Biggest need in the offseason.....

[TheGreek1973]

With the huge issues we have stopping the run, I still don't know why we didn't bring in Pot Roast..  Was he that bad in his tryout?  I like Hood but he is no NT.  If Pot Roast was in decent shape (somehow that sounds strange..lol) we should have signed him to give us at least 1st and 2nd down decency against the run.

[skinny21]

On 12/4/2016 at 11:10 PM, Warhead36 said:

ILB and FS are our biggest needs by far. I'm hoping Cravens can be our SS but in reality he'll probably end up more of an ILB/SS hybrid type with no real position.

 

The DL needs upgrading too but they're at least in the league average tier I'd say. ILB we literally have two street FAs at those positions.

Just had a (potentially false, lol) epiphany.  

 

First off, I agree that ILB and S are our biggest weaknesses.  Knowing how Barry likes to utilize his safeties (SS in particular), seeing how he had attempt to scheme around the tackling deficiencies our safeties last year (not to mention their coverage issues), I had SS as the biggest position in need of an upgrade, followed pretty closely by ILB, and then FS and dline.  After seeing more of the defense this year, I think ILB probably needs the most work.

 

I also agree that our dline isn't bad.  I look at Baker as above average to good, and Hood/RJF as somewhere around average.

 

So here's where the epiphany comes in.  A good dlineman can free Baker up from double teams, can provide more push up the middle (which gives our OLBs a better chance to get home), and can have a direct impact vs run and pass.  That combination can obviously help the guys playing behind him too.

 

So, while a good ILB might be the most position-specific upgrade we could make, a good dlineman might be the best team upgrade.

[kingarthur65]

ILB is our biggest need, followed by S.  The DL is a question mark.  Our base defense is a 3-4, but we play more nickel than any other defensive formation.  The most common formation we see from opposing offenses is 1RB, 1TE and 3WR.  Our personnel against this offense is nickel, with 4DL, 2ILB (Compton and Cravens) and 5DBs.  

 

Teams can run against this personnel because we have undersized ILBs.  If this is our most often used personnel, we aren't using our best players at their best positions.  Kerrigan, Preston Smith, and Trent Murphy are best suited as OLB.  How do we address our personnel vs scheme moving forward?

[NomadicSkinFan]

Wow... we have some insanely impatient fans.  Are we really bagging on SM?   We got crushed with a salary cap penalty, wasted 3 1st round picks on a guy no longer with the team, had an offensive line that outside of Trent was more or less garbage and a team weak in all 3 phases of the game.  We now have one of the best offensive lines and offenses in the league and special teams that no longer a complete disaster.  The defense is below average and seems to have a lame duck DC...  But he's only been here for a couple years.  He did not bring all the pieces in, but he certainly has been a huge part of our team turning the corner despite the disaster that the RG3 trade turned out to be.  Come on...

[skinzplay]

New electrocuting headsets. Whenever Gruden or Boy Wonder utters the word "fade", 9 million volts of juice immediately administered.

[Koolblue13]

4 minutes ago, skinzplay said:

New electrocuting headsets. Whenever Gruden or Boy Wonder utters the word "fade", 9 million volts of juice immediately administered.

Fade is a good play. Cousins isn't making the throw.

[Hail2theSkins24]

 We need to find some alpha's for the middle of our defense. DT, ILB, S.  Scot has the cap space and the draft picks to get this done. No excuses unless Mara finds another way to **** us

[skinzplay]

4 minutes ago, Koolblue13 said:

Fade is a good play. Cousins isn't making the throw.

 

No disagreement from me on that. I just think we dial it up far too frequently.

[kost203]

5 hours ago, Hail2theSkins24 said:

 We need to find some alpha's for the middle of our defense. DT, ILB, S.  Scot has the cap space and the draft picks to get this done. No excuses unless Mara finds another way to **** us

He has. He overplayed for Vernon, so that means the market for dt's are gonna be up there. 

[Redskins Reparations]

On 12/4/2016 at 6:43 PM, NoCalMike said:

I wouldn't mind seeing Scotty-Mac making a run at Campbell the interior DL we saw today in AZ.  Dude was disruptive consistently. Athletic and fast to the ball.   

We actually were in position to draft him but we had Vinny Cerrato as our GM.

