Califan007 The Constipated Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/washington-redskins-2012-n-f-l-season-preview/ (In Bubba's Breaking News section as well) OFFENSERobert Griffin III, with his superb mobility, appears to be a terrific fit for Mike Shanahan’s West Coast style system. There’s a tendency to equate a mobile quarterback to a running quarterback. But good mobile quarterbacking involves much more than scrambling to move the chains. In Shanahan’s system, which features a heavy dosage of play-action rollouts, bootlegs and sliding pockets, a quarterback must be able to make throws and decipher defenses while on the move. Even executing a handoff can require top-notch mobility, given that the outside zone-stretch is so prominent in this scheme. Griffin showed impressive proficiency as a moving passer at Baylor. And unlike many athletic quarterbacks, he exhibited an ability to make stick throws from the pocket in obvious passing situations. That’s critical because in the N.F.L., no matter how well a team runs the ball, quarterbacks are going to face obvious passing situations multiple times a game – most of them in critical moments, too. Shanahan saved everyone from going through a politically driven dog and pony show by anointing Griffin as the starter during the team’s first minicamp. That means the only quarterback competition will be for backup duties between the wildly inconsistent, mistake-prone Rex Grossman and the sounder but less gifted fourth-round rookie Kirk Cousins. DEFENSEHall returns as the starting left corner, though he claims he could soon be headed for more of a versatile nickel slot role (like Charles Woodson). A few years ago, this would have been laughable, but, recently, Hall has become a more willing and able tackler. He’s not capable of playing tight man coverage on a regular basis, though, so the slot, where zone concepts are harder to employ, may not be a good fit. Given that last year’s slot corner, Kevin Barnes, has struggled a bit himself in man-coverage, the most sensible plan for nickel would seem to be sliding Josh Wilson (a good underneath cutter) inside and using the free-agent pickup Cedric Griffin outside. Griffin, an ex-Viking who came off two A.C.L. injuries in 10 months to start 14 games last year, is most comfortable as a zone player. Also, the seventh-round rookies Jordan Bernstine and Richard Crawford, as well as the undrafted Chase Minnifield, could be in the mix for nickel duties. [...]One could make the argument that Haslett should actually be less aggressive with his pass-rush concepts given that he can count on getting natural pressure from his two emerging first-round stars at outside linebacker. The fourth-year man Brian Orakpo offers tremendous speed-to-power leverage on one side, while the second-year man Ryan Kerrigan brings explosiveness and surprising agility on the other side. Considering that both Orakpo and Kerrigan can play the run, there will be no reason for the backups Chris Wilson, Markus White and Rob Jackson to see much of the field this season. BOTTOM LINEThis is the first time since Shanahan arrived that the Redskins seem to be building a roster that fits the head coach’s scheme. That’s encouraging, though it will still take considerable time to strengthen the many areas of weakness here. Predicted Finish: 4th NFC East There is a TON more at the link if you're interested... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elkabong82 Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Lots of things look good for the Skins, but we'll still predict last place for them. Typical. With post 10k I will just say HTTR, RG3, haters gonna hate, just win baby! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWFLSkins Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 I like the opinions written and some of the insight on Griffin especially. I do however wonder how the national media keeps thinking that none of the other three NFCE teams will falter and finish fourth below the Redskins. I just don't see anyone even considering it. Congrats Elkabong, milestone time^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elkabong82 Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 I like the opinions written and some of the insight on Griffin especially. I do however wonder how the national media keeps thinking that none of the other three NFCE teams will falter and finish fourth below the Redskins. I just don't see anyone even considering it.Congrats Elkabong, milestone time^ Thank you, and I had to change the avatar of course! Yeah, I also don't get why people don't seem to fathom a team regressing. Injuries, schemes getting stale, coaches getting figured out. It's happened to us, it's happened to others even in our own division, yet the possibility still is not entertained. For all we know Murray was a flash in the pan and Romo sits to pee continues to regress, and the Dallas D slides further while Dez continues to be a knucklehead and Claiborne busts. And Vick gets hurt 3 games in, the D does poorly yet again with an oddball DC, and the team folds like a cheap lawnchair. The giants snuck into the playoffs, but had a good run. Doesn't change the fact they were 1 game from missing the playoffs entirely. Their run game has question marks. Eli is good, but is he at Rodger's level where the team can win exclusively with the pass? Will Cruz succeed or regress? Can Nicks stay healthy? Can Bradshaw? Will the DL continue to mask the deficiencies in their secondary and at LBer, or will they get exposed in a shootout? None of the teams had impressive regular seasons in 2011. Redskins with turnover machine Grossman were in every single game until at or near the end due to a good ground game, good D, and good O scheme. RG3 has a learning curve, but is it really so out of the realm of possibility that RG3 produces at or better than Grossman's levels, but with half the turnovers? If that sounds possible, and you believe Skins can stay consistent in other areas as you believe the other teams will, then you should be able to at least envision us winning the division or finishing 2nd. Personally I think our D is going to move close to top 5 this season, and RG3 is going to have us contending for the division late. Injuries and learning curves for rookies and 2nd year players are hard to predict, so I won't call playoffs, but I will say we should be competing for the division lead in December. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
