The Bruce Allen/GM Thread

[Wildbunny]

Not enough for BHRBN, but I think it's relevant enough to be posted in here, though only for Dan Snyder's part:

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/04/17/former-nfl-spokesman-takes-aim-at-daniel-snyder-donald-trump/

 

Quote

“[A]ctually the owner is — he’s really a good guy,” President Trump said. “He’s been a supporter and he’s done a very good job. You have a good team.”

 

(“Good” is extremely relative. Since Snyder bought the team 20 years ago, Washington has five playoff appearances and two postseason wins. Washington also is tied with Detroit for the longest NFC Championship game drought, dating back to 1991.)

 

Lockhart responded to the news with this: “Can’t think of two people who deserve each other more.”

 

[KDawg]

On 4/14/2019 at 10:47 AM, Skinsinparadise said:

Comparing 2018-2019 rosters

Safety:  better.  I like Collins over DJ.  But DJ was really good.  FS seems more up in the air though than last year.  Last year, we thought Nicholson was emerging.  This year he seems like a much bigger wildcard. 

 

I think this is a different answer re: run v. pass at safety. No clear cut FS and Landon Collins will be a significant upgrade against the run (necessary vs. Zeke/Saquad) but he is also a total liability against the pass. I'd argue, overall at this juncture, the team is worse.

 

O line:  slightly worse?  Ty was a key backup.  He's gone now.  Otherwise I think Flowers versus Lauvao is a toss up.  If you listen to Cooley, Flowers is a downgrade.  Maybe that's true.  But Lauvao would always get hurt.   So I see the O line as the same and the depth slightly worse.

 

Heading into the draft: worse. Flowers may be healthy, so that's better, but I'm not sure he's any better than Lauvao is. I tend to think the roster automatically approves with healthier additions to it, rather than oft injured ones. So LG is likely an upgrade due to health (not skill, but overall that's still a positive) but I'm still not totally sold on Roullier at center (though he's 'good enough'). Unless some of our back up tackles from last season made huge strides, Moses and Williams are another year older and aren't exactly a beacon of health.

 

WR:  worse.  Crowder was their best receiver IMO.

 

As of right now: Agreed. Worse.

 

D line:  worse:   Preston wasn't a stud but the d line was better with him than without him.

 

I disagree here, with a caveat: We still need another edge rusher. But the young interior DL has a year of seasoning together now. And Kerrigan is the leader of the group. I am most confident in this position.

 

MLB:  better. 

 

Better, but still not good. Foster is an injury waiting to happen, but he is much more talented than anyone else we've had since Fletcher. Mason Foster is the second starter, which is somewhat scary. SDH could step in, but I'm not sure he's a guy we want to be in a starting role. Perhaps he's improved with some experience on the field. So I'll hold out hope. But ILB is a glaring need due to Reuben's health and Mason's coverage.

 

QB:  worse.  I am not an Alex Smith guy as to the player we saw in 2018.  But I thought he could improve with time in the system.  I do think though Alex > Keenum.  And Alex > Colt.

 

I don't think we're better or worse here, to be honest. It's about a wash. Better in the sense that if Keenum is healthy all season we have some continuity. Better in the sense that we don't have Josh Johnson starting. But skill wise/health combination makes this position a wash as of now.

 

Also:

 

RB: Much better. Peterson/Guice/Thompson is a great combo. The only thing I'd add is Bibbs to that to back up Thompson for when he inevitably goes down.

 

TE: Worse. Age is catching up.

 

CB: About the same.

 

Overall, I see this team as having more holes and in worse shape than in 2018. 

 

Yup. But by removing a few players they may also be a better team. Can't ever discount that. And the draft could change some tides.

[Skinsinparadise]

4 hours ago, KDawg said:

 

I think this is a different answer re: run v. pass at safety. No clear cut FS and Landon Collins will be a significant upgrade against the run (necessary vs. Zeke/Saquad) but he is also a total liability against the pass. I'd argue, overall at this juncture, the team is worse.

