Good news in a slow week for the Washington Redskins

We had a light week over at Redskins Hog Heaven with only three stories posted. February 12 marked the 75th anniversary of the day the NFL chartered the Washington Redskins, making official George Preston Marshall's move of the team from Boston. 


Marshall bought the franchise in 1932 when it operated in Boston. The story as told in Wikipedia:


"The team originated as the Boston Braves, based in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1932. At the time the team played in Braves Field, the home field of the Boston Braves baseball team. The following year the club moved to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, whereupon owners changed the team's name to the Boston Redskins. The Redskins relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1937. In their early years in Washington, the Redskins shared Griffith Stadium with the Washington Senators baseball team.^[8] The Redskins played and won their first game in Washington D.C. on September 16, 1937, a victory against the Giants, 13–3.^[9] On December 5, 1937, they earned their first division title in Washington against the Giants, 49–14, for the Eastern Championship.^[9] The team then proceeded to win their first league championship, the 1937 NFL Championship Game, on December 12, 1937, against the Chicago Bears, their first year in D.C."


The Hog Heaven story is Feb 12: The most important day in Washington DC sports history and is shows an image of the 1937 championship team and a neat photo of a 1937 traffic jam on 14th Street at The Mall.


There were automobiles back then?!?


If I learned anything about sports blogging it is that fans are not attracted to impartial assessments of their team's strengths and weaknesses. They want to now why the team is going to win its next game. If they are mad enough, they want to know why the team lost the last game and who should be benched, kicked from the team or fired for it.


Your Hog Heaven writers are not given to rants or pandering and yes, we pay a price for that in page views. So it's really good when we can write one of those "why the Redskins are going to win" stories in genuine thoughtful analysis. 


The Redskins are on the verge of great offseason success was that story this week. For once, we are not speaking of a Snyder Special when the team signs and overpays an over-glorified, sometimes over the hill, from some other team. (Personal philosophy: Stars emerge from teams, not the other way around.)


This story notes that the Redskins are close to $50 million under the salary cap and can e aggressive in signing up free agents without crippling its future. Mike Shanahan has much to prove about his coaching and use of talent, but Shanahan and GM Bruce Allen have made "smove moves" since their arrival, except for that whole quarterback thing.


Greg Trippiedi's story Revisiting the Redskins Draft Conundrum is another of his special deep dives assessing the team's moves. 


"The Redskins are between a rock and a hard place heading into a do or die year: the Shanaplan essentially dictated that a year of having no long term quarterback could necessitate a team-wide improvement at other key areas to put the team on the fringes of the playoffs.  The problem was not the design: the design was fine.


"The passing offense performed better than expected under Rex Grossman, but the rest of the team failed to live up to expectations.  That was the big problem in the 2011 season that got glossed over.  Having no long term solution at quarterback was a highly publicized issue, but not one that was unaccounted for."


Greg's story includes a list of NFL free agents aged 25-26 who should be prime targets to add to the team. 


This lengthy story is worth a read by fans who want to understand how winning teams are built.  


Did I mention that I was a contributing writer and associate editor of Bloguin's NFL site This Given Sunday? Writing stories for TGS burns cycles that I would have spent on Redskins Hog Heaven. So check that second site from time to time so see how I spend my blogging life. This week, I wrote tow stories:


Greg Schiano the the Buccaneers? Bill O'Brien to Penn State? What's wrong with this picture? and,


Burning question; How do the Cowboys fix their defense and conquer Texas?


Check these stories out. We'll be here when you get back.

Joe Goes

I live in mortal fear of what Daniel Snyder will do now that Joe Gibbs has decided to hang it up.

Snyder has a penchant for picking coaches and players by name recognition. It's almost always the wrong move when Snyder does this without adult supervision.

So, who do the smart guys on ESPN and NFLN say Mr. Snyder will call next? Bill Cower and Jason Garrett [Ohmygawdno, not another genius Cowboy offensive coordinator].

The meek, mild-mannered guy who occupies this space has the Gibbs resignation story up on Hog Heaven. Also check out my favorite Redskins bloggers who are certain to put up most excellent pieces today. Look here, here and here.

I thought maybe, possibly coach Joe would give up coaching duties to work the front office. It seemed the easiest, best transition strategy to me. That scenario offered the least disruption, especially important to Jason Campbell's development. He needs another year with Al Saunders.

If Snyder does what Snyder always does, he will rush to buy a high profile big name coach. Wrong first move. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Snyder's next move should be to find an excellent general manager to be his partner in running the team. Then, pick a coach. A coaching career does not prepare one to be a general manager.

Cardinal rule: win ugly if you have to

This time, the Washington Redskins held on for the win after a letting a big lead evaporate. Twice before this season, the Redskins let the other guys pull away from them.

