RWJ Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 Sad thing of it is Shanahan/Haslett will never do it because of his past play and money. However, both MS and JH should do what's best for the team. Along with everyone else LF is loved by many and me included. Father time has caught up with him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TradeTheBeal! Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 Father time is finally tugging on Fletcher's cape. He has given everything he has to this team and to our beloved sport. I will never say a bad word about the guy. Ever. Something tells me that 59 hasn't had his last great game as a Skin. Something tells me he will make a big play in Dallas next week. That's just the type of player he is. I also wonder if his lack of snaps in preseason has had anything to do with him getting back into game shape. Probably not much, but something to think about. If he came out gang busters for the rest of the year, it surely wouldn't surprise me. I know it's tough to balance production vs. loyalty as an organization. But as a fan, it's easy for me. I will enjoy watching him pay the rest of the year, and salute him when he walks off the field for the last time. He's earned that from me. Give 'em hell Fletch. Excellent post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markmills67 Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 I said in another thread that I thought and wanted Fletcher to take a reduced role this year, and for me a reduced salary should have been offered by fletch or asked by Shanahan, $6m is far to much for what we are getting from him at present. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TSO Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 I feel like he has gotten slightly better the last two games, though. Not sure if it's enough, or if it even means he's getting his legs under him again at all, but it stinks that we're even having this conversation and that it's a legitimate one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sinister Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 I wonder if the plan was to spell him all along with Robinson, before that went up in flames back during TC. Then you bring in Barnett who has to learn the defense, which takes time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duckus Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 If Fletcher was the weak link on an otherwise good team I would consider benching him if we had a legit SB chance and he was holding is back. In reality, this team is bad and Fletcher is just one of many weak links. Nothing I have seen makes me think this team is going to the playoffs. Therefore, I am comfortable letting him play out this season as a starter. He has earned that. Hopefully he retires a Redskins this off season and joins the coaching hopefully brand new defensive staff in some way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 Despite missing a few tackles, he led the team with 10 tackles Sunday But id rather him go out now than later. He slowed down even last year but always was in position to make a play. A 50/50 split would work wonders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dallsux Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 It's tough because I like Fletch, think he's a real stand-up guy, good character, great leader, great locker room kind of guy...but he is 38 years old & it is starting to show. He seems to be behind the plays more often than not anymore & missing tackles that he used to (even as recently as last season) be right on top of. At this point, I believe they should do whatever it takes to turn this dismal defense around. I don't know that benching him altogether (all or nothin' type thing), but let him start the games, so he can keep his streak alive, but then sub him in & out more frequently to keep him from running out of gas & work in other players (who I can't remember names right now & too lazy to look it up) to get them some reps & who knows?, maybe they will turn out to be the very spark we need to start making stops. Whatever the case, this defense needs something to make them better. Right now, it turns my stomach to think that our next opponent could very well drop 30+ points on us with ease & leave us even further behind in the Division with 2 Division losses early in the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozymandias Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 Been saying this since week one. I love Fletch, but he has definitely lost a step physically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redskin4ever Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 I agree with most of what has been said in this thread. I love London Fletcher. How could anyone not love a guy who gives his heart and soul on every play and is a leader on this team. He's the only current player's jersey I own. I would love to see him play for more years for the Redskins. However, I think his time has come. He looked lost that first game. He's looked slow ever since. He's also missing a lot more tackles than I'm used to seeing. I don't think he should be benched, but more snaps from Barnett or Jackson or Riley or whoever else would help. It would be nice to have that young guy who can learn and eventually replace him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyansRangers Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 After watching the short cut of the game, I now believe fletcher should sit out more plays then he plays.. He is getting lit up by lineman, missing tackles and looks slow. I think he sjould start every game and still play but he needs to take series off not plays.. Riley looks looks like a young fletcher , fast and hard hitting. We need a impact player beside rileu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rskin72 Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 Fletcher has been the constant good on many, many bad Redskin teams. He is a class act, and I personally would not have a huge issue with him being allowed to continue to start and play a majority of the defensive downs. He is the field general for our D....and with the QB's that we will soon face, isn't his experience more valuable on the field than off?? And....I agree with Duckus in that I do not see Fletcher as the main weak link on this D. While he is not the player of yesteryear, he has certainly earned some latitude here with the team. And, I am not convinced that the current options are that much better. Just have not seen enough of Barnett to assess if he is that much of an improvement right now. This topic was also discussed on one of the pre-game shows....think the Redskins broadcast....prior to the Raider game. The speculation was that others would take more of a role in his position after he passed Romanowski this past weekend....and in reading other articles I certainly think that his on field presence will be reduced as others are tried out at his position. London has been a warrior for us....and he was one of the players that I really wanted to see us do well because of. Class act all around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TK Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 I wonder if the plan was to spell him all along with Robinson, before that went up in flames back during TC. Then you bring in Barnett who has to learn the defense, which takes time. Robinson is a guy they were looking at using to replace him with until he got injured. Barnett will continue to take snaps from London as the season goes on. He may not be the answer, but he & Riley were out there calling the D against Oaklnad when Fletch was "taking a breather". