PlayAction Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 With all the hoopla regarding potential new coaches and the new GM it is easy to drink the koolaid and surrender to fleeting offseason bliss. Unfortunately offseason bliss leads to disappointment during the season. We need to temper our expectations and look at the Skins as a multi-year rebuilding project. In an uncapped year, most of the younger free agent possibilities are going to convert to restricted free agents. That may mean that there will be many free agents that are forced to re-sign with their current team but perhaps the really good ones will only sign one year contracts in the hopes that they can get their payday when they are fully unrestricted. If so, that means the free agent class will be weak this offseason but potentially much better in 2011. For the Skins that means that they don't have the opportunity to remake the roster as quickly as they would like. We all know the OL stinks - and if you can't fix it in one year then the Skins may improve but we can't expect them to be better than 8:8 next year. It's likely therefore that the Skins will pick high in year 2 offseason. With high picks in year 2 + potentially a strong free agent class the true roster only begins to take shape in year 2. While there are endless draft possibilities in this offseason it is better IMO to look at two years of drafts before you have the possibility of the Skins being competitive. Whether that has any impact on the OT versus QB controversy I don't know. The main issue in year 1 is for the new coach to set a new attitude and clean house of problems (like Schottenheimer did in his first year). I don't think Schottenheimer had any illusions that his building process would take only one year. Two names come up repeatedly as problems for the team: Haynesworth and Portis. There may be others. Haynesworth's contract was structured as a 3 year deal with funny money thereafter. Do the Skins really want to pay him so much money when it's almost guaranteed to be on a losing team most of that time? His old coaches said that if the Skins let Haynesworth be Haynesworth then they'll be fine. The implication was that if the Skins didn't let him play as he liked then there would be issues. Skins could revise the defense to fit his skills but do they want to do that for a player who has only 2 more real years under contract? Moreover, he turned into a cancer in the locker room at the end of this season. Haynesworth is due 20 million in March. If the Skins could engineer a trade and unload his contract (with cap hit in the uncapped year) then I think it would be in the best interests of the team to do so. Especially if the Skins could get a first round pick for him. Portis - he needs to be cut for no other reason than for the new coach to show the players that he is boss not the owner. Cutting Portis sets the stage for the new regime. IMO the Skins can't trade Portis since his contract is inflated given his age and ability. He'll sign with another team and still be able to produce but we get no value. The goal in year 1 for the new coach should be to get team-oriented players not the me-first stars. Doing so may come at the expense of the W/L record in year 1. I wouldn't be surprised if the Skins wind up with another 4:12 record. But what's another losing season when viewed in context of the last decade? If the Skins begin to show promise in year 2 and are competitive in year 3 then we should be thankful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peeping Wizard Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 I would be find with rebuilding years if it were clear that the team was headed in the right direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 Parcells turned around an awful Dolphins team in one year. Payton did the same in NO. I see no reason the Skins can't be a playoff team in 2011. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audible_Red40 Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 I am saying 19-0, we will surprise!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Botched Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 Parcells turned around an awful Dolphins team in one year.Payton did the same in NO. I see no reason the Skins can't be a playoff team in 2011. Dont forget Atlanta 2008. This is the NFL, you never know who's going to contend in any given year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch_Lives59 Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 Bruce says he is upgrading the team NOT rebuilding.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABSTRACT Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 People take this rebuilding thing too seriously...."Oh..get ready...it might take 5...maybe 10 years. Its gonna be torture..blah blah". Man that **** takes 2-3 yrs at the longest. Its fun watching your team being built into a machine instead of seeing the same bs every year. When you have no non sense coaches and a building institution....the football you see will be fun to watch instead of repetitive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttr77 Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 Bruce says he is upgrading the team NOT rebuilding.... Sorry Bruce. 