They got the win, so the glass must be half full. The score and the wins are the only stats that count.

Clever headlines about yesterday's 21-19 win over the Arizona Cardinals:

• Cardinals Skinned in Washington, Cardinals.com courtesy ExtremeSkins
• With London calling, Skins are winning, Rich.com courtesy ExtremeSkins
• By the Red Skin of their teeth, Hog Heaven
• Attack of the one-armed quarterback, at The Curly R

The cause of everything

I am of the opinion that the line causes 51 percent of everything that happens on offense. This is from anecdotal evidence after long observation of football. It's not scientific like the stuff you find on Football Outsiders, but I believe it to be true. The recent struggles of the Redskins offence is more evidence of that.

Joe Jacobi commented on the SportsTalk 980 Radio after the game that a team could cope with replacing one player on the offensive line, but replacing two would be very difficult. Replacing three would present near insurmountable problems. The Redskins have replaced four if you count right guard Pete Kendall who arrived in late training camp via trade.

Good trades and bad

Kendall is an example of a good use of the trade to bring in a key role player to fill a specific need. Kendall performs with no let down of talent of the man he replaced. That's unlike so many other Redskin trades that are not additive: lose a top cornerback and a draft choice for a top running back; swap a receiver [Lav Cole] for another receiver [Santana Moss]; drop an unproductive receiver [Rod Gardner] and trade for a less productive receiver [Brandon Lloyd].

The Redskins may never overcome the tendency. Consider how close the owner came to the Lance Brigg trade. If that were executed, the Chicago Bears would have our No. 1 draft pick and Rocky McIntosh, but hey, we would have Briggs. Few fans in Washington favored the deal. How does a like-for-like swap build on what you have. If a deal were to be done, we wanted a D-lineman.

Only the owner was enticed by the offer. Joe Gibbs did his best service for the Redskins by killing it, help along by Bears GM Jerry Angelo's demand for McIntosh to sweeten the deal.

But I digress.

Unnatural acts

Offensive linemen are anonymous because they must play as a unit. Everyone else is a skilled player. It seems to take two or three seasons of playing together for linemen to jell as a cohesive unit. Going into the season, we saw the O-line as a strength because of how well they played as a unit over the years.

Injuries have blown that up. Joe Bugel is resorting to unnatural acts to cope. Mike Pucillo is doing OK as a center, but is lost to the team in the flexible extra blocker role he plays in the jumbo package. TE Todd Yoder is a better blocker that Chris Cooley, so do you keep Cooley out so Yoder can block, or do you play Cooley to block so that he can at least pretend to be a receiving threat? Can you have Scarface Alexander play on both the offensive and defensive line? Do you really want Rich DeMulling to start?

Injuries are part of football. Watching how teams cope is part of the drama of the game, part of the test of a champion. Fixing the issues on the O-line will fix 51 percent of what ails the offense.

No conversation with coach Chin

The Washington Redskins were lightning quick to deny any conversation with Bill Cowher about a coaching position should/when Joe Gibbs step down as coach and team president. Profootballtalk.com carried a story on Monday saying that Cowher was putting out feelers about a return to coaching and the the Redskins were one of three teams he talked to.

I don't think the Redskins were too worried about a post on PFT. However, tampering is different. Cowher is still under contract to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Conversations now, without clearance from the Steelers, is technically tampering.

John Thompson did a call-in on his WTEM radio show about Cowher and the Redskins. In the ten minutes I listened, fans were unanimous that it would be a tremendously good move. It figures that Gibbs-haters would rush the phones to push that thought. It was amazing.

I suspect that either of these two developments drove the Redskins to kill the idea quick.

While contingency planning is good, even prudent, bringing in Cowher would be a disruptive repudiation of what Joe Gibbs is trying to accomplish. It could be a good move long run, but short term will cost the Redskins wins as the franchise adjusts to Cowher players and schemes.

I hope Daniel Snyder has learned by now that building a winning organization is more than bringing the latest "big name" to fix everything. If he is thinking organizationally, the next team president should already be on board, much as Roger Goodell was ready to step in when commissioner Paul Tagliabue retired. Snyder's most important move after team president is to select a general manager with the right background. That person also should already be on board, or already known to Snyder. Only then, and in consultation with the president and GM, after deciding what schemes he wants the Redskins to play, will Snyder be ready to name someone to coach to the scheme.

Know what? The best coaching move is more likely to be a talented coordinator ready to move up than a recycled "big name." Evidence? Ol' Jack Kent Cooke made a brilliant move when he tapped the talented offensive coordinator of the San Diego Chargers in 1981 to coach the Redskins**. Who ever heard of Joe Gibbs before that? Daniel Snyder would not have had the moxie to make that move. He works from the bottom up -- players, coaches, front office -- rather than the top down, as he should. The Redskins will be upside-down until he figures that out.

** Ol' Jack tried to duplicate the magic a decade later by tapping the talended OC of the Dallas Cowboys to coach the Redskins, and gave us Norv Turner. Nothing works every time time!

Photo: Dave Bergman/SI

Musing about Jerametrius Butler

The Redskins signed CB Jerametrius Butler yesterday.

Joe Gibbs tried to sign Butler in 2004. That was the first year of his return to Washington, when the Skins traded Champ Bailey to Denver for Clinton Portis. Bailey made clear that he wanted out, and the Skins brought in Shawn Springs as the shutdown corner.

Why bring in Butler when Fred Smoot was still on the roster? Was Butler seen as a potential replacement of Smoot? Smootie, as coach Joe calls him, was the core Redskin allowed to leave when his contract expired at the end of 2004. The Skins drafted Carlos Rogers in 2005. Now Rogers, Smoot and Butler are on the same team.

The Redskins front office played this smart by waiting for Butler's release by the Rams, rather than trying to work a trade. Maybe they (D. Snyder) learned a thing or two since the Mark Brunell trade and the excesses of 2006. Take note that nothing ever came of those rumors that the Redskins would nuke the front office. Perhaps instead they just dumped the foolish aggression in roster building that characterized the Snyder era. Hey, a man can change. And another man can hope.

Reasonable free-agent signings, hopefully smart draft picks and rational salary cap management are sound front office practices I hope continues. Skill at managing the cap should be secondary to skill at building a roster.

Jerametrius Butler Q&A

Photo: found on deadskin.com

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

The Warpath's Salary Cap Spreadsheet

Those clever folks at The Warpath fan board published a spreadsheet of the Washington Redskins salary cap. Among other interesting nuggets is the fact that the Redskins are carrying $8.2 Million in dead cap money, and that they are committed to $124.5 Million in player salaries for 2008. I'm not sure what the 2008 salary cap ceiling is, but I'll bet a quarter the Skins are over it.

I'm publishing the link here and adding it to the blogroll for future reference.

Redskins to nuke front office after the draft?

My blogging colleague at Hogs Haven has picked up rumblings that the Washington Redskins will bust a personnel move after the draft. He even names names: Bears assistant GM Bobby DePaul, and Bills assistant GM Tom Modrak. That's good sleuthing. Combined with an earlier rumor, reported here, that the Redskins are going to nuke the scouting department after the draft, I'm going to officially declare this as smoke. Where there's smoke, there's a flicker, maybe. "The game's afoot, Watson." Something's up.

How to reconcile all this with Boss Hog's firm statement that the Redskins never considered naming a GM after last season's fiasco? You can't name a GM right after the owner said "we did not consider a GM." No one who works for a living would be that dumb. Simple solution, you call him something else. Vice president of player personnel is available. Vinnie Cerrato is vp of football operations. Or, take a tip from the White House and call him an Implementation Czar.

Whatever the title, it's the background and role that's important. If - that's IF - this happens, I would hope the Redskins select someone who developed as a talent evaluator; that means hands on scout and player personnel experience. The man (it's always a man) should be connected in the NCAA world, for that whisper network that turns up undrafted prospects who can play. I hope he's been affiliated with at least two teams to bring best practices and another point of view. It would be ideal if his experience is with AFC and NFC clubs. They play different styles of football, and the AFC is the superior conference at the moment. I also hope that this background equips the guy to evaluate current NFL players and their contracts as thoroughly as are college players. (Why doesn't Mel Kiper evaluate NFL players as well as college draftees? The only organization I know of who independently ranks NFL players is EA Sports.)

It's the role that will make or break the move. Whatever you call him, if the personnel guy is unwanted by team president Joe Gibbs, he will fail. If the reporting structure isn't changed to give the personnel guy a real voice - real clout, then this will fail. We don't need another Vinnie. We need someone who can translate team needs into three alternative players, not just the best known star, and land him on a affordable contract. We need someone Gibbs respects and will listen to.

I can't see anyone coming who isn't fully supported by both Snyder and Gibbs. I can't see a top notch candidate accepting the position without some firm commitments about his role and understanding about his influence. An upgrade to front office personnel would be smart on Snyder's and Gibbs' part, on a par with the upgrade to the coaching staff with Al Saunders. Yes, I know Saunders and Gregg Williams didn't show well last season, but they remain the best minds in pro football. That's who you need to turn things around You need someone like that in the front office. You need a GM who gets talent and negotiates, really negotiates, the tough deals. (The Redskins negotiate by throwing draft picks into a deal until the other side surrenders.) You need a guy who can eventually step up to team president. More than players or coaches, a GM is the most important decision and owner makes. It should be the first decision an owner makes.

A GM by any other name would be a good start.

Photo: http://www.weaponsblog.org/