The 2008 "Who needs to step up" thread

[Mattyk]

Ok we all know that Jason Campbell is at the top of this list, so let's just cross him off and move on. Who else needs to step up this year to help get the team back to the playoffs? I'm going to start by identifying 3 players that I think are critical to this year's success.

1. Santana Moss - When healthy and focused he's a gamebreaker. He needs to get on track early on and establish a good rapport with Jason Campbell. If he can recapture some of that 2005 magic the offense is in for a big year.

2. LaRon Landry - We started to see some glimpses of what he's capable of at the end of last season. When he took over FS for Sean Taylor he almost seemed like a clone of ST... flying around, making the big hits, and coming up with 2 big INTs in the playoffs against Seattle. He needs to take over where Sean Taylor left off for this defense. Big shoes to fill indeed, but I think he's capable of being a game changer at safety.

3. Clinton Portis - WhilePortis certainly did not have a bad year in 2007, he has plenty of room for improvement. Now in an offense that will use more of the zone blocking schemes that he likes, we need to see a more explosive Clinton Portis and less of the 3 yards and a cloud of dust we saw last year. Heading into this season in better shape should help him get off to a better start.

[SmootSmack]

Shaun Suisham: He needs to be a consistent, reliable force both on field goals and kick-offs

Kedrick Golston: He seemed to regress a bit last year, but with Daniels out, Griffin aging, and Montgomery battling a borken hand now, Golston is going to have to step up.

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Good post and good thread. I like your list, but I'll add a few more guys.

#1. Rogers. Carlos Rogers struggled in 2005 and 2006, but started to really develop in 2007. I realize that he's coming off a major injury, but he needs to show us by the middle of the season that he was worthy of being selected 9th overall in the 2005 draft.

#2. Anthony Montgomery. Montgomery was just a 5th round draft pick, so it's hard to complain about his production. However, with so many people talking about his amazing abilities, it's about time that his ability starts translating into solid production. He looked decent enough in 2007, but he didn't look like the potential Pro Bowler than people think he can be.

[Mattyk]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Shaun Suisham: He needs to be a consistent, reliable force both on field goals and kick-offs

Kedrick Golston: He seemed to regress a bit last year, but with Daniels out, Griffin aging, and Montgomery battling a borken hand now, Golston is going to have to step up.

Speaking of Golston I just read that Blache says that he is seriously competing with Montgomery for the starting DT job. Personally I think Blache is just doing that to keep that fire lit under Monty's ass, but the article also says that Golston has slimmed down to 298, down from 320 last year. Perhaps the extra weight hurt his play last year.

Battle Brewing at Defensive Tackle

[Ade Jimoh Fan Club]

1. Jason "Oops that one got away from me" Campbell - has got the be #1 on this list by a mile.
2. Jon "my body hurts" Jansen - needs to get back to where he was 3-4 years ago.
3. Rocky "Road" McIntosh - injuries aside, we gave up a lot to get him and he needs to have a coming out party.
4. Carlos "2 seconds 2 late" Rogers - showed potential last year before getting hurt; once healthy, this is the year that he needs to prove that he's our true #1 corner.

[rbanerjee23]

I think Andre Carter should be on this list. He had a great year last year (dont know how he didn't make the probowl) but with the greatly improved d line (addition of J Taylor) putting less pressure on him, he needs to show that he can be a terror game in and game out to opposing quarterbacks.

[Soup's Uncle]

Santana and Randle El big time. Santana will produce if he stays healthy. We need more than 1 touchdown from our number 2 reciever.

Our corners.

Pretty much everyone! Jason Campbell, Portis, the D Line, the O Line.

[Soup's Uncle]

Yeah Carlos needs to become our top corner or I'd officially label him a bust.

[dmek25]

player wise, i think everyone has covered all the bases. but Jim Zorn, and the rest of the staff has to step up. i love coach Gibbs to death, but lets face it, he had a free pass around here. the guy all but blows the buffalo game with a major league gaffe, and hardly anyone says a word. what its going to be like the first time Zorn goes for it on fourth down, and the skins don't convert? you know he isn't getting the same luxury that Gibbs was.

[Schneed10]

The number of players mentioned by various people in this thread is just further evidence of the fact that football is such a team sport.

Really, everyone needs to step up for us, everyone needs to play well.

Keys:

- Randy Thomas; few guards in the league can pull like him. We need him to pave the way for our run game. I think he will, and Portis should take things up a notch because of it. I love this guy.

- Tryon or Torrence; one of them needs to take the nickel spot. Rogers' knee injury was nasty, I can't believe he's going to be himself this season.

- The WRs; the whole lot of them. With Saunders we kinda sorta got away with having only 2 decent ones. In Zorn's offense we need more than that. We need all of the WRs to contribute.

And because this is a team sport, we can't take certain things for granted. Samuels is so consistent, he's like a rock in pass protection. If we lost him to injury, that would crush us. Jason Taylor needs to hold up against the run adequately. Rocky needs to be healthy, or our backup LBs need to step up. And Sellers needs to truck some dudes or this season just won't be as much fun!

[Mattyk]

Originally Posted by dmek25

player wise, i think everyone has covered all the bases. but Jim Zorn, and the rest of the staff has to step up. i love coach Gibbs to death, but lets face it, he had a free pass around here. the guy all but blows the buffalo game with a major league gaffe, and hardly anyone says a word. what its going to be like the first time Zorn goes for it on fourth down, and the skins don't convert? you know he isn't getting the same luxury that Gibbs was.

Not sure where you were but there was alot of people saying plenty of things after that, most of it not so nice either. I'm sure we had a couple of "Joe must go" discussions going on after that.

[over the mountain]

good thread and thoughts for this time of the season.

reed doughty - i dont think laron needs to "step up" as much as keep his play equal to last season so im going with reed needing to "step up" to keep those long balls that plagued our D in '06 from happening. when we relinquished the long passes it really screwed with g williams ability to run his true D scheme b/c he had to constantly compensate for those long balls. so heres hoping the secondary in general holds up well with injuries and play to allow us to bring pressure on the qb.

jason taylor - would like to see what a stud d-lineman looks like in real life since charles mann.

i agree with everyones assessments above, knowledgeable group of skins fans here.

go skins!

[Ade Jimoh Fan Club]

I think that Jason Taylor and Andre Carter are going to make the secondary look like all-Pro's by making the QB's make ill-advised passes.

I also think LaRon is going to have at least a half-dozen sacks this year with blitzing up the middle.

[SouperMeister]

The WR's must be more productive this year. They went the first half season without a TD last year. That's almost inconceivable with today's rules giving receivers a decided edge over defenders.

[Mattyk]

Originally Posted by hesscl34

... yeah, and that was directly related to our QB play...

Not necessarily. Cooley caught 8 TDs so it wasn't all on the QB.

I might be reading too far into this but I think you might have some sort of axe to grind with JC. Is it because everyone piled on your boy Brunell, and now you're revolting against the majority with your JC bashing?