Quote:
Originally Posted by Southpaw
The Redskins have a habit of letting good talent walk because they're not 'elite'. That's how you end up with guys like Reed Doughty, Josh Wilson, and Rob Jackson as starters.
There's no point in letting well above average, home grown talent walk when you have nothing better(at this point in time) to replace it. Is saving some money really worth downgrading an already terrible defense?
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Hrm... i'm not sure how much I believe the idea that the redskins have a habit of letting good talent walk because they're not elite... over the last 10 years talent has walked for a variety of reasons, I don't recall any of them being because the team didn't think they were good enough.
I do recall it being because the player had a gripe with the fans, or the organization. Or because the player's wife had an issue with a certain mistress in the area. Or because the FO thought some top-dollar free agent that was past his prime would be a better person to pick up.
I also recall the FO having a history of completely avoiding the process of acquiring young, raw talent and developing it.
The elite teams let players that want too much money walk all the time. They also have a system in place that grooms young, raw talent players so that when a person needs to be let go because of their contract demands there is someone ready to step into place. They also have a solid roster all the way around that affords them the ability to look at any one single player and say "We can win without you." (minus QB and in a few rare cases another skill position.)
The redskins have not had that since Gibbs 1. If letting Orakpo walk is such a bad idea it's only a bad idea because Redskins have yet again failed to bring in a young player and groom them for eventually taking over the position, forcing them into having to decide between way over paying a player or running with a significantly lower-potential person. Par for the course. I'm hopping Allen's #1 priority is to change that about the team, but it's his first year in total control so it's far to early to expect that right now.
And you guys can cite the rush stats as Orakpo being held back - but he's had opportunities to make plays and more often than not he fails, for whatever reason. I'm absolutely willing to concede that he's been used wrong - we've been a square peg/round hole organization for a while now (another thing I hope Allen fixes.) But you just flat out don't see players blossom this late in their career very often, so I remain skeptical that he's going to put on the performance worth the money he is demanding.
This isn't an issue of the team not keeping 'home grown' talent. It's an issue of over paying for a guy or not, and the fact that we don't have a process in place that leaves us very many options via younger players that have been groomed.