How the 49ers/Texans changed my view on Football and how to build the redskins

GTripp0012

Let me try to rephrase the question: what about guys like Tony Romo and Philip Rivers? San Diego and Dallas are clearly not the deep organizations that Baltimore, Pittsburgh, New York, Philadelphia, and New England are, and that San Francisco and Houston are close to being. With that said, do you have any doubt that those guys can get it done? What about Matt Schaub?

I think there are two ways to look at this conundrum.

1) The idea that you don't know if someone can get it done until they actually do. Eli Manning is trying to save the Giants from a super bowl 42 loss where the Giants score just 10 points against the Patriots, and he throws a ball into the flat that lands right into the hands of Asante Samuel. Eli is who we thought he was. Then Eli escapes a sack, and ends up throwing the game winning touchdown pass. And Eli is who we thought he was! I always knew he could do that!

2) The idea that you do know your guy can get it done, but you realistically understand that not everyone gets the opportunity. When Drew Brees left New Orleans, it seemed certain that Philip Rivers would get first crack at winning the super bowl. But sometimes, circumstances change. And right now, it seems more likely that Brees will get ring No. 2 before Rivers gets to the big game.

But is there any reason to doubt Rivers? 20 INTs and missed the playoffs by a game? Well, last year, Eli threw 25 picks and missed the playoffs by a game. So I'm finding it really hard to doubt Philip Rivers. And while I don't typically have a good pulse on the opinions of the masses, the popular opinion seems to be that Rivers will get his sooner rather than later.

But if he never does, were we wrong to NOT doubt him? That doesn't make sense to me.

Ultimately, I agree with you that the clock is ticking and if you're ever going to get it right, going bold at QB might be your only option. But if it is, it is only because Plans A through G failed already. And the gap between failing spectacularly and failing like the Redskins have been I don't think has ever been smaller.

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SirClintonPortis

You cannot discount the importance of draft class size, aka having more picks. Increasing pick quantities softens the blow of a "miss" because you get another chance to pick a "hit". All the teams you mentioned usually had a bigger number of picks than us for a given year.

You cannot discount the importance of draft position. Draft Position matters because later round prospects generally trash relative to the earlier round ones. Or as an example, having 10 1st rounders is going to net you a better team on average than having 20 7th rounders. Most 6th and 7th rounders WILL FAIL, and we had plenty of picks in the 6th and 7th rounds. Drafting crappy players in the 6th and 7th round is a "natural" part of the biz and not specific to the Redskins. You cannot expect to draft Pro Bowler after Pro Bowler with 7th rounders even with Bill Walsh's ghost assisting you.

Quality starters are usually found in rounds 1-3. We actually weren't that bad in the first round, but we were virtually nonexistent in rounds 2 and 3(2 especially) for the most part precisely because we did not have picks in those rounds and instead had low round picks, which are usually doomed to failure.

And our 1st rounders being that bad is NOT BS, even if they would have remained mediocre here. JC started in Oakland, Carlos Rogers started in San Fran, Sean(RIP) would have been a great one, Chris Samuels proved his worth for us, Champ was a bargaining chip for a blockbuster trade. Hell, Derrick Dockery got overpaid in Buffalo and Rock Cartwright is still in the league.

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