Redskins D will rock this year!

[KirkNC]

Posted: 8/5/03 4:46:14 pm

Re: wait a min

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

I do not see the alarm sounding on this D as some people do.

The back seven are a better unit this year than last.The D line to me has the potential to be better as well. I think the Team is better at DE with

Upshaw/Bruce - for Bruce

Healthy Wynn - for injured Wynn

and at DT

Noble trumps BDW at his given responsibility

Thats three out of four in the plus column.

The last DT spot

Haley for Gardener Well if you look at the press out of Miami on both, before they have yet to play for the Redskins, you would guess Haley to be the better pick of the two.

Three out of four of the line positions upgraded with one unknown? Sounds like we will be just fine.

Rotationally Cowslette has another year under his belt as does Laderius. Scott and Jackson both have real upsides and a year of maturation.

I think the line will be better and the D will be better as a whole this year compared to last.

Same terminology and the consistency factored into players playing to thier strengths. We will be rocking the house baby!

[RiggoDrill]

What???? An Optimist?????

Off with his head!!!!!!

:laugh:

[GB81]

Well...I think the loss of Gardener is huge and Haley is a downgrade. Gardener had a sepctacular year last year. The D-line is major concern, both in generating a pass rush and stopping the run. It is by far the biggest question mark on the team. I'm not saying the sky is falling...just saying it the biggest concern.

[sippin2020]

I agree that Haley is most likey a downgrade. But no one expected Gardener to end up with the season he had last year. Hopefully (big hopefully) someone will step up and perform this year, not just a warm body filling a spot. If not we are in for a long season.

[GB81]

If Haley and Noble step up and Upshaw/Smith or someone else are able to generate some pass rush, then this is a top 3 defense. If not, we're in store for a lot of 8 minute, 65 rushing yard drives by the opposition.

[Coach Williams]

we should all be as confident as this guy......i am offensively confident but our D. might slip.....

[NoCalMike]

Well considering we got more out of Gardener than ANYONE expected last year, I'd say his replacement is definately a downgrade, but other than that, who knows about the line until we see them play. The back 7 should be a better unit though, definately.

[@DCGoldPants]

Considering that now Gardener now needs to come back from a wrist injury and watch his back. I think we did the right thing. He'll never play well enough for all that jack in Denver.

Bank on it.

[Thinking Skins]

If Haley and Noble step up and Upshaw/Smith or someone else are able to generate some pass rush, then this is a top 3 defense. If not, we're in store for a lot of 8 minute, 65 rushing yard drives by the opposition.

I dont think that its this much question in our Defense. We easily have a top 5 pass defense. That goes without question because even if our line cant generate pressure, we have the secondary to shut down any team in the league.

The question about our line is about its ability to stop the run. Even if we cant stop the run with our DL, thats not going to put us in the bottom third of the league in terms of overall defense. But you look at our LB's and see that we have a good MLB who can stop the run. So even if our DL isnt the best at stopping the run, we could just play Trotter closer and have him plug the middle. I see us being at worse like 20th against the run and that makes us have a top 10 - 15 defense. So this year, I just cant see defense as a problem for us this year.

[RDSKNfaithfull]

Off the ends we have a much better pass rush this year with a rotaion of upshaw Smith and Ladarius(who I think healthy could play just like another former skin somewhere esle ND Kalu) Smoot Looks Realllllllllllll good in camp as does Bowen but it is just that camp but we shall see. If we picked up a Ted Washington or someone like that I think we could be top 5 easy. And with all do respect I do not feel we had the top 5 defense last year. We had the potential but other teams scored a lot of points on us and we didnt look the greatest on third down.

[bulldog]

to be a solid defense you have to be able to stop the interior run and cover downfield. the redskins can do both of those things

to be an outstanding defense you have to have a playmaker in each unit that can impact the outcome of the game. last year we had Gardener, Arrington and Bailey in those roles.

this time out we are for want of a playmaker on the DL. a concern but not a major catastrophy.

if we go back and look at defenses of playoff teams last year what do we see?

was Atlanta's defense among the best? how about Green Bay's?

in the AFC how about Cleveland and Pittsburgh?

The fact remains the Skins can fall from #5 to #10 or #12 in defense and still make the playoffs.

the tradeoff? moving from #20 in offense

there is no way with the talent on this unit that the Skins should finish #20 in total offense again.

[Even Madder]

We easily have a top 5 pass defense. That goes without question because even if our line cant generate pressure, we have the secondary to shut down any team in the league.

Not true at all. No matter how good the secondary is -- and the corners are great -- they can't cover NFL receivers for long. If the defense can't put some pressure on the QB, NFL QBs will complete passes against them. That's just the way it is. Champ is a shutdown corner, but all that means is that for the first 4 or 5 seconds of a play, he blankets his man so well that you just don't dare throw that way too often. After that, if the QB has time to wait, the receiver can get open against him -- or any other DB on Earth.

