A new new start! All things Josh Harris and new ownership group.

[Koolblue13]

18 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

questionnable picks that cost significantly higher draft capital (Baker Mayfield at 1,

The lengths you'll go to to drag poor Sam Darnold is impressive.    

 

Kidding of course. :eyeroll: 

 

Anyway. So, looking forward. Ravens. DeCosta isn't going anywhere, so maybe his #2 is ready to be a #1 GM.

 

Which would be an interesting tie in to the Reid tree.

[Skinsinparadise]

19 minutes ago, Koolblue13 said:

The lengths you'll go to to drag poor Sam Darnold is impressive.    

 

 

I got him twice in the last 2 days.  He was ranked dead last on the QB clutch post I put on a thread yesterday.  😎

[SkinsFanRob]

I jumped on stubhub and got my tickets for week 1 this morning. When I looked a couple weeks ago you could get upper level seats for as low as 20 some dollars. The cheapest I could find today was the mid 50s. Tickets do indeed seem to be selling quickly on there so if you were wanting to go I would snag the tickets soon. I'm so pumped.

Edited July 25, 2023 by SkinsFanRob

[Jumbo]

The gmfb crew has been on break the last couple months and today is their first day back. The second subject they showcased was one of Peter Schaeger's top five lists and he called the category "the summers top winners." 

 

He had Aaron Rodgers on it for all the reasons you could figure, inc clips of him devouring New York as a new resident and all the wow being generated on and off the field. Another pick was Kirk cousins, of whom that while crew has always been a fan of, and of course highlighting how big a hit he's been in Netflix's qb showcase feature. Joe Burrow was another though shrags want deliberately  going for an all qb list and I forgot who or what one choice was.

 

 

But with fanfare he presented his #1 winner of the summer as the Washington Commanders fans for finally getting their new owner and being rid of an owner that has been a intensely disliked anchor to them for so long. He did a great job representing the feelings of the fan base and said all the right things about the franchise. 👍👍😀🙂🙂🙂🌞🌞🌞

[Professor_Nutter_Butter]

20 hours ago, tomwvr said:

I want a throw back every year one game with the  famous logo and old style jerseys with current player names and numbers - i would buy them- it could even say commanders on it but the old jersey colors were the best

You'll get the Football Team throwback uniforms and like it, damn it.

[Chachie]

Change of ownership and look at me! Back in the Stadium forum. A little bit of hope making me see reasons to post here again.

[Skinsinparadise]

19 minutes ago, Jumbo said:

 

But with fanfare he presented his #1 winner of the summer as the Washington Commanders fans for finally getting their new owner and being rid of an owner that has been a intensely disliked anchor to them for so long. He did a great job representing the feelings of the fan base and said all the right things about the franchise. 👍👍😀🙂🙂🙂🌞🌞🌞

 

Should be interesting moving forward if this team can join the cool kids table with people like Peter Schrager and sort of the hipster anayltic types like Warren Sharp, Schatz, etc. The cool table for them are the teams with the top forward thinking GMs and or coaching staffs in the league.  We haven't been at the table really ever with that group under Dan with maybe the exception of 2012 and Gregg Williams' defenses.  But our FO hasn't really been well regarded in forever.  

 

Not saying that perception matters but I find it interesting because we are the antithesis of the glory year perception of this team.  Back in that day, our team wasn't just considered good but also smarter than everyone else -- maybe the exception being the 49ers with Bill Walsh.  I recall Madden would love to say this coaching staff was the smartest and most prepared.  And Beathard was considered the best by many back then.

 

The Giants for example are hip with that crowd. Daboll. Martindale.  Kafa.  Schoen.  Will it matter in the end?  Don't know.  But they have a lot of good will from the national media and for now from their fans, too. 

 

Rivera is liked by GMF because he loves their show and he's a super nice guy.  But I never got the sense Schrager thought much of this team as its operation.  Heck it was GMF years ago that ran a segment making fun of viewers who give them a hard time for emphasizing some teams much more than others.  So if I recall it was Kyle Brandt who joked by saying something like they can talk about Washington or Tennessee but who would watch then? 

 

I think all of this is about to change.  Will see. 