 

I think both Collins and DJ are strong against the run, not hot against the pass but hold their own on that front.  But I'd still take Collins on the aggregate over DJ.  But free safety seems to be a bit of a mess so not sure what happens there.

 

4 hours ago, KDawg said:

 

Heading into the draft: worse. Flowers may be healthy, so that's better, but I'm not sure he's any better than Lauvao is. I tend to think the roster automatically approves with healthier additions to it, rather than oft injured ones. So LG is likely an upgrade due to health (not skill, but overall that's still a positive) but I'm still not totally sold on Roullier at center (though he's 'good enough'). Unless some of our back up tackles from last season made huge strides, Moses and Williams are another year older and aren't exactly a beacon of health.

 

Agree.  The O line to me has as many concerns as ever.  Surprised considering its arguably what's unraveled (aside from QB) the last two seasons.  But maybe they got a lot cooking in the draft will see.

 

4 hours ago, KDawg said:

 

I disagree here, with a caveat: We still need another edge rusher. But the young interior DL has a year of seasoning together now. And Kerrigan is the leader of the group. I am most confident in this position.

 

Agree that the DT-NT-3-4 DE position is their strength.  I was specifically referring to the edge component.  So I don't think Kerrigan, R. Anderson > R. Kerrigan and P. Smith and R. Anderson.  They need an edge guy to replace Preston.  I think they do it in the draft but until they do so IMO its weaker to have Preston-R. Anderson versus just R. Anderson.

 

4 hours ago, KDawg said:

 

Yup. But by removing a few players they may also be a better team. Can't ever discount that. And the draft could change some tides.

 

Yeah I agree in concept.  But as for this specific case, I don't think in this case losing Preston Smith, Jamison Crowder, TY, Clinton-Dix are additions by subtractions considering they all play positions of weakness on the team without obvious stud replacements.  Could Quinn be better than Crowder?  Maybe.  I am not sure than Ryan Anderson is better than Preston.  Or nor do I like making the weak depth on O line even weaker.  I so agree with this in the context of losing Zach Brown and Stacy McGee.  And I am not arguing that they made mistakes with this move or that -- just saying I don't think on the aggregate at this time the roster is stronger than 2018. 

 

But agree, the draft could change things.  Will see. 

[Skinsinparadise]

One of only 9 teams with no cameras.  Bruce doesn't want to showcase visually a little of how they make the sausage behind the scenes? 😧  This would be the perfect way for Bruce to visually finally prove what he's been saying for awhile which is its Doug's baby and he's just along for that ride.  

 

 

 

 

So as for prime time games on the schedule, they got 2 games.  One of which is Thursday where if I recall every team gets one Thursday game.    As for the others they are all at 1 pm so they got no second half featured games.  Also this is the 2nd year in a row with no Sunday Night games.  Didn't Bruce tell the Commission office that they are close? What's going on? 😯

 

Seriously through all of Dan's faults, I never thought among them he would also make this team yawn level-irrelevant nationally.  Dan didn't know how to build a winner but at least he had a flair for drama and excitement.  Now, with Bruce's touch in the FO they figured out how to be boring, too.  I've said before Bruce might be even worse for Dan than Vinny from the context of marketing the brand. 

 

This all makes me wonder if old school Dan creeps into the draft.  When you got national writers like Peter King talking about the Redskins bleeding fans and need to do something to rekindle some excitement, declining attendance and declining TV ratings -- it's not good on the marketing scale.   And I'd add the NFL which is in the business of making money see the Redskins as a team that isn't a draw for TV ratings -- then you got some problems cooking as to marketing.

 

Chris Russell can be a bit all over the place with his takes but among them this year was that Dan is very aware that his brand is in danger. It's not that I want Dan unleashed though.  But we might see it anyway.   

 

It's not that I care about their marketing.  But I think their struggles with it might eventually impinge on some decision making in the offing.  Will see. 

 

 

[Skinsinparadise]

 

 

[drowland]

1 hour ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

 

 

Considering they removed the new GMs from the rankings, 25th is last place.  