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KDawg Posted October 1, 2013 Share Posted October 1, 2013 He's the one guy I won't budge on. He's our leader. Let's see what he can do when his legs are a bit fresher from some more breaks in-game. I bet that old dog still knows some tricks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyansRangers Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Same as when people stopped fearing ray Lewis.... he was lucky to be on team with Excellent secondary the last 3 yrz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CommanderDOOM Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 you could see it last year. We have shown great loyalty to Fletch and he has earned it being the player he was and man he is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momma There Goes That Man Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 I have no problem saying it and we can all agree with the article's premise. Fletcher probably shouldn't be on this team IMO and if he is, he shouldn't be at the price he's been paid the last two years. One of the biggest mistakes the FO has made in their time here. I have no problem if they wanted Fletcher to go out on his own terms and have one more go but they bid against themselves on a 36yr old LB since nobody else was knocking on his door and it hurt us with the cap penalty. We could have had more flexibility and even just a couple million each of the last two years could have been a big help. There isn't much we can do about it now though. I would just try to phase him out with Barnett getting more and more time if he doesn't improve. I worry it's about more than the offseason surgery since he has been showing signs of slowing down for a while now. Being a leader on the field doesn't mean a lot if the person is always making mistakes. Other players pick up on that and would rather have someone who can make the plays. Not saying it's just Fletch but It may be one of the few positions we can do something about. Unless it's just about playcalls on the field in which case give him a headset on the sideline and let him go to work when he comes off the field Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemocystem Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 i love Fletcher, but i've been saying this since game 1. i think Barnett has played admirably...though i need to see more from him to annoint him for now. Fletcher misses a LOT of tackles right now, but he's also a liability in coverage...especially against athletic TE's. i'm afraid Whitten may have a field day against him & our schedule vs. teams that emphasize athletic pass-catching TE's doesn't get any better as we go with Gonzalez, Whitten2, Myers2, Davis, Bennett, Rudolph, Gates, & Celek 1 more time. we were better vs the run on Sunday, but still had waaaaaayyyyy too much trouble tackling. it's like guys forgot to wrap-up all of a sudden & we figure we're just gonna knock guys down on our reputation. but it's not just Fletcher missing tackles. he's slower to his fits, he dances with blockers too much or gets wiped out completely. he seems to have lost his ability to engage & explode towards the action. he's obviously a step or two slower just athletically speaking, & he seems to be almost avoiding contact (maybe due to his recent epiphany about concussions?). i think he came back to chase a title with this team....but i agree with most in this thread....he needs to be used sparingly until he can consistently produce. it's not enough anymore for him to just be a leader on the field if he can't tackle or stuff a hole. as i said...i love the guy, but he's hurting our team a bit on defense. mind you...there are many other leaky holes to plug, but Fletcher (as per the OP) is definitely a big one at this juncture. i'm hoping Jarvis Jenkins & Cofield being able to play together will help immensely, though i don't like to accept that we get THAT much worse from Jenkins to the next man...Jenkins is more than able to swallow up blockers & it gives Fletcher more room to read & react. Riley has been a beast (minus the punt flub), so maybe it does have more to do with missing Jenkins & Cofield. i really wish we could get Carriker back this year...but that ship has sailed it seems (or has it?) as i feel we would be more complete in the front 7. i can't help but feel that a lot of our inability to gain penetration or stuff runs before they get going like we did last year is that Cofield hasn't been able to play fully healthy, or at least close to it, until just this week, & none of the other down linemen have made any sort of habit of getting a push against the O-line. you can see how big of a difference Cofield makes, especially in the passing game in terms of getting the right kind of pressure on the QB. i just hope Jenkins can provide even more of that where it comes to our play vs. the run. time will tell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Washington Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Barnett hasn't been much better in his spot time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
London Kev Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Damn shame about Keenan Robinson getting hurt. Either Keenan eventually taking over for Fletcher, or Riley in for Fletcher and Keenan in for Riley would have been perfect. I say eventually cos I'm not giving up on Fletch just yet. Yes his missed tackles are painful to watch (he's not the only one) and he's obviously slowed down, but he's still the the undisputed leader on defense and IIRC he's also coming back from surgery (ankle?). This will be his last year and I hope that if his playing time is managed properly he will continue to start untill the end. Even though Kevin Ross and CBS Sports are right, it still annoys me them saying it, and I wish they would STFU. HTTR, HTLF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spear Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 The previous two years Fletcher has had slow starts, but he got it together eventually. He might be hurt by the CBA practice rules more than most and just needs the live reps to round into form. It's not like Barnett is the future of that position, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WheresRickySanders83 Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 The previous two years Fletcher has had slow starts, but he got it together eventually. He might be hurt by the CBA practice rules more than most and just needs the live reps to round into form. It's not like Barnett is the future of that position, anyway. Good point about him starting slow last year and playing better down the stretch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MumboSauce Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Love Fletch, but I think that wall/drop off happened. sucks. Appreciate the heck out of what he gave us during this tenure/part of his career. Hail! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mi6 Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 I'd say, given his poor performance but factoring in team leadership, that it's time to rotate Barnett in more often, close to a 50-50 split between him and Fletch. Agree. Time to put someone else with speed and strength in. Rotating London, might keep him fresh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoCalMike Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 I keep hearing Perry Riley being talked up. On occasion he shows the potential to be the next Antonio Pierce, a guy who comes from nowhere to be a leader in the middle of the field for the defense. I hope it happens sooner than later. Fletcher is a goner soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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