Edited July 24, 2023 by Skinsinparadise

[Skinsinparadise]

 

 

...There are a million reasons why Washington fans partied like they’d won a Super Bowl with the sale of the team being finalized. Most pertain to what’s going out, rather than what’s coming in. The D.C.-Maryland-Virginia corridor that makes up the metro area saw, almost in slow motion, now former owner Dan Snyder ground one of the richest brands in North American team sports into dust and turn a flagship franchise into a punch line.

So there’s no question that the first box Harris checks for Commanders fans is that he’s not Snyder, and understandably so.

 

...But there are reasons beyond that for all of you in D.C. to be fired up for what Harris and his group are going to bring to the table. And Harris and I covered a lot of that over about a half hour last week. The first thing you should know? Well, it’s right there—he is legitimately one of you.

 

...Owning the Sixers and Devils has prepared him for this. Usually, there are hard-to-avoid traps lurking for billionaires buying sports franchises. And Harris knows it, because he had to confront those both as an NBA owner and an NHL owner, and as he sees it that experience should better equip him not to let such situations lead his team into a ditch.

 

“Certainly, I think a lot of people who are great businesspeople, or are great at something else, come in to owning sports teams, they believe just because they’re smart and they’re knowledgeable fans that they can start making player decisions, and they make mistakes,” he says. “My learning on that side has been to attract and retain the best possible, in this case, football talent, and to watch, to learn, to listen. To not come in and just think because you’re a great fan you know what’s going on.

“That’s what we intend to do. I think the other thing that people don’t realize, unless they’ve been through it, business is very transactional—it’s about building value, building a company. In sports, you’re a steward for a city, and it’s very emotional. It’s not about money. It’s about much more intangible things.”

 

There is something to be taken from The Process with the Sixers. Two things, actually. The first, as I see it, is that Harris will think outside the box. The second is that there’ll be a strong focus on building something sustainable that’s not just for the here and now (going heavy win-now was actually the first pothole Snyder stepped into in D.C.).

“There’s a big arbitrage in sports on thinking and acting for the long term, and we want to build elite organizations and teams that win consistently over the long run,” Harris says. “Every situation is different. Washington has a good, young team, so I’m not sure that’s the right analogy. But yes, we want to be innovative. We want to encourage long-term decision-making. Look, ultimately, you win with the players on the field, you draft them, you get them in free agency, you trade for them.

 

“Unfortunately, free agency is generally something where you pay a lot, trades are very opportunistic, so the draft is what you ultimately have to fall back on to build your team over a long run. And we’ll just have to see what we have here. I’m not saying that’s what we’re going to do, but I think that we’ll do what we have, which is about attracting the best and brightest, thinking outside the box and creating edges in sports science and analytics.”

 

Harris has a lot of catching up to do. And he readily admitted that when I asked how closely he’s followed the Commanders and the NFL at large.

“Growing up, I was a huge football fan,” he says. “I’m getting to know the team again. I’m coming in, it’s the eve of training camp, I’ve had very limited interaction with Ron [Rivera] and his staff, although I’ve had some. I have had no interaction with the players. Really, I know what I read. Obviously, I’m aware of what it means to be the owner of a sports team. I know a lot about Joel Embiid. I know a lot about James Harden. I know a lot about Tyrese Maxey. I know a lot about Nick Nurse. I know a lot about Daryl Morey.

 

“I don’t have that kind of intimate knowledge of the Washington Commanders—yet. I will.”

That, I think, should be taken as the current guys in charge having a clean slate. Harris said Wednesday that he’d yet to meet GM Martin Mayhew, while he’s had limited exposure to EVP Marty Hurney and Rivera. He’s had more, for obvious reasons, with team president Jason Wright. That gives him, and his team, a lot of catching up to do. But the bar for those guys to be retained will be set where it’s been with his other teams.

 

“How do you compete in the NFL? You try to create the best team,” Harris says. “What does that mean? It means hiring the best front office, maintaining the best coaching staff, attracting the best people. It means developing analytics, developing any edge you can, whether it be analytics, whether it be sports science, whether it be how you treat the players, whether it be the opposing team not wanting to come into your house because they don’t like it.

“It’s a million little edges. We know how to do it. We’re not gonna meddle in the roster day to day. But obviously there are times where we made changes. You’ve seen it in Philly, saw it in Philly this offseason. We do what we have to do and make decisions we think are right. Right now, we’re gonna do the best we can in learning and getting to know the people.”

