Gano, Bidwell and other Areas of Concern

[sonnyjz]

WR concerns are blown out of proportion. We've been running a JV offense for the past x years. Zorn and Hixon did not do Kelly or Thomas any favors for the past two seasons. We have a great QB.

Look for Cooley, Davis, and Moss to be heavily involved at the outset. Thomas and Kelly are going to be thrown into the fire and either excel or burn out.

But don't tell me that Thomas and Kelly aren't as good as Todd Pinkston, Greg Lewis, James Thrash, Hank Baskett, etc...

Right, but can either of them turn put up TO / D Jack stats? Who knows. If Tana is healthy and is able to play the entire season, look out!

[MartinC]

Why oh why did we pass on D Jack ?

Because the old front office, along with 99% of our fanbase, were convinced you need to be at least 6' 2" to play wide receiver in a WCO. I recall lots of posts leading up to that draft threatening suicide or murder if we drafted Jackson.

Just about everyone thought we needed big receivers, so Vinny covered all the bases and drafted 3 of them all in the second round!

[MartinC]

Look at that....we are going foward with a 2nd year long snapper. This can potentially be disastrous. He need to at the least 20 long snaps a day and perfect it.

20 snaps a day? Try 200. It's all he is on the team for.

[Truant]

Because the old front office, along with 99% of our fanbase, were convinced you need to be at least 6' 2" to play wide receiver in a WCO. I recall lots of posts leading up to that draft threatening suicide or murder if we drafted Jackson.

Just about everyone thought we needed big receivers, so Vinny covered all the bases and drafted 3 of them all in the second round!

Kiper projected Jackson to us and people lost their mind. Whatever, to be expected. Anti West Coast bias is strong in college football.

But I wanted Thomas over Jackson. Let's see how they perform with a real offense and real QB.

[Spartacus87]

Thats a good point, he did have an XP blocked in the Giants game last year. But again, if you look at his college stats, he was 24-26, his only misses were from 50 and 52 yards, and he was 33-33 on XP. No kicks blocked there.

Yeah but if you look back on that, the XP failed because nobody blocked the guy that came in and blocked it. That wasn't Gano's fault.

Gano was absolutely money in college. Money. It's hard to say though with kickers and punters, because it honestly seems like the good ones comes out of nowhere and a lot of times teams go through journeymen before settling on one for awhile. Such a strange position to scout and lock up for the long term.

But I do hope Gano is our kicker for a long time. We're severely lacking in FSU players, so I'd appreciate at least having the freaking kicker.

[Hunter_R]

I still don't get why we didn't resign Hunter the Punter? That guy was a triple threat!

I am confused as well. Maybe they figure he'll keep getting injured?

[LetThePointsSoar]

....Also who will be doing returns on both punts and kickoffs.

Agreed, who are the front runners right now for returns on special teams? The last reports I read before TC made it sound like Austin would most likely be the guy, but is that still the case?

[Conn]

Agreed, who are the front runners right now for returns on special teams? The last reports I read before TC made it sound like Austin would most likely be the guy, but is that still the case?

No one's even seen Austin practice hardly yet, because he was still in school during almost all of the OTA's. So while that was what he was drafted for, no one knows how he actually looks as a returner. Banks is a WR who is in the mix, the very small guy, and DT has always been in the mix as KR at least. I believe that Torrain is also in the running.

[LetThePointsSoar]

No one's even seen Austin practice hardly yet, because he was still in school during almost all of the OTA's. So while that was what he was drafted for, no one knows how he actually looks as a returner. Banks is a WR who is in the mix, the very small guy, and DT has always been in the mix as KR at least. I believe that Torrain is also in the running.

Makes sense - thanks Conn!!!

[darrelgreenie]

I'm fine with everything except the NT spot. That spot is sooo important in a 3-4 defense I'm not sure the skins have a solid crew going into the season.

Everyone is saying Kemo will be solid enough but if he goes down again, who do the redskins have behind him??

I hear ya bro, but i guess i believe in Kemo.