[KDawg]

14 minutes ago, drowland said:

 

Considering they removed the new GMs from the rankings, 25th is last place.  

 

Still too high.

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

But...but...but...we re-signed Matt I to what appears to be a good deal for the team.  Doesn't that wash away the decade of meh?

[TD_washingtonredskins]

3 minutes ago, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

But...but...but...we re-signed Matt I to what appears to be a good deal for the team.  Doesn't that wash away the decade of meh?

 

I understand that this was a joke, but it does bring up a good point...

 

I think Allen is terrible, but if there's one thing I think he's done a relatively good job of (either himself or listening to smart guys beneath him), it's picking the right drafted players to extend. The one exception is likely Reed, but I liked the decision at the time. 

[NickyJ]

1 hour ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

 

I understand that this was a joke, but it does bring up a good point...

 

I think Allen is terrible, but if there's one thing I think he's done a relatively good job of (either himself or listening to smart guys beneath him), it's picking the right drafted players to extend. The one exception is likely Reed, but I liked the decision at the time. 

[Wildbunny]

1 hour ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

I think Allen is terrible, but if there's one thing I think he's done a relatively good job of (either himself or listening to smart guys beneath him), it's picking the right drafted players to extend. The one exception is likely Reed, but I liked the decision at the time.  

 

That one is highly, highly debatable... There's tons of people that haven't been resigned and should have.  They let walk some guys they shouldn't have, signed guys they shouldn't have and still haven't resigned guys they should by now.

It's obviously linked to everyone's point of view, but that list is long.

 

Resigning Matt is just one success in a sea of failures to me...

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

1 hour ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

 

I understand that this was a joke, but it does bring up a good point...

 

I think Allen is terrible, but if there's one thing I think he's done a relatively good job of (either himself or listening to smart guys beneath him), it's picking the right drafted players to extend. The one exception is likely Reed, but I liked the decision at the time. 

Don't jinx a Scherff deal with premature praise for Bruce.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

46 minutes ago, Wildbunny said:

 

That one is highly, highly debatable... There's tons of people that haven't been resigned and should have.  They let walk some guys they shouldn't have, signed guys they shouldn't have and still haven't resigned guys they should by now.

It's obviously linked to everyone's point of view, but that list is long.

 

Resigning Matt is just one success in a sea of failures to me...

 

Which guys who we let walk do you believe would have performed adequately for what it would have cost to re-sign them? 

[Conn]

On 4/14/2019 at 7:20 PM, TheShredder said:

exploiting weaknesses consistently works. 

This is the key week to week in the NFL imo. And my biggest complaint against Gruden in the prep department. We always just try to play our game regardless. Sometimes that doesn't even change after the opening offensive script or even after the half. It's infuriating to know a team's 5th CB is lined up outside due to injuries or anything else and then watch us continue to follow our same gameplan running for 3.3 YPC up the middle on 1st and 2nd down. Part of it is lacking a QB who knows who to go after, but Gruden's lack of killer instinct in that regard also trickles down. 

[Wildbunny]

3 hours ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

 

Which guys who we let walk do you believe would have performed adequately for what it would have cost to re-sign them? 

That would require to properly define 'adequately'. If by that you mean perform at SB level, then, obviously none. (Besides Scherff, who's still not resigned...)

 

But if you mean 'in line or above with what our crappy team is' then I'd say Crowder, Breeland and Long could have been viable options, a better effort could have been done with Alfred Morris as well. Someone like Compton is having a nice career outside of here as well though. Reed and Moses were overpaid considering their injuries history.

 

And I'm not even discussing the KC endless debate here...

 

But as I said, that's highly subjective. And prior to 2014 we really did draft like crap.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

17 hours ago, Wildbunny said:

That would require to properly define 'adequately'. If by that you mean perform at SB level, then, obviously none. (Besides Scherff, who's still not resigned...)

 

But if you mean 'in line or above with what our crappy team is' then I'd say Crowder, Breeland and Long could have been viable options, a better effort could have been done with Alfred Morris as well. Someone like Compton is having a nice career outside of here as well though. Reed and Moses were overpaid considering their injuries history.

