Offseason over; preseason begins

Like the Sun crossing the Equator, we've changed seasons to "football" from "waiting for football."

Well, not quite; but Redskins training camp is open so the offseason is gone, so we can get some real football news.

Over at Hog Heaven, check out Redskins: Five Questions for the Offense.

Readexpress.com has a story about the second year of the "Joe CEO" experiment. "This Year, Onus is on the Assistants" points big, bloody fingers at Gregg Williams and Al Saunders for their play-calling last season. With Gibbs as the "executive" leaving on field operations to his coordinators, both these guys must do better. That word onus is close to anus. That's how Williams and Saunders will look with a repeat 5-11 season.

hailRedskins.com has 5 things to look for as the season begins. It's worth a look.

Steinberg at D.C. Sports Bog has comments up from the first day of training camp. Read the 7/27/07 posts.

The Redskins Report has The Friday Round-up, with some thoughts on Corey Bradford, signed by the Redskins yesterday, and Simeon Rice. You know the drill: aging star; Redskins free agent aggression; Daniel Snyder interest, yada, yada, yada.

I'm a great admirer of Ben Folsum's writing. He posted an anti-dog-fighting editorial on The Curly R, relieving me of my Vick duties for the day. Whew.

The season tix arrived this week. Oh yeah. The season is here.

Football Outsiders

Skin Patrol at Hogs Haven touts these guys all the time. Greg Trippiedi's recent post at Hog Heaven finally convinces me. I've got to pay more attention to those wonks at Football Outsiders.

There are "lies, damned lies and statistics." The origin of that phrase is open to argument, but I can tell you that it was me after looking at exam grades for my undergrad stat classes. I just couldn't grasp it, despite the valiant effort of the cute blond grad assistant who took me through the concepts while using little words. I was distressed to be informed that I would have to retake statistics in grad school. I no longer recall exactly what the prof said, but one day in that hated classroom in Madison, Wisconsin, a light bulb came on. I not only understood everything the prof was saying, but everything the other prof said in those undergraduate statistics classes that remain anchors on my GPA. Although I nailed three out of four grad level stat exams, the whole experience left an emotional scar about statistics buried deep in my easily bruised psyche.

Football Outsiders apply statistical concepts to challenge conventional wisdom about about pro football teams and their performance. They developed measures like Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, or DVOA, to analyze individual players and squads. Trippiedi's article assessing the Redskins O-line was an example of applying the stats to reach logical conclusions. I can see that I'll have to overcome my fear and loathing of statistics and pay attention to DVOA and the other measures at Football Outsiders. (another example of the artist suffering for his art.).

So, dear reader, in this lull before training camp, I'll be spending time at the FO site to understand what the numbers say about about the Redskins and the NFC East. I'm only posting about once a week anyway.

Football Outsiders is now added to the Running Redskins blogroll. Also added are those funny, irreverent writers at Kissing Suzy Kolber.

Does anyone believe in the Redskins front office?

No.

In two years of blogging, reading a lot of football analysts and reporters, and scanning the views of a many, MANY excellent blogging Redskinologists, I have yet to see anyone knowledgeable, anywhere who endorsed the Redskins' "win now" approach to team development. Cindy Boren's guest blog on today's Redskins Insiders is only the latest salvo. Ben Folson's three part blast on The Curly R is another. Here at Running Redskins, six posts in April alone attacked various aspects of the Redskins' philosophy.

Ms. Boren fills in for Jason LaCanfora who is on vacation. Her story, titled The Danger of Kool-Aid.....without a GM, takes diehard fans to task. She starts with "I have seen a lot of people who seem to be blogging under the influence and I want to bring us all back to reality a little bit."

She goes on

only 6 of our 22 starters are above-average players. I'm a realist, I understand it's simply not possible to have the best players at every position. However, our biggest deficits are at the most important positions.

And more

"Our best young lineman left via FA and I understand he would have cost a mint this year, but how often do you see teams like the Patriots, Eagles, and Ravens let good young talent ever reach unrestricted free agency? [Emphasis mine] Any good GM would have seen that Dockery had started for us from day 1 of his career and that agile, young, durable, 335- pound linemen don't grow on trees and would have re-signed him before last season to a good extension for a reasonable figure. And let's not forget the utter lack of depth behind our starters for the last 3 years and the still lack of good young lineman being groomed to start one day."

