Ms. Jenkins Article

[JWsleep]

While I was annoyed by her tone somewhat, it was a reasonable report. As lots of us have noted, we always "win" the offseason and stink up the regular season. And who HAVE we gotten in the later rounds? This is a legit question, especially in the salary cap era. Diamonds in the rough are worth even more today then ever before.

All that being said, I think she missed the basic change of this off season, and what it means to everything else. Gibbs is back, and he has put together a top-notch coaching staff.

One, this will really help maximize whatever talent we have on our roster: maybe we already have some late-round gems that haven't been tried and some underachievers just waiting for a fire to be lit under their assess.

Two: the real reason that NE is great is their coach. He has a system, he instills discipline, and he leads by example of hard work, discipline, and class. Guess what: so does Gibbs .

Three, as she notes, but plays down, not all the FA stuff has been a disaster (Coles, Thomas, Hall, Morton...): with Gibbs, et. al., doing the selecting, I would bet we'll do even better than last year.

So, she's not wrong about the history, but she didn't catch the real change here: There's a new (old) sherriff in town, Mr. Joe Gibbs. I believe this is all the difference in the world.

[joecrisp]

Originally Posted by JWsleep

While I was annoyed by her tone somewhat, it was a reasonable report. As lots of us have noted, we always "win" the offseason and stink up the regular season. And who HAVE we gotten in the later rounds? This is a legit question, especially in the salary cap era. Diamonds in the rough are worth even more today then ever before.

All that being said, I think she missed the basic change of this off season, and what it means to everything else. Gibbs is back, and he has put together a top-notch coaching staff.

One, this will really help maximize whatever talent we have on our roster: maybe we already have some late-round gems that haven't been tried and some underachievers just waiting for a fire to be lit under their assess.

Two: the real reason that NE is great is their coach. He has a system, he instills discipline, and he leads by example of hard work, discipline, and class. Guess what: so does Gibbs .

Three, as she notes, but plays down, not all the FA stuff has been a disaster (Coles, Thomas, Hall, Morton...): with Gibbs, et. al., doing the selecting, I would bet we'll do even better than last year.

So, she's not wrong about the history, but she didn't catch the real change here: There's a new (old) sherriff in town, Mr. Joe Gibbs. I believe this is all the difference in the world.

Excellent, excellent points, Sleepy. You hit the nail right on the head.

I'll admit, when I first noticed how aggressively the Redskins have been behaving this offseason, it made me more than a little nervous for the future. But then I remembered the great news that led us into this exciting, frenetically-paced offseason, and I suddenly felt all warm and fuzzy: Joe Gibbs, Gregg Williams, Joe Bugel and Greg Blache are running the show now. The formidable coaching staff that Gibbs has assembled is the foundation of this team (much as Belichick and his staff are the driving force in New England), and should be the basis for any evaluation of the Redskins' offseason.

The fact that Jenkins practically ignored the tremendous impact this coaching staff will have on the roster, really is indicative of her anti-Snyder agenda. The fact that this team was lead by one of the most inexperienced coaching staffs in the league is the primary reason behind their mediocrity the past two seasons. Prior to that, yes, you can put much of the blame on Snyder for his irresponsible spending habits and the manner in which he handled his coaches. But the Snyder-bashing has to be put on hold for now. He brought Joe Gibbs back to DC, and he has handed Gibbs the keys to the kingdom-- giving him the freedom to exceed the coaching staff budget, and giving him final say in roster moves. Jenkins can feel free to blame the old Snyder front office for the problems of the past, but if she wants to condemn the future, she will do so at Joe Gibbs' expense-- not Snyder's.

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

In the past 3 drafts we've gotten:

3rd rounder G Derrick Dockery (looks like he's gonna be quite good)
3rd rounder CB Rashad Bauman (looks like a very solid nickel back)
5th rounder TE Robert Royal (if he could stay healthy he'd be decent)
7th rounder FB Rock Cartwright (I love this guy, and not just b/c he's Rock)
5th rounder Darnerien McCants (pretty good #3 wideout)

In the 3 drafts previous to Casserly's departure we got:
4th rounder Shawn Barber (excellent outside linebacker)
7th rounder David Terrell (good on special teams)

I don't think we had any more luck with Casserly doing the drafting than Vinny and Danny in rounds 3-7 and Vinny and Danny have done a MUCH better job in drafting in the first 2 rounds than Casserly EVER did (see Desmond Howard and Heath Shuler vs. Patrick Ramsey and LaVar Arrington).

That said, she's dead on in her analysis of how our team is unstable, gets too many stars without much blue-collar depth (like the Pats), and that we've been a horribly managed franchise over the past 4-5 years.

However, the Pats are beginning to face cap woes and many of their players are quite old (i.e. both lines and the LBs) so I'll wait to see how the Pats will look in 2 years.

She's half right and half wrong.