Destino's therorem: debunked

[TheLongshot]

Sorry, I was reading this, and I just have to get down to business here...

So, this is Destino's Therorem on the defensive problems:

My issue with the defensive coaches is (and thus my sig) is the attitude that talent isn't that important.

This is a real head-scratcher. What coach doesn't think talent is important? Certainly isn't Williams, who has gone on and on about Sean Taylor's talent, who says that Lavar makes him a better coach.

On to his evidence:

We put in Holdman for too long.

I don't think he had much of a choice. Lavar wasn't ready. (Even Lavar admits that much) Even if he was ready, considering that he didn't have much conditioning being that he wasn't cleared to run until halfway through camp, he wasn't in game shape. The other choice was Chris Clemons, who the staff views as a situational player. That leaves you with a veteran player, who has played well in the past.

Until the KC game, he was solid, but not spectacular. He probably was a decent placeholder there while Lavar heals. Then he struggled in the Denver game on, with the lowlight being the Giants game. Course, one bad game does not bench a player. You see what he's doing wrong, and try to fix it. Unfortunatly, he continued to struggle. Luckily, Lavar has worked himself into enough shape to play regularly and Holdman is on the bench. Not coincidently, we haven't given up any big runs since.

We pretend Daniels is going to fix our DL because he's healthy.

Easy to say in hindsight, like saying that Griffin, who was considered a disappointment in NY, was going to be great here, or saying Barrow never should have been signed because he didn't play a down for us.

In the past, Daniels was the kind of player we've been looking for at end. Two seasons with 9 sacks, a 6.5 sack season, and a 6 sack season. He struggled in recent years, but so had Griffin. No reason not to think that Daniels couldn't be a contributer. Unfortunatly, it hasn't worked out that way. Certainly, tho, the staff thought he had talent.

We watch Smoot leave and start Harris.

Personally, I think that's worked out great for us. Harris has actually been pretty solid. Until sunday, he's been pretty good back there. Meanwhile, Smoot is hurt again. Also, we drafted a guy that is more to Williams' style. (What's that about him not liking talent?)

We make no moves to draft or acquire DL players.

Hey, I'm as disappointed as anyone that we didn't draft a DL last draft. Course, we have no idea if the players they wanted were on the board, or if there were players that they wanted more.

As for free agency, I don't know if you noticed, but there was this little thing called Coles' contract that prevented any agressive FA excursions. We did try for Brown, but we didn't have a lot to work with moneywise, and he apparently liked the situation in Denver better.

The defense took a step back this year and as the year went on looked worse.

Anyone who didn't think the defense wasn't going to take a step back were dreaming. I didn't think we were going to seamlessly replace Pierce or Smoot, or expect that we'd keep up the same pace we did last year, where we took a lot of teams by surprise. We are by no means horrible at #7, and things are addressable here.

Then Griffin gets hurt and you have an impressive "system failure".

You also have to include Noble and Taylor as well. When you lose two major pieces of your line and have to depend or rookies to fill in the blanks, you are going to have problems. To be honest, it is no different with other teams when they lose talented members of their team.

As soon as someone in the redskins front offense remembers that defensive lineman are an actual position in the NFL that needs to be filled with capable folks Gregg Williams system will shine again. He had a pretty good line in Buffalo, not the greatest players, not the biggest names, but solid and plenty capable.

They do, it is just they usually fill it in FA, which they haven't done a bad job over the years. Remember: we can still draft guys and not have them perform either.

In any case, Williams tries to make do with the players that he has, and what he can get. We didn't exactly have a huge bankroll to improve things on the defense, considering that we couldn't even resign our own players, much less get new ones with proven talent. Nothing here proves that he thinks that talent is unimportant....

Jason

[JimmiJo]

I have to agree with Destino to the extent that DL has not been a priority in the drafts that GW has been here, and this is a real problem.

This is the only area where I have been consistently critical of our coaches and personnel folks.

I think we got a lot of success using our LB packages last year. But that was last year and teams now know what we are up to, so then it comes down to execution. Right now, we don't have the talent on DL to pressure QBs.

If we don't go to the post-season, this will be the biggest reason why.

[TheLongshot]

Kinda beside the point. This is about his belief that the coaching staff doesn't think talent is important, which is silly.

No doubt that I agree about the neglect on the D-line, but that's been going on since before Snyder. It isn't anything new, and it isn't the point I was trying to make.

Jason

[RiggoDrill]

Destino's assertions are more postulates than theorems (not therorems).

[jrockster21]

No call-out threads man...you know the rules; you've certainly been here long enough.

[Die Hard]

Sorry, I was reading this, and I just have to get down to business here...

Jason

Hey Jason, whichever thread you actually "read" that from... well, um, your reply actually belongs in that thread. Thanks.