BangersandMash

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That first half was a pressure cooker exploding and it's entirely on RG3 for bringing it onto himself and the team, and for Shanahan for letting it happen. I defended RG3 here and I was wrong. That being said he did hang in there after taking a handful of pretty good hits and an unthinkable nightmare start. He should be given a break if this humbles him and he learns to keep a lower profile, but a head coach with that much experience that has won two superbowls should have a better rein on his team.
 
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A # of people (Jaworski, Gruden, a guy on twitter whos name escapes me but was a former scout @movingthesticks) all said at one point or another that RG3's mechanics are way off.

They rushed him back from this injury.
 

Sheik

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That first half was a pressure cooker exploding and it's entirely on RG3 for bringing it onto himself and the team, and for Shanahan for letting it happen. I defended RG3 here and I was wrong. That being said he did hang in there after taking a handful of pretty good hits and an unthinkable nightmare start. He should be given a break if this humbles him and he learns to keep a lower profile, but a head coach with that much experience that has won two superbowls should have a better rein on his team.

RG3 played a really good second half.

I think he's going to have to be a better passer, cause I don't see him being a run threat this year at all.

Good thoughts on the hype machine. I think he's a good kid, but I'm rooting against him, I can't stand the hype.
 

bkeavs

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That first half was a pressure cooker exploding and it's entirely on RG3 for bringing it onto himself and the team, and for Shanahan for letting it happen. I defended RG3 here and I was wrong. That being said he did hang in there after taking a handful of pretty good hits and an unthinkable nightmare start. He should be given a break if this humbles him and he learns to keep a lower profile, but a head coach with that much experience that has won two superbowls should have a better rein on his team.

Dead on
 
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Thomas Boswell on the Redskins: ‘This is a bad franchise with a bad owner’

In his weekly online chat, Thomas Boswell was asked if Redskins owner Daniel Snyder would keep Coach Jay Gruden to “ensure some sense of continuity?”

The Post columnist didn’t mince words in his response.




Yes, beating Dallas and Philly will insure that a five-year contract isn’t eaten after ONE year. Ouch! Hardly an endorsement.

I expect “continuity” to reign in Ashburn for several years now that Gruden and Griffin are the immediate future. What kind of consistency. Well, Skins consistency, of course. Spurrier: 12-20. Zorn: 12-20. Shanahan (24-40). All exactly .375. Gruden looks like the perfect man (and I like him, enjoy him) to continue the eternal 5-11 tradition. So, for five years, that would be 25-55. Nah, that won’t happen. What’s the over-under on him? 2.5 years?

No team can succeed when it fundamentally misunderstands how good it is and poorly evaluates its own talent — which is right under its own eyes — and is even worse at evaluating outside talent in the draft, FA signings or trades.

Let me make this simple. This is a bad franchise with a bad owner, a bad GM, a bad front office, a bad defensive coordinator, a bad locker room, bad talent, bad work habits and a bad (swollen) head because nobody tells them they are bad — and then sticks to that opinion when they win a couple of games (and all the sheep stay baaaahing “HTTR!”)

Just because you have two good WRs, a tight end, a RB, Kerrigan and one or two other decent defenders, that doesn’t make you a football team. It means you have a few “names” to market, no depth, a horrid defensive backfield, one healthy linebacker and an awful patchwork O-line. And that makes you 4-11.

It’s obvious. This isn’t “insight.” Everybody knows it, except people within 100 miles of FedEx. You never get better until you look in the mirror. So trade down with that (probably) sixth overall pick for multiple linemen.
 
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End of season brings a much-needed break from ugly Redskins football


It’s finally over. Last game of the season, final score: Dallas 44, Washington 17. Livid Coach Jay Gruden told his defense at halftime, “This is the worst half of football I have ever seen from any team.”

So at least now we know what to do. Call the florist for a nice funeral wreath. Put it on this dirt pile of a Washington football season and get on with the grieving and perhaps even the forgetting.

Last year, Washington’s point differential was minus-144. No D.C. team had been drubbed by such an ignominious margin since 1961. This year, the franchise promised to improve. It did, going 4-12 and losing by 137 points. Some progress. When was the last time a Washington team had a point differential of minus-137? Same answer: 1961! So the two worst teams in more than half a century have come back-to-back.

Thanks, Dan.

Many fans, of course, already have had the sense of self-preservation to stop watching this team. But others have continued, out of masochism, lifelong habit, morbid curiosity or loyalty. For us, Sunday was a relief. What next? A long, blessed respite from buffoonery.

The last Cowboy has sped across the goal line. For eight months, we won’t see Dez Bryant catch a pass at the line of scrimmage, make one fake and race untouched 65 yards to the end zone. We won’t watch, agape, as a simple dive up the gut goes 65 yards, totally uncontested, for another Dallas score.

We’ll all have more than 240 days of relief before Robert Griffin III (the “III” was for his turnovers) can throw two interceptions in the Dallas red zone and give up a five-yard Cowboys touchdown thanks to his sack-strip-fumble generosity. Until September, we can’t ponder any more misconceived third-down plays designed by Gruden that work as diagrammed yet, time after time, come up short of a first down.

We’ll watch the seasons change without a foe recovering another “surprise” mid-game onside kick.

After this drubbing from a Dallas team that had almost nothing to play for, having locked down its playoff spot, Washington may start to witness an inversion of its sports calendar. For generations, the most anticipated day was the start of football season and the most dreaded was the season-ending game, which meant a mini-eternity of withdrawal.

