Lessons From Others- What Our OffSeason Moves Should Be

[Riggo-toni]

As much as we hate the Philthy Eagles, their FO is like a Building a Winner for Dummies guide. Their strategy for value signings is far superior to the Mendes (or anyone else's) strategy. Identify worthy upcoming talent on the team, and re-sign them to reasonable but higher salaries while they still have a year or two left on their contracts.

With Snyder willing to fork over large bonus dollars up front, we could be the very best at this, and stay out of cap hell. Imagine if after jansen's 2nd year, we'd gone up to him and said, "you've rpoven yourself to be a solid player, so we'd be willing to tear up your current minimum wage contract, and sign you to a 6 year, $9 million contract with a $4 million bonus up front. We would've taken a slightly bigger bite the first two years, but would've saved a fortune in the long haul. Likewise, we should've offered Champ an extension after last year, and we ought to offer him something now before he becomes a free agent after next year. Granted, just as Philly was unable to entice Trotter to extend early, there will be a few players who won't bite. The larger bonuses do run some risk of backfiring in cases of injury; but as Philly has shown it's more likely to keep a solid core of players who have loyalty towards the organization while staying below the cap.

The other Organization we should look at is Green Bay - in particular Wolf's QB strategy. Even w/ the indestructible Favre behind the center, the Pack would draft a QB every couple of years in the mid to late rounds - Aaron Brooks, Mark Brunell, Matt Hasselbeck. All these guys developed well, and often became trade bait later on. If Favre had ever gotten hurt, the team still would have been in capable hands. I think we ought to draft a mobile, raw QB in the mold of Brooks with either our 4th or 6th round pick.

Finally, Dan needs to get out his checkbook and hire some proven successful scouts before running the draft. Let's have the biggest scouting dept in the NFL, and bring someone like Ruskell in to oversee it. Cerrato's record on free agents is mixed, but probably better than average; but his draft record is horrible.

Ideally, I would like to see Mendes continue in some function as capologist and negotiator, and Cerrato's actual role reduced to free agency recommendations, and someone else altogether running the draft.

Finally, let's get a Defensive Coordinator who will be in here for the long term, preferably somebody more in the mold of Jimmy Johnson or Petitbon who will adapt to the existing talent. It will mean another adjustment year for the D :doh: , but I'd rather sacrifice one year than be stuck in an ill-suited system for the next 3 (memories of Mike Nolan :puke: )

[MRMADD]

I agree. One minor quibble: for your strategy of resigning young players before they approach FA to work, you've got to have good young players on your squad. Not just stars, which we have, but good young role players.

We don't have a lot of those players today. That's why the failure of our front office in the draft, particularly in the later rounds, hurts so much. Some of it is luck, like when we got Smoot in the draft or Gardener in FA, so maybe we're due for some more luck this year.

[bulldog]

wait a minute

I have complained about some of our mistakes in personnel as much as anyone, but signing Gardener and drafting Smoot was just luck? :mad:

if you are going to lay blame you have to give credit as well. the Redskins were the only team other than Denver that thought Gardener was going to hold up physically and were rewarded with a pro bowl type season from the DT.

if this had been Beathard or Casserly here you would have said it was one of his signature moves :laugh:

let's be consistent, eh?

[MRMADD]

Wait another minute. Gardener even being on the market was luck. Yes, we were smart to grab him, but it's not like we had a plan to fill our hole at DT. Our plan was to rotate Wynn in! Come on, man: getting Gardener was pure luck. Having him stay happy and healthy was even luckier.

And Smoot -- we got really lucky that other teams figured a couple of tokes outweighed his talent. Their loss. Our gain. But again, it was lucky.

I'm not just indiscriminately bashing the front office. They've made some terrible blunders, but they've also built a core of young players that will pay off, and they've largely fixed our cap problems.

But Gardener and Smoot -- man, we got so lucky!

[bulldog]

what you are calling luck are the same things others call opportunities :laugh:

wasn't it lucky for Gruden and the Raiders that Rich Gannon was released by the Chiefs just as he was looking to find a qb to run a modified WCO in Oakland?

wasn't it lucky that Darrell Green because he was 5'8 and was from a small school lasted until the 28th pick in 1983?

wasn't it lucky that Warren Sapp fell 10 places in the draft order because of rumors of marijuana use as a senior?

good personnel work is often the opportunity created when someone else makes a mistake and pouncing on it

[KirkNC]

Got a bull dog guarding the gates.

I feel pretty safe.

Yep, u what the dog said.

[Darth Tater]

Many clubs attempt to follow this strategy but the failure is in the execution, especially the part about IDing young, upcoming talent. What is the basis for many offseason debates that go on here? Don't you need to id them BEFORE they excel so they'd be sign the new deal? When this strategy breaks down (either you failed to see the upcoming talent at all or picked the wrong horse), you are FORCED to scramble the way we've been.