If he's indeed healthy then he's exactly what you want from a 2-gap 3-4 NT and Howard Green is an experienced journeymen true 3-4 NT that played with the Jets its not like he just rode the bench he was an actual contributor with 204 snaps played in 12 games and had 23/37 tackles.

Then you got Haynesworth and Golston who wouldn't appear to be typical 2-gap 3-4 NTs but could play more of a penetrating 1-gap style NT ala Jay Ratliff.

Then there 3-4 NT Anthony Bryant who appears to be just a guy.

[darrelgreenie]

Agreed, who are the front runners right now for returns on special teams? The last reports I read before TC made it sound like Austin would most likely be the guy, but is that still the case?

No one's even seen Austin practice hardly yet, because he was still in school during almost all of the OTA's. So while that was what he was drafted for, no one knows how he actually looks as a returner. Banks is a WR who is in the mix, the very small guy, and DT has always been in the mix as KR at least. I believe that Torrain is also in the running.

Agreed, but there's also Phillip Buchanon who's returned punts and kicks then there the usual spot duty punt returns guys DeAngelo Hall and Sanatan Moss and longshots guys like Justin Tryon/Byron Westbrook who try to volunteer their way onto the PR/KR respectively.

[darrelgreenie]

Honorable mentions...

1) FS. Laron's being moved to SS for most packages and hopefully will perform there like we know he can. I don't care what people say about this defensive system not having true FS/SS positions, in certain situations and packages we're going to need someone with FS skills to patrol the backend. Can Horton or Doughty do it? Could Kareem Moore earn a starting spot this season?

It seems as if you're writing Landry off as incapable of playing deep coverage at all because of a few plays from last year.

What about how good he was for most of the season and most of his career?

With the new system comes interchangeable safeties and then end of the FS 30 yards deep.

Landry could still end up playing the deep coverages you speak on occasion like Troy Polomalu does.

And a lot of people forget that Doughty actually played FS to end the season starting with the Raiders game and that was back when we played the FS 30 yards deep and asked them to roam sideline to sideline which is much harder then playing 1/2 field Safety.

And i thought Moore played well when he started getting more playing time in the last few games of the season (fumble not withstanding).

[Conn]

Agreed, but there's also Phillip Buchanon who's returned punts and kicks then there the usual spot duty punt returns guys DeAngelo Hall and Sanatan Moss and longshots guys like Justin Tryon/Byron Westbrook who try to volunteer their way onto the PR/KR respectively.

True, but I don't really see Buchanon as a candidate to start as PR or KR, really just another utility guy who could, making it more appealing to sign him to compete all over the roster. And I'd be surprised to see Tryon/Byron actually do it either, it seems that usually you either have it as a returner, or you don't.

[Spartacus87]

Agreed, but there's also Phillip Buchanon who's returned punts and kicks then there the usual spot duty punt returns guys DeAngelo Hall and Sanatan Moss and longshots guys like Justin Tryon/Byron Westbrook who try to volunteer their way onto the PR/KR respectively.

Buchanon has never really been a consistently used return man except for in 2003 at Oakland, when he returned 36 punts that season.

Hall has never been a return guy except for really random situations (he has a whopping 18 total career kick/punt returns).

If Buchanon is our primary return man, that's probably not a good sign.

[Est.1974]

Line depth for me... every year our line looks great until someone gets injured in preseason and no one starts twice at the same position 2 weeks in a row for the season except for Dockery and Rabach

That's gonna look a bit worse for you now with the news about BMW given he could cover both G and OT.

[Rpredskins]

My biggest concern is whether switching to 3-4 will significantly worsen the defense.. Without AH the D-line is pretty uninspiring and we know orakpo is a beast and fletcher will get the job done, but what about the other two spots? I'm also hoping that the secondary's ineptitude last year was a coaching/positioning problem that has been fixed. But its still hard to trust Laron in coverage or DHall making a tackle.

