Mike Shanahan Press Conference: "I haven't made a decision on the starting QB **UPDATE** per John Keim: Cousins will start

[TouchdownSkin]

I still don't think Dan can fire Mike because Mike and Kyle are attached at the hip and I doubt anyone else on the offensive staff has ever really installed a game plan here.

 

Suddenly Haslett is your interim head coach/defensive coordinator and I dunno - Bobby Turner? - is your offensive coordinator. Has any offensive assistant ever called plays before?

Mike and Kyle haven't installed a game plan here.

[CapnRedskins]

 I love how he talks about RG3's health being in jeopardy because of the offensive line giving up 24 sacks in the last 5 games. So, basically he's concerned he will still get hit. He might as well just come out and say, "I don't want our franchise QB killed because I've done jack **** to help the offensive line in the 4 years I've been here." That, at least, would be honest.

[Voice_of_Reason]

Week after week commentators talk about the crushing hits that Robert takes that other QB's don't take.  Whether in the pocket or out.  Robert doesn't know enough about the position to protect himself.  Here's a list of skills he needs to master:

 

1.  Reset protection to compensate for blitzes

2.  Develop a presnap and post snap ability to diagnose coverages

3.  Get thru his progressions in 3 seconds or less (stop locking in on his primary read)

4.  Climb and slide in the pocket instead of the Michael Jackson moon walk

5.  Be aware of his hot routes (frustrates the crap out of me when I see Helu wide open waiting for the ball)

 

Those are skills that need to ingrained but it requires an offense to do so.  Because he needs repetition to help him develop the muscle memory and thought patterns to make them good habits.  During game week there's no time for that.  He has the game plan and the opponent's defense to worry about. 

If you watched the New Orleans game against Carolina, you got to see a master class on QB play by one of the all-time masters in Drew Brees. 

 

3-4 reads in 2.5 seconds or less. Master at the LOS.  Very fast through his reads.  Perfect footwork.  Complete command of the game.  

On the first touchdown he threw, you could see him go to his third progression. And it took him 2.17 seconds.  (They showed it with a stopwatch.)

 

I swear that if you put Brees on this team, with this offensive cast, with this coaching staff, keep everything the same, this is a top 5 offense.  Just like it was last year when Robert was playing well.  

 

Because I don't care how bad Polumbus and Chester are.  If the ball is out to the third receiver in 2.17 seconds, 90% of the time the QB isn't going to get touched. 

[BKSkinsFan]

Any chance that the players actually like coach and he leads them to a successful year next season after a full offseason with upgrades to the roster through free agency?

[Gamebreaker]

I agree with ZRagone, that we will know how much of this stuff is true by what happens to Shanahan. If he's fired, there was an element of truth to all the nonsense controversies we've been dealing with all season. If he's still here next year, the media created this nonsense.

Personally, I'm hoping this has been media driven and Shanahan stays. Let's face it, we are not hiring a better coach than him this off-season. Snyder looks like the same old meddlesome owner that forced away every available, competent coach and forced him to promote Zorn to HC. RG3's reputation has gone from exemplary, to an uncoachable, arrogant kid who can't play. No competent coach will come here and deal with this mess.

So I'm hoping Shanahan is still here, and he fires Haslett and Burns. Hires Lovie Smith as his DC, uses his 30 million in cap space to improve the OL, add a second WR opposite Garcon, outbids the league for Jarius Bryd, and gets us two competent ILBs.

With a full off-season with Griffin learning how to be a better QB and not rehabbing his knees, we'll see a better product on the field.

Of course, all of this stuff could be true, Shanahan is toast, and we could be watching Art Briles( Spurrier 2.0) in here as the rest of the league laughs at us for another year.

[ThomasRoane]

This drives me nuts. Should we have stopped playing him when we hit 7 losses? Why are we still playing Morris, Garcon, and Kerrigan? They could get hurt too.

