I Wanna Be Like Mike..... Shanahan!!!

Just in case you have been living under a rock, Mike Shanahan is the new coach of the Washington Redskins. I have mixed feelings about this. It is a step in the right direction for a club that went 4-12. But, Shanahan struggled his last 3 years in Denver going 24-24. Hardly a record that is impressive. He is known as an authoritarian, and he has a ton more talent here in Washington, than he did in Denver. This could work out in his favor. But what should his first move(s) be? What should he do first? If I were a GM, I would start very simple. I want to be like Mike (Shanahan) for the next 7 months.

I have a sick obsession with the John Madden football game. Every year that it comes out, I am itching to get it. But, I wait for about a month to go buy it. Why, you might ask? Because, I have another sick obsession with the NCAA College Football game. And I have an Xbox 360 now so the game requires you to talk to the prospective college students to persuade them to attend your school, and even do in home visits/sit downs. You also have to schedule visits to your school and make promises to prospective students, if you so choose. It is extremely tedious, but once you have gotten your recruit and you see them through all four years of college and watch them develop into a pro prospect, you can export them to the Madden game. This is when the real fun starts. I love playing the Madden season and importing all of those college players that are pro prospects. I purposely get the worse team in the NFL, just so I can turn the team around. I love rebuilding a franchise. I love developing talent. I love the grind of Free Agency, the NFL Scouting Combine, The NFL Draft, and Training Camp. Most people want the pretty, well put together, teams. Give me the worst franchise and give me the power to make all of the final decisions. That to me is fun. It may be a bit crazy, but it gives me a chance to prove to everyone that I know what I am doing, and I can rebuild my franchise, my way. I do not like to follow others. I like marching to the beat of my own drum. This is where Mike Shanahan could take notes from me. I understand this is not a video game, this is real life. So here are my real life franchise moves regarding the Washington Redskins, if I were Mike Shanahan.

The very first thing that I would do, is grab Jason Campbell by the facemask, and tell him, "You are my guy. You are a Franchise Quarterback and I am going to get the best out of you over the next 4-5 years." My next task would be to grab Santana Moss and tell him, "You are my #1 receiver. You are a dynamic player. You are going to be a big part of what we do here, so please be ready for a great year." I would then go to Devin Thomas and Fred Davis and tell them, "You two will be my #2 Wide Receiver and #2 Tight End respectively." My next move would be to grab Clinton Portis and tell him, "Look, you have about two good years left in you before you really start to decline. I am going to milk you for everything that is left in your tank. So you'd better get with our Strength and Conditioning Team and get to work." My next move would be to go to Albert Haynesworth and ask, "How bad do you want to be the best Defensive Tackle in the game? Because if you want it bad, I want to know what Tennessee asked you to do. Whatever they asked you to do there, I want you to do here. No more of that asking you to occupy two blockers on 95% of the plays." My last move, before the draft, would be to go to Bobby Crumpler and Harrison Bernstein, the Strength and Conditioning Team, and tell them, "Hop in the next flight to Columbus, OH, to see my friend and Godfather of the Conjugated Method, Louie Simmons. Louie Simmons is going to break down the Russian style of training that made his gym, Westside Barbell, so popular. Westside is probably the strongest gym in the world. An 800 lb Squat, 500 lbs. Bench Press, and 700 lbs. Deadlift is a joke at Westside. They have 19 year olds doing that. Louie is also good at conditioning. His lifters are in such good shape it makes no sense. If you have to ask who Louie Simmons is, you do not need to be in the Strength and Conditioning field." By the way, if you were paying attention, this is the style of training that players like Donald Brown, Tiki Barber, Miles Austin, Deon Anderson and Brian Cushing used to get to the NFL. With that said, we will be off to the 2010 NFL Draft.