 

And I'm not even discussing the KC endless debate here...

 

But as I said, that's highly subjective. And prior to 2014 we really did draft like crap.

 

I was annoyed by the Cousins saga, but given the unique circumstances I'm treating that one completely differently than others. I do agree that he shouldn't have walked for only a comp pick. If they weren't willing to meet his demands (or realized they couldn't re-sign him) they should have traded him. Clearly they botched THAT situation. 

 

I guess I don't count Crowder because we haven't seen what he's done yet and Scherff hasn't gotten away. What I meant is that I've rarely seen a guy get away, perform well somewhere else for the amount he was paid, and regret it. I'm talking about guys like Long, Murphy, Garcon, etc. 

[Wildbunny]

1 minute ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

I guess I don't count Crowder because we haven't seen what he's done yet and Scherff hasn't gotten away. What I meant is that I've rarely seen a guy get away, perform well somewhere else for the amount he was paid, and regret it. I'm talking about guys like Long, Murphy, Garcon, etc. 

I would agree here, but mostly because we haven't been good for decades, so obviously we used to draft badly, which makes sense that we're not resigning guys. And those that quit are still not good enough to perform at a high level.

 

When I'm quoiting a guy like Long my point of view here is: OK, we let him run free. Was he playing at Probowl level? Nope. Was he really bad? Nope. Who did we replaced him with? Chase Rouillier which was fine. But Long was also able to play Left Guard. I have a hard time thinking we let him walk when we could have put him at LG and Rouillier at C. That would have been healthier, and thus better than IR Lauvao who's not exactly heads over Long in play quality as well (though he's not as bad as many seems to think here).

We let Murphy walk for Smith and went from one extreme to another. We let Murphy who was good against the run walk and relied on Smith who was not exactly better at running after the QB but who isn't exactly good at run D...

 

We're letting Crowder walk, OK fine, who's gonna replace him? Quinn? I love the guy and his story, but he's already been injured twice in a year, so I'm being cautious with him...

 

So no they're not exactly playing way better elsewhere, but we didn't exactly improve by letting them walk either. And in all those cases, I never had the impression that we made huge efforts to keep them in house. I'm not even sure we offered anyone of them what could look like a contract...

[TD_washingtonredskins]

1 minute ago, Wildbunny said:

So no they're not exactly playing way better elsewhere, but we didn't exactly improve by letting them walk either. And in all those cases, I never had the impression that we made huge efforts to keep them in house. I'm not even sure we offered anyone of them what could look like a contract...

 

OK, fair enough...that was really my only point: for all the idiotic and toxic things that Allen has brought here, we've MOSTLY picked correctly in which guys to retain/re-sign to a second contract (Williams, Kerrigan, Thompson, Moses, etc. with our one miss being Reed) and which guys we've allowed to leave rather than overpay them for continuity. Maybe all teams do that well, I'm not sure. But based on the previous 10 years when no one seemed to get to a second contract, it stuck out as a positive to me. 

[Wildbunny]

Only Trent and Kerrigan got second contract because those two asides, we really, really, did draft bad players.

 

Take a look at our draft history prior to 2k14, it's depressing...

[TD_washingtonredskins]

20 minutes ago, Wildbunny said:

Only Trent and Kerrigan got second contract because those two asides, we really, really, did draft bad players.

 

Take a look at our draft history prior to 2k14, it's depressing...

 

What about Chris Thompson, Jordan Reed, Morgan Moses?

[Thinking Skins]

When you're talking about Bruce's changes, you have to consider the fact that we have greatly improved in who to draft, as well as bringing in players who are undrafted. I mean just look at Mo Harris. I loved the guy, but he went from an undrafted guy to a guy who got a nice deal this offseason. Similar goes for Dunbar. You could tell when he was on the field last year vs not. I credit this more to the scouts and guys like GMSM and KS but Bruce is in the room too and at least let them do their work. 