 

And as he told me, for the time being, that’s going to mean using their eyes and ears more than their mouths. Because in a certain way, this happening now, in the summer, gives the new owners a chance to sit back and observe for a while before having to make any sorts of sweeping calls on who’ll coach or run the team.

“It’s being a fly on the wall to a large extent,” Harris says. “I’m not gonna be watching the 40-yard dash and calling plays. It’s about starting to get to know the staff, the key staff and key players, and then understanding the decision-making that’s going into the roster and how they’re configuring the team and going from there. And look, this year is a big year for the franchise obviously, and we’re gonna learn a lot.

 

“So I think it’s unlikely that you’ll see us, or me, meddling early. We’re going to be watching the results and what happens. Obviously, we know how to build sports franchises that win over the long run. We’ve done it. It takes a while. We have to see what we have.”

 

Edited July 24, 2023 by Skinsinparadise

[Jumbo]

The amount of love, and the relevant material and overall quality of the clips and dialogue given to the subject,  was very cool.

 

Washington fans can be happy and grateful to being featured in that manner.🙂

[RVAskins]

14 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

“How do you compete in the NFL? You try to create the best team,” Harris says. “What does that mean? It means hiring the best front office, maintaining the best coaching staff, attracting the best people. It means developing analytics, developing any edge you can, whether it be analytics, whether it be sports science, whether it be how you treat the players, whether it be the opposing team not wanting to come into your house because they don’t like it.

Harris said a lot of great things. Things you want to hear from your owner but I love the above quote. I truly believe he will do things the right way.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Imagine an owner who believes in trying to outclass the rest of the league from the top down...

[Darrell Green Fan]

 

As one of the fans who unapologetically bailed last season I am in a strange place with regard to my rooting interest.  Maybe it's the name and uniforms but I still feel a distance to this team.  Instead of excitement I feel relief, relief that I once again have a team to root for. Relief that finally this team has a chance down the road.  Relief that we will no longer be a laughing stock who constantly does stupid things.

 

I can tell you the Red Zone is fun but it's not the same as when your team is facing 3rd and 5.  I look forward to that excitement but I totally understand if they lose their first few games and Howell throws 3 picks that excitement will leave the building pretty quickly.  It will take winning to bring many of us totally back.  

Edited July 24, 2023 by Darrell Green Fan

[TD_washingtonredskins]

3 minutes ago, Darrell Green Fan said:

 

As one of the fans who unapologetically bailed last season I am in a strange place with regard to my rooting interest.  Maybe it's the name and uniforms but I still feel a distance to this team.  Instead of excitement I feel relief, relief that I once again have a team to root for. Relief that finally this team has a chance down the road.  Relief that we will no longer be a laughing stock who constantly does stupid things.

 

I can tell you the Red Zone is fun but it's not the same as when your team is facing 3rd and 5.  I look forward to that excitement but I totally understand if they lose their first few games and Howell throws 3 picks that excitement will leave the building pretty quickly.  It will take winning to bring many of us totally back.  

 

I feel the same way...

 

I bailed before 2020 when all the dirt came out and, like you, now feel relief that the home team can be "the good guys" again. But, I don't feel like I'm completely back yet. I think having that passion slowly pulled away over the years has done a number on me. I hope it comes back fully, but maybe the combination of my age, the change in the name, and all the extenuating circumstances have just created a situation that won't ever be the same for me. 

 

We'll see...but it will be nice to not have to actively root against this team like I was for the past few years when I found out the BS Snyder was up to. 

[Skinsinparadise]

23 minutes ago, RVAskins said:

Harris said a lot of great things. Things you want to hear from your owner but I love the above quote. I truly believe he will do things the right way.

 

Yeah he talked about getting that edge multiple times in the last few days.  I love it. 

 

Also, granted our previous owner did everything wrong.   And that's not hyperbole.    But among the zillion things that Dan did wrong is that he refused to take a step back to take a bigger step forward later.  Harris is known for embracing that variable -- build draft capital, look to the future.

 

If I had to pick one thing that frustrates me the most about how the Eagles operate versus us -- its their aggressive nature to building future draft.  How do they deal with rebuilding their roster as their stars get more money and they in turn are up against the cap?   They deal with it by loading up on reinforcements in the draft. Roseman is uber aggressive in doing that.