With the 4th Pick (4th selection, 1st Round) in the 2010 NFL Draft, the Washington Redskins select..... Taylor Mays, Free Safety from Southern California (U.S.C.). This will allow us to move LaRon Landry back to Strong Safety and fill a void left by the death of Sean Taylor. (R.I.P. Sean) Chris Horton will be used in certain packages during the season and Reed Doughty would be traded for a future (2011) Draft pick.

With the 36th Pick (4th selection, 2nd Round) in the 2010 NFL Draft, the Washington Redskins select.... Bruce Campbell, Left Tackle from the University of Maryland. Just in case Chis Samuels cannot finish his career, we are prepared.

We have no 3rd Round Pick because we used it on Defensive End, Jeremy Jarmon in the Supplemental Draft in 2009. I think it was a pick well spent. I just hope he recovers from his ACL injury.

With the 100th Pick (4th selection, 4th Round) in the 2010 NFL Draft, the Washington Redskins select.... Mike Johnson, Offensive Guard from the University of Alabama. We need a back up for Derrick Dockery. Although Dockery is a beast, and durable as hell, we have learned injuries are not predictable. So this is just in case.

With the 132nd Pick (4th selection, 5th Round) in the 2010 NFL Draft, the Washington Redskins select.... Sherrick McManis, Cornerback from Northwestern University. I have been following this young man his entire career at Northwestern. With Carlos Rogers' tenure up in the air and Fred Smoot aging (and doing nothing about it to try to slow it down), I have to build for the future. McManis and Kevin Barnes would be my featured Cornerbacks for years to come.

We have no 6th Round Pick because we traded it away on Jason Taylor, and then we released him. So what do we have to show for it right now? Good move Vinny "The Dipstick" Cerrato.

With the 196th Pick (4th selection, 7th Round) in the 2010 NFL Draft, the Washington Redskins select.... Stevenson Sylvester, Outside Linebacker from the University of Utah. I have been following this young man for the past two years. And since the Brian Orakpo Project is not working out at Linebacker, and Marcus Washington is not walking through that door, I think we need a Linebacker to play Strong Side and handle some of the speedy Tight Ends and Halfbacks that we are going to face, especially within our own division. This will allow me to use Brian Orakpo the way he is supposed to be used, as a Defensive End.

That would be it folks. There will be no big name signings in the Free Agency period(s). There will be no big re-signing of any of our Restricted Free Agents. They are getting 2 year contracts that have options to be picked up in the second year, and will be loaded with incentives. So they can play around if they want to. I would have no shame in going back out on the market to replace them. You have to be a bit indifferent towards the players. Once they feel that you have no backbone, you are done. It is like dating. You can't let someone walk all over you, and then think that you are going to get your power back later. It is a pipe dream. I hope Coach Shanahan shoves his foot so far up some players asses that they have to open their mouths to tie his shoe. You cannot sugarcoat anything. We were 4-12 in 2009 and it WILL NOT happen again, while I am on the job. I guess this is why I am not the coach. I would have a radical approach. But, what if.... what if my approach worked? Would it be the blueprint for others to follow. Because if you know me personally, then you know that I am not going to follow anyone else. But I will blaze a trail. And I hope Mike Shanahan is the same way. Good luck coach.

The Safety

I have been a Redskins fan for over 25 years. I have watched a lot of games and I have liked a lot of players. I can remember wanting to be Joe Washington, or Charlie Brown. I can even remember thinking I was going to be the next Art Monk, Darrell Green, or Gary Clark. But, when I went to college in the mid 1990’s, especially after Art Monk left, I lost a bit of interested in the Redskins. I loved football and I loved the home team, but past Michael Westbrook, there was no player on the Redskins that could catch and hold my attention. And that all changed in the Spring of 2004, when one Sean Michael Maurice Taylor of the University of Miami was drafted #5 overall. I had not seen him play in college, but just watching his highlights at the NFL Draft that year caught my attention enough for me to look forward to the 2004 NFL Season.

