I feel pretty comfortable with the offense. Gardner is the only weak link that I see, but McCants and perhaps even Jacobs could step up and give good production there. However, on the defensive side, I'm still a little concerned about the lack of a pass rush. I know that Williams has talked about both strong and weak-side linebackers providing extra pass-rush capabilities, but I think the defense improves a lot if you also have a DE applying pressure on the QB. So, if it were up to me, I'd look to trade down for mid first and second round picks. Then I'd look to draft Udeze at DE, and then either Sanders or Schweigart at safety. Although neither Sanders or Schweigart is Sean Taylor, both are quality safties. Furthermore, once you put either of them together with Udeze, I think you help out your defense more than just Taylor would.

--Phinehas

[QUOTE=skinsfanthru&thru]but correct me if I'm wrong, didn't Greg Williams' defense finish in the top 5 or 10 last year and the only above average players I know about having been on that team were Takeo Spikes, Sam Adams, Lawyer Milloy, and A. Winfield.[/QUOTE]

Those 4 plus London Fletcher who is a damn good linebacker as well. Williams did a fine job at making that D work, but don't kid yourself...anytime you have 5 "borderline" pro bowlers on the field, it is hard to say that there wasn't an abundance of talent.

Now that the Redskins have spent almost all of their cap money, and not addressed the safety position, (in my opinion) there is a strong chance they may have tipped their hand that S Taylor will be their pick. Trading down and getting a D-lineman is very tempting, but the fact that there is no legitmate safety backup is a big problem.
Todd Franz and Andre Lott can not be counted on if there were a season ending injury to Ohalete or Bowen. Lott and Franz are situational players at best, they are small pass defenders, they don't scare anyone in run support or laying big hits.
They have addressed all positions but Safety. They already signed DT Griffen, DE Daniels, LB Washington, CB's Springs and CB Butler.
Under Gibbs, the Skins have always had great Safety's : Mark Murphy, Tony Peters, Alvin Walton, Brad Edwards, Danny Copeland, etc.
Ohalete and Bowen are Ok, but the need a talent boost like drafting S Sean Taylor.
Plus see the large number of D-lineman (below) already on the roster. Either way, you can't go wrong with drafting a safety or D-lineman.

DT's:
Cornelis Griffen
Jermaine Haley
Brandon Noble
Reggie McGrew
Cedric Killings


DE's:
Renaldo Wynn
Regan Upshaw
Phillip Daniels
Nic Clemons
Ron Warner
Greg White

What we gonna do with all these d-linemen? We are not gonna have a defensive line like the panthers. They have weak corners we have strong corners and LB's we cant afford a marquee line and keep the players we have we need good linemen which we have. I dont want to gamble on a D-lineman when we know taylor and winslow will be special. Look at robertson first d-linemen taken in last years draft was a bust. you can get linemen as undrafted free agents but you not gonna find a safety or TE like winslow too often. give Coach Gibbs a couple years to build a championship team we saw a special d-lineman in Kearse but we couldnt afford him (salary cap remember). added winslow a playersthat would cause match up problems for our opponents and taylor would cause match up problems for our opponents. The NFL is about matchups you not running through our line with arrington and washington and trotter and taylor humming down on you. we can pick a lineman up anytime.

[COLOR=Black]if they do'nt trade down and he's there the skins are gonna take winslow.the guy is a once in a decade pick at tight end and he's too good to pass up.[/COLOR]
[IMG]http://www.thehogs.net/forum/images/smiles/HTTR.gif[/IMG]

[QUOTE=beg8878]Those 4 plus London Fletcher who is a damn good linebacker as well. Williams did a fine job at making that D work, but don't kid yourself...anytime you have 5 "borderline" pro bowlers on the field, it is hard to say that there wasn't an abundance of talent.[/QUOTE]

don't we now have 5-6 players with pro bowl possiblities? and he got people I know I had never heard of before getting enormous production like schobel who had 8.5 and 12 sacks the past two years. I'm just saying it's not as bad as a lot of people are making it out to be even though I do hope one of the remaining additions we make is a pass rush specialist. That being said I don't know how anyone would be against us having an offense like KC but with a solid defense as well like a buffalo quietly had last year. I mean if KC could do what they have done without a defense or a solid #1 WR, imagine what could be done with a ramsey/brunell, portis, coles&roy williams&gardner offense and a decent defense led by arrington, smoot, griffin, trotter, and washington. I just think with the very consistent production he's had at texas, R.Williams is the best overall WR with his size, strength, speed, hands, and route running abilities.

I know I'm in the minority hear but I don't think u can go wrong with that pick just like u couldn't with winslow or taylor. we could even trade down and still get him because with all the hype about fitzgerald and Mike Williams entering early, he's become lost in the mix.

While we've got a lot of talent, the Bills had more last season and they were much more balanced. Great LBs, very good DBs, AND a good line.

[QUOTE=Ramseyfan]While we've got a lot of talent, the Bills had more last season and they were much more balanced. Great LBs, very good DBs, AND a good line.[/QUOTE]

I'd say they had decent cbs (their top three cbs only combined for 6 ints and 25 pass deflections compared to our top three in the upcoming season of 9ints and 30 deflections and thats with spings missing time.) I'll give u the fact that Takeo spikes is an extrodinary LB and Fletcher is definitely good, but w/o looking it up could anyone even name their 3rd starting LB. Our linebacking core is a set of young players with in my opinion an extreme upside especially if trotter is finally used properly. and our line, while not flashy, is very solid (plus I see us picking up a pass rusher-type end and moving wynn in as a DT.) I don't know if I'm seeing more than a lot of other people are but for the first time in a few years I believe our defense can keep us in games and not worry about falling apart when they need to be their strongest.

I think our Secondary/LB Core could be one of the strongest in the NFL. While I think our Dline is defintley upgraded a bit, I'm still skeptical, but as someone else said, I trust this coaching staff more. I think with better coaching, we could have easily had a much better defense, that could by why our line looked so horrible all the time.