Changing the Redskins player grades

[Burgold]

I don't know this for sure, but I think the Redskins gamble a little too freely in the draft. We all know every prospective player is rated by height, weight, strength, intelligence, speed, game stats, etc. but it seems to me that the Redskins very frequently take players high with an injury bug... whether it's Carlos or Rocky Mac or Kelly. I wish that they'd place durability or injury history higher in their system of grading.

(I think this also plagues them in free agency... whether it is a Springs or a Haynesworth. We give scary big contracts or extentions to people seemingly independent of the liklihood of their making it through a year)

If you were to change (based on your perceptions) how the Redskins assess players, what would you change and what would you place more priority on?

[SIXX99]

You make a very good point with the injuries, it does seem like the same guys are being injured all the time.

[Burgold]

yup, we tend to recruit and draft guys who have a record of being fragile too often. It sucked last year watching our two prized wrs basically missing an entire training camp and thus year. Thomas' injury was less predictable, but Kelly's was known coming in. Similarly, we gave up a 7th last year for a vet we hoped would get well. Now, a 7th isn't much, but he never was healthy and we decided to keep him into the season and released him without playing a down. 7th for zero snaps is a bad bargain even if it was an okay roll of the dice.

I really think that they need to factor health more highly.

[DGREENHULK]

How many games did newly aquired LB Robert Thomas miss last year due to injury?

You bring up some good points...good info.

[e16bball]

I don't know this for sure, but I think the Redskins gamble a little too freely in the draft. We all know every prospective player is rated by height, weight, strength, intelligence, speed, game stats, etc. but it seems to me that the Redskins very frequently take players high with an injury bug... whether it's Carlos or Rocky Mac or Kelly. I wish that they'd place durability or injury history higher in their system of grading.

(I think this also plagues them in free agency... whether it is a Springs or a Haynesworth. We give scary big contracts or extentions to people seemingly independent of the liklihood of their making it through a year)

If you were to change (based on your perceptions) how the Redskins assess players, what would you change and what would you place more priority on?

Good question and good point about their propensity for choosing injured or oft-injured players. Although I'm not sure that's necessarily an issue of how they "grade" players...it's more an issue of how they routinely ignore red flags in favor of other factors. That's just semantics, though.

If it was up to me, the Redskins would place more emphasis on physical tools, and more specifically explosiveness, especially on defense. It seems to me that in recent years, the focus has been on getting guys who are solid, smart, good characters, etc. This is all well and good, except that football is a game of what I like to call "fast fury;" most entire plays occur within 3-5 seconds or so. With that in mind, if I was building a defense, I would try to bring in as many players as possible who can speed up the clock even more for the offense, and who have the ability to be disruptive to the timing and rhythm of a well-honed offense. To do this, I think you need players with explosiveness, who have a burst and have the size/speed combination to overwhelm the opposing offense.

With the exception of guys like Taylor and Landry, the Redskins have not seemed to bring in players with this explosion I speak of, especially in positions like LB and DE where it's very important. Rocky, London, Carter, etc. are all very good players, but they AREN'T explosive playmakers, and I feel like that's the piece missing in terms of making this defense truly elite.

For what it's worth, this is why I'd be accepting of a Maualuga pick...he has some question marks for sure, but he has a burst and an explosiveness to his playing style that I think would bring a new edge to our defense.

[TheLongshot]

I don't know this for sure, but I think the Redskins gamble a little too freely in the draft. We all know every prospective player is rated by height, weight, strength, intelligence, speed, game stats, etc. but it seems to me that the Redskins very frequently take players high with an injury bug... whether it's Carlos or Rocky Mac or Kelly. I wish that they'd place durability or injury history higher in their system of grading.

(I think this also plagues them in free agency... whether it is a Springs or a Haynesworth. We give scary big contracts or extentions to people seemingly independent of the liklihood of their making it through a year)

If you were to change (based on your perceptions) how the Redskins assess players, what would you change and what would you place more priority on?