 

Because the QB position has the potential for greater injury.  A skills player almost always knows when a big hit is coming.  QB's don't always have that luxury.  Especially QB's that are learning.

 

I believe Robert has a bright future and I don't want him to be Ramsey'ed.  Or worse, David Carred!  Both those poor kids were so shell shocked from beatings that they never recovered.

[HAILSKINSNYC]

I highly doubt this happened, but maybe Shanny told Dan that RG3 was the main reason we've struggled and to prove that; he'll play Cousins the last 3 games and win.

[ThomasRoane]

If you watched the New Orleans game against Carolina, you got to see a master class on QB play by one of the all-time masters in Drew Brees. 

 

3-4 reads in 2.5 seconds or less. Master at the LOS.  Very fast through his reads.  Perfect footwork.  Complete command of the game.  

On the first touchdown he threw, you could see him go to his third progression. And it took him 2.17 seconds.  (They showed it with a stopwatch.)

 

I swear that if you put Brees on this team, with this offensive cast, with this coaching staff, keep everything the same, this is a top 5 offense.  Just like it was last year when Robert was playing well.  

 

Because I don't care how bad Polumbus and Chester are.  If the ball is out to the third receiver in 2.17 seconds, 90% of the time the QB isn't going to get touched. 

 

And Robert is a very smart kid.  Taller than Drew and Robert has a much stronger arm.  But he needs a good off season working on his craft.  Developing those really good habits.  With the bad state of the Redskins line right now and Robert thinking thru everything instead of instinctively playing the position I think sitting RG III would be the best move Mike could make for the Redskin's future on the way out.

[KingGibbs]

This is a catch 22. He needs the reps badly because his pocket presence has been nothing short of horrible lately, but at the same time, our OL has turned into turnstiles so why risk injury when we are toast for the season?

[VCDefectors]

Wow!! I could be totally off on this (I'm a Cowboys fan so that shouldn't surprise anybody....), but it looks like to me that Shanahan wants to showcase Cousins in order to get ready to trade him. I didn't get any sense that Shanny has given up on RGIII. In fact, I take him at his word that he sees RGIII as the "franchise QB" and sees no point in throwing him out there for more abuse. I don't know if I agree with that kind of thinking though. If Cousins doesn't perform well, then that would lessen his trade value. If he does perform well, then a lot of Skins fans would be upset for trading away a perfectly good QB. High risk either way. 

It reminds me of when the Cowboys drafted Aikman and took Steve Walsh in the supplemental draft. It ended up costing the Cowboys the number 1 pick in the 1991 draft (they had to "settle" on Emmitt Smith at #17). 

[steve09ru]

This drives me nuts. Should we have stopped playing him when we hit 7 losses? Why are we still playing Morris, Garcon, and Kerrigan? They could get hurt too.

Griffin isn't learning anything out there right now - he's getting beat up and taking shots for no reason.  He's not going to improve the last 3 weeks and it's going to come in the offseason when he can work on the basics which is what he is missing.  Keeping him in is just going to get him killed - especially facing a team in a dome, a division rival that will have playoff hopes on the line and one division rival that just hit him over and over again in the second half.

 

Why keep him in?  If he gets hurt, all you are going to hear is that Shanahan only wanted to win games to stay around and didn't care what happened to Griffin.  It's a lose-lose for Shanny in the eyes of most but I think it's a smart decision. 

[RiverboatGambler]

I highly doubt this happened, but maybe Shanny told Dan that RG3 was the main reason we've struggled and to prove that; he'll play Cousins the last 3 games and win.

If we had a uniform schedule in terms of difficulty then I would welcome this but NYG Dallas and ATL are not on the level of the 9ers, Chiefs, or many of the other teams we have seen this year. At this point the stats will no longer be meaningful to me. We have a QB controversy, the locker room will be split and the fan-base will be split no matter how well cousins plays and we are basically either wrecking Griffin or Cousins trade value. This season is like a bad episode of Jerry Springer. I'll check in a couple of times during games but I want Shanahan gone and his kid gone and Haslett gone as well.