To implement this strategy you need to find a good talent evaluators both in your coaching staff (so the young guns will have an opportunity) as well as your scouts and other FO personel. So, I guess our biggest priority if we wish to implement this strategy would be to target such people who themselves are up and comming (who was that guy we fired this year?).

[Riggo-toni]

Originally posted by bulldog

wasn't it lucky that Darrell Green because he was 5'8 and was from a small school lasted until the 28th pick in 1983?

On a side note, we did have some remarkable luck on this in that there was an OL drafted a couple spots before who managed to keep it quiet that he'd just undergone surgery. I forget the details, but had the team in question known of this, they woulda snatched Darrell b4 us, thus forever depriving us of one of the most beloved chapters in Skins history.

[MRMADD]

Bulldog:

good personnel work is often the opportunity created when someone else makes a mistake and pouncing on it

No doubt. But I think relying on luck is probably not the best strategy. Yes, we pounced on Gardener, but when no superstar OGs fell into our laps like Gardener did, we were forced to play with a revolving door at OG.

I give our front office all the credit in the world for Gardener, but let's be honest: we had a glaring hole at DT and suddenly a good one became available (albeit with some injury risk involved). It didn't take Albert Einstein to make that decision. In fact, a lot of us on this board were clamoring for the Skins to make a move for him (I guess that's proof that monkeys CAN make good decisions:laugh: ).

I'd like to see us make some smart choices AND get lucky. Sapp was lucky for the Bucs, but building a top-notch defense required a plan. Randy Moss was lucky for the Vikings, too -- let's hope we don't get any of that luck

With Ramsey, we had a plan. We identified a need at QB, found some prospects we liked in Harrington and Ramsey, and when we didn't get the first we maneuvered to get the second. That's not lucky, that's smart.

I think we need some smarts. Hopefully we'll get lucky, too.

[Riggo-toni]

Originally posted by riggo-toni

Likewise, we should've offered Champ an extension after last year, and we ought to offer him something now before he becomes a free agent after next year.

Gee, I guess Snyder read my post!!!!

[Chief skin]

Riggo toni I could not agree more I have also mentioned the Philly model as being one Snyder should follow but, I do not think Snyder has the patience, the brains, and the ability to keep his meddlesome a$$ out of football operations. Have you ever heard of an owner sitting down with a head coach to watch game film??? Snyder does not even know what the he11 he is watching.

Yes I blame the redskins mess on Snyder 4 years of ownership and we are no better vs the Philly model Lurie, Banner and Reid 4 years of their management has created a winner in Philly (man I hate to say a winner in philly) Thanks Dan, take your redskins belt buckle and stick it up your a$$

[KirkNC]

Funny how Snyder gets so much blame and so little credit by some people.

Seems like blind hate or envy to me.

Sure he has made mistakes but he has also has many attributes of an owner we should love. He is willing to put his money where his mouth is which is more than many cities can say about their team.

Snyder has shown immense maturation in his handling of 'owner of the most valuable franchise' in the NFL IMO.

There are many examples. One; when is the last time you have witnessed him meddling in the public eye? I have only heard commentators and other fans carry that image of Snyder forth, He has changed his ways take a new look at the 'real owner' and not the caricature the mediots like to portray him to be.

[Art]

Bulldog, good work. You are completely on the mark here.

RT,

I'm with you too. I also have long been saying the cap management seen by the Eagles and the Steelers are the models of the future. But, there's danger there. While it's a model for the future, it can also crash and kill you. The Eagles were able to identify a good young core of players and up them a couple of years before they went on the market. These players have not been injured and have all worked out.

If they were wrong, though, on Dawkins and he never continued to grow and get better, they'd have been lost. You have to rely on getting the players upped early. And, we're talking about the stars here, not the regular joes. The Redskins should sign Fred Smoot to an extension right now. Right now go to him with $5 million bonus and an $18 million deal over six or seven years. He'll probably take it because it's much more than he'll see for three years.

And, in three years if he continues to play at the level he's played at -- even with this year being below last -- he'll wind up getting $10 million or more and an even larger contract. You have to overpay today to keep a guy who will then work out and present value later. This is the way the Eagles and Steelers have been successful and it does require a great eye for talent.

On our team I would up Smoot and Gardner NOW. Bailey's already a star. It's too late. He's getting the market value. Arrington and Samuels are even stars and there's little you can save by working them now. But, with Jansen in the fold, the only way this team can really work the system as the Eagles did is to sign Smoot and Gardner who are the two young players who could potentially be core players of extreme worth in three years. Lock them now at a too big a deal for them and hope in three years they'll still have three years left on a contract that is cheap.