Looking Ahead To 2014 And Beyond.

[MWAI]

With all the excitement of this seasons squad, I began thinking about how nice it would be if the Skins go deep into the playoffs and then perhaps on to the Superbowl. I also began thinking about those teams that have had success, and kept a perennial Superbowl contender year after year and how they did it.

 

There are a lot of teams who "BLIP"....go on the radar and then fall off for another 5, 6, or 10 years. In fact the Skins were one of those teams. I remember when they had Brad Johnson and Bruce Smith and had a playoff appearance early on but then they immediately went back to being a band of losers patched together with old veterans, has beens, never wills, and some duct tape to hold them together.

 

The Same with Joe Gibbs 2. He came in quickly and brought a bunch of veterans and players together who were for the most part in their prime or just about to go past it. He had some success and when he left it all fell apart because so many guys were also rans, old vets, and nothing more than average.

 

So here we stand with the possibility of one GREAT team and GREAT season. But what about the next 10 years? Well, I see a possible dynasty and here are some reasons or clues:

 

1) RG3. Most great teams have some measure of consistency at the QB position. Manning with the Colts. Brady with the Pats. Saints with Brees. Dolphins with Marino, etc. RG3 barring more injuries can be our stabilizing factor.

 

2) Snyder. Here is where I lose many of you...but Snyder seems to have learned how to be a good owner. He now understands the value of not playing Madden with his football team. Hiring a good GM and a good coach and letting them run it is paramount and he now "gets it".

 

3) Bruce Allen. Even should Mike Shanahan leave we now have a great GM and solid, experienced winner in the Administrator position. He learned from his Dad and he had success at Tampa and now here in D.C. I don't see him leaving in the next couple of years because this is his team, his history, and his Fathers team as well. He is exactly where he wants to work for the next 10 years.

 

Those are my reasons for believing this team has a super duper chance at being successful for a 10 year period. It has nothing to do with Orakpo, or Kerrigan, or Mike and Kyle Shanahan because all of those guys are just pieces of the team that can immediately change. Mike retires in 2 years, Kyle takes a head coaching job, Orakpo goes down with ACL, Garcon gets old and slow, Fletcher retires, Morris suffers a concussion, etc etc etc.

 

What is needed to hold a team together for a solid run is a solid hierarchy and this team has it, not to mention a really really good scouting staff who people are finally listening to. So feel free to add your comments but if you think about it in these terms, taking the homerism out of it, us Redskins Fans really do have more than just one season to look forward to.

[mike42]

It's make a difference when we actually build through the draft.

 

I'm not so sold on Snyder yet. I thought he turned a new leaf during Gibbs 2.0....but when Zorn arrived, Snyder went crazy again like it was repeat of the 2000 season..except more embarrassing. Snyder has done a good job in the last two years by staying in the background and canning Vinny, but is Snyder going to behave for Shannys predecessor?

[Momma There Goes That Man]

It's make a difference when we actually build through the draft.

 

I'm not so sold on Snyder yet. I thought he turned a new leaf during Gibbs 2.0....but when Zorn arrived, Snyder went crazy again like it was repeat of the 2000 season..except more embarrassing. Snyder has done a good job in the last two years by staying in the background and canning Vinny, but is Snyder going to behave for Shannys predecessor?

But you never should have thought he was any different under Gibbs. That whole move (and the reason I hated bringing Gibbs back) was a typical Snyder "splash" move that was a poor decision but made news and provided excitement but was not a decision made with the long term in mind. Because it was a short term patch, I had never had the inclination anything would be different whenever Gibbs inevitably left again.

[Darth Tater]

It's make a difference when we actually build through the draft.

 

I'm not so sold on Snyder yet. I thought he turned a new leaf during Gibbs 2.0....but when Zorn arrived, Snyder went crazy again like it was repeat of the 2000 season..except more embarrassing. Snyder has done a good job in the last two years by staying in the background and canning Vinny, but is Snyder going to behave for Shannys predecessor?

