Is This The End?

Is this the end? Is it over? It can't be. I don't want to hear it. I mean, it’s not everyday that you hear someone talking about an Offensive Lineman, but I had to say something about a very important piece on the Washington Redskins’ Offensive Line. The reality is we may have seen him take his last snap in the NFL, but what a career did this man put together. I am talking about Chris Samuels. Next to your Center, your Left Tackle is probably the most important position to fill on the Offensive Line, and did we fill it in the 2000 NFL Draft with our 3^rd overall pick. Samuels played in 141 games, played in 6 Pro Bowls, was 2^nd team All Pro (All NFL) 2001, and was the 1999 Outland Award winner in college for being one of the best Lineman in the country. So when we talk about cornerstones of a franchise, or a Franchise player, Chris Samuels is/was the very definition.

The fact of the matter is at his position of Left Tackle, in about 90% of the cases, you are protecting your Quarterback blindside. That’s because most Quarterbacks are right-handed. And most teams put their best Defensive Ends on the right side of their line, which is the left side of the Offensive Line, so guess who has the honors of facing the best pass rushers in the league on a weekly basis? Not only did Chris Samuels face them, but in many cases, he made them pull a Whodini and disappear. His job is thankless. Block to keep your Quarterback clean, and to open holes for your Running Back. Boring, right??!! Not so much when you are the Quarterback of a football team. Your Left Tackle is the equivalent of a Body Guard. He should be every Quarterbacks best friend. The other team’s goal is to get your Quarterback and knock him out of the game. It sounds brutal, but it is the very nature of the game. You have to have a mean streak. You almost have to be borderline nasty. Trust me, when you are staring down pass rushers like Julius Peppers, Mathias Kiwanuka, Osi Umenyiora, Jared Allen and Trent Cole, that nice guy stuff goes out the window. But Chris was a different person. He was a monster on the football field, but a compassionate person off of it.

Chris Samuels started the Chris Samuels Foundation in 2006. Their mission is to strive for community stabilization through home ownership education, economic development and youth initiatives. The youth initiative is something that stands out to me because of one particular situation. A young lady from Washington, D.C. wanted to attend the Alvin Ailey School for dancing in New York City. With the cost of attending being out of her reach Chris Samuels and his Organization stepped in to help this young lady fulfill her dream. Here we have this NFL player who plays a position in which you have to be nasty, and he takes time out for a young lady whose dream is attend a dancing school. But, it doesn’t stop there. Samuels is also currently active in the lives of teenagers who attended two Washington, D.C. inner city schools in Ballou and Anacostia. If you are a D.C. native and you attended either one of these school in the 80’s and 90’s, you know that a lot of people didn’t want to deal with the children there. Again, here we have a man that doesn’t need to take time out of his busy schedule to make time for inner city kids. But Chris Samuels is more than a football player. He is very definition of what is means to be a real man. Doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done.

I remember walking into a club here in Washington, D.C. and seeing two massive human beings standing by the bar. As I walked closer, I immediately recognized one guy as a young man with whom I attended High School. He motioned for me to come over. Now I am not a little guy by any means, but he and the other guy dwarfed me. I was very hesitant to walk over to greet him, because this other guy looked like he was ready to strangle someone. As I got closer, I started planning my escape route if this other guy didn’t like me for some reason. My old High School friend says, “Hey Desmond what’s up? I want you to meet Chris.” Now at this point I have not made eye contact. So I slowly turn around to shake hands, it’s none other than Chris Samuels. If you don’t know, Samuels is about 6’5” 310 lbs. and is only carrying around about 6% bodyfat. I am thinking to myself, I don’t need this drama. I reached out to shake his hand. Why did I do that? His entire hand covered mine. And with a smile he says, “What’s up?” So I am feeling a bit more at ease. Well we talked shop for about 5 minutes. I thanked him for his time, said goodbye to my friend and walked away. I have meet a lot of people, but he left a favorable impression on me and forever changed the way I view Offensive Lineman in football. I see why a lot of people like him. He is very well mannered, well spoken, and friendly, but you have to get him to talk to you. For some reason he does not strike me as a person who opens up to a lot of people. I don’t really blame him because when you are a star, everyone wants to be your friend.

When you are watching a football game, remember that the guy whose names that you don’t hear have the most important jobs on the field. We tend to forget, that if you are not hearing their names, they are having a good day. The have to push against another human being on almost every play. Their legs are always in the line of fire. The heads take an inordinate amount of punishment. They have to be very intelligent and make quick decisions. They have to be big, powerful and strong, as well as agile. They have to endure criticism as a group even if four of them are doing well and one isn’t. They are Offensive Lineman. They are the guards, the gatekeepers. They are always key to the outcome of any game. Chris Samuels is one of these guys. He is the most recent in long line of Lineman that played for the Washington Redskins. Now we can hear his name mentioned with the likes of Jeff Bostic, Joe Jacoby, Russ Grimm, George Starke, Mark May, Jim Lachey, and even Mark Schlereth. We may not see him in a football uniform again so I wanted to take this time to say this.

Thanks for the years you gave to Washington Redskins. I have no doubt that, even if we never see you in the burgundy and goal again, we will see you in Canton, OH someday.

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.