Redskins Wrap 2007-2008 and 2008 Draft Preview

Some of you might wonder why I blog weekly about college football but not much about my favorite NFL team, the Washington Redskins. Its an emotional thing. I try to be semi-objective in my sports blogging and Redskins posts would more often than not come out like vents.

They lost 6 winnable games this year. Not even winnable. Should've won and outplayed the opponent games. They finished 9-7. Lets say they won half of those. They would be 12-4. If one of those wins was against the Cowboys (Jason Campbell last second pick in the red zone seals 28-23 loss) or the Packers (Santana Moss's point shaving game) The Skins would be sitting at home resting this weekend. Its not even sour grapes, watch the games, they outplayed the Bills, Cowboys, Giants, Packers, Bucs...let me shut up.

Now u see what I'm talking about.

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2007-2008 Redskins Wrap Up


Yesterday the Washington Redskins season came to an end.

I am very happy how the season turned out and very very proud of them. I am not angry that they lost to the Seattle Seahawks, even though you could see during the 4th quarter a big window for a victory.

The truth of the matter is the Redskins have been holding it together without their best player - R.I.P. Sean Taylor - their #1 corner back, Carlos Rogers, their #1 outside linebacker in Rocky McIntosh, their #1 and #2 right tackles in Jon Jansen and Todd Wade and their #1 right guard in Randy Thomas. Oh, and their alleged #1 QB in Jason Campbell. All for long stretches of the season.

They lost 4 winnable games in a row in the last seconds of the game. Which is the wildest most frustrating stretch of football a team you can cheer for can ever play, believe me. This doesn't even count the 2 close losses earlier in the season to the Giants and Packers. Yet at 5-7, after going to Sean Taylor's funeral, this band of replacement players and backups, old and young, put together 4 straight victories and nearly knocked off the Seahawks, the NFC's most consistent team over the last 5 years, at Seattle. I can't be mad at that. I love the Redskins and sometimes it seems more like a bad relationship when they play below their potential, but I can appreciate the hard effort and work they have put together this season.

Thanks guys.

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2008 Redskins Draft Preview

And now for the 2008-09 season.

See, since the Skins were 5-7, and there wasn't really an obvious path to the playoffs for them (New Orleans had to lose to someone sorry, and they had to win out and Detroit had to keep losing, and they had to beat Minnesota and NYG and Dallas - thats a lot of ifs to project) - I had already started looking at the team next year and what draft picks I wanted them to make.

Let's break down the team by area

QB - Jason Campbell is inconsistent, which you can expect out of a 2nd year player and 1st year full starter. I hope that watching Todd Collins perform out of this world for 4 and a half weeks solely due to this knowledge of Al Saunders' playbook inspires him to get it memorized. The Redskins offense was healthier towards the end of the season, which helped TC15 out, but I was looking at some nice offensive patterns the Skins wouldn't DREAM of running with JC17 in there. Its almost like Joe Gibbs didn't hand over the playcalling duties to Al Saunders until Jason went down. No QB is needed right now because TC has showen he can be a reliable backup for another year or two. JC could blossom but he could also continue to be frustrating as hell and keep overthrowing ninjas...which leads us to

WR - sure I could and probably should talk about RBs before WRs but if you want to go down that path of criticism, just tell me to keep it real and talk about the OL and DL first.
The bottom line is the Redskins have a #2 receiver playing #1 and a #3 receiver playing #2. That's Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El. They are each 5'9'' or below. Reche Caldwell, James Thrash, Keenan McCardell, have played well this year but none are long term options.
You see what I'm trying to say is, we need to upgrade at receiver. I was a little curious why the Redskins were considering selling the farm to move up and draft Calvin Johnson last year and now I see why. He's 6'4'' to start. So I expect to see the Skins address this need in the draft's first few rounds.

RB - Clinton Portis is a decent RB, but he frustrates me. And he gets hurt easily. Not sure why Ladell Betts and Rock Cartwright didn't get more carries this year. Mike Sellers at FB isn't the long term option. He can block, but he stays coming up short than a mofo in short yardage situations - the ones he lobbied to get involved with.

