Realistations in Week 6

[GTripp0012]

I could go on and on about how much the defense sucks, but heres why I made this thread:

I believe that there is a big misconception about how Al Saunders' offensive group is underachieving. But let me use some lessons learned this season to analyze this situation for a second. Remember, last season we had a bunch of offensive weapons, but few at the WR position. We could have put Royal, Betts, Cooley, Portis, and Moss on the field at once and been creative with the way we lined them up. I thought bringing in Al Saunders was a key to helping Gibbs find creative ways to use what he had rather than forcing himself to keep Jimmy Farris and Taylor Jacobs on the field. But in an offseason where we signed Randle El and Fauria and traded for Lloyd and Duckett, it seemed like we now had a plethora of weapons on offense. But to think critically for a second, replacing Royal with Fauria, Randle El, Lloyd, and Duckett hasn't made any improvement at all.

Here's why: There can only be 5 skill position players on the field at once. We had 5 guys who could be weapons last season. But we didn't use them all at once. So if the solution was to better use your talent, getting a coordinator to better use the talent you have plus adding talent creates a talent overload on the offensive side. The key is this: none of the talent we aquired are anything better than average talent. So well we payed for more options, we really didnt buy any better options.

So our natural expectation is for the offense to be far, far greater than last year. If not, there has to be someone at fault. But what we actually got was not necessarily better talent, but just different talent. Is Brandon Lloyd really a better pro football player than David Patten? I'm not so sure. Is Randle El really better than Patten? Maybe, maybe not. At least with Randle El, you have YAC potential. Lloyd is almost pure possession.

Also with the loss of Royal, the blocking TE was eliminated from the offense and not replaced. Fauria has been horrible inline blocking this year, and Cooley, although good in the run game, is ill suited to take a NFL defensive end in pass protection. Royal was underrated in that aspect of the game.

Randle El has been the best acquisition so far offensively, but he's hurting us on special teams. He's not a good punt returner because he seems to have a phobia of actually going foward. Too much dancing back there. Learn from Rock Cartwright. He's a great kick returner and all he does is find the seam and run hard through it. Nobody gave Rock 7 million dollars to sign.

In reality, we may have lost offensive versitility from last season. Yet, our total production is up. I think this is a credit to Saunders' system and playcalling. So far, our acquisitions have been less then impressive to say the least, and I think it's time for us as fans to stop assuming that something is wrong with our line or our QB or the playcalling, and sit back and accept the offensive improvement. If you are disappointed in something, be disappointed in the offseason moves. They aren't producing any help for the offense and they are hampering our team's financial future.

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Nice thoughtful post, but I am very disappointed in this offense. Our offseason acquisitions inflated our expectations, perhaps without justification. But, this offense is not good - it is as inconsistent as any offense I have seen in Washington. It's not the worst offense, but certainly the most inconsistent and good offenses are not this inconsistent.