[Cooleyfan1993]

"Stunting his development". What development could he gain the final 3 games with a crappy head coach...? Yeah, I win. You all lose. Go away.

[TexasSkinsFan]

This drives me nuts. Should we have stopped playing him when we hit 7 losses? Why are we still playing Morris, Garcon, and Kerrigan? They could get hurt too.

 

 

No one on the football field is as important to your team as your QB and if I was in charge I would have done things differently all season. First I wouldn't have started a QB in his second season with no offseason work. I would have had him on a preseason schedule the first four games

 

Game 1 - 1 Quarter

Game 2 - 2 Quarters

Game 3 - 3 Quarters

Game 4 - Full game

 

And eased him back into this. But I am not in charge

 

I have been saying since the minute the Redskins were eliminated from the playoffs we had to sit Griffin. I still feel that way. Other sports use pitch counts, why wouldn't we do that with our most important player in a lost season when we have more reason to tank then to try and win? Why it's taken this long to get here imo is the staff believed that Griffin needed the reps to improve but the results have not followed. In the past 4 games Griffin has led the offense to 49 points scored. He is not improving with reps so sitting him has finally set in with the staff, first smart move they have made lately

 

As for the other players, that is a good question. If we had our 1st round draft pick the full tank could be on and they all sit but we don't and there is an advantage of playing our offensive players now with Cousins to simply give him weapons to succeed so that there could be interest in him. Personally from what I've seen the ceiling for moving Cousins would be a 3rd round draft pick if he does well and besides if he does poorly he needs to develop timing with these players in case he is not moved in the offseason and is needed next season.

[sharkproof]

If you watched the New Orleans game against Carolina, you got to see a master class on QB play by one of the all-time masters in Drew Brees. 

 

3-4 reads in 2.5 seconds or less. Master at the LOS.  Very fast through his reads.  Perfect footwork.  Complete command of the game.  

On the first touchdown he threw, you could see him go to his third progression. And it took him 2.17 seconds.  (They showed it with a stopwatch.)

 

I swear that if you put Brees on this team, with this offensive cast, with this coaching staff, keep everything the same, this is a top 5 offense.  Just like it was last year when Robert was playing well.  

 

Because I don't care how bad Polumbus and Chester are.  If the ball is out to the third receiver in 2.17 seconds, 90% of the time the QB isn't going to get touched. 

100 percent correct.  Just look at the top QB's and how long they hold it on average.  Their avg time to sack is when they hold it over 3.5 seconds or less  on avg of course.

 

We gots a long way to go and a short time to get there.  Just run on Bandit, run...

[Zazzaro703]

Um, what? How about the fact that it has very little to do with Griffin, and a lot to do with Shanahan and his exit strategy?

Uh what? I could say the same to you.... Griffin is getting killed back there. Why risk an injury? What exactly is he learning out there. It's more and more likely he won't even be in this system next year. Most players it takes over a year to come back from an ACL, the man gave it a go and it didn't work. Let him hit the off season healthy and be ready next year because why risk him falling wrong on a sack, a slip on a bad surface, etc etc. This isn't me defending Shanahan by any means, ive been waiting Griffin to be benched for these reasons the last few weeks.

[thebluefood]

Kirk starting is the only thing that will interest me in watching these next three games. And it isn't because I hate RG or think KC will be better. It is pure curiosity. I'd be curious to see what KC has to offer given three full weeks. It might be a total disaster worse than it is now. I don't know. But it would make me go from having zero interest in the Atlanta game to mild interest. Again, not because I beleive RG deserves to be "benched" or made a scapegoat. He's healthy right now (supposedly) and we are toast--- I do see the value in making sure he ends the season in one piece while at the same time seeing a little bit what KC has to offer. But yes, if it happens, it will only cause the drama meter to go from a 9.5 to a 10. But at this point, who cares?

