Casserly Keeping his options open

[MTK]

Nobody is saying Prioleau was supposed to start all year. The simple point was he was slated to start week 1, he got injured, and it was a significant injury as far as the secondary goes.

That was the original argument... that we can't blame injuries for this season because we "only" lost Portis for half the season and Springs for half. We countered with Prioleau and how important his loss was, and that's when the discussion spiraled away from the original point.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

It's tough to have that kind of depth no matter who you are. If you look at ANY team around the league, even those with "so-called" GMs, when a key player goes down, it directly affects the season. I'm talking that's the case with 99% of teams.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

I mean what do you propose we do in that situation. Say instead of signing Lloyd and Randle El, were we supposed to go out and sign Steve Hutchinson to have quality depth on the line? We got our insurance for a year in Duckett in case Betts AND Portis were hurt.

[Bill B]

Originally Posted by TheMalcolmConnection

I mean what do you propose we do in that situation. Say instead of signing Lloyd and Randle El, were we supposed to go out and sign Steve Hutchinson to have quality depth on the line? We got our insurance for a year in Duckett in case Betts AND Portis were hurt.

I would say sign either Lloyd or ARE but not both. I am not saying go out and use the money we saved by not signing both to go sign Steve Hutchinson - everyone knows he is a all pro and a starter. I say you get quality backups if you can. I know that finding these guys is tough but at least if you have the money you have the chance to go get them. Maybe you strike out and some of the quality backups are not that great, but at least you have the cap space to do it.

Also I would say you try to get these backups without giving up draft choices as they did in the Duckett deal.

All in all I say try you try to get descent backups without giving up draft choices, sign a big free agent or two but don't break the bank for every top flight player out there, and keep as many draft choices as you can so you have more chances to pick a couple of good players. Just maybe this will provide the team with some good depth.

Heck the Patriots had a couple of lineman go down and they had some backups to replace them and they are in the palyoff hunt. They were able to get these backups by not breaking the bank and having the cap space to do it - whats wrong with that philopshy?

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Originally Posted by Bill B

I would say sign either Lloyd or ARE but not both. I am not saying go out and use the money we saved by not signing both to go sign Steve Hutchinson - everyone knows he is a all pro and a starter. I say you get quality backups if you can. I know that finding these guys is tough but at least if you have the money you have the chance to go get them. Maybe you strike out and some of the quality backups are not that great, but at least you have the cap space to do it.

Also I would say you try to get these backups without giving up draft choices as they did in the Duckett deal.

All in all I say try you try to get descent backups without giving up draft choices, sign a big free agent or two but don't break the bank for every top flight player out there, and keep as many draft choices as you can so you have more chances to pick a couple of good players. Just maybe this will provide the team with some good depth.

Heck the Patriots had a couple of lineman go down and they had some backups to replace them and they are in the palyoff hunt. They were able to get these backups by not breaking the bank and having the cap space to do it - whats wrong with that philopshy?

There's nothing wrong with that, what I'm saying is what's wrong with OURS? Why not get both Lloyd and Randle El? We still have money leftover. If there's anything the Skins know how to do, it's stretch cap space. You'd think that if whoever the GM was KNEW that Portis, Springs and Pierson would go down, they would have gone out and GOTTEN the aforementioned quality depth.

[Bill B]

Originally Posted by TheMalcolmConnection

There's nothing wrong with that, what I'm saying is what's wrong with OURS? Why not get both Lloyd and Randle El? We still have money leftover. If there's anything the Skins know how to do, it's stretch cap space. You'd think that if whoever the GM was KNEW that Portis, Springs and Pierson would go down, they would have gone out and GOTTEN the aforementioned quality depth.

Would the GM know that these exact players you mentioned got hurt - no but I would hope a prudent GM would know that injuries are part of the game and therefore they should try to get as many good players as the the 51 man roster will allow. By focusing on the 22 starters yes you may win the offseason championshiop as our Redskins seem to do, but when the inevitable happens and some of your players get hurt you need to have someone to go in and pick up the slack. The Redskins do this somewhat in my opinon: I give an round of applause for the Todd Wade signing as ths was a great pickup for depth as you can't expect all 5 linemand to go through the season injury free. I also love the resigning of Betts as I think that a running back has a much higher chance to have some injuries - especially if the Redskins go with their smashmouth, run first identity. When Portis carried the ball as much as he did the first two years there had to be at least a discussion that he may be getting a little too much wear and tear.

But I hope the Skins FO changes their collective mindset and accepts the fact that injuries can happen - even to your star players as you listed above and therefore they should put a little more focus on the backups.

Other teams have had their star players go down too - for example when the Eagles FO meet in the offseason they probably asked a question along these lines "Do you think the one of our best players by the name of McNabb has a tendency to scramble a lot and therefore his chances of getting hurt are higher". The collective answer was most likely yes so what do they do - the sign a quality backup in Jeff Garcia and when Mcnabb goes down theie season is not lost and they still have a chance to get in the playoffs. They wqere able to get Garcia because of the availble cap space.

