Was Gibbs right to sit Campbell?

[robotfire]

I say yes, because he came out of the incubator looking solid. I think it was the right move to give him time to develop. You could argue that he probably would have been just fine earlier on, but Campbell himself doesn't agree. He said that sitting for the first half of the season has helped him a lot.

Plus, you have to start a quarterback who takes you to the playoffs the year before. It's a rule.

Clint

[Brandon Lloyd Christmas]

our defense is so bad it doesnt matter. although im glad he switched to campbell, getting him ready for next year is a good move.

[jeronimobrat]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh- I agree to certain extent about sitting Campbell for a year!

Everything else is pretty gibberish (lol)

[gortiz]

I think he was, i don't agree of his handling of playing time for JC during trash time. I understand he didn't want to undermine (sp?) MB, but JC had a ton of opportunities this year to get in a game and that would have proven to be invaluable in maturation process.

[robotfire]

our defense is so bad it doesnt matter. although im glad he switched to campbell, getting him ready for next year is a good move.

For so much time, everybody was calling to put Campbell in. I think they were calling to put him in too early. Look at Alex Smith. He's just now getting to the point where Campbell is. That year of playing as a rookie may or may not have helped him.

It's really two schools of thought - sit him and develop, throw him to the wolves. A lot of times, throwing a guy to the wolves does more harm than good (Ramsey).

[Om]

If the D had played this year even half as well as last, Mark Brunell would still be the starter, Jason would still be in the incubator, and we'd be looking at this week's Panther game as critical to our playoff positioning.

The Football Gods giveth, and the Football Gods taketh away.

[TheGreek1973]

JC should have started after that titans game. No other way to put.

[merci]

We would have more wins if Campbell would have played all season.

If Brunell sucks in game imagine practice. Brunell makes our D look like the Ravens D in practice.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

There is nothing wrong with sitting a rookie for a season. I still have to question why it took ten games to get him some action this year. I doubt he progressed very much during, say, the month of October.

[REEGSKINS]

If the D had played this year even half as well as last, Mark Brunell would still be the starter, Jason would still be in the incubator, and we'd be looking at this week's Panther game as critical to our playoff positioning.

The Football Gods giveth, and the Football Gods taketh away.

and then we would have 41 yards passing in the playoffs. im happy jason is in. our future looks brighter now. i rather took a step back in order to get better.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

If the D had played this year even half as well as last, Mark Brunell would still be the starter, Jason would still be in the incubator, and we'd be looking at this week's Panther game as critical to our playoff positioning.

The Football Gods giveth, and the Football Gods taketh away.

Here's my question: At what point did Gibbs and Williams know that the Defense was going to be horrible? I say this remembering Augusts in high school and college where players would say things like "Uh-oh...the O line doesn't have it this year" or "I hope it takes teams a few weeks to figure out that they can throw on us."

In fact, one of my most vivid memories as a kid is listening to a conversation betweetn my dad and one of the assistant coaches of my local high school (which at that time could have been the model for Friday Night Lights). It was a week before the first game and there was a QB controversy. My dad asked him who was starting. He said "Player A, but it should be Player B. Everyone wants to start Player B, but the head coach thinks he is a head case. We'll see."

Well, Player A started and stunk for a half. Player B comes in at halftime and on his first play runs 75 yards for a TD on the option. The team appears in two straight state championship games with him, wins one, he sets all kinds of state records, and he starts for three years in Division I - setting a conference record in a game there.

The point is, even high school coaches have a feel for their team in August. Yet, Gibbs and Williams still seem surprised by how horrible we are on defense.

[Troy Fakeman]

When we lost to the Titans...I think JC should have came in...OR...at least for the 2nd Cowgirls game...when he had 2 weeks to prepare...

[cphil006]

How should we know? He has been on the active roster for one game. Only time will truly tell.

[Om]

Here's my question: At what point did Gibbs and Williams know that the Defense was going to be horrible?

Great question. All kinds of angles there.

- if the offense was lighting them up in camp, did they interpret that to mean the O was better than what it turned out to be?

- is it that the D played objectively great in camp, but for whatever reason couldn't translate it to the field on game days?

- in camp, was Williams running schemes designed to stop specific plays he expected the O to run, or was he simply "trying things out" in terms of packages and schemes regardless of what the O was doing?