The “experts” had Sean Taylor as possibly the best player in the draft. Keep in mind, that same year, players like Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning and even Phillip Rivers were available in that draft. This just further illustrates the kind of talent Sean Taylor possessed. Taylor’s 2003 season in college was a very decorated one in which he garnered All-American honors, Big East Conference Defensive Player of The Year, and was a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award. At the NFL Combine, Taylor was clocked running a 4.51 40 Yard Dash, which is good for a Defensive Back, especially a Safety. He also weighed an astounding 231 lbs., which is almost the size of a Linebacker. But the most impressive thing about him was his unheared of Vertical leaping ability (39”) and the range he had in coverage. So needless to say, I was a bit upset that I never saw him play college ball, but I got to see enough of him in pro’s, and he did not disappoint.

One of the things that I liked about Sean Taylor, was his team approach. I know he never really participated in voluntary workouts (if it is voluntary, there should not be a big stink about him not participating), but when he did show, I never once heard or saw him take any plays off. His teammates loved him and more importantly, the Redskins fans adored him. He was never one to do things to thrust himself into the spotlight. He always let his play do his talking for him. From his bone crushing hits, to his timely interceptions, to his willingness to lay a lick on a defender from the other team on Special Teams, this guy showed people how you should approach the game of football. You would be hard pressed to find too many Redskins fans that do not miss Sean Taylor. We all knew that he was going to bring it every game, every play, every year.

I knew he was a special talent when he would take time out to talk to children. He was so gentle and compassionate when it came to kids. It surprised me that someone so ferocious could have such a soft spot for the little people. But, of all the things that I have seen him do, one particular play of his stands out to me the most. In a game in 2007 against the Detroit Lions, the Redskins were thoroughly dominating. There was a 4th down in which the Lions were punting the ball. James Thrash was back to return. As Thrash caught the punt and started to make his way up the field, he was doing his best to avoid defenders. Thrash catches the sidelines and has a defender from the Lions in hot pursuit of him. In a split second, I saw the defender from the Lions disappear as I heard a loud pop. It happened so fast that I had to wait for the replay to be shown so I could see who had just delivered this timely, but vicious block. When the replay was shown, it was not that much of a surprise that Sean Taylor was the man. And when the cameras caught him on the sidelines, a guy that never smiles during a game had a smile on his face from ear to ear. He was just as happy to block on Special Teams as he was to run down and smash a Running Back or Wide Receiver on Offense, or to intercept a pass. Trust me, this guy could have play numerous positions on the football field, but he chose Safety. This was the icing on the cake for me.

Sean Taylor, could have played Wide Receiver, Running Back (which he did in High School), Tight End, Cornerback, or Linebacker (trust me at 230 lbs. he wasn’t too far off). But he chose to play Safety, Free Safety at that. If you don’t know there is a fair amount of intelligence that a player needs to posses to play Free Safety. You have to have a feel for the game and anticipate, before the ball is snapped, what the other team is going to do. I know the fashionable thing to say is he has good instincts, or he is such a good athlete with natural ability, but let’s be honest people. At his position you have to be smart. This is an attribute that is not mentioned when people discuss Sean Taylor and it is bit disturbing, but I’ll save that for another post. It says a lot to me for a guy with that kind of ability chose to do an unselfish thing and play a position that doesn’t necessarily attract a lot of attention for the benefit of the team. This is the real reason why I liked Taylor.