Is any team going to able to find quality backup starters for every position - no way in my opinion. But the goal should be to get as many contingency starters/backups as you can and if that means forgoing not signing all the top level free agents to have the cap space to me that seems the more prudent thing to do.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by TheMalcolmConnection

There's nothing wrong with that, what I'm saying is what's wrong with OURS? Why not get both Lloyd and Randle El? We still have money leftover. If there's anything the Skins know how to do, it's stretch cap space. You'd think that if whoever the GM was KNEW that Portis, Springs and Pierson would go down, they would have gone out and GOTTEN the aforementioned quality depth.

But we did get (if not already have) that depth. Portis goes down, we had Betts and got Duckett. Springs goes down, we had Kenny Wright (a starter on the Jags last year), Pierson goes down we got Vernon Fox and later Troy Vincent. So it's not like we couldn't or didn't get depth. Question, as I've brought up before, is did we get the right guys?

[Bill B]

Originally Posted by TAFKAS

But we did get (if not already have) that depth. Portis goes down, we had Betts and got Duckett. Springs goes down, we had Kenny Wright (a starter on the Jags last year), Pierson goes down we got Vernon Fox and later Troy Vincent. So it's not like we couldn't or didn't get depth. Question, as I've brought up before, is did we get the right guys?

TAFKAS - would you also question the method in which some of the depth was obtained - specifically giving up a 3rd rounder and either a possible swappage of 1rst rounder or 4th rounder next year?

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by TheMalcolmConnection

We got our insurance for a year in Duckett in case Betts AND Portis were hurt.

For the amount of time and carries Duckett has had, Rock Cartwright would have been just fine.

Certainly we needed help at wide receiver, but not to the extent that was addressed -- spending two draft picks, both with $10 million signing bonuses. Again, in the rare instances we're in 3 or 4 wideout formations, Thrash and Patten would have been fine. Maybe even a practice squad guy could have gotten some time.

If nothing else, it's an example of a hideous misallocation of available resources. And if injuries are as big a reason to the season's downfall as many have said, then it only serves to further illustrate the need for a change at player-personnel.

[redsk1]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

For the amount of time and carries Duckett has had, Rock Cartwright would have been just fine.

Certainly we needed help at wide receiver, but not to the extent that was addressed -- spending two draft picks, both with $10 million signing bonuses. Again, in the rare instances we're in 3 or 4 wideout formations, Thrash and Patten would have been fine. Maybe even a practice squad guy could have gotten some time.

If nothing else, it's an example of a hideous misallocation of available resources. And if injuries are as big a reason to the season's downfall as many have said, then it only serves to further illustrate the need for a change at player-personnel.

Can't agree more. Why do that to a guy like Rock who is more than serviceable.

Moss, LLoyd, ARE, Thrash, Patten 5 starters??? 4 making starters $? That was my concern and others concerns when they signed. How can we keep them all?

[TheMalcolmConnection]

HA! Are you kidding? Name a team that's had a key injury that's gone on to have the season they expected to have prior to the injury. I'd love to hear some. There are VERY, VERY few cases that could be made. Very few.

And most of them have GMs! I guess they must not have planned well in case of injury.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

I'm done defending. Again, nobody can name me a good number of teams who still compete at a high level after key injuries. Ugh.

[redsk1]

I'm not here saying that we need a GM or that injuries never affect things. However, our offense was horrible all year w/ and w/out Portis. We had our starting QB and a more than serviceable back up all year. We had plenty of talent w/ WR's, O-line, and TE. We are just bad no excuses.

On D we don't have depth and are even worse than our offense.

I do think some go out of there way to defend some of the choices the FO makes that don't make good-wise sense.

...well the Duckett trade was a good one b/c if portis can't play then we're going to need another back in here and a 3rd round draft pick is ok

So why didn't the other 31 teams trade for him? Yea, i know CP was a little banged up. Did we not know that Betts can play and Rock is a pretty serviceable back up? A 3rd rounder for "insurance." Not very smart imo.

I just think our philosophy has to change a little. If one guys goes down we should have enough depth to at least get by. We didn't get by, we're 4-9 no where near .500 in a WEAK nfc.

I do think the FO is going to tweak some things though. Vinny has recently been on the radio and actually said they've made some mistakes (he mentioned not keeping their own-resigning there own---Pierce) as being one of them. So the FO is not dumb, and they will get it straight (i think and hope).

[MTK]

I honestly don't think we knew what we had in Betts... plus when you factor in his history of injuries and that's why we went after insurance in Duckett.

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

I honestly don't think we knew what we had in Betts... plus when you factor in his history of injuries and that's why we went after insurance in Duckett.

Oh come on. With the way Al Sauners was going ga-ga over Ladell Betts before the season began? Even with their apprehension with Betts' history of injury, we still had Cartwright.

It was a blunder plain and simple. One of many, I might add.