Yep,  remember that one of Snyder's heroes is Jerrah Jones.  In his first couple of years, JJ was hated on like Snyder but when the 'Boys started winning, JJ started getting similar praise.  Of course, JJ never really changed, he just found the right HC to turn his team into a winner and because the team now had talent, he reverted without too much public pain.  Snyder seems to have found the right HC and now has young talent at key postions.  I could see Snyder reverting back to his earlier self.

[BleedBNG]

All this with about $40M under the cap (I'm guessing). In your face Mara... so far your weaseling has back fired.

 

HTTR
 

[88Comrade2000]

Robert  as long as he stays healthy should have a nice 10-11 year career.  I don't think he will be playing as long as say Peyton Manning or Tom Brady will end up playing because he style of play will wear him out sooner than later.

 

Synder, is wait and see.   I won't believe Snyder will have truely changed until I see how he does in a post Shanny era.  If he lets Shanny's successor run things along with Bruce; then I will believe Danny has changed.

Danny can easily go back to his old ways.

[Warhead36]

I feel like 2014 is the year we make a legit push to the Super Bowl. This year is all about getting RG3 back healthy, and everyone building a rhythm on offense. There will also be growing pains on D with all the young players in the secondary. Next year though we'll have a healthy(hopefully)RG3 going into that magical 3rd season, another year for the other young players on the team, and we'll have our salary cap space back to shore up those last few needs(RT, possibly CB and S).

[MWAI]

Yep,  remember that one of Snyder's heroes is Jerrah Jones.  In his first couple of years, JJ was hated on like Snyder but when the 'Boys started winning, JJ started getting similar praise.  Of course, JJ never really changed, he just found the right HC to turn his team into a winner and because the team now had talent, he reverted without too much public pain.  Snyder seems to have found the right HC and now has young talent at key postions.  I could see Snyder reverting back to his earlier self.

You are so far off base that you could get picked off twice. Jerry Jones did not change, that part is correct and he never gave any indication of changing. He even tried to get into Bill Parcells locker room meeting once and Parcells locked him out. Parcells left the Cowboys early because he couldn't work with a guy who wanted YES men.

 

You are so far off base from the Snyder of today that you have been picked off AND thrown out at second all at the same time. Daniel Snyder is completely out of the loop, he has a General Manager,....HE is not the GM like Jones is in Dallas. And Snyder does not interfere in any way shape or form with Shanahan or Allen. Snyder obviously understands the value of letting professional football people run the operation. WOW! When you're wrong you are REALLY wrong.

[Darth Tater]

You are so far off base that you could get picked off twice. Jerry Jones did not change, that part is correct and he never gave any indication of changing. He even tried to get into Bill Parcells locker room meeting once and Parcells locked him out. Parcells left the Cowboys early because he couldn't work with a guy who wanted YES men.

 

You are so far off base from the Snyder of today that you have been picked off AND thrown out at second all at the same time. Daniel Snyder is completely out of the loop, he has a General Manager,....HE is not the GM like Jones is in Dallas. And Snyder does not interfere in any way shape or form with Shanahan or Allen. Snyder obviously understands the value of letting professional football people run the operation. WOW! When you're wrong you are REALLY wrong.

You just cut if you really can say what you just said with a straight face because you have no ability to read or are just pretending to be obtuse.  Or maybe you just live in an alternate reality?

[88Comrade2000]

Shanny is the real GM.   Bruce handles more of the business side but personnel side lies with Shanny.

 

When Shanny is gone, Bruce will probably revert to more of a traditional GM.

 

 

As for Snyder, we don't know how he will react once Shanny is gone.  Will he have learned?  Or will he want to play GM again?  Until that day happens; the jury is out on what Snyder will do in a posty Shanny era.   Danny only respects coaches with previous successful track records.   Marty- while he sucked in the postseason, he was great in the regular season.  Spurrier- he sucked as an NFL coach but he did have that track record of a sucessful college coach.  Gibbs- While his second stint was mediocre at best, he had that Hall of Fame record already.  Finally, Shanny had 2 superbowl rings.    Only Norv and Zorn didn't really get respect from Dan. 