 

Heck, I remember the year we got Murphy, Moses and Long and it was seen as a bad offseason (I can kinda agree because of who we passed) but those are three guys who have been producing decently since they came into the league. Given we passed on Lawrence but its not like we get an F for not getting the A player. (Kinda like the Kerrigan draft where we passed on Watt for another trade down. We didn't get the A player but did get a nice pick there). 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

2 hours ago, Wildbunny said:

When I'm quoiting a guy like Long my point of view here is: OK, we let him run free. Was he playing at Probowl level? Nope. Was he really bad? Nope. Who did we replaced him with? Chase Rouillier which was fine. But Long was also able to play Left Guard. I have a hard time thinking we let him walk when we could have put him at LG and Rouillier at C. That would have been healthier, and thus better than IR Lauvao who's not exactly heads over Long in play quality as well (though he's not as bad as many seems to think here).

3

 

Long is not a good example...

 

"With starting left guard James Carpenter done for the season due to a shoulder injury, Spencer Long will now have a chance to redeem himself in a new position.

 

After coming over from the Washington Redskins on a four-year deal in free agency, the thought was Long would provide stability at center following a season where Wesley Johnson was among the worst in the league at the position. Instead, Long picked up where Johnson left off and turned center into a liability on the offensive line for the Jets.

 

Against the Miami Dolphins in Week 9, Long hit a low point in his tenure with New York. Throughout the afternoon, his snaps were missing Sam Darnold by a mile and midway through the fourth quarter, he was benched in favor of Jonotthan Harrison.

 

[...]Can Long do enough at left guard in the final weeks of the season to warrant a return to the team in 2019? That remains to be seen. If his performance against New England was any indication, the Jets may have finally found the player they inked to a $28 million deal this offseason."

 

 

The Jets released him after one year, so I'm guessing the answer to that last part is "No" lol...plus he was injured all last season, so I doubt he would have remained healthy if he stayed with the Redskins.

[Califan007 The Constipated]

2 hours ago, Wildbunny said:

Only Trent and Kerrigan got second contract because those two asides, we really, really, did draft bad players.

 

Take a look at our draft history prior to 2k14, it's depressing...

1

 

I think Niles Paul got a 2nd contract as well (maybe a one-year extension now that I think about it lol)...

 

And yeah, our drafting prior to 2014 was pretty horrid in a lot of ways. We did a disservice to both the Oline and Dline in the draft for in the 10 years (at least) before 2014.

[Skinsinparadise]

Pretty funny just now on NFL Network, Garafalo talked about different factions in the Redskins FO wanting different things so it should be interesting which faction wins out.  This after other reporters talked about the teams they were covering and there was no narrative like that.

 

It brings to me 2 thoughts.

 

1. Bruce can downplay all he wants being the dude in charge.  But he is and it indeed matters.  I get he doesn't like the public to be focused on him.  But he's the man with the power. 

 

2. Bruce SHOULD make the call based on the structure they have at the moment.  Not because he's the most qualified.  He's not even close to being the most qualified IMO in that building.  But because he has the power.  And there should be one at the top with the power to avoid chaos and keep an overriding vision set by someone.  You don't have underlings make the calls.   That would be weird. The boss makes the calls.  

 

Do we got the wrong guy at top?  Heck yes IMO.  But that's the hand dealt.  In Bruce's defense -- why should it matter if Kyle Smith or Jay or whomever disagrees with what he wants to do.  Yes its weird to have a politician to make calls over real personnel guys.  But that's the weird bed that was made.   

 

As Cooley (who says he's Bruces friend) likes to say:  Bruce isn't voluntarily giving up power to anyone unless it's taken away from him.  Why would he give anyone voluntarily the power of decision making over his own.    Cooley goes would you give up power voluntarily?  My thought is no I wouldn't. 

 

So this whole weird set up with an unqualified politician running the ship -- that's all on Dan IMO. 

 

 

[RandyHolt]

I heard Allen was voted the worst returning GM.  SSDD.

 

It is interesting Murray was too sick to visit us. That, or too smart.  I think we are going all in on a QB and will somehow botch it, by trading up to reach.