authentic Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 looks good will have to dig into this more when i get home.. :munchout: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjfootballer Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 It is from the "NEW YORK" Times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elkabong82 Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Forget the "I heart NY" shirts, we need "I H8 Mara" shirts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#BgMase76# Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Read the entire article. I do somewhat disagree w/ his assessment of J.Jenkins in the passing game. From what i've read of Jenkins he's a three down player. If he's splitting tome w/ Carriker then he's gotta be sufficient enough to take snaps. I can't disagree w/ basically anything he's saying until we do it on the field. I do feel that our OL gets disrespected way more than called for. I also find it ironic how people always point out Shanny's run by committee style offense and then point out our lack of a #1 RB. Correct me if I'm wrong but our run game was the only consistent thing we had on offense. That being said w/ no defense scared of Rex or Beck's arm. Helu and Royster showed themselves more than effective in our system. Royster showed himself capable of being an Orlandis Gary or Rueben Droughns in this system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roanoker Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Agree with the bottomline. Im looking forward to this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#BgMase76# Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 I completely agree. What's this like Romo sits to pee's 8th season as a starter? I think stats wise it was his best yet. Supposedly Murray's the answer at RB. That was the line w/ Felix. Their OL is riddled w/ questions same as Philly. Our secondary is the same if not better than dallass. But hey, that's why we play the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2STaylor1 Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 honestly i know its the NFL and anything can happen but i could see 7-9 finishing at 4th in the div and it wouldnt bother me too much, my actual prediction is somewhere between 7-9 and 9-7. however i could see wht winner in the NFCE going 10-6, 2nd 9-7, 3rd 8-8... and 4th 7-9. plus or minue 1 win each Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-Dog Night Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Our secondary is the same if not better than dallass While you never know about rookies, I feel pretty comfortable in saying that the addition of Claiborne along with the Carr signing have bumped their secondary up a notch past the Skins. We'll see if it plays out like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibbs Hog Heaven Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Their a serious mess at the safety spots E-D, and there's not much of anything to write home about at corner behind Claiborne and Carr. Not that we're inn any better shape back there. Hail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-Dog Night Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Their a serious mess at the safety spots E-D, and there's not much of anything to write home about at corner behind Claiborne and Carr. Not that we're inn any better shape back there. Agreed, but you already made my point. I mean, Skins' secondary might turn out to be a very pleasant surprise. Sometimes, when a fired head coach returns to his positional roots, he gets good things to happen (Wade Phillips immediately comes to mind as does Gregg Williams), so we'll see if that happens with Morris. But I'd venture to say that any outside observer would be hard pressed to take a look at the Skins secondary and find too many positives, particularly at safety. But you never know. Maybe Jackson finds his form. Maybe Hall matures. Maybe Gomes takes a huge leap from year 1 to year 2. Maybe the problem with Merriweather at New England & Chicago really was the scheme and he will experience a career renaissance. Or maybe it's as bad as it looks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuriousD Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Good write-up and not really much to argue about. The sad reality is this team is still littered with question marks and we're still waiting for a lot of those to pan out. One thing that did stick in my craw was this QB snippet ..."That means the only quarterback competition will be for backup duties between the wildly inconsistent, mistake-prone Rex Grossman and the sounder but less gifted fourth-round rookie Kirk Cousins". I mean, is is possible to less gifted than a wildly inconsistant, mistake prone QB? Blech! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sportjunkie07 Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 this was an excellent article. his player and scheme analysis was spot on for pretty much the entire article. there is really nothing i disagree with except that i hope we finish higher than 4th place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No_Pressure Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Good write-up and not really much to argue about. The sad reality is this team is still littered with question marks and we're still waiting for a lot of those to pan out. One thing that did stick in my craw was this QB snippet ..."That means the only quarterback competition will be for backup duties between the wildly inconsistent, mistake-prone Rex Grossman and the sounder but less gifted fourth-round rookie Kirk Cousins". I mean, is is possible to less gifted than a wildly inconsistant, mistake prone QB? Blech! He means less physically gifted- Rex Grossman regularly spends all off-season attending various eating competitions and I highly doubt Kirk Cousins has as gifted of a gullet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Win4us Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Forget the "I heart NY" shirts,we need "I H8 Mara" shirts Nah, Mara's a good owner......for me to poop on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpacePenguin Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Pretty fair writeup here, but since it's not a real ES post within some kind of overdramatization..... "They forgot Chris Neild! These idiot sportswriters don't even know the rosters." "Neild is gonna blow up this season, Book it!!!" But really, the only thing that bothered me about the article was the way it adressed our "new" safety tandem . Please tell me Jim Haslett isn't building a secondary of Dhalls. I mean I knew Meriweather was rather undisciplined, but I hadn't heard that about Jackson. Ah well, we'll know in a few months. I would put more stock into an ES poster's opinion on Jackson than the NY Times when it comes to something like this anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#BgMase76# Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 While you never know about rookies, I feel pretty comfortable in saying that the addition of Claiborne along with the Carr signing have bumped their secondary up a notch past the Skins. We'll see if it plays out like that. Possibly, but what about their safeties? The best player in their secondary is Ware. Minus him there's nothing to be said about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.