And on his bad days, like MNF v Dallas, he's outright bad.

He's just too slow and immobile to keep up with athletic pass rushers (ie all of them). Not only could he not block Demarcus Ware, he couldn't even get a hand of him sometimes.

As of today the offensive line has one highly rated prospect, and 4 mediocre/average players.

Licht and Will Montgomery should continue to develop, but whether they and Chris Chester (or someone else) can form a strong interior remains highly questionable.

And like I said, Jammal Brown needs to be replaced at the earliest possible convience. Given how little draft value (first three rounds) we've invested in our line over the last 12 years, seems obvious to me we need to draft a RT (or a LT and move Trent to right - but I think Trent will be fine at LT in the long run).

If magically some young great RT hits the FA market next year, great. But that almost never happens.

For most of a decade this franchise has almost completely ignored the offensive line in the early part of the draft.

It has to stop. Perennially good teams don't have mediocre offensive lines unless your QB is Peyton.

It's that simple.

So yeah, Jammal Brown: not good enough.

Fred Davis @ DAL

or

Pettigrew @ MIN

I have both these TEs - I'm leaning towards Davis.

And now, to meet the word count minimum, here is some latin text:

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All he was ever doing was his job:

Representing his clients to the fullest of his ability, getting as much as he could out of the agreement.

He did just that.

He got a good deal for the players, a 10 year CBA, and no missed game time.

There are a lot of reasons people wanted to dislike Smith. I'm not sure any of them ended up being valid.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Lockout-winners-and-losers?urn=nfl-wp3883

Winners

DeMaurice Smith

To put it in sports terms, the executive director of the NFL Players Association, whose current contract is up in March of 2012, had one of the best contract years in recent history. Not only did he hold the owners to the fire in a way no other union head ever has, he understood from the start that litigation was the one way to facilitate the journey to a new CBA. And in the end, it was his calm but strong hand that led the players back to the table after the owners' ratification/press conference stunt. After the CBA was signed, Smith said, "Our guys stood together, when nobody thought we would." The union stood strong, and he's the primary reason.

http://bizoffootball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=860:winners-and-losers-in-the-nfl-now-that-lockout-over&catid=54:nfl-labor-news&Itemid=79

The biggest winner of all may be NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith, an experienced trial attorney but like Goodell, a rookie in labor negotiations.  There were predictions that the owners would fleece Smith - and the players - as they had done throughout the union’s existence.  But this time was different.  Smith proved to be up to the task of protecting his constituents and came away with an agreement that on the surface appears to be fair, balanced, and guarantees labor peace for the next decade.

Dan Snyder is subpoening one of the most successful and well-known DC area bloggers, Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post. Why? Because he suspects "collusion" when Steinberg linked to McKenna's original story.

(oops - don't subpoena me too, Dan)

Yes, apparently the man who "made" millions in the communications industry, doesn't understand how blogs and linking works.

Once again, every time Dan Snyder allows this farcical lawsuit to go on and make a new headline, the article lives on another day. It would have been forgotten about a long time ago, but Snyder's ego just can't let go. 

I am sure Snyder's handlers point out to him how counterproductive is to pursue this lawsuit. But either his ego doesn't let him hear the advice, or he's only hired yes men as his handlers. 

(WWVCD?)

Here's a blog post on the story (hope Snyder doesn't subpoena me for collusion there either)

This man is a constant embarrassment, who's done nothing but make millions for himself (and guys like Albert Haynesworth) while putting a loser on the field.

At least I get to enjoy the ongoing spectacle of him continuing to show the world what a complete a-- he is. 

So keep at it Dan, that way I don't have to.

Another draft in the book, with us not taking an offensive lineman in the first two rounds. According to Football Outsiders, more elite offensive linemen (or really any non-kicking position except maybe RB) come from the first two rounds, than the rest of the draft. Also around the 5th round or so there is a serious drop off in talent.

Since 2001, we've only drafted an OL ONCE in the first two rounds.

Here are some numbers:

Total 1st round picks since 2001: 9 in 11 drafts

Total 2nd round picks: 8 in 11 drafts

Total 1st used on offense: 4 (WR, QB, QB, LT)

Total 1st used on defense: 5 (S, CB, S, LB, DL)

Total 2nd used on offense: 5 (RB, WR, WR, WR, TE)

Total 2nd used on defense: 3 (CB, LB, DL)

Totals by unit:

Offensive skill positions: 8 (incl. Fred Davis)

Offensive line: 1

Def front 7: 4

Secondary: 4

Basically every regime going back to Marty Schottenheimer has devoted a vast majority of early round picks to offensive skill position (not that you'd know it from our team currently) and defense, specifically secondary.

A common thread among all regimes has been to neglect drafting OL early.

If anyone wonders why our OL is such a huge questionmark, this it. But I'm sure not many of us are wondering. Everyone knows our OL is either mediocre or awful, depending on your flavor of kool aid.

Which brings me to the real issue: I just want to know what Shanahan's thoughts are.

• None of the many available prospects were worthwhile?
• We can find a good OL in Free Agency?
• Or worst of all: The OL is good enough?

Shanahan is soon to have two drafts under his belt where the ultimate decision-making rests with him. So let's make no mistake about who made or approved these picks. And who made or approved this team's plan.

Executive Vice President and personnel-director Mike Shanahan, YOU are officially on the clock, and in February 2012, we will take stock of what you have or haven't built, or more importantly, what our foundation looks like going forward. Because right now, we have an OL foundation thast consists of precisely one player.

As Football Outsiders has been arguing for a while now, investing draft picks or big contracts in runningbacks doesn't create a corresponding increase in value or production from the position. Unlike QB & WR, every year a multitude of undrafted or late-round draft pick runningbacks step on the scene and produce at an elite level.

So, running back is one area where I really trust Shanny and I think he's the right man for the job: finding good production out of the RB position without investing early picks or big contracts. Remember he's the one who originally traded away Portis when Portis wanted (and got) a big pay day.

Torain has looked good, and if Portis leaves next year, I have faith Shanny will bring in other guys to step in and play. Running back is the one position we will be ok on, even if we don't use a high draft pick on one, or sign/trade a big name.

HTTR

Says Football Outsiders:

Each year, the rushing leaderboards are littered with guys who didn't need a pedigree to get to the top of the charts. Among the top 20 rushers this year by DYAR are six players who were either drafted in the seventh round or went undrafted; there's only four such quarterbacks and three such receivers in the passing top 20.

It also jibes with every bit of research we've ever done at Football Outsiders; whether it's rate of return on a draft pick, the effects of injury on an offense, or where spending money produces a return, investing valuable resources into running backs isn't all that likely to return a feature back. And yet, despite the existence of players like Hillis and Foster -- guys available for peanuts during the offseason -- teams still pour millions into their backfield.

Click here for the full story.

How many will Shanahan use on offensive line?

Continue reading this post »

Campbell. McNabb. It all distracts from our core franchise problem:

We need to comprehensively add talent in the form of studs and role-players and depth all over this roster. Drafting is a very difficult way to do this. Unfortunately, it's also the best way to do it.

Continue reading this post »

Verdict: Trent Williams had a GREAT game.
Also good: Brown and Hicks.

There is some great stuff in the article. I encourage you to read the whole thing. (Skins are one of three teams the writer is watching all season.)

This passage may have done more to help me understand zone-blocking and the stretch play more than anything else I've read:

Continue reading this post »

I made this post as a gratuitous excuse to post photos of these two jerseys I just bought off e-bay for $15 and $20 respectively. I love dumb 90s jerseys. I also love getting jerseys that don't result in any money going to Dan Snyder. Photos after the jump:

Continue reading this post »

Here's the money (ha) quote:

With more than four decades of evidence to back them up, economists almost uniformly agree that publicly financed stadiums rarely pay for themselves. The notable successes like Camden Yards in Baltimore often involve dedicated taxes or large infusions of private money. Even then, using one tax to finance a stadium can often steer spending away from other, perhaps worthier, projects.

Continue reading this post »

They will be better this year, and worse in the long run.

Highlights (lowlights?):

•  ...the Redskins haven’t built a true contender. They’ve built another version of their 2005 team, which went 10-6 in Gibbs’ second season.
• The 2010 Redskins have even worse long-range prospects than their 2005 counterparts, who at least surrounded Brunell with a young group of offensive weapons, had a pair of bookend offensive tackles in their prime, and possessed a few other assets. This year’s Redskins have an alarming number of players who are about to simultaneously grow old...
• ...Some in the Redskins organization will feel vindicated when the team loses in the second round of the playoffs. Snyder and others will convince themselves that they made all the right moves. Allen could win Executive of the Year if he takes the team from four wins to ten. There will be a lot of backslapping for a very small accomplishment. And of course, that will only encourage Snyder and company to climb back on the horse.

Continue reading this post »

Of your franchise players, your stars, your team leaders, etc, you need as many to be drafted as possible. There are secondary reasons for this such as having guys who are hungry to prove themselves and get that big second contract (ie don't have a team full of Albert Haynesworths and Clinton Portis's). Also it builds a team identity and team, fan and player loyalty (how much more popular are drafted players? how much more likely are they truly love the area/team they were drafted by? A lot, usually).

But the primary reason is simple value. Every team has the same cap to work under, so you have to create value wherever you can. This means getting as much talent as possible for as cheaply as possible. Free agents do not achieve this. Free agents are almost always over-valued, and there are rarely true bargains to be found.

Where this is most true might actually be in terms of depth rather than finding your star players. Injuries are inevitable, and as our offensive line showed last year, it is very hard to build decent depth from the free agent scrap heap.

A far better scenario for being able to deal with inevitable injuries is having young drafted players ready to step in. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't, sometimes you end up finding a future starter or a player who's actually better than the guy he replaced, but no matter what, you're using a player who doesn't cost much.

Free agency, on the other hand, is inherently flawed because the absolute best case scenario is that a free agent is merely worth the money you give him. It is almost impossible for a free agent, especially one with a decent contract, to out-play his contract. Randy Moss and Drew Brees are about the only major cases of this I can think of. Otherwise more often than not, free agents make more money than they're worth.

Important note: nothing I'm saying is an absolute. Sometimes free agents can provide good depth. Sometimes it's worth trading a pick for a veteran player. Sometimes a veteran is an important piece of your puzzle. Rather, what I'm describing here is the over-arching philosophy.

Dan Snyder's Redskins have spent the past decade putting most assets into free agents and trading picks for veterans with high paid contracts [which in turn causes the team to have to over pay when there's a player they want to draft (Campbell cost two draft picks, Rocky Mac cost two draft picks, Cooley cost two draft picks)].

As Winston Churchill might say, drafting is a hard way to put a team together, full of players who don't work out, but it's still better than any other way to build a team. The perennial winners do it, and we should too.

Meet the new boss. Same as the old.

...people familiar with the situation said, and the Redskins are expected to pursue defensive end Julius Peppers - who apparently wants to stand up in a 3-4 attack - in free agency...

No better example exists of a veteran big name who shouldn't be given a huge contract due to questions about dedication and effort. Julius Peppers disappears for games at a time, and is a far bigger risk to take time off than Albert Haynesworth.

Peppers will take a huge guaranteed contract from Snyder Allenahan and then proceed to not live up to the value of the deal.

If this happens, get ready to throw yet another exepensive veteran on to the pile in Dan Snyder's Allenahan's continuing effort to build a roster of over-paid veterans who aren't hungry for anything except taking time off.

Don't ever wonder why we're a perennial disappointment. Moves this like this are why.