[Dirtbag59]

Ok, now that I got that out of my system it's time to argue. The stigma that Reed Doughty is not a starter in this league is killing me and the view that we need to replace him after he proved himself to the point of earning a starting job this year is obsurd.

Now before I get further into this argument let me say that I think the anxiousness to replace Doughty with a bigger name is based, for a good amount of people, on lossing a player like Sean Taylor. I think people got use to the idea of having two big name safetys and they want that back. Thats why every available safety that pops up gets a strong push from "lobbyist" here on the Warpath. Other people just want the Redskins to have better Madden players so they can use them when the game comes out.

With that said, the last time we ignored a productive player on our roster in favor of a big name we signed Adam Archuletta and let Ryan Clark go to the Steelers. Afterwards people were begging for Ryan Clark to come back in the months leading up to the draft.

I don't know the KC Joyner metrics on how Reed played last year but we do have numbers such as tackles and such that we can match up with endorsements from the coaching staff. First of all his performance at SS when he started looks identical in terms of numbers when compared to Landry's time at SS and as I have stated before, if Doughty is as good as a rookie (first 8 or so games) Laron Landry then awesome.

On top of that Doughty was cited by Cooley as the hardest working player this offseason and by Cooleys own admission he see's Doughty having a breakout year. Now does this mean it will happen, not necessarily (see JP Losman), but SS is a lot easier to play then QB and Doughty performed well at SS last year. If someone can prove otherwise please let me know as I only have numbers, endorsements, and overall defensive performance to go on at this point so if someone has anything else to counter this then let me know.

However everyone's favorite new Redskin Stuart Schwiegert has yet to convince Blache that a Landry-Schweigert combo is better then a Landry-Doughty combo. And untill we see otherwise I am going to continue to endorse Doughty as the starting SS for 2008. He's at least earned that.