[TSO]

11 hours ago, skinny21 said:

 

So here's where the epiphany comes in.  A good dlineman can free Baker up from double teams, can provide more push up the middle (which gives our OLBs a better chance to get home), and can have a direct impact vs run and pass.  That combination can obviously help the guys playing behind him too.

 

So, while a good ILB might be the most position-specific upgrade we could make, a good dlineman might be the best team upgrade.

 

Wow, am I glad I read through this thread before posting, because I was literally going to come in here and say the EXACT same thing. You're spot on, in my opinion. 

 

Earlier in the thread I posted that I just want an absolute stud anywhere on the front seven. Like you, I've thought about it more and, while I still believe in that assessment, I've come to the same realization. 

 

We would automatically upgrade the play of ILB and Safety in general the instant we bring in a difference maker on the interior Dline. Suddenly, Compton will become a sure tackler, Foster will look faster, Cravens will have all kinds of space to disrupt plays, Ihenacho/Whitner/whomever will magically cover TEs and RBs well, etc... 

 

And this isn't some belief in the ability of those guys. I think they're mediocre at best in terms of skill. But they'll look way better. All because those guys in the middle of the Dline are occupying blocks and penetrating the backfield consistently.

 

The quickest way to fixing our defense is to go all out on the interior Dline. 

 

We do that in Free Agency with at least one stud at DT, re-sign Baker and Hood, maybe sign a couple more cheaper FAs there to see if any stick, then go BPA in the draft and hope another falls to our pick at some point as well. 

 

I'm convinced they'll all look better. Going into the year I was resigned to the fact that our interior Dline was going to be poor against the run, but I was hoping they'd counter with more penetration due to one-gapping which would cause enough TFLs and sacks/immediate pressure to balance it out. 

 

They ended up being worse than that. And it's making the rest of the "spine of the defense" look even worse than they are. And it's making Joe Barry look like a total doofus. 

 

If we can manage to sign a real difference maker at interior Dline it'll change everything. If we can do that and, on top of it, upgrade elsewhere at ILB (still willing to believe that can come from within with Spaight/Daniels) and Safety... or better yet get a real speed demon of a pass rusher (our guys our more power guys on the edge, Galette was supposed to be the counter to that); I've got no doubt this defense can become top ten in a hurry. 

[Koolblue13]

14 hours ago, skinny21 said:

Just had a (potentially false, lol) epiphany.  

 

 

So here's where the epiphany comes in.  A good dlineman can free Baker up from double teams, can provide more push up the middle (which gives our OLBs a better chance to get home), and can have a direct impact vs run and pass.  That combination can obviously help the guys playing behind him too.

 

So, while a good ILB might be the most position-specific upgrade we could make, a good dlineman might be the best team upgrade.

I don't think you're wrong, but how many times have we seen Compton getting pushed out of the way by a lead blocker or the back themselves? They run off tackle, Compton and Foster can't work through traffic to get in on the play. Constantly having to wait for it to get to them. How often do you see Compton tackling down hill? Ya really don't.

 

Now, while I absolutely do see a need for an upgrade at DT, there's really no bigger hole than ILB. We all agree Cravens is built like a safety (cool to see how a tweener like Buchanan can be used,unfortunitely). Compton is barely any larger and doesn't have the speed.

 

We need a starting MLB.

[FrFan]

I' would be happy with a pass rushing DE, DT, S, ILB, G

[Burgold]

We've been hitting the same areas over and over again and so I thought I'd address some lesser, but possibly real needs.

 

I believe this is a secondary need, but I suspect we need to kick the tires on a few running backs too. I like Kelley, but I don't think this team wants a singles hitter. I think they favored Jones over Morris because of his big play threat even though his stats were worse overall as was his production. There are games where they use Kelley, but games where they give up on the run before opening kickoff.

 

On offense, the needs also have to include receiver because Garcon and Jackson are both free agents. Now, we'll likely re-sign at least one, but that's not a guarantee. I suspect Jackson will want elite money even though he's had two years of subpar performance (mainly due to injuries). I think Crowder is ready to step up, Garcon has come on really strongly in recent weeks too. Jackson is still invisible for the most part other than his one huge play a game.

[Koolblue13]

We absolutely have offensive needs Burg and I know we're going BPA again.

 

This year is to RBs, what last year was to DL. We came away with a 5th rounder who lives on the practice squad. So, who knows.