Agreed. I want to see how he's going to perform when the team is down and out and our opponents are licking their chops. The only thing we have to go on is last year's Cleveland game, and, well...that was against Cleveland. It's like of like how I tell people who have beaten the Redskins "don't get a swelled head. All you did was beat the Redskins."

 

If Kirk ends the season, I'll tune in to see how he performs, especially against Dallas. 

[RG3Hunna]

I'm a die-hard skins fan but I can't lie this standoff has been the only entertaining thing of the entire season. LMAO 

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

Uh what? I could say the same to you.... Griffin is getting killed back there. Why risk an injury? What exactly is he learning out there. It's more and more likely he won't even be in this system next year. Most players it takes over a year to come back from an ACL, the man gave it a go and it didn't work. Let him hit the off season healthy and be ready next year because why risk him falling wrong on a sack, a slip on a bad surface, etc etc. This isn't me defending Shanahan by any means, ive been waiting Griffin to be benched for these reasons the last few weeks.

you're looking at this a bit naively dude

[skins island connection]

You are telling the rest of the offense: you guys suck and can't be trusted to protect Griffin.

 

Look if you are healthy and the best player at your position, you should play. It's a 16-game schedule.

 

 Well, teams which are locks for their divisions and home field advantage sit their starters, so in a way its the same thing; why risk

getting the QB hurt in a meaningless game?

[Zazzaro703]

you're looking at this a bit naively dude

No im not, check my post history ive been saying this for weeks. Long before this nonsense from yesterday. If Griffin separated a shoulder, broke a collar bone, tore a knee in a meaningless game versus Atlanta id be freaking livid and so would everyone else. The season is lost and the team is a mess, get the franchise QB coming off a 2nd knee surgery out of there. I don't care what motives Shanahan has, Griffin sitting is the best thing for this football team.

[RiverboatGambler]

No im not, check my post history ive been saying this for weeks. Long before this nonsense from yesterday. If Griffin separated a shoulder, broke a collar bone, tore a knee in a meaningless game versus Atlanta id be freaking livid and so would everyone else.

You are way too naive, bro. This is in no way form or fashion about protecting the Robert. Not with the softest part of our schedule over any 3 game stretch coming up...

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

No im not, check my post history ive been saying this for weeks. Long before this nonsense from yesterday. If Griffin separated a shoulder, broke a collar bone, tore a knee in a meaningless game versus Atlanta id be freaking livid and so would everyone else. The season is lost and the team is a mess, get the franchise QB coming off a 2nd knee surgery out of there. I don't care what motives Shanahan has, Griffin sitting is the best thing for this football team.

No man I know. I remember your posts about it.

 

I'm just saying that this a really bad idea because it is a childish powerplay by a sad 60 year old man. It may protect Griff but it's going to screw the team hard

[Jeffro]

Honestly, it seems like the right thing to do. What good can come of him getting beat on the next three worthless games and continuing to have poor stats? Nothing..  Put him on the shelf, let him focus on next year without the brace. No point in risking any type of injury or additional moral issues this year.

 

It's amazing to me how when the news first broke everyone was all over Synder and saying how its the same team again and they knew he was meddling etc. etc. Now today, its Shanny is a rat, he leaked the story to try to get paid blah blah.

 

Either way we are pathetic and back to the laughing stock we were 4 years ago. I've been a Redskins fan since birth, 35 years.. but this is getting ridiculous.

[MrJL]

Thank you. Why does everyone think we're going to get all these teams throwing picks at us for Cousins?

 

because that's what happens in the NFL.  A backup QB with a couple game resume and no more, with no access to a starting job gets traded for a pick or two.  Kolb, Whitehurst, Cassel, Flynn(Seattle to Oak)

 

Flynn had lost a competition for a starting job and still got a fifth and a conditional.  Cousins doesn't even have that against him.