Must-Read Article on GW and the Defense

[Redskins_P]

Originally Posted by NYCSkin

It sounded like a media savvy veteran. I also thought it was a secondary player. Therefore, I picked Springs...

Exactly. Either Springs or Troy Vincent.

[Skins_4_Lyfe]

Originally Posted by 70Chip

Any particular reason?

Springs was the only player that came to mind as I was reading this article. First of all I felt that the anonymous player was a veteran who seems to be familiar with the way the league works, and had to have been here since Gibbs and Williams came aboard. The player seems to frustrated with the way things have been run since he's been here and he doesn't allude to the Spurrier and Marvin Lewis days so he has to have came in the same year as Williams. Some players are eliminated when mentioned by the player in the article and you are leaned towards a secondary player because of all of the in depth info given about the secondary...the comments just fit his personality.

I ain't mad at Shawn…he's just saying what everyone else is scared to say. He's not the only player that feels this way.

[shallyshal]

couple of things..

this thing has been burning up every redskin website since it hit. it is huge.

but.. i find it odd that no one else other than espn has picked up on it.. not the post.. not the times.. i do not believe any of the local sports reporters.
the official site was mum.. it looks like only the XXX site worked the story even a little.

so, is this real, or is someone making up this crap to do a job on GW or the team? do you really think that gibbs would not know that the corners and the safeties were not meeting ? c'mon.. i might easily believe that of spurrier, but is it even remotely possible that gibbs would not know of this all season ? and that he would tolerate the open pouting of one of his coaches or a refusal of that coach to help out his players ??

i know that gibbs has given authority to AS and GW to run the offense and defense.. but gibbs was always a micromanager, could he stand to be that far away from so toxic a situation ? and allow it to go on all year ?

something is really rotten and i am not sure whether it is the skins defense or the story...

[mason4415]

i don't think the player is a "younger" player. the reason is that the quotes from the player sounded like a savvy veteran who has been around a while and none of the quotes sounded very bitter at all. they sounded like an un-biased and truthful analysis of what has been going on. i don't think the "mole" is someone who had an agenda. i think it was someone like springs who has been through the ringer and doesn't have a chip on his shoulder and really has nothing to prove. it definitely wasn't someone like archuleta or rogers. rogers would've sounded a lot more bitter.

[70Chip]

It may well be Andre Carter. TAFKAS had a good catch there. Would a player other than Carter go out of his way to point out how unfair the system has been to him? I don't know.

As for Williams being arrogant, just about everyone connected with professional football is like that to some degree. Hell, just about everyone connected to pee-wee football is arrogant. I can remember sitting in a bar next to a youth coach who was talking about how he was the master of the single-wing or some such antiquated offense. He even had an assistant there playing the Smithers part. On and on he bragged. I rather enjoyed it.

When you win, it's confidence. When you lose, it's arrogance.

[dall-assblows]

i was thinking AA because he might be bitter about being benched.

[NYCSkin]

Originally Posted by dall-assblows

i was thinking AA because he might be bitter about being benched.

No, he hasn't been here long enough. Plus this source in this article is a player who knows some history about this team the past few years...

[Oakland Red]

This article has the ring of truth. It is sterling journalism if you ask me. The morale is most likely beyond repair. This is not to say that Williams isn't capable of being a good coach. It is to say that his arrogance has been his downfall, and if we want to move forward as a team, Williams has to go.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Oakland Red

This article has the ring of truth. It is sterling journalism if you ask me. The morale is most likely beyond repair. This is not to say that Williams isn't capable of being a good coach. It is to say that his arrogance has been his downfall, and if we want to move forward as a team, Williams has to go.

I said a week ago that we either have to give this unit another shot with only very minor tweaking, or we have to tear it down and start from scratch.

And if the morale of the defense is at the state this article makes it out to be, I think that we need to tear this thing down and start from scratch. After all, the level of production we are getting from them could be gotten from a team full of practice squad guys, so what is there to lose.

It's quite fortunate that we will have the offense to carry us over the next few seasons as the D tries to regain respectability. If we have to tear it down, it could take awhile to rebuild.

Great find on the article, MHeisig.

[steveo395]

From this article, it sounds like Steve Jackson needs to be fired. He just stood there on the sideline and a player told him to coach his players and he didn't do anything. I don't know who needs to be fired or what needs to change, but I hope Gibbs does.

[SouperMeister]

I hope the butt-chewing Gibbs gave on Wednesday extended to his entire coaching staff as well. It's time for Gibbs to stop being so hands off and make every coach accountable as well as players. Lastly, I hope he comes down hard on the mole feeding ESPN Magazine info.

[Pocket$ $traight]

It sounds obvious that Jackson needs to go. They really need to streamline the coaching staff and light a fire under people.

I would also say that committing the entire offseason (FA picks and draft picks) to the D may be in order.

Well, if anyone can humble these egomaniacs, Gibbs can.

[VTSkins897]

i dont even know what to say. it's all extremely depressing.

[MTK]

If any good comes from this disaster of a season, any inflated egos around Redskins Park had better be eliminated or guys will be gone, players and coaches alike.

I think Gibbs has grabbed the reins back this week, hopefully this will be a significant turning point in Gibbs 2.0.

[cpayne5]

To me, it sounds like a new player.

"Last year, the D-line started playing well when they straight started rushing the passer," the player said. "They could beat guys one on one and get in a rhythm and tee off. Now, we're trying to get too exotic, so we've got Cornelius Griffin doing exotic stuff, who doesn't rush on third down anymore basically. … All these stunts and games? The D-linemen are just saying, man, just let us go, just let us go."

Notice the use of "they" while speaking of last year and "we" when referring to this year.