 

We do it either the reverse way by pissing away draft picks or do nothing proacive in building future draft capital.  Some like to take my point out of context when I said that Ron would do better especially in an off season like this one if he did something with some pizzazz or if not just a bit different -- in that soup I mentioned imagine if he traded down to build some 2024 draft capital for example.   

 

Think of it.  With all the hype of Harris coming in, imagine if Eagles style we picked up another 2024 #1 pick or even #2?  It would add to the future looks bright vibe.  But we don't play that card.  I think that will change with Harris.

Edited July 24, 2023 by Skinsinparadise

[Darrell Green Fan]

5 minutes ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

 

I feel the same way...

 

I bailed before 2020 when all the dirt came out and, like you, now feel relief that the home team can be "the good guys" again. But, I don't feel like I'm completely back yet. I think having that passion slowly pulled away over the years has done a number on me. I hope it comes back fully, but maybe the combination of my age, the change in the name, and all the extenuating circumstances have just created a situation that won't ever be the same for me. 

 

We'll see...but it will be nice to not have to actively root against this team like I was for the past few years when I found out the BS Snyder was up to. 

 

Not sure how old you are but for me and everyone I know the passion starts to diminish when you get in your 40's. I was not aware of this, I blamed Norv Turner and all the losing because before that  from 1972-1992 this team was mostly always good and I was "break the remote" passionate.  Then I started speaking with friends, some who still had winning teams, and they felt the same way.  

[Skinsinparadise]

 

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

5 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

Yeah he talked about getting that edge multiple times in the last few days.  I love it. 

 

Also, granted our previous owner did everything wrong.   And that's not hyperbole.    But among the zillion things that Dan did wrong is that he refused to take a step back to take a bigger step forward later.  Harris is known for embracing that variable -- build draft capital, look to the future.

 

If I had to pick one thing that frustrates me the most about how the Eagles operate versus us -- its their aggressive nature to building future draft.  How do they deal with rebuilding their roster as their stars get more money and they in turn are up against the cap?   They deal with it by loading up on reinforcements in the draft. Roseman is uber aggressive in doing that.

 

We do it either the reverse way by pissing away draft picks or do nothing proacive in building future draft capital.  Some like to take my point out of context when I said that Ron would do better especially in an off season like this one if he did something with some pizzazz or if not just a bit different -- in that soup I mentioned imagine if he traded down to build some 2024 draft capital for example.   

 

Think of it.  With all the hype of Harris coming in, imagine if Eagles style we picked up another 2024 #1 pick or even #2?  It would add to the future looks bright vibe.  But we don't play that card.  I think that will change with Harris.

What makes what Howie did even more impressive is, like this group, he was facing pressure for his poor drafts (picking Reagor over Jefferson etc).  His teams were poor and he was under fire but he was still agressing in obtaining future draft capital.  

[TD_washingtonredskins]

8 minutes ago, Darrell Green Fan said:

 

Not sure how old you are but for me and everyone I know the passion starts to diminish when you get in your 40's. I was not aware of this, I blamed Norv Turner and all the losing because before that  from 1972-1992 this team was mostly always good and I was "break the remote" passionate.  Then I started speaking with friends, some who still had winning teams, and they felt the same way.  

 

Yep, I'm in my mid-40s and I was still pretty engaged through some pretty bad years (mid-90s, 2000s, even the 2010s).

[RVAskins]

1 hour ago, Skinsinparadise said:

How do they deal with rebuilding their roster as their stars get more money and they in turn are up against the cap?   They deal with it by loading up on reinforcements in the draft.

It funny when you look back at the old Redskins, especially during the George Allen days. He was all about trading for players and bringing in vets. The NFL was different back then. You can't operate that way any more. Especially with the salaries today and the cap. You have to have draft picks who develop into your core players.

Edited July 24, 2023 by RVAskins

[Skinsinparadise]

9 minutes ago, Darrell Green Fan said:

What makes what Howie did even more impressive is, like this group, he was facing pressure for his poor drafts (picking Reagor over Jefferson etc).  His teams were poor and he was under fire but he was still agressing in obtaining future draft capital.  

 

Stuck with the process and kept plugging.   No doubt ups and downs come with the job.  John Schenider some consider as the best in the business or close enough.  He had a couple of awful drafts, it happens.