- how different is the scheme we're seeing now from the one we would have seen had Springs and Prioleau not gone down early, and they could have hit the ground in the first week or two at or close to full strength? For two years this D relied as much on spirit and swagger as it did talent and scheme. Once that confidence was undercut with the early failures against Minny and Dallas, it faded away to nothing. You can see it when they take the field now.

We may never know what "really" happened to this D between the end of last season and the beginning of this one. It's fallen too far given the continuity it DID have to add up. If they were 15th in the league, even 20th, I'd maybe ascribe it to things like the loss of Clark, who we now learn was a huge part of the chemisty that held the secondary together and another year of age on the DL. At 30th and plummeting, though, I'm convinced there's something else going on--something mental between the players and coaches.

In my view, addressing and fixing THAT is going to be Gibbs' number one priority this off season.

[GaryClark4Canton]

Here's my question: At what point did Gibbs and Williams know that the Defense was going to be horrible? I say this remembering Augusts in high school and college where players would say things like "Uh-oh...the O line doesn't have it this year" or "I hope it takes teams a few weeks to figure out that they can throw on us."

In fact' date=' one of my most vivid memories as a kid is listening to a conversation betweetn my dad and one of the assistant coaches of my local high school (which at that time could have been the model for Friday Night Lights). It was a week before the first game and there was a QB controversy. My dad asked him who was starting. He said "Player A, but it should be Player B. Everyone wants to start Player B, but the head coach thinks he is a head case. We'll see."

Well, Player A started and stunk for a half. Player B comes in at halftime and on his first play runs 75 yards for a TD on the option. The team appears in two straight state championship games with him, wins one, he sets all kinds of state records, and he starts for three years in Division I - setting a conference record in a game there.

The point is, even high school coaches have a feel for their team in August. Yet, Gibbs and Williams still seem surprised by how horrible we are on defense.[/quote']

Interesting observation. Gibbs and staff couldn't look anymore clueless out there especially during interviews. Not only are the skins 3-7 but Gibbs acts like he doesn't even have the answers as to why we suck this year. Which makes him look even more clueless/ dumbfounded. "We need to study film and see what needs to be corrected..." :mad: I know he know, but he just won't say what it is after games. That is so frustrating.

I sincerely hope that Gibbs and GW could see that the ship had some holes and leaks in it before the season. But back to your Highschool & College analogy, as a player, it is sometimes hard to tell when you will be good and when you will suck because everyone looks better in practice then they do against stiffer competition. I bet you the team, players and coaches alike all went into this season with high hopes like we did. I mean they were coming off a 2nd round playoff berth.

I think the staff just acts "surprised" by this seasons result to try to keep a positive swing on things like "we never expected us to be this bad, we shouldn't be, we are better then this" attitude. And I tend to agree with them if this is the case.

GC

[Om]

Interesting observation. Gibbs and staff couldn't look anymore clueless out there especially during interviews. Not only are the skins 3-7 but Gibbs acts like he doesn't even have the answers as to why we suck this year. Which makes him look even more clueless/ dumbfounded. "We need to study film and see what needs to be corrected..." :mad: I know he know, but he just won't say what it is after games. That is so frustrating.

I sincerely hope that Gibbs and GW could see that the ship had some holes and leaks in it before the season. But back to your Highschool & College analogy, as a player, it is sometimes hard to tell when you will be good and when you will suck because everyone looks better in practice then they do against stiffer competition. I bet you the team, players and coached alike all went into this season with high hopes like we did. I mean they were comign off a 2nd round playoff berth.

GC

Frustrating for us, yes ... but don't believe for one minute that the tofu Gibbs feeds the media is what the players and coaches are getting behind closed doors. It's raw meat in there, guaranteed.

[Buck812]

I say yes, because he came out of the incubator looking solid. I think it was the right move to give him time to develop. You could argue that he probably would have been just fine earlier on, but Campbell himself doesn't agree. He said that sitting for the first half of the season has helped him a lot.

Plus, you have to start a quarterback who takes you to the playoffs the year before. It's a rule.

Clint

Who took us to the playoffs the year before? I damn sure wasnt Brunnell. The rest of the team took him to the playoffs as their ugly ambarrassment of a date. :doh:

But back to the question, what would have been wrong with letting him set on the shelf another 3 years? Im sure he would be more prepared then than he is now. The point is we have needed help on the field at the QB position for a long time and I would have liked to have seen where this team would have went last year if we had better QBing instead of someone we had to drag on to the field and stand up to play.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

But back to your Highschool & College analogy, as a player, it is sometimes hard to tell when you will be good and when you will suck because everyone looks better in practice then they do against stiffer competition. I bet you the team, players and coaches alike all went into this season with high hopes like we did. I mean they were coming off a 2nd round playoff berth.

