Celebrating 10,000 posts and the burning questions of this training camp

[TheLongshot]

First off, I'd like to celebrate 10,000 posts and 4+ years here. It has been a good time on here and I'm very thankful to be involved with an intellegent football community like this one.

I first heard about this board when my friend, bnacpa, got involved heavily with it. For those who don't remember him, he used to do some training camp reports a few years ago when he lived in Ashburn. I've known him for years and we've spent a lot of those years arguing about our favorite team. I wasn't going to get involved, since I know how fandom can get, but when I saw some of the quality of the posts on here, I couldn't help but to get involved.

I guess after 10K of posts, I'm definitely involved.

Anyways, I want to thank everyone who makes the board what it is. Without opposing viewpoints, this place would be pretty damn boring.

-----------------------------

Now, to stop tooting my own horn and make this post somewhat useful, I want to do a pre-training camp analysis of the team. Course, this could just be a scheme to get my post count even higher, so take it for what you will.

Here we are about a month away from Zorn's 2nd training camp. It was hoped that after his first year that we'd have a lot of questions answered, but we are probably left with about as many questions as we were about a year ago. It was expected that the offense would start off slowly and gain momentum as the year went on while the defense held the fort down. Unfortunately, the offense did the opposite, going gangbusters against some pretty tough teams and then falling apart late in the season. We also didn't find out much about our rather large rookie class, since it was only our last pick who was able to step up and bring in some major playing time.

So, going into training camp, these are the questions that we need to figure out the answers to to judge where this team is going:

Can Campbell get the job done?

Yes, everything seems to start and end with Campbell. After starting off pretty well, the production tailed off as the year went on. There are many reasons why this could have happened: Campbell's play, Zorn's playcalls, the injuries of the OL, the injuries to Portis, the inability of the rookie WRs to step up, and probably some others I haven't mentioned. The truth is probably a combination of all of the above. But, the focus is clearly on Campbell. He didn't get a new deal in the offseason and there has been talks around about replacing him.

But, those talks are now done and, for better or worse, Campbell is our guy this year. There are some who don't think that he will last the year, but in my view, that isn't likely. First off, Campbell has never played that badly that you would feel the need to pull him. Second, you'd need someone else who was clearly playing better than him, and that guy isn't on this team right now.

I know the Colt fans are raising their hands. Put them down. I think there has been a lot of attraction to Colt because of his personality and the way he plays out there. That by itself, tho, isn't enough. I've seen guys like him (Eric Zeier, Ty Detmer) who have all the intangibles in the world, but in the end weren't able to translate it into an NFL career. I'm not saying that Colt will end up the same way, but he's also still a long way from proving himself NFL ready. That's another question that maybe we will get a better idea of what the answer will be when the bullets start flying.

Campbell is probably going to get most of the year to prove himself worthy. The only way it ends early is if he plays his way out of it, and I don't think it will happen. Will he be able to get the job done? Unfortunately, I don't know. I think a lot is going to depend on his supporting cast.

Will the rookies from last year stand up and be accounted for?

When you draft 3 receivers high like we did, a lot is expected from them. The fact that we got very little from any of them last year is galling. To be honest, tho, I wasn't expecting much from Thomas and Davis. It was pretty obvious that Thomas was a bit raw and was going to take a little time to adjust. Davis was playing behind Cooley and was probably only going to see limited time. It was Kelly that I thought was going to have the big impact. I was smitten with him from the first time I saw his highlight reel and knew that he was the type of receiver this team had been missing for years: a big receiver who can make the tough catches across the middle. Unfortunately, missing most of the year with injuries will completely wash out your season.

So far, the early word for all three of them has been pretty good. Thomas has been working at Redskins Park for most of the offseason and seemed to have committed himself to being the player we drafted with our first pick. Davis was starting to pick up his game toward the end of the season and nothing but good things have been said about him. Kelly seems to have made it through OTAs without reaggrivating his injury and it makes one cautously optimistic. But, until we actually see them on the field catching passes, we don't really know how they are going to do. We do know, tho, that if we are going to succeed this year, we need contributions from these guys.

As for the rest, Tryon was considered the goat of last year's class. Most felt he shouldn't have made the team, including myself. That being said, I did think he made some progress in training camp last year and I'll be interested to see if that progress continues. Moore wasn't able to do much in preseason last year, but what little opportunities he got he made the most of. Now he's competing with a rookie and a veteran for a roster spot. Rob Jackson is also competing for a roster spot now that the DE position has gotten tighter.

How will the OL hold up this year?