Boren could have added that even if Dockery can be replaced by the likes of Todd Wade, we are(I am) invested in Dockery. He grew up on the team. We saw him grow. Doc's our guard. He belongs here. Why couldn't some of Brandon Lloyd's money have been thrown his way two years ago?

Boren concludes with

I cannot say it any simpler, we are a below average team and it is time we set our expectations accordingly. I am hoping for an 8-8 or 9-7 season.

Blah, blah, blah and yada yada yada. Excellent points, if a tad pessimistic, made many times before and falling on deaf ears where it counts.

The fan base hoped that Joe Gibbs would turn that wrong-headed approach around. He brought in some stalwarts in 2004 via the draft (Sean Taylor), free agents (Marcus Washington) and trade (Clinton Portis). In 2005, he traded for Santana Moss - a big hit that was - and drafted Jason Campbell and Carlos Rogers. But, 2006 brought excesses too painful to recall; evidence that Gibbs bit the fruit of the poisoned tree.

This year, in explaining why the Redskins did not draft a defensive lineman, the presidential coach said something about how better coverage would improve the pass rush by forcing the quarterback to hold the ball longer. That shows how much I know. I thought the idea was to pressure the QB to throw the ball sooner, before he was ready, to force mistakes. Give a QB more time, and they will make a big play. With today's timed offenses, maybe holding the ball longer is what you want. We'll see.

I'll tell you this. Gibb's "hold the ball longer" statement is Nixonian and Clintonesque in its breadth. You know the drill, "I am not a crook" and "I did not sleep with that woman." If Landry and Smoot and Fletcher-Baker don't lead to an improved pass rush this season, Gibbs could be another president hounded from office by a phrase.

Gibbs stands in good with The Lord. God, I hope that doesn't happen to him.

Photo: The Washington Post

M4C to skip voluntary blogging OTAs next week

It's the slow season of blogging the Washington Redskins when writers like me do our best to make something of nothing. I personally am blogging the latest on Sanjaya and puppy killers (for that's what Michael Vick will be tagged if there really is video tape of him attending dog fights.)

The Redskins are reporting that Marcus Washington has resumed practice (relief), but that Clinton Portis has developed tendinitis (uh-oh). This could be big news or non-news. We don't and won't know until the Redskins start playing some games.

With the Redskins' suck-your-money-fest coming up in Virginia Beach this weekend, and Ben at The Curly R back online, this is a good time for Master4caster to take a break. So I'm going to skip next week's OTAs in the run-up to Memorial Day. Heck, it's all voluntary anyway and I want a new contract from the Redskins to continue to perform at this level.

While I look for Drew Rosenhaus' phone number, you guys check the Redskins news scroll and excellent blogrollers to your right.

Redskin Bollywood

Hop over to Hogs Haven and take a peek at the Redskins Bollywood music video. Hilarious.

Back soon

I'm pushed for time at the moment, so here's the link to Hogs Haven for today's Redskins updates. Haven is managed by Skin Patrol, the foremost Redskinologist around. Also check out the news scroll and blogroll to your right.

The Redskins invited 88 prospects to the rookie camp. Some weren't rookies. That's a big number. I suspect it's a larger group than for most other teams. I'm going to research that and write it up, even though is probably of interest only to me.

Chris Henry (no, not that Chris Henry), the rookie drafted by the Tennessee Titans, is posting on his NFL experience at Yardbarker.com. He writes pretty well. Assuming his stuff isn't ghost-written for him, I think he has a future as a blogger.

One suggestion for him is change his name to distinguish himself from his notorious namesake. Christopher Henry, or Kit Henry, might do. His nickname is C-Hen, but that could still be confused for that other guy. Henry has the same problem as Anthony Gonzalez, who I already think of as Gonzo2.

Redskins respond to the blogosphere

The Washington Redskins, specifically Mark Steven, a guest blogger at ExtremeSkins.com, official fan board of the Washington Redskins, responded to rants and opinions of mock draftkateers and football bloggers leading up to the 2007 Draft.

You can read the article at Redskins.com.

So there.

Image: www.redskins.com