The 2008 "Who needs to step up" thread

[hesscl34]

Originally Posted by The Goat

I see it that way too. ARL is not blessed w/ the talent Moss has but shares the same small stature, so I never thought ARL would be a huge force. Still, w/ big threats out there I think he can be a surprise guy, picking up yards when defenses are focusing on Moss, Thomas, and/or Kelly.

Again, another man I saw do great things in practice. He caught a throw in the endzone and touched it down perfectly (toes reaching). If he has nothing else, he has as a great disire to score and make plays. But of course he does have something else.. He's Randel El..

[4mrusmc]

Originally Posted by skinsfan69

To me Randle El really doesn't need to step up cause he's only a #3 WR to begin with. He's never been nothing more then that his whole career.

True, he is only a #3 wideout perpetrating as a #2, but he needs to be more productive. They need to earn the salary that they are getting. And IMO they haven't been. Their lack of touchdowns last year was pretty pathetic. And Randle El really didn't light it up receiving punts either.

[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.

[MTK]

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.

[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!

[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.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by 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!

My thinking on LaRon is yes he played well as a rookie last year, but he needs to continue to develop and take his game to that next level. I'd like to see him "step up" and be the unquestioned leader of the secondary.

[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.

[hesscl34]

Originally Posted by 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.

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

[MTK]

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?

[hesscl34]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

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?

JC has a habit of throwing the short ball.. often, to his TE. He is not good at checking down field and throwing down field (at least not last year). That is what I saw with my own eyes last year and it has NOTHING to do with any axe to grind. I just get very sick of waiting for him to prove himself and most of you always blaming everything around him, but him. I don't consider my opinion of why the WR didn’t perform last year JC "bashing" at all.. it's just an opinion that I've formed by watching games, an opinion that most of you don't agree with. However, I’ve also said in other threads that I’m hoping Zorn will improve his game and he’ll finally step up this year. I'll be the first one to sing his praises if he gets it done on the field.

None of my comments are based on emotions, or my like for Brunell, and none of them should be construed as “bashing”. Don't take my opinion about JC so personally. Just take it for what it is - I want the Skins to win, period.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by hesscl34

JC has a habit of throwing the short ball.. often, to his TE. He is not good at checking down field and throwing down field (at least not last year). That is what I saw with my own eyes last year and it has NOTHING to do with any axe to grind. I just get very sick of waiting for him to prove himself and most of you always blaming everything around him, but him. I don't consider my opinion of why the WR didn’t perform last year JC "bashing" at all.. it's just an opinion that I've formed by watching games, an opinion that most of you don't agree with. However, I’ve also said in other threads that I’m hoping Zorn will improve his game and he’ll finally step up this year. I'll be the first one to sing his praises if he gets it done on the field.

None of my comments are based on emotions, or my like for Brunell, and none of them should be construed as “bashing”. Don't take my opinion about JC so personally. Just take it for what it is - I want the Skins to win, period.

Just calling it like I see it, that's all. If I'm wrong fine.

You just don't seem to have much patience with JC at all. I'm not absolving him of all blame by any means and I don't think anyone here is, he certainly needs to play well this year and as I started this thread with he's at the top of my list for guys that need to step up. But given the circumstances I think he deserves until the end of this year before anyone can definitively say if he's a franchise type of QB or if we should be looking elsewhere.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by hesscl34

JC has a habit of throwing the short ball.. often, to his TE. He is not good at checking down field and throwing down field (at least not last year). That is what I saw with my own eyes last year and it has NOTHING to do with any axe to grind. I just get very sick of waiting for him to prove himself and most of you always blaming everything around him, but him. I don't consider my opinion of why the WR didn’t perform last year JC "bashing" at all.. it's just an opinion that I've formed by watching games, an opinion that most of you don't agree with. However, I’ve also said in other threads that I’m hoping Zorn will improve his game and he’ll finally step up this year. I'll be the first one to sing his praises if he gets it done on the field.

None of my comments are based on emotions, or my like for Brunell, and none of them should be construed as “bashing”. Don't take my opinion about JC so personally. Just take it for what it is - I want the Skins to win, period.

We went to the first Giants game and I guess there was 10 or so playes were we had WR's 15 20 to 25 yards down field wide open and JC dumped the ball off. My wife even commented on how JC was missing some wide open plays (that cost us that game). The following couple of weeks I watched him close and it seemed some games he was scanning the entire field and other he lock on to players. Not sure whay he would in some games more than others.