The big problem I see with the OL isn't that it isn't good, but that they really wore down as the year went on. At one time in the losing streak, we had everyone except for Rabach sitting out of practice. That's never a good sign. In the spring it was reported that three of the spots on the OL were of a major concern and two of those three spots will have a new player from where we ended last year. Dockery replaces the pretty solid job that Kendall did last year. What Dock has over Kendall is that he's much younger and doesn't need to sit out one day a week so that he can play on Sunday. Given that he's a known quantity to the coaching staff, I expect he will solidify that position for the next few years.

RT is the uncertain position where we have three players duking it out for the right to start there. Heyer was the opening day starter who got hurt and couldn't get back into the lineup when the focus became running the ball. He needs to show that he can stay healty and improve as a player to win the job back. Williams is a guy who's been out of football the past couple of years. He also needs to shed a few pounds and prove he can go the distance. That being said, he's a former top 10 pick and at least demonstrated to the staff that he has the physical ability to do the job. The latecomer Bridges gives us a veteran who has started at both guard and tackle in his career. While there is uncertanty in these guys, you'd think with 3 guys to choose from that one of them will be able to make the job his own.

The other question would be the guys coming off of injury. Both Thomas and Samuels are coming off of some serious injuries. While they are cleared to go in Training Camp, there is always the question of, will it happen again? Samuels seems to be pretty resiliant and plays with a lot. Thomas is more of a question, which is why I think Rinehart is getting a lot of push in case something does happen with Thomas, since his position was the third that they had a concern with.

Will Haynesworth and Orakpo finally solve the lack of pressure on defense?

One of the pain in our sides is that the defensive line has been a patchwork affair for years. Casserly never met a DT he wanted to draft and never met a DE who could produce for longer than a year at a time. Given that it is difficult to find good defensive linemen in FA, we often had to shop from the remainer bin or spend way too much for too little production.

So, next in line is the top player in FA this year and one of the top defensive linemen in this draft. I think fans choked on the abundance that they were suddenly presented with. The problem is, is it for real or is it fool's gold again? Will Haynesworth be the second coming of Dana Stubblefield? Will Orakpo join the large numbers of DL who ended up being non-factors? Unfortunately, there isn't much to say "no" for sure to any of these questions. But, we will get a better idea in training camp.

Speaking of Orakpo, where is he playing anyways?

Good question. It seems one of the ideas that came up in the post-mortem of last season was to make SLB more of a pass rushing threat. The original idea seemed to be to put Jason Taylor there, but now that he's gone the idea hasn't gone away. With Chris Wilson moving out there and now Orakpo joining him, it is making fans wonder what the hell the team is thinking. Course, I was thinking that Orakpo was going to be limited to passing downs at first anyways, so any role that gets him on the field more often gets my approval. Still, there is a lot of questions if he can make that sort of transition. That being said, he has proven himself as a man with great athletic talent and we have seen players like Adalius Thomas and Darryl Tapp play similar roles with great success, so it has been done before. We'll have to see how he gets used once the balls start flying.

I'm sure there will be other stories, but these are the main ones as I see them. Have at it.

[Walking Deadman]

Congrats. Longshot,

Keep up the great posts!!!

[Califan007 The Constipated]

Don't forget:

Is Portis arguing with Zorn and undermining his authority?

Does LaRon Landry want to be traded?

Is Jason Campbell the worst QB in the history of the NFL?

[LeftCoast Skinz FAN]

First, congrats on the 10,000 posts!!!

Second, pretty good read. I was kind of left hanging about Haynesworth and Orakpo but there isn't much out there that could give answers to those questions. Even the Skins can't answer those questions now. We will just have to wait and see. But good read anyways.

Thanks

[flexxskins]

First of all congrats Longshot.:applause:

Secondly, you probably brought up questions that people/fans will be asking going into training camp and that we could discuss here for 500 pages or more.

[HawaiianTime]

Congrats on the 10k posts. You know you probably could have made 5 different threads just from your 1 post, and what a doozy of a post. Good read, I'll try and comment later, but gotta go before the boss walks in.

HTTR

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

Congrats on the landmark Jason.

We don't often mesh, particularly when it comes to the O and it's hapless on-field leader. , but I appreciate your views all the same. Here's to 10K more.

Hail.

[Pimpey42000]

Congrats, Longshot, I always enjoy reading your posts, You bring up a lot of good points in your posting and your sig is pretty awesome too. Once again congratulations and here is to more great posts

[Buck812]

Don't forget:

Is Jason Campbell the worst QB in the history of the NFL?

Its rumored that hes actually worse than the 3rd string QB at my old high school Colt Sanchez.

Congrats to Longshot on the 10,000

[SkinsCrushCowboys]

10k, Nice!

[Conn]

Congrats on the 10K, and good thread. Its a beast of a post, so I'll comment when I have more time..

