Confused: New Coaches, New Players, New Schemes; No Time To Develop?

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Injecting youth? Don't we have the least amount of under 25 talent in the league?

You have to give young pups like Joey Galloway time to find their legs. The NFL is hell on young guys like that.

[Commander Adama]

this team had a major weakness at running back and receiver...the best we could come up with were Larry Johnson, Roydell Williams & Galloway?...gimme a break.

I totally agree regarding the 3 you mentioned. Especially this last game with all the dropped balls. But as far as always being bad...a 3-4 is meant to bring additional pressure and cause more turnovers. That part is working, but our players are more geared for a 4-3. So would take some time to really get the personnel.

[Laxpunk2006]

Scheme change on defense shouldn't take all that long to be reasonably successful at. Green Bay made the change last year and their defense was solid during that first year.

What the 3-4 is doing that our vanilla 4-3 defenses hasn't is we've forced more turnovers and QB pressures. However, it's also allowed a lot more points and a lot more yards. I'm okay with a bend but don't break defense that surrenders a ton of yards but very few points and forces turnovers and pressure. Our defense, however, is allowing tons of yards and tons of points. We really do not have the personnel to make the full switch and we should have eased into it with a mix of 4-3 and 3-4 sets.

And we should have hired a coach who had a modicum of success running the 3-4 previously. Haslett hasn't.

The main differences were GB went out and got one of the top coaches and not only picked up a NT but got depth at that position. While I don't think Haslett is the worst coach in the league as most of ES seems to think now (though I was never high on him) he isn't Dom Capers. Kemo could be decent depth at NT but a year removed from an achilles tear it was wishful thinking to assume he could hold down a starting spot and be a difference maker.

Anyone with football common sense knew this was not going to be an easy transition, we just don't have the roster for it. 90% of ES was screaming for an "aggressive 3-4" regardless of what that meant. We got it so now ES should start dealing with it.

[jimster]

I was thinking the exact same thoughts as the OP.

This fan based has been begging for a GM, new coach and a franchise QB for a decade. We've got a new GM, new coach, 3 new QB's, new offense, new defense and a pretty sizable turn-over in roster taking over a 4-12 team. .....and people are freaking out because we're struggling early? Really?

This game just proves there's still work to do.

[KDawg]

The main differences were GB went out and got one of the top coaches and not only picked up a NT but got depth at that position. While I don't think Haslett is the worst coach in the league as most of ES seems to think now (though I was never high on him) he isn't Dom Capers. Kemo could be decent depth at NT but a year removed from an achilles tear it was wishful thinking to assume he could hold down a starting spot and be a difference maker.

Haslett has no history in making a team run a 3-4 successfully. The Steeler defense he inherited, as I posted above, got worse as time went on. Not better. The rushing statistics in his first year can be directly attributed to Dick LeBeau's scheme.

Anyone with football common sense knew this was not going to be an easy transition, we just don't have the roster for it. 90% of ES was screaming for an "aggressive 3-4" regardless of what that meant. We got it so now ES should start dealing with it.

Obviously we have to deal with it. We aren't in any position to make a change. But that doesn't mean we can't talk about why we wouldn't ease into the transition rather than lay it all on the line and hope we didn't get burned.

[Saqs]

Some people need to understand that no matter the coach it's still a process. Stop expecting the magic turnaround wand and have some patience. There is a template to success that must be followed.

[ginsu101]

I like most of us here took this loss very badly. I was extremely upset. However, I still think we will improve over last year's 4-12 record. I am still hoping for an 8-8 record. Guys, we are showing signs of progress and unfortunately, it will take more time. Remember, we are going into week 4 and are only 1 game out of 1st place. Optimistically, we currently ranked 2nd in the NFC East :-).

[Enter Apotheosis]

However, it's also allowed a lot more points and a lot more yards. I'm okay with a bend but don't break defense that surrenders a ton of yards but very few points and forces turnovers and pressure. Our defense, however, is allowing tons of yards and tons of points.

They're not actually giving up a lot more points than they did last season. Through three games they've allowed 67 points which comes out to about 22.3 per game. Last season they gave up 21.0 points per game. Now, you could opt to discard the Dallas game as not being representative of our defensive capabilities after scorefest that was the last two games. However, you could similarly make a case that our allowed ppg is artificially high due to various offensive and special teams blunders that have put our defense in very unfavorable situations. The reality of the situation is that we still don't entirely know what to expect from the defense this season. We're working with an awfully small sample size of games.

[Chachie]

Blue Collar is absolutely right indeed that any team in this situation needs time to develop. I think 90% of the fans do realize this but when we lose to a team who is also developing, has a rookie QB, and loses their star player in the first quarter... the fans have a right to totally trash the Redskins.