I have not liked Portis' attitude often times but I don't believe that he is "over the hill" and I won't be surprised if he is in good form. He seems to be cooperating with Shanahan and the o-line personnel/scheme is going to benefit him.

My biggest concern on offense is WR, however I dont think we are bound for disaster since Moss is still a viable starter and DT showed a bit of promise last year. Plus we have Cooley and Davis, two of the best receiving tight ends in football..

[darrelgreenie]

If Buchanon is our primary return man, that's probably not a good sign.

Agreed.

I'm rooting for Armstrong/Banks, i think the return game requires a young mans spark/hunger.

[darrelgreenie]

Without AH the D-line is pretty uninspiring and we know orakpo is a beast and fletcher will get the job done, but what about the other two spots?

I don't even want to think about the DL without Haynesworth.

I think Rocky will be fine at WILB and between Carter/Wilson/Alexader i think LOLB will be fine.

I'm also hoping that the secondary's ineptitude last year was a coaching/positioning problem that has been fixed. But its still hard to trust Laron in coverage or DHall making a tackle.

Meh, everyplayer misses tackles or gets beat every now and then, i don't consider a few mistakes a referendum on a career (Landry/Hall)

My biggest concern on offense is WR, however I dont think we are bound for disaster since Moss is still a viable starter and DT showed a bit of promise last year.

This is a big year for Devin and Malcolm, its basically a show or go year.

[Section123OnSundays]

We need to keep all our draft picks and then use a 3rd rounder on some Mason Crosby type that will last the next 10-12 years. (even though I'm pretty sure Crosby was 2nd round by GB)

[Stadium-Armory]

-interior Oline....

A comment on yoru sig file: I remember that catch (I think). Regular season game against Oakland in 83. I think it was this TD catch by Joe Washington that won the game in the 4th qt. Back of the endzone, he was diving to catch the ball. I remember it because it was the lead image on the WP sports page the next day, but from the front angle. Am I right?

[SKINSFAN87]

My biggest concern is wide receiver, I hope we can land v-jack from the chargers but i don't think that will happen. I hope that thomas and kelly can step it up.

[THE HAMMER'IN HOG]

I only have 2 areas of concern, 1 is Hazlets ability to run a defense, and 2 McNabb at his age being moved out of a very QB friendly offense in Philli.

[Stadium-Armory]

I only have 2 areas of concern' date=' 1 is Hazlets ability to run a defense[/quote']

Hazlet's proven that he can run a defense I think, no? He did it so well, he was hired as a HC on the strenght of his job as a D-coordinator.

He was Pittsburgh's D-coordinator 97,98 and 99. Also was NFL Coach of the year (Head Coach) in 2000. Pretty solid track record I think. Happy to have him, hope he runs a tight ship.

...and 2 McNabb at his age being moved out of a very QB friendly offense in Philli.

Yup, a valid concern / question mark. I think we'll all be on pins and needles come pre-season.

[MartinC]

A comment on yoru sig file: I remember that catch (I think). Regular season game against Oakland in 83. I think it was this TD catch by Joe Washington that won the game in the 4th qt. Back of the endzone, he was diving to catch the ball. I remember it because it was the lead image on the WP sports page the next day, but from the front angle. Am I right?

You are right - I have that game on VHS somewhere. Great game and a great 4th quarter comeback behind Joey Ts arm.

[Spartacus87]

I only have 2 areas of concern' date=' 1 is Hazlets ability to run a defense, and [b']2 McNabb at his age being moved out of a very QB friendly offense in Philli.[/b]

I'm not sure the McNabb part should be a concern.

You said it yourself: "at his age, being moved out of a very QB friendly passing offense," in other words, "moved away from a really pass happy offense." I think at his age, it will benefit him to be in an offense that's much more dedicated to the run.

I have a lot of reservations about this upcoming year with the Redskins, mainly on the defensive side of things, but I'm pretty confident in McNabb with Mike/Kyle Shanahan building things around him. I think he'll be a really good fit in this offense, and we're going to see QB play like we haven't seen on the Skins in a very long time.