Friday, January 9, 2009

Redskins' Thought for the Day

If you thought the Redskins' 2008 season was a little hard to swallow and that their perennial juggernaut offense was somewhat sluggish, here is a 2008 stat that will really put things in perspective for you.


Team Records: Washington Redskins (8-8) - Detroit Lions (0-16)


Here it comes, brace for impact!


Points Scored: Washington Redskins (265) - Detroit Lions (268)


That's right! The proverbial doormat and laughing stock of the NFL, Detroit Lions, who set a NFL record for futility with a 0-16 winless season actually outscored our beloved 8-8 Redskins. There is just nothing to say after hearing that except "Damn you Snyder! Damn you!".

Have a great day. I'm going to go turn over in my grave a few hundred more times, go back to bed and pretend this season never happened.

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JacksGhost
Washington Redskins Hog Blog

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Thursday, January 8, 2009

A Look Back at the Redskins 2008 Draft

Well, the damage has been done. The only question now is how long will the Redskins suffer from their 2008 draft. When we look back at the draft now, the Redskins did do a good job of trading their first round pick and accumulating 3 second round picks. At first, I couldn't believe my eyes and ears when I watched Chris Burman announce that Daniel "The Big Splash" Snyder had allowed his team to strategically drop back in the draft and add more picks. How painful that must have been for him not to make an uproar in the first round. Since our aging team had so many needs, it was a perfect scenario.

Of course, it was too good to be true and "The Big Splash" just had to go overboard. The Redskins had 2 priority needs going into the draft being a big WR and a pass rushing DE, not to mention some badly needed depth and youth on the entire offensive line, LB and CB. So what did "The Big Splash" do? He used all 3 picks on receivers. He drafted 2 young raw WR's and an unnecessary TE despite having perennial pro-bowler TE Chris Cooley. It made no sense then and now looking back, it was downright awful.

Just since 2000, there are a plethora of top of the draft WR's that were all out busts such as Mike Williams, Charles Rogers, Jerry Porter just to name a few. Forget other teams, look at the Redskins' history of top WR's draftees: Taylor Jacobs, Rod Gardner, Michael Westbrook. Of course, there is my personal favorite, Desmond Howard, selected 4th in the 1992 draft when the Redskins long hard fall from grace began.

The point is that selecting WR's can be largely hit and miss. The Redskins desperately needed a big WR so, of course, they should have selected at least one WR in the second round and you could at least argue that maybe they should even select 2. However, the Redskins were supposedly high on WR Anthony Mix, who was a special teams player for the Redskins in 2007. Mix measured a whopping 6'5", 243 lbs. You can't get much bigger than that for a WR or a TE for that matter. If they truly believed in Mix, they should only have selected one WR in the second round of the 2008 draft. At any rate, Mix did not make the team in 2008 so we have to assume the Redskins were just hyping him up at the time.

Even if the Redskins took 2 WR's in the second round, there is absolutely no way they should have also selected TE Fred Davis given their dire need for a young pash rushing DE. With the uncertainty of highly drafted WR's and their multiple needs along the defensive line, there is no excuse for the team not selecting a DE. What's even worse is they avoided the defensive line through the entire draft before finally wasting their final 7th round pick on DE Rob Jackson who collected all of 1 tackle all season. The Redskins' pass rush only mustered a pathetic 24 sacks this season and DE Andre Carter lead the team with an embarrassing 4.

It wouldn't be so bad if these 3 receivers made an impact and helped offset the team's poor pass rush. So how did they do? Aside from showing up at training camp out of shape and missing most of the pre-season, you be the judge:

Devin Thomas - 15 REC, 120 YDS, 0 TD
Malcolm Kelly - 3 REC, 18 YDS, 0 TD
Fred Davis - 3 REC, 27 YDS, 0 TD

Enough said.

For the teams third and fourth round picks, Chad Rinehart and Justin Tryon, the jury is still out as they both played sparingly and it will probably take another season or two to find out if they will be substantial contributors. The ONLY bright spot out of this draft is an obvious one, 7th round pick SS Chris Horton. Horton stepped up and made numerous big plays in the first half of the season and unexpectedly took over the starting job 5 games into the season. He is far and away the Redskins rookie of the year and looks like he could be a solid contributor for years to come.

All in all, I gave the Redskins an F when the draft completed in April and I will keep that grade and add a little bold to it "F" now that the season is over. Even with the positive impact of Chris Horton could not save this draft. Maybe three years from now will resemble Jerry Rice, Chad Johnson and Shannon Sharpe, but I highly doubt it.

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JacksGhost
Washington Redskins Hog Blog

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