[KDawg]

They're not actually giving up a lot more points than they did last season. Through three games they've allowed 67 points which comes out to about 22.3 per game. Last season they gave up 21.0 points per game. Now, you could opt to discard the Dallas game as not being representative of our defensive capabilities after scorefest that was the last two games. However, you could similarly make a case that our allowed ppg is artificially high due to various offensive and special teams blunders that have put our defense in very unfavorable situations. The reality of the situation is that we still don't entirely know what to expect from the defense this season. We're working with an awfully small sample size of games.

That doesn't mean that we can't make an educated guess as to how it will turn out. Through the first 3 games last year, as the comparison could be made, we allowed 46 points. That's 15.33 points per game. And the first three games from last season do somewhat compare to our first 3 for this season.

The Giants and Cowboys are comparable with one another. The Rams are comparable to themselves and we allowed 23 more points this year versus them they we did last year. What I'll give you is that the Lions aren't on the same plane of existence as the Texans are. But the fact remains that we've allowed over a touchdown per game more this season than last year through the first three games. That's not good.

[Oldfan]

They're not actually giving up a lot more points than they did last season. Through three games they've allowed 67 points which comes out to about 22.3 per game. Last season they gave up 21.0 points per game. Now, you could opt to discard the Dallas game as not being representative of our defensive capabilities after scorefest that was the last two games. However, you could similarly make a case that our allowed ppg is artificially high due to various offensive and special teams blunders that have put our defense in very unfavorable situations. The reality of the situation is that we still don't entirely know what to expect from the defense this season. We're working with an awfully small sample size of games.

The sample size of three games is too small to make statistical comparisons. But, we can make some relevant observations.

Here are a couple of observations most fans are missing: Last year Blache's passive defense did not give the offense short-field advantages, making the offense look worse than it really was. Last year the offense played the ball control offensive game well. This year, the offense is lousy at ball control (5/33 in 3rd down conversions) and, so far, is making the defense look worse than it really is.

[KDawg]

The sample size of three games is too small to make statistical comparisons. But, we can make some relevant observations.

Here are a couple of observations most fans are missing: Last year Blache's passive defense did not give the offense short-field advantages, making the offense look worse than it really was. Last year the offense played the ball control offensive game well. This year, the offense is lousy at ball control (5/33 in 3rd down conversions) and, so far, is making the defense look worse than it really is.

I also don't disagree with this. Although, our offense is light years ahead of what it was last year as a whole, our lack of a running game (sans yesterday) is hurting the defense a bit. And the defense hurts itself a bit by not getting off the field in third down situations.

[Brotherz]

I was thinking the exact same thoughts as the OP.

This fan based has been begging for a GM, new coach and a franchise QB for a decade. We've got a new GM, new coach, 3 new QB's, new offense, new defense and a pretty sizable turn-over in roster taking over a 4-12 team. .....and people are freaking out because we're struggling early? Really?

This game just proves there's still work to do.

With all due respect, this completely fails to account for the "WHY" everyone is so pissed off. I said in another thread that if we stockpiled draft-picks by trading portis, haynesworth, andre carter and every other vet on this team who wouldn't fit the new systems on both sides of the ball and fielded a new young team full of rookies who were learning on the job and got our asses pasted by the hapless rams we'd all be able to say "well we never did it the right way before so this year we will have to just eat it". But we traded our second and probably a 4th next year for Donovan who they haven't even signed to an extension and when we are 4-12 again probably won't!

We traded away another pick for Jamaal Brown. We just threw draft picks away and got older!! that's all we did. IF (and I mean IF not WHEN) we sign Donovan Mcnabb to a four year deal I might feel a little better. But right now it looks like we rented Donovan for a year - gave him Joey Galloway and anthony armstrong as his "weapons", signed and then cut Larry Johnson and willie parker (while the only vet RB worth a crap is actually contirbuting for the Jets right now) and then cut Torraine only to have him leapfrog our alleged franchise back in the third quarter of a blowout loss to st louis with absolutely no explanation. Torraine was on the freakin practice squad last week. They look freakin clueless.

They let Rolle go the Giants in an uncapped year while we have already lost a game because of our free safety play. Instead of trading andre carter or dockery they stayed with them and now have one completely out of position (as if we thought him being half a decade older was going to make the OLB experiment better for Andre than it was in San Fran) and the other is getting beaten out by Lichtensomething totally destroying dockeries trade value.

We took the best player on our defense and made him a third stringer because we insisted on a system that doesn't fit our personnel at all.

