A Jabar Gaffney thread

[GTripp0012]

Jabar Gaffney needs 81 receiving yards against the Eagles to finish with 1,000 yards receiving, while catching passes from John Beck and Rex Grossman.

1,000 yards for a rusher doesn't mean much anymore, but it's still pretty rare for a receiver to get 1,000 yards. Santana Moss has done it three times as a Redskin. Jabar Gaffney hasn't done it in his 10 year career.

He is under contract for next year. But if we're going to actually rely on him for the future, we should extend him now as opposed to waiting for next season and then trying to decide how valuable he is at the end of next year.

Interestingly enough, Fred Davis probably would have gone over 1,000 yards this year had he not been suspended and remained healthy. The Redskins could have (although it would have been unlikely) produced two 1,000 yard receivers this year.

Looking at film, I think our passing game is still pretty limited. It still relies on the opponent playing a lot of zone coverage to create passing lanes. You pretty much have to man cover the Redskins. When you do, you get games like the Jets game where Grossman looks terrible. But not every defense in the NFL is comfortable playing man coverage.

But two different guys approaching 1,000 yards this year is not insignificant, and suggests that the passing game may be improving. Maybe not improving by a lot, but the ability to beat up on teams that play zone is much improved over being unable to beat any team.