 

C, G, WR, TE, RB, certainly all needs, but I think our starters are good enough that we can start taking late rounders hoping a few pan out. I wouldn't call them "needs" as much ILB, ILB, DT, DE, SS, FS are. I would put OLB and CB into that secondary group as well.

[ClaytoAli]

5 hours ago, Redskins Reparations said:

We actually were in position to draft him but we had Vinny Cerrato as our GM.

Please don't use that name, I have to hear him on 105.7 FM Sport radio near Baltimore.....It is just sad to know what we could have been had Snyder not played toy football with his friends.

[Burgold]

25 minutes ago, Koolblue13 said:

We absolutely have offensive needs Burg and I know we're going BPA again.

 

This year is to RBs, what last year was to DL. We came away with a 5th rounder who lives on the practice squad. So, who knows.

 

C, G, WR, TE, RB, certainly all needs, but I think our starters are good enough that we can start taking late rounders hoping a few pan out. I wouldn't call them "needs" as much ILB, ILB, DT, DE, SS, FS are. I would put OLB and CB into that secondary group as well.

Oh, I absolutely agree. It just felt insanely redundant to type out the same needs everyone else was... so, I thought I'd expand my scope. I will say the moment you think you are set you fall behind. For example, before this year, I thought we were in great position at DB. Norman and Breeland I considered great starters. Phillips, Fuller, and Dunbar looked to be either good potential guys or ready to step up. Safety with Blackmon and Hall had me worried, but I thought Ihenacho could be good if he ever stayed healthy.

 

Come the regular season, so many of these guys either regressed or just haven't advanced fast enough. Now, I don't know if the secondary's issue is a lack of talent (I don't think so) or if its scheme, play calling, or the talent of others they depend on (LBS, DEs, DTs,). I believe it's a combo of the latter three. Regardless, I feel much less confident about the strength of our secondary today than I did in July. 

[ClaytoAli]

2017 Draft Picks - My Top 5

Reuben Foster, LB, Alabama

Zach Cunningham, LB, Vanderbilt

Jamal Adams, FS/SS, LSU

Malik McDowell, DT, Michigan State

Marcus Maye, FS, Florida

[Koolblue13]

We haven't won **** in over 20 years. 2 years ago we finally hired a GM and immediately turned over most of our roster. 

 

I think it's fair to say we could go BPA at any position and it wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

That said, I'm as desperate and impatient as the next guy, so to see us start winning most of our games and then losing most of them because teams attack the same position groups, is frustrating.

 

Two weeks ago, we see how valuable a MLB is playing against Sean Lee.

 

Last week, it's a hybrid safety blowing us up in Buchanan, which is extra frustrating, because we have the same guy on our roster, but he playing ILB , because someone has to.

[CommDownMan]

For the GMSM talk, we had a big lack of picks and depth. While I get it would be nice to have a better front 7 (and other things), he has done a lot of things that help for the future. We have 15 million in cap this year (which can be rolled over) and projected at about 48 million for next year (pending actual cap number). If he chooses to keep all of Cousins (20 cap), Baker (10 cap), DJax (6 cap) and Garcon (4 cap), we'd still be 20 million under the cap. Not that he'll do all those things (and year 1 Cousins hit and others less the way they do things, as Norman is only 8 this year.) Sign 1 of Bennie Logan, Johnathan Hankins, Calais Campbell, Kawann Short or Dontari Poe and maybe Zach Brown from the Bills and you're still looking good. This year when injuries happened we had better options then years past. Some can argue (and have) that guys like Golston, Jones... shouldn't have been starting to begin with, but that's not a GMSM issue. A year after getting early returns from our draft class (Scherff, Crowder, Jarrett) this year has had struggles and injury. I get after 2 losses people are frustrated, but remember Cerrato years, Spurrier years... We have another 9 picks next year and hopefully a 2016 1st rounder to the mix. We have cap space and we actually have some depth. We won't draft for need in rounds 1,2 and 3. So I'm really hoping for one of the DL I mentioned earlier (Logan or Hankins to hurt the Eagles or Giants as well...heh heh).

[skinny21]

7 hours ago, thesubmittedone said:

 

Wow, am I glad I read through this thread before posting, because I was literally going to come in here and say the EXACT same thing. You're spot on, in my opinion. 