4-12 teams need to be rebuilt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsHokieFan Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 No worries for me. I am thinking the mission is be competitive by 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregpeck99 Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 I agree ... Skins need rebuilding from the ground up ... that means pick a QB in the Draft (there are at least 4 good ones this year) and go from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popeman38 Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 With all the hoopla regarding potential new coaches and the new GM it is easy to drink the koolaid and surrender to fleeting offseason bliss. Unfortunately offseason bliss leads to disappointment during the season. We need to temper our expectations and look at the Skins as a multi-year rebuilding project.Bruce Allen said he can not guarantee any number of wins next season, just that we will get better.In an uncapped year, most of the younger free agent possibilities are going to convert to restricted free agents. That may mean that there will be many free agents that are forced to re-sign with their current team but perhaps the really good ones will only sign one year contracts in the hopes that they can get their payday when they are fully unrestricted. If so, that means the free agent class will be weak this offseason but potentially much better in 2011. For the Skins that means that they don't have the opportunity to remake the roster as quickly as they would like. We all know the OL stinks - and if you can't fix it in one year then the Skins may improve but we can't expect them to be better than 8-8 next year. It's likely therefore that the Skins will pick high in year 2 offseason. With high picks in year 2 + potentially a strong free agent class the true roster only begins to take shape in year 2.Not even remotely close to true. We pich 4th this year. We can draft a franchise LT, or QB, or trade down for more picks. We can find serviceable OL in the 2nd/4th/5th/7th, and sign some stop gap personnel. Will we be the best team in the league next year? Highly unlikely, but we are far from horrible with competent offensive coaches.While there are endless draft possibilities in this offseason it is better IMO to look at two years of drafts before you have the possibility of the Skins being competitive. Whether that has any impact on the OT versus QB controversy I don't know. The main issue in year 1 is for the new coach to set a new attitude and clean house of problems (like Schottenheimer did in his first year). I don't think Schottenheimer had any illusions that his building process would take only one year. Two names come up repeatedly as problems for the team: Haynesworth and Portis. There may be others. Blah blah blah. See John Harbaugh, Mike Smith, Sean Payton..... Haynesworth's contract was structured as a 3 year deal with funny money thereafter. Do the Skins really want to pay him so much money when it's almost guaranteed to be on a losing team most of that time? His old coaches said that if the Skins let Haynesworth be Haynesworth then they'll be fine. The implication was that if the Skins didn't let him play as he liked then there would be issues. Skins could revise the defense to fit his skills but do they want to do that for a player who has only 2 more real years under contract? Moreover, he turned into a cancer in the locker room at the end of this season. Haynesworth is due 20 million in March. If the Skins could engineer a trade and unload his contract (with cap hit in the uncapped year) then I think it would be in the best interests of the team to do so. Especially if the Skins could get a first round pick for him.Haynesworth easily helped Andre Carter have his best season as a Redskins. Hell, Carter and Orakpo nearly equaled the sack total for this team from 2008 by themselves. He couldn't have anything to do with that, could he? The Cowboys and Giants found out about running up the middle in short yardage against him. Worth every penny. Those flapping their gums about how he sucks know nothing about football.Portis should be cut for 2 reason: 1) Contract and 2) Ability. End of story.The goal in year 1 for the new coach should be to get team-oriented players not the me-first stars. Doing so may come at the expense of the W/L record in year 1. I wouldn't be surprised if the Skins wind up with another 4-12 record. But what's another losing season when viewed in context of the last decade? If the Skins begin to show promise in year 2 and are competitive in year 3 then we should be thankful.With our exact same roster and Kyle Shannahan calling plays, we would have gone 7-9 or 8-8. You will be amazed what an NFL-caliber OC will do for an offense. Look at Houston. Their OL is average, they have a stud WR and an above average QB. They scored at will this season.If Shannahan brings a competent DC and OC to the Skins, this very roster could improve by 4 - 6 games next year. With a few OL additions (draft and FA), I am very optimistic. Shannahan has never had dual threat TE like Cooley and Davis, and rarely had the talent of our WR corps and he had Top 10 offenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttr77 Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 I agree ... Skins need rebuilding from the ground up ... that means pick a QB in the Draft (there are at least 4 good ones this year) and go from there. Wouldn't picking a QB at #4 be more of a case of building from the top down? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veretax Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 Parcells lucked into a FA pennington to caretake for a year. and had a good OL in the draft, I don't see that happening here :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 Parcells lucked into a FA pennington to caretake for a year. and had a good OL in the draft, I don't see that happening here :/ Hire a good coach and give him good young players and let the rest work itself out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 I don't think we need to go through rebuilding. We have alot of players that are still young and are good. Most of our defense is under the age of 30, on offense we have Davis, Cooley, Thomas, Kelly, JC that are 30 or younger. Its not like we don't have good players on this team. We make a few upgrades on the OL, RB, and the secondary and we'll be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ntotoro Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 I don't think we could do much worse than 4-12 in even a rebuilding year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrangeSkin Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 I'm sick of all this rebuilding talk. We're BUILDING. When in the past 10+ years were we actually BUILT? We've been REbuilding since the end of Gibbs I. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skins24 Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 We made it to the second round of the playoffs in Gibbs second year. After a cleansing and establishing. I don't see why this time should be that much different..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreatBuzz Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 I think it would take 3 years to turn this team into a real, year after year threat. But I think after another 4-12 next year and a 7-9 the year after, Danny will fire Allen and Shanny, re-hire Vinny, and start all over....and so is the Redskins circle of life....*tear* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tastes Like Chicken Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 We'll be fine. I'm in support of drafting Shanahan's QB of interest, and building around him. Let him sit for part or all of a season, while JC or someone else takes the helm. Target OL in later rounds this year, we have picks in 2, 4, 5, 7. Try to get someone in FA, though the OL in FA is not so rich this year. Also look for some UDFA to surprise and impress. You never know. We may surprise some folks next year, might sneak into the playoffs as a sixth seed. But I'm fine with whatever record as long as we've got a plan. In the '11 draft we can round add more OL, LB, secondary help. There should be a better FA crop, too. The new QB will take some lumps and make some mistakes, but grow as well. Don't see why we can't be in the conversation for playoffs in 2011. In the '12 draft and FA we can add some specific playmakers and by this point, our young(er) hungry Redskins are punching NFC East teams in the mouth. I'm at the ES tailgate in January for a game, hopefully two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ST is my boy Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 Sorry Bruce. 4-12 teams need to be rebuilt. The Dolphins went from 1-15, to 11-5 in one season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttr77 Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 The Dolphins went from 1-15, to 11-5 in one season Yeah, and the Redskins ALWAYS win the Super Bowl the year after the Giants do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redskinizzle Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 This isn't a 4-12 team, even if you believe you are what your record says you are. I would give our current roster, with a good offensive scheme, a good chance at being an 8-8 team. A good draft, some smart trades, getting rid of the old crusties like Portis, Shanny gets the right assistants, we're 9-7 in 2010, playoffs in 2011. Simple as that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fansince62 Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 Haynesworth's contract was structured as a 3 year deal with funny money thereafter. Do the Skins really want to pay him so much money when it's almost guaranteed to be on a losing team most of that time? His old coaches said that if the Skins let Haynesworth be Haynesworth then they'll be fine. The implication was that if the Skins didn't let him play as he liked then there would be issues. Skins could revise the defense to fit his skills but do they want to do that for a player who has only 2 more real years under contract? Moreover, he turned into a cancer in the locker room at the end of this season. Haynesworth is due 20 million in March. If the Skins could engineer a trade and unload his contract (with cap hit in the uncapped year) then I think it would be in the best interests of the team to do so. Especially if the Skins could get a first round pick for him. I got about zero substance from this post. you never address how Haynesworth should be used. maybe....just maybe.....he's right. I could just as easily argue that it is insanely stupid to sign a player of his caliber and at such great cost AND NOT USE HIM IN A WAY THAT MAXIMIZES HIS RETURN - i.e., squeeze him (and others) into a scheme that doesn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fansince62 Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 This isn't a 4-12 team, even if you believe you are what your record says you are.I would give our current roster, with a good offensive scheme, a good chance at being an 8-8 team. A good draft, some smart trades, getting rid of the old crusties like Portis, Shanny gets the right assistants, we're 9-7 in 2010, playoffs in 2011. Simple as that. 9-7 is a mediocre team that aint goin far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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