OL - The injuires makes it hard to determine if a draft pick should be used on the line or not. I'd tend to say no. Outside of Patrick Kerney DESTROYING undrafted rookie Stephen Heyer in the playoff game, the backups held up. Heyer is young and may develop further with instruction and maturity. Jon Jansen and Todd Wade aren't that old. Randy Thomas will be back at RG. So if u have backups holding up fairly well as starters (Minnesota has beasts on the DL and we ran over them like it wasn't nothing) and you get your true starters back, that's called "depth". Woo hoo! Also trade bait.

TE - Chris Cooley is a ProBowler. Yoder is cool as a backup.

K - Suisham missed a momentum changing kick against Seattle. That's not the first choke whiff he's had this season but he's not a bad kicker. No draft pick needed. Signing someone decent to compete in training camp though.

P - Derrick Frost is an OK punter. Same as Suisham. Let him compete in camp.

DL - The defensive line needs upgrading. Other teams can get a rush at the QB with 4 down linemen occasionally. Early in the season I saw some of that out of the Skins but not late when it counted and definitely not against Seattle. Watching Kerney slam Todd Collins to the Seattle turf the entire 1st half convinced me, and hopefully the team, that DL is what needs to be upgraded before WR or DB. Not to say the young guys at DT suck or Andre Carter is a bum, but the other DE spot needs to be addressed and word is, Albert Haynesworth is a free agent. That being said, the Skins are 20 Million OVER THE CAP. They always convert roster bonuses to signing bonuses, but that doesn't mean they'll have enough to go after the head stomping All-world DT. I'd like to see a presence up the middle though. So the first two rounds of the draft, one's gonna be DL

CB - The Rogers, Springs, Smoot, Torrence, Macklin, crew is ok for a 5-deep at CB. Now, Rogers got hurt seriously and Smoot has a big contract. So...we'll be needing some top level corners. Rogers will not have his explosiveness and agility back until at least 09 and maybe never. I'd be ok with a 1st round pick, IF and only if there was so much talent at DL that we knew with the 51st pick in the 2nd round we could get someone good...like how they got McIntosh in the 2nd round when there were a ton of linebackers in his draft. Is CB a bigger need than WR? Not sure

S - Sean Taylor cannot be replaced easily. There is no player as good as Taylor, the 5th overall pick, at the Safety position in this draft. I really hope they don't draft Kenny Phillips, the top rated Safetey, who happens to be from the University of Miami like Taylor (and Portis, Moss, McIntosh). That's too much pressure on the young man and not fair. Plus he's not nearly as good. I'm ok with Reed Doughty for now but we might need to sign Mike Doss or someone with experience. A 4th round pick would be ok with me

LB - We've had some injuries at the lineback position this year. McIntosh and Washington, two starters, missed significant time. The backups played more than fine. But LB is one of those positions where you kind of keep bringing in talent. If Gregg Williams sticks around, it'll be good to get more bodies for him to rotate in. Not a top draft need unless someone falls mysteriously (like Laurinitis gets busted for weed a week before the draft)

The 2008 NFL Draft
I believe the Skins priorities for drafting should look like this
1. DE
2. DT
3. WR
4. CB
5. S
6. LB
7. OL

The top 3 or 4 needs are so close, I'm ok with the Redskins using their first two picks on the best players available at the time they draft, provided they are in those categories - DE, DT, WR and CB.

Players I'd like to see the Redskins draft (and think might be available)

1. CB Aqib Talib, Kansas. He's 6'2'', can CATCH (carlos rogers beware), can run back kicks, and highly skilled. Mock drafts show him available at 20. I highly doubt this will last. But that's where they are at now. I know the Skins would be in a position to draft a big time DE with the 20th pick because there are some good options, but this draft is deep at DE so one of them will be there at 51 as well. That's my belief. Thus, if Talib is there, take him

2. WR Malcolm Kelly, Oklahoma - Big, good hands. 6'4''. Smooth. Can Freestyle rap. (click to watch).

3. DE Calais Campbell, Miami or Gholston, Ohio State - DE with stats and ability. Campbell is like 6'7''.

Its important to note the Skins traded their 3rd round pick (I think) to the Jets to get Pete Kendall at LG. Which was necessary since they let Derrick Dockery go and trying to get Todd Wade to play LG nearly got Jason Campbell killed in preseason. So that may affect draft orders, and necessitate the DE pick going first. Gotta address needs (no! you take the best player available! LaRon Landry worked out. Needs we'dve had Amobe Okoye, who is fine but I love Landry.)