The McNabb trade: 10 years later

[MTK]

Looks worse in print than what he meant


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[Warthog]

Getting McNabb was just another Snyder-type, bone-headed move. Bring in a (former) good or very good player, but who now was on the far downside of their career - no longer very good or even good. Donovan was just another guy in the Snyder-era coming here just to “cash out” using Redskin’s money.

There was a strategic plan, perfected by GEORGE Allen in the ‘70’s, to use older FA to build a team. They had older guys who worked together and could win. Unfortunately, trying a similar plan was a total flop from the 1990’s, right when Snyder took over the team. I’m a little fuzzy on the average age of George Allen’s “Over the Hill Gang” FA players, but I don’t think it was a program built with players on their last legs - with just one or two seasons left. Between the 1970’s and when Snyder bought the team, the NFL changed by getting younger, stronger and faster. Few players make it past 10 years.

It has taken 20 years for Snyder to figure out that he needs a coach to create a winning culture and mostly using players who came to the team through the draft. Even most of the FA brought in now are under 30 years old. Only a couple “old timers” like AP are used - and even those guys MUST have some juice in the tank, as well as being good examples and mentors to the young guys. McNabb wasn’t one of those guys.


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[SolidSnake84]

I remember driving home from my wife's house (then girlfriend at the time) and hearing about the McNabb trade on the radio. I called my best friend and told him about it, he thought i was joking.

I remember being excited because i thought that McNabb had enough juice left in the tank that he would be competent for a few seasons. Boy was i wrong. I remember him having like one good game, and then just basically sucking.

And Donovan was beyond shot at the point that he arrived here. Good for Andy Reid for fleecing us. He knew that McNabb was washed up by that point. If I recall correctly, McNabb got one more shot in Minnesota, but he still sucked, so he was cut, and that was the end of his career.

[Buffalo Bob]

Someone willing to trade his QB within a division should send up a huge red flag.

[EdmundDorf]

You'd think , of course Dan Snyder is a like a bull, he charges straight at red flags

[skinsfaninok]

Originally Posted by EdmundDorf

You'd think , of course Dan Snyder is a like a bull, he charges straight at red flags

Dan was desperate, Mcnabb was just another Band-Aid.. RG3 was supposed to be the savior... Man we've made some Awful QB moves

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[Pervis_Griffith]

Originally Posted by skinsfaninok

Dan was desperate, Mcnabb was just another Band-Aid.. RG3 was supposed to be the savior... Man we've made some Awful QB moves

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And we have been so so close in the draft to at least two HOF'ers ...

1983, Marino fell all the way to the second to last pick Miami ... we took Darrell Green in the last pick of that first round, which was awesome. But can you imagine Joe Gibbs with Dan Marino??? And there's no reason to think Green wouldn't have fallen to us in the second round too. That would have been all time home run ...

2005, Aaron Rodgers falls all the way to Green Bay at 24. We picked Jason Campbell at 25. (And chose Carlos Rogers at 9 earlier that round, to be fair).


What could have been ...

[AnonEmouse]

I bet you could look at 10-15 teams that this also applies to, or at least in part. The curious thing is, with all the expertise that theoretically should be out there in the scouting/GM space, so many teams still seem to trip themselves up with high picks, especially QB. I mean at the time would everyone really have turned their noses up at the likes of Leaf, Schuler, Russell etc.? I doubt it.

I just struggle to fathom how this process fails so (relatively) often. With all the time and money invested...

[SolidSnake84]

Originally Posted by AnonEmouse

I bet you could look at 10-15 teams that this also applies to, or at least in part. The curious thing is, with all the expertise that theoretically should be out there in the scouting/GM space, so many teams still seem to trip themselves up with high picks, especially QB. I mean at the time would everyone really have turned their noses up at the likes of Leaf, Schuler, Russell etc.? I doubt it.

I just struggle to fathom how this process fails so (relatively) often. With all the time and money invested...

I posted about this one time years ago, how were all of those busts able to fool scouts, NFL GM's, etc...

The answer i was given at the time was that the teams, etc. were aware of the risks and the high probability of failure, but the talent was seen as so immense and rare that it was worth the risk. Take Jamarcus Russell for example. He had arm talent that didn't seem humanly possible. The only other player i have seen in my life with his equivalent arm strength was Jeff George. Looking back on them now, both are considered busts, but i will argue that George had a more successful NFL career.

[Warthog]

Part of the draft failure for the Redskins over the last 20 years is that we’ve had TERRIBLE GM’s in that time. Neither Cerrato nor Allen had much football sense, nor did they have ANY NFL personnel expertise. Any players they drafted and that’s succeeded were due to blind luck. I remember some drafts where fourth, fifth and below draft picks never even made it through TC.

Cerrato & Allen were there to hold Snyder’s hand and to allow Dan to stick his grubby little fingers into the football operation, of which HE ALSO has very limited NFL knowledge.

I was a little surprised that Kyle Smith was able to rise up, regarding his advice in choosing draft picks, because Allen’s usual tactic was to crush anyone who appeared smarter than him or had any success regarding football decisions for the team. I guess Allen finally figured out that he needed to start making some correct draft and FA decisions, since it wasn’t just good enough to “win off the field”.

I hope that Rivera promotes Kyle Smith to GM because he does an outstanding ability to find gems in the bottom of the draft and undrafted free agents (UDFA). I’m excited to see who he picks up this draft, since we have some real holes to fill after we draft Chase Young.


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[Monkeydad]

I made my first trip to a training camp to see McNabb. I bought into the hype too after rooting against him so hard for years.

What a disaster. He and Haynesworth were the two worst decisions our team ever made.

[mooby]

I was at McNabb's last game starting before he got benched. Shitty game against the Bucs in the pouring rain, McNabb ties the game in the last 2 min only for the extra point (which actually would've tied the game 17-17) bounce off the upright LOL. He was benched the next week, which IIRC was like 2 weeks after signing that contract extension with us.

Just a total shitshow, which unfortunately sums up most of the last 10 years.