler]

Art

I think the more talent you have on defense, the wiser it is to run a vanilla scheme. I think if you have players that are just physically superior to most offensive units, it's smart to keep it simple and just let the players go mano y mano. There's no reason to get all creative and risk confusing our young studs if you don't need to. Why take a chances if you have arguably the most talented defensive unit in football?

Look at New England last year. Belicheck had to get very, very creative because they had mediocre overall talent on defense. I can tell you right now that he wished he had LT, Carl Banks, and Leonard Marshall so he didn't have to take so many chances. Those Giant defenses from the late 80's were very, very deep and talented units. They were also very vanilla, rarely bringing more than 4 rushers. So I guess what I am saying is that Lewis will be as creative as he needs to be to have a dominant unit. The talent is there, I expect the coaching to be also.