Oh...I know that August isn't everything. Every year during high school and college, I would pick one or two "break-out" stars and more often than not, they couldn't play in real games.

But I do think that teams get an overall feel for at least the way certain units are going to play. I mean, I would think that at some point in late August it would have hit Williams that our Linebackers simply cannot shed blocks.

[Robbnva]

Plus, you have to start a quarterback who takes you to the playoffs the year before. It's a rule.

Clint

Damn that page was torn out of my rulebook. Sorry about that one Mark, if you ever make the playoffs again I NOW know the rules. :laugh:

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Plus, you have to start a quarterback who takes you to the playoffs the year before. It's a rule.

Which explains why Brad Johnson has played on a dozen teams in his career.

Which explains why Trent Dilfer was released by the Ravens.

Which explains....well, there's more but I don't want to think this hard.

[PeterMP]

Campbell shoud have definitely started after the bye. If you did not realize our D was horrible after the Titans game, then you should not be involved in coaching football for anybody over the age of 14.

[monkforhall]

If the D had played this year even half as well as last, Mark Brunell would still be the starter, Jason would still be in the incubator, and we'd be looking at this week's Panther game as critical to our playoff positioning.

The Football Gods giveth, and the Football Gods taketh away.

The football gods do everything for a reason;). J.C looks really good, I was all about giving him a chance, and he looked better in his first start then I thought he would. It's going to be fun having J.C lead the way for years to come. Football gods promoted J.C.

[GamaGoliath]

Initially, I'll say that it was right to sit Campbell. But as they got deeper into the season, and Brunell was far from being effective, Gibbs should have inserted Campbell earlier. When you have players from another team (the Titans) thanking your qb for his stinky play, that should have been enough ritght there. I understand Gibbs' reasoning for not wanting to sit Brunell because in his mind, when you sit a verteran down it's usually a sign that his career is over. That was most frustrating for us because in the end, you have to realize that this is a business, and I feel that Gibbs' delayed his decision because he didn't want to hurt Brunell. But what's done is done and we can only look to the future with Campbell and so far it has some promise of being bright.

[GaryClark4Canton]

Frustrating for us, yes ... but don't believe for one minute that the tofu Gibbs feeds the media is what the players and coaches are getting behind closed doors. It's raw meat in there, guaranteed.

I would have to agree with this assessment. From what we've heard about Gibbs; from former players is that Joe is a real straight shooter, doesn't always pull punches and lets you know where you stand. It just sucks that we as fans don't get at least some indication as to what he feels needs to be changed/ addressed etc.

I am willing to bet that some of us are more passionate about the Redskins organization then say some of the players yet Gibbs and co. talk to "us" (fans & media) as if we can't comprehend a simple cover 2 formation. That's the part of it that makes me frustratated.

Oh...I know that August isn't everything. Every year during high school and college' date=' I would pick one or two "break-out" stars and more often than not, they couldn't play in real games.

But I do think that teams get an overall feel for at least the way certain units are going to play. I mean, I[b'] would think that at some point in late August it would have hit Williams that our Linebackers simply cannot shed blocks[/b].

True, they had to know. Yet we always got an excuse "we'll be ready for the regular season", "we are only using 2% of the offense" etc. I think we as fans deserve at least some useful information here and there. Even the cowgirls get to hear first hand what their team wants to do. (Although Parcells can throw you under the bus at a moments notice).

But Gibbs & Parcells are the 2 extremes. We need to find middle ground, we need balance. Gibbs & Co.™ need to quit talking down to us fans like we don't know jack about the game of football, and give us some more insight as to what is going on with this organization IMHO :mad:

GC

[stwasm]

I think Gibbs definitely was right to sit him because, if he'd play him sooner, everyone would have heaped expectations on his shoulders, expecting him to be the second coming of Sammy Baugh. As it is now, the team is going nowhere and we're besieged by injuries. This is the perfect time for him to get some games under his belt, go into the offseason as the starter, work with the first-team offense and come back strong, having the benefit of playing in a few games and knowing what to expect.