I thought I was alone in my grief and sorrow to receive the news that Sean Taylor had passed away. But, as I made my way around Washington, D.C. I saw t-shirts, hats, jerseys, even cars, sporting Sean Taylor paraphernalia. At the next home game at FedEx Field, there was an inordinate amount of #21 jerseys, and hand towels, pictures and signs honoring the life of Sean Taylor. But nothing stuck out more to me than a train ride home one day on the Red Line here in D.C. in between Brookland and Fort Totten train stations. A concrete wall displayed how deep our cities grief went. Someone took the time to spray paint Sean Taylor’s name on the wall. To me this is a sign of respect. Sean Taylor had respect in the ‘hood. Everyone old enough to watch football loved him, and we still miss him. I don’t ever think we will see another player like him in a long time. I think it’s only fitting that he was inducted into the Ring of Honor at FedEx Field, because we all know, he would have been taking a trip to Canton, OH had he had the chance to play out his career. But as much as I, the fans, his family and his teammates miss him, the real loser in this situation was his precious little girl, who will never know her daddy. This to me is the real tragedy. And for all of us, he is irreplaceable.

R.I.P. Sean!!! God made you for us, but he needed you for much bigger things.

Even When It's Right, You Still Say It's Wrong

So I am at the Redskins-Buccaneers game earlier this year and I am amazed at what I hear from the fans. It was almost comical. When people get rolling, they really get rolling. With all of the things that are going wrong with the Redskins this year, the Defense is not one of them. As a matter of fact the Defense was ranked somewhere in the top 5 at this point, and guess what??!! Even they had to endure criticism, but for what? We finished with the #4 Defense last year and people were not happy. Are you kidding me?

First of all, I heard that the Defensive Line needs to create more pressure. Even though that may have been true, how many teams found it easy to move the ball on our Defense? So what did we do this past April? Well we signed Renaldo Wynn for depth and experience at the Defensive End (DE) position. Our other DE Phillip Daniels returned from injury (ACL) and Cornelius Griffin also comes back. We also signed Jeremy Jarmon, who would have been in the 2010 NFL Draft, but he got suspended from his school so he decided enter the Supplemental Draft. With our 1st Round Pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, we selected Brian Orakpo who is a legit Right DE, but we wanted to see if we can make him the next Terrell Suggs and play him as an Outside Linebacker. The problem is Orakpo has to learn the position, so please give that man a break. We also signed Albert Haynesworth as a Free Agent, but people are expecting him to come in get 20 sacks. I have got news for you folks, Haynesworth is not going to get 20 sacks, but he may attract enough attention for some other people to get close. And we also brought back one of my personal favorites Andre Carter. Why do I like Carter? Because, I have heard him endure a lot of criticism, especially when he was in San Francisco and has done nothing but continue to work to get better. And just in case you have not been paying attention, he has. So I ask you, did we address the Defensive Line?

Let’s move to the Linebackers. Now I was really sad to see Marcus Washington go, but we did try to replace him. Unfortunately, we are trying to use Brian Orakpo to fill that spot. We have H.B. Blades, who can play all 3 Linebacker positions, but has only mastered the Middle Linebacker position, and I have feeling that Blades will not see much time there. Our other Linebacker is Rocky McIntosh, who has steadily improved. But you’d really have to understand the position to really evaluate his play. Not to mention we also drafted Robert Henson from TCU this past draft (2009 NFL Draft). But the man in the middle is on a record setting pace when it comes to tackles. London Fletcher currently is leading the NFL in tackles, partly because of Albert Haynesworth and Cornelius Griffin (the forgotten man at DT, who is also a beast). London Fletcher is a perfect example of why it is important to know how to evaluate talent. Fletcher came from a Division 3 school, and has played in every game since entering the NFL. He has always been tops in tackles, but even with him perfecting what I think is a lost art in football, his play is not appreciated. If it has, he would have gone to at least 1 Pro Bowl. Is that too much to ask? But again I ask did we address the Linebacker position?

