Paper Dragon
The 2007 version of the Redskins appears to be yet another twist on The Danny’s most expensive fantasy football team ever. He has managed to keep Joe Gibbs at the helm, if only due to Joe’s proud-to-a-fault personality and, thanks to the wonders of Geritol, Joe’s coaching staff remains intact (a little Duct Tape and Depends never hurts either). Jason Campbell gets his first shot a running the team from the get-go. Is this dude for real or just another Patrick Ramsey? For the price they paid for him (basically spent two first rounders and a fourth rounder on a projected second round player), he should be the next Joe Montana. That said, he has all the weapons any QB could possibly ask for. Unfortunately, he may be stuck behind a shitty O-line this year.
Chris Samuels has been out since early in the preseason with a strained ligament in his knee. As with the bulk of the critical positions on this team, the skins don’t have a viable NFL caliber back-up at this spot - but hey, he’s just the left tackle. No worries, Jason is a strong young kid – except for the bone bruise on his knee he suffered in the second preseason game when Pittsburgh’s D-lineman Brett Keisel steam rolled back-up and undrafted rookie Stephon Heyer to get a clean, albeit pretty low, hit on their starting QB. Why the fuck would you expose your brand spanking new QB who you wasted all those draft picks on in a preseason game? The same reason that you would trade for TJ Duckett, burning more needed draft picks, so that you could sit him on the bench all year – even when your starting running back is injured most of the season – because you’re too busy doing a self colonoscopy to bother to think about football. Okay, so the front office lives in Bizarro World – what about the team?
The Skins have brought in 34 year old Pete Kendall (burning a likely 4th rounder – which is what the Chiefs got for pro-bowl QB Trent Green – WTF!) to compensate for the loss of Derrick Dockery. While Kendall has had a pretty healthy career, he is 34 and the fact that he has had a pretty healthy career means he has played a lot (e.g. lots of hits). We’ll see if he can hold it up. Jon Jansen has been a stalwart at the right tackle spot for the skins but has had some injury issues over the last few years. He is solid but hasn’t looked stellar in the preseason. We’ll give him a bye though. Casey Rabach at center and Randy Thomas at the other guard spot are okay, but, if I’m Jim Johnson, I’m bringing it up the middle and straight at Samuels. I don’t see this unit holding together and that doesn’t bode well for Campbell.
Campbell does have Santana Moss to throw to. Moss is awesome no doubt about it but he is at his best when he can get down field. That means Campbell will need to buy some time. We’ll see how Antwaan Randle El does as a starting receiver but it can’t be worse than Brandon Lloyd did last year. Lloyd has the distinction of being the only starting receiver in the Modern Era of football to not score a touchdown in a season – ouch, that one hurts. And their third receiver – Brandon Lloyd!
Clinton Portis is the real deal but continues to fight injury issues over the last few years. Ladell Betts is a solid, if not better back-up, but is still recovering from the drugs the skins fed him to convince him to pass on free agency and sign a deal as the back-up on team with an uncertain future. Perhaps the key to this offense is tight end/H-back Chris Cooley. This dude can play for a white boy. When he has it rolling, they are hard to handle because Campbell can get the ball out quick to Cooley and he just makes plays in the open field. Cooley is just another one of the bitching tight ends in the NFC Beast.
On the defensive side of the ball, the skins look real solid. However, as was the case last year, they got nothing if pretty much anybody goes down. Love Boat Freddy Smoot is back as the nickel back, with Carlos Rodgers and Sean Springs holding down the corner spots. This was their Achilles heal last year. Rodgers just hasn’t shown an ability to cover number one receivers on a consistent basis. Springs is the real deal but is probably good for maybe eight starts. The rest of the time he’ll be drinking cold ones in the whirlpool. Saftey is a strong spot with hard hitting (and flag drawing) Sean Taylor and rookie first rounder LeRon Landry. Interestingly, the skins are the first team to ever burn two top ten picks on safeties, but, hey why would you question the skins personnel staff (Levar Arrington, Adam Archeletta, Deon Sanders, Bruce Smith, Mark Brunell, Champ Bailey, Brandon Lloyd, etc.)?
The linebackers are a potentially great group. London Feltcher…. errr…. Fletcher, Rocky MacIntosh, and recent acquisition Randall Godfrey start but, again, no proven back-ups. The other issue here is that Greg Williams may do to any of these dudes what he did to Trotter (there should be laws against that kinda shit). That said, Rocky MacIntosh has looked very good in the preseason.
The D-line is a big weak spot for this team. If you go back and look at the film of the end of last year, you’ll see that most teams realized that Andre Carter is painfully weak against the run. The D-tackles haven’t shown much yet either. Cornelius Griffin has been fighting injury issues the last two years and second year player Cedric Golston hasn’t shown he can bring it consistently yet. If I’m Marty Morningwig, I’m running the rock up the middle and off the left side until the safeties and linebackers have to move-up. Then I’m bringing my TE and slot across the middle - but they better be ready to get hit.
As is usually the case with the Skins, on paper they look like a decent to good team. However, the ravages of the season will burn this team more than most. Age is an issue with this team (London Fletcher – 32, Pete Kendall - 34, Sean Springs – 32, Chris Samuels – 30, Jon Jansen – 30, Randy Thomas – 31, Randall Godfrey – 34, Cornelius Griffin – 30, Casey Rabach - 29). A lack of proven back-ups, particularly on the O-line and D-line and possibly in the secondary is going to hurt this team. The Redskins are just the opposite of the Birds, this is a team built from the outside in. No matter how much talent you have on the outside it just can’t make-up for a soft interior.
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