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

I really think with many that nothing shy of lil' Danny selling up will pacify folk for his past sins. 

 

I honestly don't know what more he could of done the past 3 years or so to show he's finally learnt from his past mistakes. 

 

Y'all are a hard, long memoried bunch. Remind me never to piss you off. 

 

Hail. 

[MEANDWARF]

Snyder needed and finally got football guys around him in Shanny/Allen. Ridding himself with Cerato was a big deal.

RGIII barring anymore major injuries, has the potential to be one of the best in Skins history. Just saying.

[skinny21]

I really think with many that nothing shy of lil' Danny selling up will pacify folk for his past sins.

I honestly don't know what more he could of done the past 3 years or so to show he's finally learnt from his past mistakes.

Y'all are a hard, long memoried bunch. Remind me never to piss you off.

Hail.

It's tough because its one regime he's changed for (there was Gibbs, but unfortunately there was Zorn/Cerrato after Gibbs. Is it a trend or just a trend while he has the right guys running the show?

BTW, Reading your posts sometimes makes me think I'm in a Western... and I love it. Carry on.

[acuratl1984]

All this with about $40M under the cap (I'm guessing). In your face Mara... so far your weaseling has back fired.

 

Though it would be nice to say steal a player from them via free agency, I would rather drive up the price and make the Giants over pay on Hakeem Nicks. I would love to have Nicks, but I think developing our own talent would be better and cheaper.

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

..... BTW, Reading your posts sometimes makes me think I'm in a Western... and I love it. Carry on.

 

I don't know whether that's a good or bad thing, but I like it. 

 

And now I got Springsteen's 'Outlaw Pete'' going round my head as a theme tune. Which is great except I'm not called Pete. And I've never been on a horse. But I do love The Boss. And westerns. So I'ma roll with it. 

 

Hail. 

[SkinsHokieFan]

I really think with many that nothing shy of lil' Danny selling up will pacify folk for his past sins. 

 

I honestly don't know what more he could of done the past 3 years or so to show he's finally learnt from his past mistakes. 

 

Y'all are a hard, long memoried bunch. Remind me never to piss you off. 

 

Hail. 

 

Honestly I am pretty much that fan

 

The utter buffoonery and nonsense we dealt with from 1999-2010 is a black mark on this organization. Even Gibbs was tainted by it.

 

6 last place finishes, multiple 10 loss seasons, constant drama, embarrassing treatment of fans 

[TSO]

As long as Bruce Allen is here, I just don't see Snyder being allowed to revert to his old ways. Allen doesn't strike me as a "yes man" and I think he wouldn't stand for it.

 

But, if we lose Bruce. I don't know.  

[Rpredskins]

Don't look now but we are an OT, safety, and CB away from having no glaring weaknesses. Doesn't mean we have an all-star team but a year from now I expect those 3 positions will be backed up and hopefully a new starter or two, and that's when you can go from a team trying to put pieces together to a team refining its pieces and making things fit together.

 

My biggest fear for the future is that Dan Snyder at some point misinterprets a genuine hard-fought postseason exit as a coaching failure and cans Shanahan. But hopefully he takes a hint from the 49ers, Ravens, Patriots, that you can have super bowl worthy team that doesn't win the super bowl because there are between 1 and 5 others who are just as worthy and only one can win.

[dolver]

I remember reading somewhere that we will have a lot of guys become free agents in 2014. If that is true, my biggest concern would be losing key players. My second biggest concern would be not upgrading at our weak positions (with starters AND backups). I doubt all of that will be possible in one year, even with the cap space we are getting back. Then again, I am no Bruce Allen, so here's hoping!