 

Joe Banner who is mentioned below, knows Harris and is very high on him. 

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35467936/how-eagles-gm-howie-roseman-built-best-roster-nfl

 

"Howie has been hated and loved, then hated again, then loved again," Eagles center Jason Kelce says. "It just shows you that being the general manager is really hard. There are a lot of things that go into that job. But I've been really happy to see him persevere through all that. It's tough, especially in this city."

Philadelphia (14-3) enters the playoffs with the NFL's best record and is one of the favorites to hoist the Lombardi Trophy next month. The league's most temperamental fan base, one that was openly calling for his firing 21 months ago, has embraced its GM once again.

 

It is a development very few would have predicted in 2020, when the Eagles went 4-11-1, then cut ties with quarterback Carson Wentz and coach Doug Pederson, the two men handpicked by Roseman in 2016 to be the face of the franchise for the foreseeable future. Getting rid of Wentz despite trading up to get him (and signing him to a large contract extension in 2019) would have cost most general managers their job. Instead, it jump-started one of the most unlikely rebirths in the history of Philadelphia sports. In the past two years, Roseman, who is 47, has assembled the NFL's best roster.

 

...Roseman's original mentor, former Eagles general manager Joe Banner, viewed it differently. It was proof that Roseman had internalized maybe the most important lesson Banner had tried to instill from the beginning: Don't be scared to change course.

 

"You have to take your ego out of the equation and take out the fear of losing your job," Banner says. "Those are the two things that not many people in the NFL can do. We tried to make it part of our culture, and I know it is something [Roseman] thinks is important. We're all going to make a bunch of mistakes. And the question is: How costly are your mistakes? Are you willing to admit your mistakes and move on? He could have stuck with Carson Wentz and they would've probably struggled for two or three or four more years. Or he could have said, 'I'm not sure this is the right answer. Let's go grab Jalen Hurts.' He understood the notion that if you fix a mistake reasonably quickly, then the price you pay for it is actually fairly small."

Edited July 24, 2023 by Skinsinparadise

[ntotoro]

35 minutes ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

Imagine an owner who believes in trying to outclass the rest of the league from the top down...

 

Instead of outASS the rest of the league.

[Skinsinparadise]

27 minutes ago, RVAskins said:

It funny when you look back at the old Redskins, especially during the George Allen days. He was all about trading for player and bringing in vets. The NFL was different back then. You can't operate that way any more. Especially with the salaries today and the cap. You have to have draft picks who develop into your core players.

 

No doubt the NFL changed.    But back in that day, many thought we had the best coaches and FO or close enough. 

[Skinsinparadise]

Grant Paulsen said, Harris had a private meeting with the employees there and he knew an employee who attended that.  And that employee said after the meeting they felt like they would run through a wall.  Harris among other things said it would be the greatest professional accomplishment of his life to get this franchise back on track.

Edited July 24, 2023 by Skinsinparadise

[NoVaSkins21]

5 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

Grant Paulsen said, Harris had a private meeting with the employees there and he knew an employee who attended that.  And that employee said after the meeting they felt like they would run through a wall.  Harris among other things said it would be the greatest professional accomplishment of his life to get this franchise back on track.

It seems like Harris is really a people person and gets the best out of the people that work for him.  Thank God we have him as our owner now

[BringMetheHeadofBruceAllen]

25 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

No doubt the NFL changed.    But back in that day, many thought we had the best coaches and FO or close enough. 

 

Madden's Raiders were very similar to Allen's Redskins in that they traded for other players frequently, the difference being that Madden had a knack for turning players deemed 'nonconformist oddballs' on their previous teams into good or even great players for the Raiders. In fact, Madden seemed to seek out those oddballs on purpose...here's just some of those who excelled once they got to Oakland:

 

Ted Hendricks - previously with the Colts and Packers, became HoFer with Raiders.

Jim Plunkett - previously with the Patriots and 49ers, won 2 SBs with Raiders.

John Matuszak - just about the entire NFL, excelled once he came to the Raiders.

Todd Christensen - was with Cowboys and Giants, won 2 SBs with Raiders.

Ken Stabler - just plain nuts, drafted by Madden.

Lester Hayes - also just plain nuts, drafted by Madden.

 

I'm sure there are more, but I actually have work to do.