People are pissed not because we have a team full of young rookie draft picks that are learning a new system on both sides of the ball (ahem, that would be the rams by the way). We are pissed because they traded away any chance for a youth movement, signed an old QB who is going to win a superbowl in Minny in two years, and empties the cupboard of future draft picks in the process while simultaneously devaluing every single player on our team for a trade!

Rebuild through the draft and we'll eat our rebuild year or try to put a veteran team together to make a run in a league of parity that theoretically enhances the value of solid coaching and discipline. But you can't do both. They sold us the "future is now". What we are getting is "the future looks just like the past".

Im sorry for the rant, but I am amazed at how well some of you are taking this complete and utter ineptitude all because the name of our coach is Shannahan and our GM shares the name of a legenday coach we had a quarter of a century ago.

[Brotherz]

Some people need to understand that no matter the coach it's still a process. Stop expecting the magic turnaround wand and have some patience. There is a template to success that must be followed.

Do you have any idea what the plan is? Seriously, I keep hearing about a plan and a process. Can you actually discern at all what that is? Because I can look at the rams and see EXACTLY what the plan is. I can look at Detroit and see exactly what the plan is. I can look in Tampa and see exactly what the plan is. Ya know where I can't see the plan? Washington and Cleveland.

We have no plan. And if we do, its the most inconsistent thing i have ever witnessed. The plan appears to be to rent a QB on the tail end of his career for one year while giving the inevitable division winner this year our second and 4th round picks next year for him before he bolts to Arizona or Minny. It appears to be ignoing completely that our secondary is an absolute disaster and letting free agents that could actually help our team go to division rivals like the giants while we sign guys from the scrap heap because they are "cheap" like larry johnson and willie parker.

Our plan appears to be put guys in a system that won't work for them because Shanny after being fired for his stubborn refusal to acknowledge his defensive weaknesses in Denver went to see a couple of camps in his down year and liked the way they ran a system that was built with the personnel to actually play it!

Our plan appears to be to rotate offensive lineman in the hopes that at some point we will stumble into a player who can zone block while completely devaluing any trade value of our power blocking offensive lineman.

Finally our plan appears to be leaving guys like Devin Thomas on the bench in favor of 40 year old guys who have been cut by other teams three times in the last two years because Shanny needs to 'make and example' out of someone. I can't for the life of me see how Joey Galloway i a part of a plan that warrant patience. If we are patient waiting for Joey Galloway to make plays they are likely going to be against his grandchildren.

What plan are you talking about? Tell me outside of putting up a jumbotron and drafting trent williams what we should be patient about? Where is the future coming from exactly? we have no picks and we have no value to get picks.

[Oldfan]

Rebuild through the draft and we'll eat our rebuild year or try to put a veteran team together to make a run in a league of parity that theoretically enhances the value of solid coaching and discipline. But you can't do both. They sold us the "future is now". What we are getting is "the future looks just like the past".

Im sorry for the rant, but I am amazed at how well some of you are taking this complete and utter ineptitude all because the name of our coach is Shannahan and our GM shares the name of a legenday coach we had a quarter of a century ago.

I agreed with every point you made except for the likelihood of McNabb going to the Vikings. They showed no interest in Donovan at a time when they had no idea whether Favre would be physically able to return even if he wanted to.

Most Redskins fans love the big names in players and coaches. So, hiring Shanahan and Allen was bound to be popular. Moreover, it wasn't hard for the Redskins decision-makers to convince fans that there is indeed a free lunch in the NFL. You can intelligently build for the future and win now at the same time. That's what fans wanted to hear.

[Mahons21]

Over the next two years we have one less draft pick than the standard 14, without compensatory picks. There's nothing to suggest we can't trade one player if not more, and acquire one or multiple picks. In this situation we would have more than the standard 14 picks.

You mention the Rams and the Lions, both teams had a 1st overall pick, and were able to use it on what they believe to be a franchise QB. Had Shannahan had that option this year he would have done the same, is it his fault we didn't have the 1st overall pick? It's obvious he tried to trade for him, but it didn't work out, clearly they were asking for too much.

It's 3 games into the season, our teams going to have some growing pains so just relax. Chances are we'll draft our QB next year, he'll get to sit behind a potential future HOF QB, for a couple years maybe year and half and actually learn how to play the position. Ideally it would work out the way it has for Rodgers.

Keep in mind while this is going on, the rookies will come into an environment where work ethic, and attention to detail are actually valued, even by the veteran stars of the team. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Don't forget last time, Detroit had that "great plan" Joey Harrington was their QB, and they were the laughing stock of the NFL for the greater part of a decade.