Here is where the fun really starts. The Defensive Backfield of the Redskins have endured so much criticism, I started to skip over bringing it up. But I know some of you are chomping at the bit. So I will through you bone. Fred Smoot, Carlos Rogers, DeAngelo Hall, Justin Tryon, Kevin Barnes, Reed Doughty, Chris Horton, LaRon Landry and Kareem Moore make up our Defensive Backfield. I want to start with Carlos Rogers, the 2004 Jim Thorpe Award Winner. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is the award given to the best Defensive Back in college football. So it should not be a surprise that we took Rodgers with the 9th Overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft. Now fans are saying that he is not good, or that he has not lived up to the “hype.” But I ask, do you know how to evaluate the Cornerback position? See I am not an expert, nor do I claim to be, but I do know one thing. A taller player will win most match-ups in football when it comes to the passing game. Have you all not noticed that the WR position is starting to produce more 6’2”+ players? I ask you, do you know how many CB (Cornerbacks) in the NFL are over 6’2,” and are actually on the field? See this is where Pass Defense relies upon disrupting the other teams Offensive timing by (drumroll please), creating pressure up front.

There are very few CB’s in football who can cover any player for more than 4 seconds. I don’t care who the WR is, they have the advantage when their QB gets time. So if I know that, I have to start looking for Safeties that have range and are good at closing out with a solid hits and good tackling ability. If you get a ballhawk at Safety, that is even better, but very few Safeties are ballhawks. This is where Sean Taylor changed our entire Defense, because we could do more to create pressure. When you all need to start worrying is when Carlos Rogers is just flat out getting burned by backup WR’s. See Calvin Johnson (6’6”) is a headache for every CB in the league. See Bryant Johnson (6’3”), whom I had to pleasure of meeting this past Summer, is a good young talent that has played for two small market teams (Arizona and San Francisco), so you may not have heard of him…. I have. He is going to be a great WR. See Dwayne Bowe, (6’3”), is another young talent that doesn’t get enough attention because he is in a small market (Kansas City), but trust me, he will be another good WR in the NFL. See what most people do not understand is, you are not going to completely shut down any WR. As a matter of fact, you cannot expect any CB in the league to not get beat from time to time. The question you have to ask yourself is, do they give up the big play? Carlos Rogers is fine. What people get in their feelings about is him dropping Interceptions. If he catches half of what he drops, people would be saying he is one of the best CB’s in the NFL. His job is to disrupt the other teams passing games. My theory is, if he is dropping picks that is telling me that he is in position to make plays and the other teams WR’s are not catching the ball.

Now this brings me to DeAngelo Hall. Here you have a guy that is doing what Rodgers does, and gives use those timely interceptions, and I still hear people say that he is not worth the money. People are judging him based off of his time in Oakland. Can you name me 5 players in the last 10 years that went to Oakland and performed well? Remember “they” said that Randy Moss lost a step when he went to Oakland? Well Randy did lose a step… off of his 40 Yard Dash time. He goes to New England for a 4th Round Draft pick, comes into camp, runs a 4.29 40-Yard Dash Time, and then turns around and breaks the record for most Receiving Touchdowns in a Single Season. I guess “they” knew what they were talking about. By the way, I hate when I hear “They say” because more often then not, it is usually followed by a lie. But I digress. DeAngelo can match-up against the other teams #1 WR and do a fairly decent job on him. People are looking for shut down CB’s. I have news for you people. The do not exist. There is at least one WR who has that top CB’s number. Don’t let the highlights fool you. Watch an entire game of two other teams aside from your favorite team. Pick any top CB in the NFL and watch him work. There are no gimmies in the NFL. We have some very crafty, fundamentally sound CB’s in football, but we do not have a shut down CB. The media fooled you people. Heck, I play Flag Football and I am pretty sure I can put together a great highlight film of all of my Interceptions from the Safety position to make any QB think twice about throwing in my direction.

The Redskins may not have the best player in the league at any one position, but together they made up one of the best Defenses in football last year. And with the new additions and a few new wrinkles, our Defense is actually better. But because the Offense is not playing well, the Defense is getting criticized too. What do you want from our Defense people? Even though it is not broken, I still hear some fans talking about how they would “fix it.” Well, I will tell you what, go apply for the position and do a better job than Greg Blache. If you can, I will tip my hat to you.