Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007...3:30 am by Lee Gibbons
Post Dissects the Redskins Lost Season
This week the Washington Post has been running an absolutely fantastic series on the Redskins’ failed season. The three part series finished up today, here’s the links:
- Jason La Confora on the front office structure and personnel decisions.
- Howard Bryant on the struggles of adapting the Al Saunders offense to the existing players.
- Les Carpenter on Gregg Williams and his perceived arrogance.
Its a very interesting look behind the scenes at what ails the Redskins. It also avoids the piling on that tends to happen after a brutal season. Everything isn’t screwed up, just last year this was a playoff team, but obviously there are some serious issues that need to be fixed.
Here’s an interesting question to debate though. I know Vinny Cerrato is fan whipping boy and a guy everyone wants fired, but is he really the problem? The 1st year Gibbs and Williams arrived, the Redskins had a very successful off-season with free agents (Shawn Springs, Marcus Washington, Phillip Daniels, etc). You’d have to assume that Cerrato had a higher input that season as Gibbs had been away for years and there wasn’t a lot of time for the coaching staff to do any scouting. This past year, which as we’ve established was an unmitigated disaster, was full of decisions made by Gibbs, Williams and Saunders. So if you can go beyond the usual ‘Cerrato sucks, fire him and hire Ron Wolf ‘ angry fan response, is Cerrato really the problem with the personnel decision making process?
3 Comments
January 3rd, 2007 at 1:00 pm
i don’t think it’s his fault. i think they let the wrong people go. they should have kept ryan clark and by pierson getting hurt in preseason it hurt us starting out. that new offense needs a year to sink in and it needs ot be more run oriented or it not joe gibbs kinda of team. they need to get that DE from clemson in the draft at all cost and him and carter can get some push to help the secondary and send daniels in the inside on pass plays. trade betts to get another cornerback while he has some value
January 3rd, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Cerrato may not be the PROBLEM, but he’s certainly not the answer, either. He and Dan Snyder (who won’t fire himself, of course!) both are too free for Free Agents (it’s been that way every year) and too poor in evaluation talent for the draft.
So, what we need is obvious:
A second #1 Corner (Springs is historically not healthy all season… we need someone who WILL be healthy all season to complement him, or to be the number one when he’s out). This is the number one issue on the D. We need someone REALLY good.
A pass rushing DE to complement Carter (I’m not convinced the book is closed on Carter… I have to look at his performance in the past, his known skills, etc., and say that this time next year people may be saying very good things about his pickup). Need someone fairly Good.
A cover safety to partner with Springs. Washington has some good run stopping safeties. We need a COVER safety as well. Prielieu coming back may solve that problem, though. He doesn’t have to be GREAT… just consistent, and decent.
A good MLB. He doesn’t need to be GREAT. He just needs to be consistent and decent.
DEPTH at CB. DEPTH on the DL. DEPTH at Linebacker. Oh, and it all needs to have a bit of quality; not great, but decent.
Notice a theme? Only the top two need to be really good players; the others just need to be league wide starting quality players, plus a lot of depth.
We can do that EVEN IN THIS DRAFT with only MAYBE ONE FA as it stands TODAY. I think we can do it with JUST the draft, if we get a little lucky.
I’d trade DOWN in the draft; our 1st, plus a swap of our #4 and #5 for a later 1st, 2nd, 4th (the swap), 5th (the swap) and a 2nd and 3rd (maybe as a swap, if we’re lower in the round) next year sounds doable… we have a fairly high pick. But we have to commit to the DRAFT and small FA moves.
February 8th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
It’s very important that the Redskins resign Vernon Fox. He has a huge upside. Given the chance this season opened the door to growth for Fox. He is a strong willed player who has always been a positive gamer, good in the club house. He will step up again. With him you get 2 players for the price of 1. Sign him, let one of the other safties GO.
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