Putting the Redskins in Perspective

It's not like we don't have solid young linemen that have developed (will develop) into NFL starters-Golston, Montgomery, Heyer, Evans, hopefully Rinehart, Geisinger, and Jackson/Wilson in the not so distant future.

But I guess the concern is that we're not spending high draft picks on the line?Well, there's nothing young about Evans. He's 29 and currently in his prime. Still, I think we have to find a way to get him an extension. He's a truly great player that Gibbs uncovered and hid behind Daniels. But this season appears to be his career year.

Montgomery, I think, has much more value to a 3-4 team as a dominating, penetrating nose tackle in the mold of Shaun Rogers, Vince Wilfork, or Kris Jenkins. As long as we have him though, we're only going to get Kris Jenkins from Carolina or Shaun Rogers from Detroit. It's not a scheme that fits him very well, and if we can get the going rate for a player like him (a second rounder, or a third and a fifth, or a third and a young player) I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Golston will be that great run stopping nose tackle for us well into the future. But that leaves one key spot that were already not getting any production from when Monty is not in: the 3 technique tackle.

This is what we need to address in the draft. A DT with multiple moves, and I think it's going to be a good draft class for that.

And Rinehart's got potential, but if Geisinger was worth anything in future value, he's be starting already. Rabach is awful, and he still can't get on the field, so I'm guessing that no one is looking at Geisinger seriously.

Also, the Jason Taylor trade: officially horrible. We got waxed.

We're going to have to make a decision next off-season between Daniels and Taylor. And by no means is this a simple decision. Vinny needs to realize that the 2nd round pick we send for Taylor is a sunk cost, and that if a 36 year old Daniels can help us more than a 35 year old Taylor, Daniels needs to stay and Taylor must go.

Yeah I think there's a lot of truth to this. When it comes to the offensive line, we have a major weakness at RT, we have a major strength at LT (though Samuels has had some disappointing moments), and the rest of the line is solid but is overmatched against very talented defenders.

When it comes to the defensive line, we have solid DTs in the middle, but no playmakers. Andre Carter is a playmaker at end, but teams have been able to neutralize him with Taylor not himself on the other side.

Our lines have games where they show up and play well, but other games where they're sub-par. It's hard to establish the upper hand needed to put together a serious playoff run and beat 3 or 4 playoff teams and take a Super Bowl title.

You're right, we'll struggle to ever be a dominant team unless we can get some trench players in house who are capable of dominating not just one game, but multiple games in a row against various opponents.

With these lines, it's kind of hard to see how we can ever be much better than 10-6. Not that 10-6 is bad, but ya know, we kinda want to win the whole thing.

I agree about drafting linemen. Snyderatto - NO MORE WR's, TE's or RB's.

The other point of concern for me about the Redskins is the way we throw money around. We are getting better but still we have a ton of our 2009 salary cap tied up on just a handful of old players that are either injured a lot or are under-performing. We have $39.5 million committed to just these six players:

In 2009:
1) Jason Taylor $8.5 million
2) Andre Carter $6.5 million
3) Marcus Washington $6.5 million
4) Jon Jansen $5.6 million
5) Shawn Springs $8.5 million
6) Fred Smoot $4.15 million

None of these players are playing up to level to deserve their high salary. Shawn Springs and Marcus Washington play well when healthy. But they are injured all time in 2008. The others do not play at a high level anymore. We could do alot to invest this $39.5 million on young players to develop for the future.
By the way the Cowboys, as did the Giants exposed that Andre Carter and Jason Taylor are weak against the run. Team that have a strong running game will exploit this.

SmootSmack:

I think that the the apprehension here is that the young players you cite are good and solid OL/DL, but none have shown that they can/will be dominant players.

The defensive tackles on the squad are OK, but the last one the Skins had that was "special" was probably Dave Butz. That was long ago.

On the OL there are competent guys but no dominant ones. There is no one there who threatens to erase the memory of a Russ Grimm or a Joe Jacoby or a Jim Lachey. At one point, the Redskins had all three of those guys on the same team; now it would be spectacular if they had just one - - or one in the making.

Notice, I don't say it is necessary to spend high draft picks to get these kinds of guys because I know that Jacoby was an UFA and Grimm was a third(?) round pick. But it would be nice to see the Skins use a draft pick to obtain a really top-shelf offensive lineman and defensive lineman sometime in the very near future. Maybe that means drafting one in Round 1; maybe it means the scouts have to find a real gem in the later rounds. But the Skins need one stud DT and one - preferably two - stud offensive lineman pretty quickly.

Fantastic post.

Also, the Jason Taylor trade: officially horrible. We got waxed.

We're going to have to make a decision next off-season between Daniels and Taylor. And by no means is this a simple decision. Vinny needs to realize that the 2nd round pick we send for Taylor is a sunk cost, and that if a 36 year old Daniels can help us more than a 35 year old Taylor, Daniels needs to stay and Taylor must go.

Oh thank God someone finally said it (pretty sure you're the first anyway).

I also don't think it has anything to do with scheme. JT has always been awful vs. the run, he's not providing any pass rush, and he's making rookie esque mistakes in play recognition that Daniels/Evans/Golston, and possibly even Chris Wilson would never make.

I'll elaborate more in my breakdown, but it's pretty embarassing to have a player making 8 million dollars who wouldn't be starting for most teams in the NFL right now.

I also don't think it has anything to do with scheme. JT has always been awful vs. the run, he's not providing any pass rush, and he's making rookie esque mistakes in play recognition that Daniels/Evans/Golston, and possibly even Chris Wilson would never make.

I'll elaborate more in my breakdown, but it's pretty embarassing to have a player making 8 million dollars who wouldn't be starting for most teams in the NFL right now.

Unfortunately JT isn't the only player on our roster making a truckload of cash who wouldn't start for most teams... on the other hand we're the only franchise paying Hall, a top pick, a mere million for his services through the remainder of '08. If we use him as a punt returner, he continues to get picks and behaves himself then... well it still doesn't really balance out but it's something.:thumb:

I totally agree with the first post as far as the trenches are concerned.

I've said it forever. Run the ball and stop the run. That's it. If you can do that, everything else is easy.

I count three guys on the OL that were brought in. That whole line, less CS, of course is not holding up well, and CS has a bad wheel.

I count three guys brought in on the DL with Griff on the IR.