Tony McGee Answers your offseason questions June 2006

[Gmanc711]

(Gman)Hey Guys, I had the chance to sit down with Tony this week, and it was one of the best interviews we’ve had with him to date, so what do I do?? …completely forget to post the transcript, but better late than never, so here’s Tony on the Redskins offseason and looking at the start of the Redskins season…

First of all, Tony asks that we keep sending some E-mails to Lisa Pendleton, the Program Director for Comcast sports. Just ask her when the show is coming back and what time it is going to be on…

Program Director at Comcast Sportsnet
Lisa Pendleton
7700 Wisconsion Ave Suite 200
Bethesda, MD 20814

or E-mail her @ lpendleton@comcastsportsnet.com

Now lets get to Tony’s thoughts….

Hello Everyone, thank you once again for having me and your continued support over this offseason…lets dive right into the questions…

First of all, Gmanc711, with June 1st cuts having come and gone, I do not see anyone from the team being let go this year. With the salary cap increase, it is giving teams a lot more money to be working with and they have a surplus so they can hold onto guys. I don’t see the Redskins having to cut anyone, and I don’t see any big names getting cut and coming to the Redskins. One guy heavily talked about with the Redskins right now is David Patten. Going back to last season, I’m still surprised that they put him on the IR and I think he is a quality guy. He came out and said he was going to work very hard and be that fourth option. If anyone should go it should be Taylor Jacobs, who has proved absolutely nothing with the team. He needs to go before anyone else gets cut from the receiving corps. Patten at least proved last season that he can keep defenses honest and open things up for the number one guy.

Brudlee, players don’t put much if any stock into the “Vegas Odds” or the Power Rankings. Every team on the opening day of training camp thinks they have the chance to win the Super Bowl and there are so many different things that factor into weather a team is going to be good or not, and the players know that. So they don’t put very much into those rankings. On that same line, TheMalcolmConnection, I think a lot of the “experts” are picking the Cowboys to win the Superbowl strictly because of Terrell Owens. They had a solid receiving corp. last season, and Owens is just going to add to that. I have a lot of questions about their offensive line, and they can’t afford to lose the guys they have lost over the offseason. If you put T.O. on last seasons team, I think they are a Super Bowl contender….but after they have lost all the guys that they have I’m not so sure. That being said, this is the hardest division football has seen in a long time. Each team got a little bit better, and a little bit worse on parts of the football this offseason, but they have the ability to win 10-11 games. So the Cowboys have the potential to pull it together and make a run…but I think the Redskins/Giants have a much greater chance at making this their year. The Giants, believe it or not, I think will have one of the top defenses in football.

GoSkins! I think that Saunders and Gibbs are definitely going to have some disagreements. When you have four former head coaches on the coaching staff, there are going to be a lot of disagreements on how to take things. However, these are all class guys and I think most of the problems they have are going to be worked out early on in training camp. The biggest problem I foresee is Saunders wanting to come in and be the next Gregg Williams. Like I said, they will have some problems, but nothing major that I don’t see worked out during training camp.

Finally taking a look at some of the news coming out of Redskins land the last few weeks, starting with Mark Brunells injured hand. I really don’t think this means much for Brunell…he’s been around the game a long time and I don’t see this having any effect on him. However, I do think that this is a good chance for Jason Campbell to get some extra reps and really let him start to get the feel of an NFL quarterback. Todd Collins is also going to gain extra reps through this and I think that’s huge because he is a guy who has played in the system before and when other people watch him run the offense, they are going to be able to pick up and learn better strictly from that.

Finally we’ll close out with Sean Taylor. Going back to his rookie season, he was a very defiant young man and overall just not someone who was very pleasant to be around. Honestly, in a weird way this could have been one of the best things to happen to Taylor. After this incident in Miami, Taylor completely changed. He was a much better person to be around last year and a much better player because of it. I think something may have finally clicked in his head, and I really think Taylor has changed for the better and he is going to have a pro bowl year this season as he is really just enjoying himself a lot more out there.

Thanks alot for having me guys! We'll be back again soon and training camp will be starting before you know it.

[BigSKINBauer]

Great work Gmanc and thanks again Tony.

[BrudLee]

It's more than a little amazing that a player of Tony's caliber shares his insight with us. Thanks, Tony; thanks, Gmanc711; and thank you, me - for asking such a probing question.

[That Guy]

thankss, good stuff!

[wolfeskins]

thanks too everyone involved. especially Gmanc and tony.

[GoSkins!]

Thanks! It is always good to get good insight!