We saw that a lot last year. Opposing QBs had all day to sit in the pocket, and they eventually found open receivers. Pop in your tape of the first Eagles game last year (gag) and watch McNabb. He surveyed the field, saw no one open, pulled a bowl of Chunky soup out of his pocket, ate it, yawned, rubbed his eyes, and then found an open receiver. There is simply nothing a great DB can do if the QB has enough time.

[Maxdavious]

The Skins will prove so many people wrong this year. I 'm not not only talking about opposing fans (thay have the right to disagree) but guys in those sports sites and programs like Peter King (for one) who have pegged the Skins as a woeful team that would be lucky to get to 8-8-0. I can't wait until the season starts. The Skins could go at least 10-6-0. If the Skins make it to the playoffs..and are on a roll...LOOK OUT!!!

Go Skins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Oldskool]

I really do believe that Edwards knows what type of D Line he has right now and is preparing a strategy to help it out.

I can see alot of Trotter blitzing as well as Arrington on occasion.

Sending in a safety (especially Bowen if he can keep up his smashmouth attitude).

Im not saying that the defense will be near as good as it was last year (at least at the DT position anyways) but its not doom and gloom peeps.

[GSF]

Totally agree w/ Even Madder. You don't have a top pass defense without the pass rush period. One of the biggest reasons why Smoot, Terrell and even Champ at times looked so bad last year was because of our lack of pass rush. As Gardener started coming on in the second half of the season, the secondary and the rest of the D suddenly looked much better.

Also, the most misleading stat I've ever seen on this board is that 5th ranking defense from last year. We we'ren't even close to the 5th best defense last year. Check the points against stat, we were at the bottom. That 5th ranking is based on yards, and the reason we're so high is because teams only had to travel short distances to score on us because of all of our turnovers and screw ups. Towards the end of the year the D played much better b/c Gardener blew up and Lavar got a little more adjusted to playing DE, a postion that was very uncomfortable playing. Another reason I thought the D improved was because of the great play by Iffy, someone who seems to get very little credit or respect from the fans.

Having said all of that, I think that the improvement on offense will outweigh the loss of our 2 starting DT's, and the team will be better than last year. For the first time in years, I think we have a legit shot at the playoffs. I think we'll probably resemble teams like Cleveland and Pitt from last year, high powered offense with eratic defense. 1 thing for sure is that games will be a lot more fun to watch this year.

[Kornheiser]

The defense looked exausted at times last year. If the offense can pull their fair share of the load, I think the defense will improve on that alone.

Gardener's "one year impact" is overstated in the media. The D was top 10 & 5, before he got here, with offenses that couldn't stay on the field. Gardiner never had a year like that before us...so did we make him, or he make us? I think the media is assuming he made us, but hey, we were top 5 one year with Stubby in there??

[Maxdavious]

If you take a look at the names of the players on our defense, it is hard to imagine the Redskins 'D' NOT ranked between 5-10. The Skins got a lot of talent all over the defense, a defense that doesn't need to 'scheme and hide and cover any weakness in a frantic attemp to cosmetically 'apeal' tough.

Just start calling off the names of our gladiators as you read this and you'll start to understand that the Skins are a much improved team with improved situations starting from the office down to the playing field.

The other half of our defense is our offense..IF Ramsey, Coles, Gardner, the O-Line, and everyone else invovled can keep get the ball in the opposing endzone at least 3 times a game, and not commit too many turnovers, the Skins are in for a BIG season.

I hope all of my Redskins' brothers and sisters have a great season as well!!!

From Chicago: HAIL SKINS!!!!!!!!!!!

[Yomar]

BAH HUMBUG

[Art]

The Redskins had an overwhelmingly good pass defense in 2001 with among the worst pass rushing units in the NFL. We also had weaker, linebackers and it would appear slower, if not yet weaker, safeties.

In the final 11 weeks when the defense was as dominating in 2001 as it's been in decades here, there was nothing happening with pressure on the QB. But we were a smothering pass defense and a pretty good run defense. You can be an excellent unit.

Hell, if Champ ever becomes a real threat to the opposition and takes a few balls back early this year forcing teams to finally stop throwing at him as often as they do we could be the top pass defense in football just on that potential strength. I'm much more confident in this defensive line against the run than I am against the pass. I have a terrible suspicion we will be among the weakest pass rushing teams in the league.

But, if we can stop the run as I'm confident we're built to do up front, and if our offense can score some and not turn it over constantly while we also get drastically improved special teams play, we can be a very tough defense to get going against even with the presumed weakness rushing the passer. We've seen this before just two years ago.

But, whether Spurrier will play it as close to the vest while putting the defense in position to succeed is a serious doubt I'd have as compared to Marty. Spurrier isn't going to protect the defense and lean on it to win. He's going to run an offense that exposed our defense from time to time. But, if we can protect the ball better than last year that will make all the difference.