bulldog Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 The Redskins are beginning to look like the Redskins again. At least in terms of how the team is finding talent to fit the roster. Slowly but surely un-drafted free agents like Ryan Boschetti and Garnell Wilds are making it onto the team for extended looks. Middle to lower round picks like Molinaro, Wilson, Lott, Royal are being counted on to provide depth. And veteran free agents that can help the club at reasonable cost such as Holdman, Harris, Salave’a, etc. are being selected over riskier, more expensive players who want to be paid based on what they did in the NFL 2 or 3 years ago. This not so subtle change (it is subtle enough to go un-remarked upon in the national media however) has me almost as optimistic as Die Hard about 2005. I am convinced this is a team that won’t get out-worked like the Turner teams nor out-coached as the Spurrier teams were. Gregg Williams and Greg Blache already have the swagger. These guys are about as hot a duo in terms of turning around a defense as there is in the NFL. The fact both have done it in other places before and are still here for 2005 is pretty amazing. While Williams may have the ‘next HC’ clause in his contract (who knows?), Blache is clearly a guy that deserves more national attention. The Bears 13-3 defense was largely his creation and somebody turned Demetric Evans, Ron Warner, and Co. into heartbreakers in 2004 after languishing in obscurity beforehand. I agree with Die Hard that this season will be better. Forget the defense for a moment. This offense was about as poor as anyone could have expected in 2004, yet the Redskins were in most games deep into the fourth quarter with a legitimate chance to win. Ramsey playing at a level higher than the last five games of last season (merely 10-20% better) with a healthy offensive line for Portis to run behind alone could be the two factors to propel the Redskins to those extra 5-7 points per game that meant the difference between 6-10 and 10-6. And this is before we factor in ANY real improvement in the wide receivers as a group. Merely catching the balls that are thrown more accurately by #11. A real step up in production from a Moss or Jacobs in a breakout season in 2005 would take this offense to a level where Williams could have some real fun working with a lead for a change. Worker-bees abound on offense. Where we used to have show-boaters like Michael Westbrook and most recently Rod Gardner, guys who were waving for a first down on their only catches of the day, now the team has a high #2 pick in Jacobs playing on special teams and blocking punts to earn his chance to play regularly. We have depth receivers in Patten and Thrash that put out the kind of effort the coaches can count on for 16 weeks. And we finally have a deep receiver in Moss that isn’t suffering from injury problems or mental demons (although his $11 million bonus was the one financial move in the off-season where we invested at full price). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDane Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 Nice post, bulldog. These are many of the reasons why I've been keeping my seat warm on the Bandwagon since the end of last season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifty Gut Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 I'm happy the direction we took with fixing our WR corps. Moss was so clutch in the playoffs for the Jets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F Landry Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 Couldn't agree with you more... Go skins! :helmet: :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweet Sassy Molassy Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 Great post bulldog! I agree wholeheartedly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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