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sportscurmudgeon · 10-14-2004, 07:15 PM

Ramseyfan:

I am not saying you are dumb; I said you drank the Kool-Aid which means that you let your emotions take over. Thinking is done with the brain and not the glands.

The problem here may be that you look at salaries and conclude that high salaries mean that the team has boatlaods of talent. The other way you can have the highest paid team in the league is to overpay lots and lots of people by a little bit. Someone once said that the surest way to go bankrupt is to lose a little bit of money on each and every deal - and then try to make up for it in volume. :confused:

Many GMs and football analysts said that Danny Boy paid too much for his "Jetskins raid" last year. Specifically, they said that Coles was asking for something like a $10-11M signing bonus and Danny Boy tossed $13M on the table. I don't know if that's true because I wasn't in the room with all those folks when the negotiating was done. But when that story hit the streets, the general reaction here - and among Redskin fans in the DC aree - was that Danny Boy was a genius who swooped in and got the guy he needed and did not permit any other team to do any negotiating with him. That's true; but if that scenario is correct, it would also be true that he "overpaid".

So, IF that has happened in more than a few circumstances then maybe the team has such a high payroll because everyone is getting just a bit more than they are worth.

So far, Mark Brunell hasn't looked like a guy worth $30+ M with an $8-8.5M signing bonus to me.

I like Clinton Portis but so far there is no indication that he's going to provide $50 - 60M worth of services to the team.

Now you can get angry about the overpayment but that is not the players' fault. If your boss came to you and offered to pay you 20% more than the "market rate" for whatever your skills are, you'd take the raise in a flash. If you didn't take that deal, then I would say you were dumb!

Forget what these guys are paid for a minute and forget what the scouting combines said about them or whether or not they went to the Pro Bowl 3 years ago. Watch them play football and watch them do the fundamental things that football players at their position are expected to do routinely. Since you'll be emotionally invested in the game when you are watching it live, try taping the game and then going back and watching it when you already know what will happen so you can be more analytical. Here are some things I think you'll see if you do that:

1. The interior DL does not get any pressure in the middle so the opposing QB has lots of room to step up into the pocket and deliver the ball - or to break out and run because the DE's have rushed upfield. That is an important ability for a DT; the Skins' DT's haven't done that reliably for about 7 years now.

2. The defensive backs need to be sure tacklers; by the time it is their responsbility to make a tackle, there is already a "problem" and they are there to prevent a "disaster". That's why the call them "safeties". Only Springs is a fundamentally sound and reliable tackler in the DB. The other guys are either headhunters or in Smoot's case undersized against lots of guys coming at him with the ball.

3. The wide receivers need to block on running plays. If they are not going to "block" in the classic sense, they have to be very effective in "getting in the way" of the defender who will be coming to the play. Coles is good at this but sometimes gets clobbered by a defender who outweighs him by 40 lbs. Gardner holds or clips as often as he lays a solid block. I have yet to see Jacobs throw an effective block. Thrash is the best blocking WR. But if you run whenever Thrash is on the field, the other defensive coordinator will pick that up in about a half of football and the results will not be pretty. If you keep Thrash in there for every down, you aren't going to make the passing game something to be feared.

4. The offensive line has to be able to get to the point of attack on a sweep before the runner gets there AND before the defense sniffs out where the point of attack is and gets a couple of defenders there. The Skins seem able to do that when they run to the left a whole lot better than when they run to the right. I have my own theory about why that is the case, but I would need to see a lot more examples before I was confident enough to draw a conclusion. If I see that, what do you think the chances are that opposing defensive coordinators also see that?

These are areas of deficencies in fundamentals. Before you leap to the conclusion that this is the fault of the coaching staff, remember that these players are in the NFL and to a large extent have already developed their way of playing. Yes, the coaches can adjust some techniques and they can get players to work harder in the weight rooms [example: Dockery is significantly better at pass blocking this year than last even though he is hardly a master of that skill] but you aren't going to change everything that needs to be changed about every player in a single training camp. Especially when there are time limits on how much practice time is allowed and there can be a union grievance if the practices and meetings run too long! :frusty:

Gibbs & Co. inherited a flawed football team. Part of the problem is the FO fascination with big name free agents. Part of the problem is four different head coaching philosophies in 5 years each one trying to emphasize different specific skill sets. Part of it is a cadre of players from previous regimes that were selfish and whiney and not that hard-working.

I figured that Gibbs would be able to significantly reduce the number of mental errors that the team made and it seems that he has. No more hitting the guy out of bounds after he was stopped short of a first down; no more illegal procedure penalties on consecutive downs; no more loafing back to the line of scrimmage when the team needs to spike the ball to stop the clock. But the physical and technique limitations are going to take a lot more time because now it's apparent to me that it was NOT the "Fun 'n Gun" that made these guys look ragged; it's that a lot of them are just that - - ragged.

10-14-2004, 07:15 PM	#12
sportscurmudgeon Playmaker Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 3,159	Ramseyfan: I am not saying you are dumb; I said you drank the Kool-Aid which means that you let your emotions take over. Thinking is done with the brain and not the glands. The problem here may be that you look at salaries and conclude that high salaries mean that the team has boatlaods of talent. The other way you can have the highest paid team in the league is to overpay lots and lots of people by a little bit. Someone once said that the surest way to go bankrupt is to lose a little bit of money on each and every deal - and then try to make up for it in volume. :confused: Many GMs and football analysts said that Danny Boy paid too much for his "Jetskins raid" last year. Specifically, they said that Coles was asking for something like a $10-11M signing bonus and Danny Boy tossed $13M on the table. I don't know if that's true because I wasn't in the room with all those folks when the negotiating was done. But when that story hit the streets, the general reaction here - and among Redskin fans in the DC aree - was that Danny Boy was a genius who swooped in and got the guy he needed and did not permit any other team to do any negotiating with him. That's true; but if that scenario is correct, it would also be true that he "overpaid". So, IF that has happened in more than a few circumstances then maybe the team has such a high payroll because everyone is getting just a bit more than they are worth. So far, Mark Brunell hasn't looked like a guy worth $30+ M with an $8-8.5M signing bonus to me. I like Clinton Portis but so far there is no indication that he's going to provide $50 - 60M worth of services to the team. Now you can get angry about the overpayment but that is not the players' fault. If your boss came to you and offered to pay you 20% more than the "market rate" for whatever your skills are, you'd take the raise in a flash. If you didn't take that deal, then I would say you were dumb! Forget what these guys are paid for a minute and forget what the scouting combines said about them or whether or not they went to the Pro Bowl 3 years ago. Watch them play football and watch them do the fundamental things that football players at their position are expected to do routinely. Since you'll be emotionally invested in the game when you are watching it live, try taping the game and then going back and watching it when you already know what will happen so you can be more analytical. Here are some things I think you'll see if you do that: 1. The interior DL does not get any pressure in the middle so the opposing QB has lots of room to step up into the pocket and deliver the ball - or to break out and run because the DE's have rushed upfield. That is an important ability for a DT; the Skins' DT's haven't done that reliably for about 7 years now. 2. The defensive backs need to be sure tacklers; by the time it is their responsbility to make a tackle, there is already a "problem" and they are there to prevent a "disaster". That's why the call them "safeties". Only Springs is a fundamentally sound and reliable tackler in the DB. The other guys are either headhunters or in Smoot's case undersized against lots of guys coming at him with the ball. 3. The wide receivers need to block on running plays. If they are not going to "block" in the classic sense, they have to be very effective in "getting in the way" of the defender who will be coming to the play. Coles is good at this but sometimes gets clobbered by a defender who outweighs him by 40 lbs. Gardner holds or clips as often as he lays a solid block. I have yet to see Jacobs throw an effective block. Thrash is the best blocking WR. But if you run whenever Thrash is on the field, the other defensive coordinator will pick that up in about a half of football and the results will not be pretty. If you keep Thrash in there for every down, you aren't going to make the passing game something to be feared. 4. The offensive line has to be able to get to the point of attack on a sweep before the runner gets there AND before the defense sniffs out where the point of attack is and gets a couple of defenders there. The Skins seem able to do that when they run to the left a whole lot better than when they run to the right. I have my own theory about why that is the case, but I would need to see a lot more examples before I was confident enough to draw a conclusion. If I see that, what do you think the chances are that opposing defensive coordinators also see that? These are areas of deficencies in fundamentals. Before you leap to the conclusion that this is the fault of the coaching staff, remember that these players are in the NFL and to a large extent have already developed their way of playing. Yes, the coaches can adjust some techniques and they can get players to work harder in the weight rooms [example: Dockery is significantly better at pass blocking this year than last even though he is hardly a master of that skill] but you aren't going to change everything that needs to be changed about every player in a single training camp. Especially when there are time limits on how much practice time is allowed and there can be a union grievance if the practices and meetings run too long! :frusty: Gibbs & Co. inherited a flawed football team. Part of the problem is the FO fascination with big name free agents. Part of the problem is four different head coaching philosophies in 5 years each one trying to emphasize different specific skill sets. Part of it is a cadre of players from previous regimes that were selfish and whiney and not that hard-working. I figured that Gibbs would be able to significantly reduce the number of mental errors that the team made and it seems that he has. No more hitting the guy out of bounds after he was stopped short of a first down; no more illegal procedure penalties on consecutive downs; no more loafing back to the line of scrimmage when the team needs to spike the ball to stop the clock. But the physical and technique limitations are going to take a lot more time because now it's apparent to me that it was NOT the "Fun 'n Gun" that made these guys look ragged; it's that a lot of them are just that - - ragged. __________________ The Sports Curmudgeon www.sportscurmudgeon.com But don't get me wrong, I love sports...