[Morneblade]

Gratz on 10k Jason! Great post btw, pretty much sums up the questions we have for the entire team. Here is hoping that we'll find a RT that is solid, a DE that can rush the passer on downs that are not 3rd and long and a couple of big bodied WR's playing like NFL starters. We get that, this team will be very, very dangerous.

[zoony]

Congrats Vinny! :applause:

j/k- here's to 10k more.

[zCommander]

Damn that was a long post and a good one at that! Thanks for helping me eat half of my dinner while reading this. .

And of course congrats on the milestone!!!

[Jumbo]

Congrats on 10K! :applause:

I'm glad you're here, Jason. Posters who talk as much knowledgable football, and remain as even-keeled as you do, are fundamental to making ES the best it can be. :point2sky

[bubba9497]

I'm glad you're here, Jason. Posters who talk as much knowledgable football, and remain as even-keeled as you do, are fundamental to making ES the best it can be. :point2sky

I thought this was about Longshot?

:jk: Congrats on the milestone

[Chump Bailey]

Keep up the good work and it is appreciated. You and other dedicated posters do a great job keeping the board going. I mean that. About a dozen or so of you guys really do the rest of us a real service by contributing as much as you do.

Congratulations!

[Tastes Like Chicken]

Congrats on 10k posts.

You pretty much summed up all of the important questions. One I might add is who's the sleeper of the camp, or this years Horton?

I'll go with WR Marko Mitchell. Good height and hands, and with Thrash gone there's room to advance.

[Oldfan]

Congratulations, Jason. 10,000 posts, and by my careful count, you were right on 78% of them. That's not bad. <grin>

As you know, I'm optimistic about the coming season. I see that O line question you outlined as the only real area of concern. The others will improve, the question is by how much. But, I would add that the most interesting questions for me concerns the coaching strategy, both on offense and defense.

Although I like his basic scheme, I think Jim Zorn could have done much better with his gameday preparation even though he was limited by an offense that couldn't execute vanilla well and I think Greg Blache could have been more aggressive in 2008 even with the talent he had on hand.

[Gregpeck99]

Salute Jason! This Board would not be the same without your consistently sobering and objective posting or your Super-Hero Logo. Hope you are around for another 10K. As for the upcomig season ... the lead story has to be whether, how or if the Skins will average more than 20 points per game. All the other issues are BS.

[TheLongshot]

Thanks for all the compliments, guys! This is a great place to be. It is just too bad that people want to talk about parking more than they want to talk about football right now. Personally, it is much ado about nothing.

You pretty much summed up all of the important questions. One I might add is who's the sleeper of the camp, or this years Horton?

I'll go with WR Marko Mitchell. Good height and hands, and with Thrash gone there's room to advance.

Well, it fits in because we don't really have a good idea who can be sleepers. I personally think Robert Henson is a good candidate to surprise, I think. Watching his game film, he looks like he has good instincts and maybe can contribute sooner than later. I will also mention Keith Eloi if just from the standpoint that he probably will get an opportunity to make a name for himself on special teams and he's already part of the way there with the impression he's made in minicamp.

[stoney26]

This is a serious question and for those who are offended please dont be because its not a shot at anyone. But how do all of you posters with 10k+ posts do it??? Do you have a job?? Do you work at home?? Are some of you retired?? No wife or girlfriend??? I just dont get it. Ive been here almost 5 years and I couldnt imagine having the time to make this many posts on a message board. Im glad somebody does have the time though. I like reading the majority of the post on here.

[Stew]

Congrats on 10k posts.

You pretty much summed up all of the important questions. One I might add is who's the sleeper of the camp, or this years Horton?

I'll go with WR Marko Mitchell. Good height and hands, and with Thrash gone there's room to advance.

He isnt a rookie but watch out for Robert Thomas at LB and look for Kareem Moore to make a name for himself this season. just my opinion.

[SonOfWashington]

This is a serious question and for those who are offended please dont be because its not a shot at anyone. But how do all of you posters with 10k+ posts do it??? Do you have a job?? Do you work at home?? Are some of you retired?? No wife or girlfriend??? I just dont get it. Ive been here almost 5 years and I couldnt imagine having the time to make this many posts on a message board. Im glad somebody does have the time though. I like reading the majority of the post on here.

[Stew]

This is a serious question and for those who are offended please dont be because its not a shot at anyone. But how do all of you posters with 10k+ posts do it??? Do you have a job?? Do you work at home?? Are some of you retired?? No wife or girlfriend??? I just dont get it. Ive been here almost 5 years and I couldnt imagine having the time to make this many posts on a message board. Im glad somebody does have the time though. I like reading the majority of the post on here.

Its just a combination of time, good discussion, patience, and something worth contributing to the conversation. Some get there faster then others, some make it a goal to get there and post regularly with that goal in mind. I just kinda go at my own pace. Ill be there one day, i guess i just dont have as much to say that is worth contributing...