[Daseal]

Snyder isn’t a poor owner, and Cerrato isn’t nearly as bad as many make him out to be. Snyder started off his tenure in DC very shaky. He made a lot of mistakes, and in my opinion – learned from said mistakes. Besides the initial couple years, tell me what spending sprees Snyder has gone on? In fact, a majority of the free agents we’ve gone after have made significant contributions to the team. These players include: Griffin, Springs, Portis, Washington, Fletcher, Moss, ARE, Kendall, Thomas, Carter, Daniels, etc. Sure, there have been some busts too, such as Lloyd, Taylor, etc. But far and away most of the big name players we’ve gone after in free agency recently have been very important to the success of our team.

Everyone around here cries and asks for an owner like Dan Rooney. Let’s take a look at the Rooney’s. They’re cheap. Very cheap. Expect a lot of very good talent to walk out of your door once their contract is up, lately this hasn’t bitten them too hard. But with as easy as it is to massage the cap, they could have kept many of the high profile players that walked out the door. Secondly, Pittsburgh has gone through many losing streaks, including with Cowher (who by the way, I hope we avoid like the plague. Over rated. Clap clap clap clap) where they stood pat. It’s quite obvious, when looking at the evaluation of Vinny on this site, that Redskins fans don’t understand what patience means.

Now lets move on to Vinny. I believe he regained the position, after Marty, in 2002 (if this is wrong, blame Cpayne!). Lets look at the drafts since then:
• 2002: Not a bad year. Ramsey, Betts, Bauman, Russell, Lott, Royal, Coleman, Grau, Scott, Cartwright. Of this group Betts and Cartwright are both on the team and doing well. Royal is a starter, and Ramsey is a backup. Having four players still in the NFL from that long ago isn’t a terrible draft. Definitely some misses, but could be worse.
• 2003: Only 3 picks. Jacobs, Dockery, Hamdan. Dockery is back with the team as a starting Guard and Hamden is still bouncing around the league.
• 2004: Taylor, Cooley, Wilson, Mollnaro. The late round picks didn’t stand out, but two all pros in rounds 1 and 3. Another good draft.
• 2005: Rogers, Campbell, White, McCune, Newberry, Nemo. Top two picks are good starters in the league, late round picks didn’t make it.
• 2006: McIntosh, Montogomery, Doughty, Golston, Lefotu, Simon. No first round picks and 4 players still on the team and playing well. Another very good draft.
• 2007: Landry, Sartz, Blades, Palmer, Ecker. Not a very good draft. Landry has been great, Blades is a solid backup, but the rest fizzled out. Two solid players, not the worst draft either.
• 2008: Thomas, Davis, Kelly, Rinehart, Hayes, Tryon, Brooks, Moore, Brennan, Jackson, Horton. People want to complain about this draft, and I simply don’t see it. Even if many players don’t make it – where did Vinny go wrong. Thomas was the #1WR on most NFL boards, Kelly was a great pick that I think may be the best WR out of that draft class, and Fred Davis was the best TE in that class. All three play a pass catching position, one that TYPICALLY takes a few seasons to adapt to and become effective. Especially Thomas, he hasn’t played a lot of college games so he needs to keep learning. Chris Horton was borderline DROY and Rob Jackson played. Cold Brennan definitely put some sparks of hope into skins fans after his preseason, and Kareem Moore has contributed at Safety and especially special teams. This draft class was great with how Vinny traded around to get more picks and got a lot of value for his picks. Even the late rounders.

Its hard to tell during the Gibbs years who was actually in charge. It was a muddled mess, just the way Gibbs wanted it. Nothing inside Redskins park would be transparent. Not saying there’s anything wrong with that – but it’s hard to place blame accurately from the outside that way. I feel like we’re still two years away from being able to accurately describe this draft class. Also, where did all the people commending Vinny directly after the draft and early in the season go? There were tons of us then, now because the top three didn’t play much – he’s terrible. Come on.

The whole Cutler deal doesn’t make sense to me. Cutler was an upgrade. Cutler was available. Cutler’s price tag ended up being too high. The Redskins backed out and let another team fall on the sword. What’s the issue. Had the Broncos done what the Redskins did with Campbell, Cutler would have never been traded. Props to the FO for doing a great job with crowd control after that fiasco. On an unrelated rumor, NFL radio said the rumor was there was a 3 way trade, including WAS, CLE, and DEN. With CLE getting Cutler and Quinn ending up in DEN. Not sure what the skins were doing, perhaps picking up more draft picks? Or it could be a totally unfounded rumor – fact is, we’ll probably never know.