Funny, but I don't remember Carlos Rogers having an injury history in college. As for Macintosh, the injury he suffered a couple of years ago was on the opposite knee from the one that was reportedly trouble in college.

I think actually the Skins were a bit too conservative in the draft, at least under Gibbs. We had a lot of trade-ups to target specific players, which probably lends to more hits with the price of fewer picks. We have taken some risks in FA, but most of them have been pretty mild risks. I also wouldn't call Springs and Haynesworth all that risky, since you are talking about players who produce when they are healthy.

[PlayAction]

McIntosh - First Round Pick - Skins traded up to select him in the draft although the general consensus was that he would drop due to his knee injuries. In his second year with the Skins he tore his knee up and was out for the season. He played some in the following year but was ultimately held out to prevent further injury.

Kelly - Second Round Pick - Skins allegedly advised not to draft him due to bad knees. He misses entire rookie season due to knee injury.

Kedric Gholston - high energy player drops into 6th? round because of back injury?. Turns out pretty well for Skins.

DE - Skins trade 7th round pick for the rights to ??? DE (high first round pick for other team) but never played much due to injuries. He makes the roster but never sees playing time and is later cut by the Skins.

Moral of the story - If Skins take a risk on an "injury prone" player in the lower rounds the loss isn't so great if it doesn't pan out. However, given the state of the franchise, first and second round picks are the hope for "saving" the team. An injury prone player who doesn't kick the injury bug doesn't contribute and can't help the team.

[SirClintonPortis]

Work ethic and how knuckleheaded the player is isn't on their radar screen. Hence, Eddie Royal was passed on for Devin Thomas, despite him(and Domenik Hixon, but he's not a member of that draft class) being both better than Antwaan Randle El.

[TheLongshot]

McIntosh - First Round Pick - Skins traded up to select him in the draft although the general consensus was that he would drop due to his knee injuries. In his second year with the Skins he tore his knee up and was out for the season. He played some in the following year but was ultimately held out to prevent further injury.

Mac did drop because of his knee injury and was picked about where he would have been picked, since he was in the middle of a rush on LBs. As I said above, the injury was the opposite one to the one that was a worry in college. Mac played most of the season last year, getting benched in one game because of his performance.

[Burgold]

Funny, but I don't remember Carlos Rogers having an injury history in college.

Just prior to his being drafted, I remember people talking about Rogers' having issues with his knees and ankles that were likely to haunt him as a player.

Now, having said that, I think that the choice seems to panning out, but it was another example of them deciding to roll the dice

[Oldfan]

With the exception of guys like Taylor and Landry, the Redskins have not seemed to bring in players with this explosion I speak of, especially in positions like LB and DE where it's very important. Rocky, London, Carter, etc. are all very good players, but they AREN'T explosive playmakers, and I feel like that's the piece missing in terms of making this defense truly elite.

For what it's worth, this is why I'd be accepting of a Maualuga pick...he has some question marks for sure, but he has a burst and an explosiveness to his playing style that I think would bring a new edge to our defense.

Interesting. We came to polar opposite opinions on the same point. I think our previous drafts have over-emphasized the physical factor and under-emphasized intelligence and techniques.

I'm not much impressed by the big hitters like Taylor, Landry and Maualuga. London Fletcher would be my prototype. He's not flashy. He's smart, takes good angles and uses solid tackling techniques to bring down bigger runners like Brandon Jacobs one-on-one.

[illone]

I'd change the overall valuation of the draft in general.

No more trading picks for other teams players. No exceptions.

If you have all your picks then you can afford to take a gamble on a player or two each year. With four picks you really have to hit on each one. Little room for error, so why not give yourself a better chance to land quality players every year?

Stick to the draft, no more big name free agents. You want to make headlines in the off-season then reward your own players with huge contracts, not other teams'.

:2cents: