Stop drinking that Haterade

I am so sick of hearing and reading crap about how Mike Shanahan has not yet drafted a a franchise QB for our Redskins. All I keep hearing is how he should have addressed the QB position in the draft and that we need a franchise quarterback if we want to be contender’s yada yada yada. The path that Mike is on is what he should be doing in my opinion; this is the one main ingredient that has been missing from DC since 1991. He should build the team first and then if a good player should fall to where we draft then we take that player. That is the same as you buying a V8 hemi engine and all you have in your garage is a 1991 Datsun, doesn’t help that you have a big strong engine if the other parts are not there then it doesn’t work. Don’t agree that’s fine, just ask Sam Bradford how it’s going in St Louey, or ask Matt Stafford how great it is working out with Megatron and Best and Suh in Detroit. Joe Flacco came to a Ravens team that was already set and all he had to do was not turn the ball over. Big Ben went to a Steelers team that was already set on offense and defense. Now look at David Carr or Alex Smith players that were drafted onto teams that were not set, how well did their careers go? I applaud what he has done for our Skins so far, he has traded away players for picks when everyone thought he was going to end up cutting them. All of his moves so far have been positive, he got rid of Devin Thomas and when he did DC was up in arms about it. What has he done since he left? He went to a Panthers team that needed receivers and was cut, then he went to NY where they really need receivers and all he is doing is returning kicks. Maybe Mike cannot find a stud QB for us, but he is able to see talent when talent is there. This coming draft we are going to have probably the most picks since, since forever ago. Gone are the days where we trade away picks like I trade away picks on Madden, no more TJ Duckets or Jason Taylors and giving away our future for players that are not going to provide anything to us. Well except for last year when we traded away a couple of picks for McNabb, looking back any team would have made that move. The only reason it looks that bad is because we gave up a 2^nd rounder. Mike continue to do what you are doing, build that foundation before you set the roof. In reality I believe that he is building this team for his son. If he was here to win right now then bigger moves would have been made. By building the team he is setting up Kyle for a successful career as a coach and in return he may be able to bring back some glory to DC. 

Where in the world are the Washington Redskins

So where do we begin with our Washington Redskins? Another week another loss and it’s starting to feel like last year again…or is it? We are not seeing the same Redskins of the past, this is a team that fights and battles any team from start to finish. The only thing that does seem the same are two things, one our QB situation and the second is that we tend to fall behind kind of early and then we play catch up. We are a pretty good team when we have the lead this year; the problem is that these past two weeks we have been playing from behind. Hopefully John Beck can help turn things around; he looked a whole lot better than Grossman ever did, even with the interception it just looked like there was a miscommunication between WR and QB. This game is won and lost with the help of momentum and this weekend was no different. With less than a minute left in the first half, Gaffney fumbles the ball and puts Carolina in field goal range. The score was tied at that point and after that kick you could feel the momentum changing. The rest as you know is history, we still had a decent showing. Beck looked poised in the pocket and accurate on most of his passes. Which means that hopefully Beck is not the same as any of our QB’s that we have had in the last 10 years and that he can actually play. Now the rest of the offense has to step it up as well.  I don’t care that we lost Trent or Corey, this is a NFL team with NFL players which means you are one of at least 1500 people in the world that are elite athletes, so it is time that they step up as well. Great teams are able to rotate players and not miss that many beats; we need to keep it rolling. I know the expectations are pretty low right now and as a Redskins fan since 1991 I don’t blame anybody, this seems like what we have been through before. The team as a whole just needs to continue to improve, we lost Santana and hopefully this means that one of our young guys can show up and give us a reason to believe in the team. Leonard Hankerson, Niles Paul and Terrance Austin are three guys that need to bring it this weekend against the Bills, we know that Armstrong is going to show up and Gaffney will show up so we need one of these guys to show up as well. My hope is that Leonard comes to play, let’s see what this 6’2 WR can do in the NFL. Orakpo and Kerrigan will continue to do their thing and so our other players need to help them out. One last thing DHall it is time to shut up and show up instead of talking so god damn much, you run your mouth as if you are an elite corner. You’re not, what you are is a corner that can catch a ball, the day you can shut down a WR and tackle on a consistent basis then maybe you can run your mouth. Revis rarely talks about what he is going to do in a game, he shows up and does it. Take note from that and show us what you showed at the beginning of last year. Be a leader to the other corners on the team, hell follow Becks demeanor, in the Philly game after he scored the touchdown he got up and walked away, he didn’t celebrate or do anything but that. With bookends like Osakpo as I like to call him and Kerrigan your job should be a lot easier. Look for the Redskins to rebound this weekend against a one dimensional team in Buffalo and bring the heat. Let’s go Redskins

Hail to the Redskins

Hail to the Redskins, hail victory braves on the......errrr let's pump the brakes a bit before we start to plan a trip to Indianapolis. The Redskins are 3-1 heading into the bye week, but before we start to drink the cool aid and we start calling our travel agents, let us take a look at their year so far and see the good and bad of the first quarter of the season and see where we should be optimistic about the future yet realistic about the present.

The Redskins have an impressive record so far, they are 3-1. Heading into the bye week 11 teams had the same record as the Redskins. Since 2001 the Redskins have started the season 3-1  four times. The first one was in 2003 they started great but finished the season at 5-11. Then in 2005 we finished 10-6. 2007 we finished the year 9-7 and finally in 2008 we finished 8-8. So in four seasons that we started 3-1 we only finished twice with a winning record and we only made the playoffs once since 2001. I know what you’re thinking that we finished good half the times that we made it, but unless you’re a card game those stats are not that great since we only made the playoffs once. Now I will say this that these Redskins that we are watching this year are a different team by far. First there are no distractions, bye bye McNabb and Haynesworth, they are someone else’s problems now. Second Coach Shanny brought in players that wanted to play not players that wanted a pay day, just like the candy bar pay day players were nuts when they came to DC and felt better on the way out then they did on way in. The attitude on the field looks very different then years past. Those two reasons are enough to be optimistic about the future of this team.

Let us take a look at who the Redskins have beaten this year. Game one they beat a banged up Giants team that are missing about 5 out of 11 defensive starters, the one thing we can take away from this game is that Giants offense was in full force and we held them to 14 points. Then we took on a real bad team in the Arizona Cardinals, which we barely won, again the good point was that we won period. Then we took on another banged up team in the Cowboys, a team that we should have beat hands down. The game was a déjà vu game to me. It took me back to the last couple of years where teams served us the game on a platter, yet we would give it right back and say no thank you , you can have back. Finally we traveled to St Louis and beat up on the Rams. Great wins against bad teams, but in order to be the best we have to beat the best. What I love about this team so far this year is that they beat teams that we were supposed to beat. Which in recent years have not been the case, a la the Rams last year and a Lions team that were winless before they came to DC. The Arizona game normally we would have lost, especially after the couple of picks that Rex threw, yet we pulled out a win. The Rams game as well, a game that most people called “A trap game” and we pulled out the victory there.

My only concern so far this year, is at the most obvious position, the QB spot. Rex is a decent player, but he makes too many mistakes. In the Cardinals game he threw bad balls and they were picked off. In the Cowboys game he threw it directly at Sean Lee, not sure if Rex suffers from color blindness that intermittently affects him or what the case was but he threw directly at the guy. In the Rams game the two picks were not his fault, the first pick No hands All Chest catcher Santana Moss let it bounce off his chest and into the hands of the Rams defender. The second pick I am pretty sure that 9 out 10 NFL QB’s would have thrown.  James Laurinaitis made a great play, whenever you see a player’s name that means that they are not looking at the ball, so he threw it. Laurinaitis turned around and snatched it out the air, not a bad throw just a great play. Rex still needs to stop throwing bad balls and make better decisions in order to help us win.

I love my Washington Redskins and I applaud their effort this year, but before we get to crazy let us take the wins simply for what they are…wins. Let us not fool ourselves that we are making a playoff run this year; if we do it will be because the Giants, Eagles and Cowboys are just god awful. The next part of the season we will get to see how real these Redskins are, with games against Buffalo, Jets and Patriots, not to mention our own division games. It will give us a good idea of where we stand. This far into the season I would say that we have a great foundation to work with, building blocks that can make this team a contender in a year or two. So put the corks back into the wine bottles and let them age for a couple more years and pull them out when we see the Redskins make it into the playoffs and beyond that.