 

Earlier in the thread I posted that I just want an absolute stud anywhere on the front seven. Like you, I've thought about it more and, while I still believe in that assessment, I've come to the same realization. 

 

We would automatically upgrade the play of ILB and Safety in general the instant we bring in a difference maker on the interior Dline. Suddenly, Compton will become a sure tackler, Foster will look faster, Cravens will have all kinds of space to disrupt plays, Ihenacho/Whitner/whomever will magically cover TEs and RBs well, etc... 

 

The quickest way to fixing our defense is to go all out on the interior Dline. 

 

 

If we can manage to sign a real difference maker at interior Dline it'll change everything. If we can do that and, on top of it, upgrade elsewhere at ILB (still willing to believe that can come from within with Spaight/Daniels) and Safety... or better yet get a real speed demon of a pass rusher (our guys our more power guys on the edge, Galette was supposed to be the counter to that); I've got no doubt this defense can become top ten in a hurry. 

It's said that great minds think alike... well apparently ours do too

 

The thing I really like about Spaight and Daniels is that they're far more adept at shedding blocks than Compton.  Now, whether they step up is a different question.  I'd still love to add an all-around ILB.

5 hours ago, Koolblue13 said:

I don't think you're wrong, but how many times have we seen Compton getting pushed out of the way by a lead blocker or the back themselves? They run off tackle, Compton and Foster can't work through traffic to get in on the play. Constantly having to wait for it to get to them. How often do you see Compton tackling down hill? Ya really don't.

 

Now, while I absolutely do see a need for an upgrade at DT, there's really no bigger hole than ILB. We all agree Cravens is built like a safety (cool to see how a tweener like Buchanan can be used,unfortunitely). Compton is barely any larger and doesn't have the speed.

 

We need a starting MLB.

Totally agree.  I think ILB, followed by S, are our biggest weaknesses.  Like I said though, I think a Dlineman would actually make more of an impact to the players around him.  

 

Ideally, I'd like to add a good FA DL and ILB while also drafting one of each early.  Let them battle it out with the guys we have.  Safety would be my next target, though I do think Cravens will wind up playing a hybrid role - alternating between S and  LB - so we could potentially improve there even without any additions.

 

A corner/safety hybrid, LG, running back and maybe wr are the other positions I hope we add.

[Koolblue13]

If we add a top tier ILB, like Timmons, who's essentially a coach on the field. 

 

Second tier DT like Short or Campbell to the line.

 

Second tier FS.

 

Draft DL, ILB and FS.

 

I think our defense is fixed. One more talent on the line to allow Baker to be more disruptive.

 

Two starting ILBs for run downs.

 

Cravens starts at SS and moves to ILB on pass downs, the rookie FS comes into SS.

 

I don't think there could be a bigger impact position or a larger hole, than ILB.

[RandyHolt]

Abandon the 3-4 and trying to shoehorn players into the traditional base positions, since you know, we don't really run base.

 

That all said, a DT, not a NT .

[Why am I Mr. Pink?]

20 hours ago, TheGreek1973 said:

With the huge issues we have stopping the run, I still don't know why we didn't bring in Pot Roast..  Was he that bad in his tryout?  I like Hood but he is no NT.  If Pot Roast was in decent shape (somehow that sounds strange..lol) we should have signed him to give us at least 1st and 2nd down decency against the run.

 

I think Pot Roast, Amerson and some others didnt fit Scot's view of "football players". Just a complete guess and while Amerson had some problems showing up on time, focused on modeling and getting suspended ... Pot Roast was continually overweight and out of shape. If my memory is right, in the playoff game Pot Roast was a liability when Rodgers went hurry up. I think that pissed Scot off. 

[Kurd Cudins]

8 minutes ago, RandyHolt said:

Abandon the 3-4 and trying to shoehorn players into the traditional base positions, since you know, we don't really run base.

 

That all said, a DT, not a NT .

This is the crux of our problem. The most important position in a true 3-4 is NT. We don't even have a NT, which tells you why we struggle so much in certain situations. However, Barry is convinced that since he runs a hybrid D, he doesn't need a true NT. He is wrong. He either needs a true NT or a revamped D that is a base 4-3.  The even greater reality is that Barry should be gone after this season so we will have to find pieces to fit a different coordinators scheme.