A Different Take on the Redskins Personnel Strategy

[rbanerjee23]

good post...no doubt that the early success was all a smokescreen, i think zorn has done a decent job of taking this team to a possible 8-8/9-7 finish. To everyone who thinks this was a playoff team because of what he inherited, look again. They were riding the emotion of losing Sean Taylor and were handily beaten by the currently 5-10 Seahawks...
The skins need to draft a linebacker, and completely revamp the o line. Jansen is done, Rabach is close, and even Samuels was easily handled by Ware (watch the tape, its pathetic). Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly were not going to produce in their first year...that was a given, The Fred Davis pick was a mistake, Calais Campbell or Phillip Merling was available and that would have been more productive than throwing a ton of money at Jason Taylor who has been a bust (by his own admission).
That said, here's hoping the necessary adjustments are made and the 2009 season is a success.

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by rbanerjee23

good post...no doubt that the early success was all a smokescreen, i think zorn has done a decent job of taking this team to a possible 8-8/9-7 finish. To everyone who thinks this was a playoff team because of what he inherited, look again. They were riding the emotion of losing Sean Taylor and were handily beaten by the currently 5-10 Seahawks...
The skins need to draft a linebacker, and completely revamp the o line. Jansen is done, Rabach is close, and even Samuels was easily handled by Ware (watch the tape, its pathetic). Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly were not going to produce in their first year...that was a given, The Fred Davis pick was a mistake, Calais Campbell or Phillip Merling was available and that would have been more productive than throwing a ton of money at Jason Taylor who has been a bust (by his own admission).
That said, here's hoping the necessary adjustments are made and the 2009 season is a success.

I don't really buy Campbell or Merling would have been upgrades over Evans and/or Carter. Taylor had the worst season of his career and while we clearly gave up too much for him, I believe he'll be an impact player next year. As i've said in other threads, there is no way the Jason Taylor wants to end his career on a low note. He'll come back next year and I feel confident predicting him to me a monster again. Also Thomas or Kelly look to be the superfluous pick (remains to be seen which)... I tend to think Davis will have success here because Yoder is on his way out and Davis brings tremendous ability after the catch.

[memphisskin]

Originally Posted by The Goat

I don't really buy Campbell or Merling would have been upgrades over Evans and/or Carter. Taylor had the worst season of his career and while we clearly gave up too much for him, I believe he'll be an impact player next year. As i've said in other threads, there is no way the Jason Taylor wants to end his career on a low note. He'll come back next year and I feel confident predicting him to me a monster again. Also Thomas or Kelly look to be the superfluous pick (remains to be seen which)... I tend to think Davis will have success here because Yoder is on his way out and Davis brings tremendous ability after the catch.

Good point about Thomas and Kelly, it really does seem like Cerrato was hedging his bets at wideout by picking both of them. I was not on board with the Davis pick and even though I like him as a player and think he will be great for us down the line, it still doesn't make sense. You don't draft a second TE when you 1) have a young Pro Bowler already on your roster and 2) have such glaring needs in other spots, such as O-line.

The problem I see with our personnel strategy is that we are trying to be sexy. Snyder and Cerrato have made a ton of moves over time, trading up and trading down, but outside of Sean Taylor they haven't really drafted or brought in an elite guy. It seems they want to make sexy and splashy picks, trading out of the first round a year ago makes them seem engaged but having none of your second round picks make an impact shows something else. We concentrate our resources on the perimeter and try to "make do" with stopgaps on the line.