Now we’re in danger of seeing the reverse. It’s actually a benison that this team isn’t playing anymore, that it can’t find new ways each week to be an embarrassment to itself and distract the city’s fans from other pro and college teams that deserve attention far more.

At least Gruden appears to understand that any team, after two such awful seasons, has a roster that needs massive overhaul and that nothing short of a rebuild has much hope. But we’re extremely unlikely to hear the word “rebuild” from anybody. It’s against burgundy-and-gold marketing theology.
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“We need to change a lot. I honestly think if you don’t change something, you’re probably going to get the same results,” Gruden said before listing everything from ball security to practice habits to offseason training. He did not mention new, better players. They’re harder to get.


Players on all teams have no choice but to live in the violent moment. Any long-term view undermines their willingness to make physical sacrifices on every play. Pro Bowler Trent Williams, who played again despite leg injuries, said, “We need more good players, that’s true. But you can get some in the draft, a couple in free agency and see a big difference pretty quickly.

“You can’t think, ‘This’ll take years.’ We had a year like this [in 2011] and back-doored it into the playoffs the next year,” Williams said.

Then Williams paused, standing on crutches, looking down at his ankle in a walking boot, and said, “But this is getting old.”

This final defeat, the team’s seventh loss in eight games and its 20th in its past 24 — the worst stretch of play since 1960-61 when the team was 1-9-2 and 1-12-1 — has left the franchise without a single strong suit or central personality around which to build. Will Gruden or Griffin or both be back next year? Probably both but not certainly — not after this stinker. Will defensive coordinator Jim Haslett return? His defense tied for the second-most points allowed — 31st — even worse than the average of his past 13 defenses as a head coach or defensive coordinator (26th).

Gruden described his rookie year as “a poor grade.” That seems correct. He tried three quarterbacks, didn’t find one around whom to build yet showed a lack of confidence, at one time or another, in all three, replacing them when they were healthy. Griffin was asked about a midseason rift with Gruden when he was benched and whether they had discussed it. Often the player ducks. Griffin didn’t.

“We haven’t had that discussion or cleared the air on any of that,” Griffin said. “My focus is I want to be here . . . help this team win and change the culture around here. . . . If Coach Jay and this organization wants me to be around, then I’ll be here.”

That’s a very big “if,” if Griffin himself is in doubt.

Asked about his own performance, Griffin said, “My job is not to critique myself or to critique anybody, as I’ve learned.” Ziiiing.

Hey, why not just bring this whole fun gang back and do it all again? What could go wrong?

What hasn’t gone wrong? Only once in the history of the franchise has Washington been this bad, back in 1960-61. Then, everybody said some variation of, “It’ll never be this awful again.” Because, come on, how could it be? But it is worse — right now. Because Dan Snyder owns the team.

After 15 years, it’s not hyperbole, just observation, to say he seems to have no clue about the NFL or evaluating key people or building an organization. But he also has no other major passion. He is his team. Vindication, someday, drives him. So he’s stuck. Which means the city is stuck with him.

Perhaps this is the moment when we can all adopt the veteran wisdom of Santana Moss. “I’m going to go vacate,” he said, “and enjoy my sanity.”

Or for some of us, what’s left of it.



For more by Thomas Boswell, visit washingtonpost.com/boswell.
 
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Kirk Cousins: I want to be traded if RG3 is named 2015 starter

Posted by Michael David Smith on December 29, 2014, 12:17 PM EST

AP
Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins doesn’t want to spend 2015 as the backup to Robert Griffin III.

Cousins told Dianna Marie Russini of NBC 4 in D.C. that he would like to be traded if Griffin is named the starting quarterback for next season.

In Cousins’s opinion, if there is no quarterback competition, there’s no point to being in Washington. Cousins wants to play, and he doesn’t want to spend a year on the bench. Cousins added that if Griffin is anointed the starter, he would approach the 2015 season as 16 games until free agency.

It’s easy to understand why Cousins would want to have a chance to compete for a starting job. Every NFL player wants to be able to compete. And it’s not like Griffin (or Colt McCoy) has done enough to be viewed as an incumbent starter who deserves to have the job handed to him.

But it’s also hard to picture much of a trade market emerging for Cousins. Although there’s been talk that the Browns might have some interest, given Cousins’s connection to Cleveland offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan from their time together in Washington, the reality is Cousins hasn’t played well when given the opportunity. Cousins has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns in his career, and of Cousins’s eight starts in the last two seasons, the only game Washington won was the game in which Cousins was benched and McCoy led the team to a comeback win.

So while Cousins may want to be traded, that can only happen if one of the 31 other teams wants to trade for him. And that’s no sure thing.
 
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Washington, Haslett have a “mutual parting”


Posted by Mike Florio on December 31, 2014, 10:32 AM EST


First, it was the West Coast offense. Now, it’s the “mutual parting” in lieu of termination.

Yes, the 49ers are still setting trends in the NFL.

On Wednesday, Washington announced that the team and defensive coordinator Jim Haslett “mutually agree to part ways.”

“Jim and I have had discussions over the last few days and have decided that it’s best for everyone that we have a new Defensive Coordinator,” coach Jay Gruden said in a news release. “I wish him nothing but the best in the future.”

“Jay and I mutually agreed it’s time for . . . a new Defensive Coordinator,” Haslett said in the same release. “I want to thank Dan Snyder, Bruce Allen, Coach Gruden and all the players and fellow coaches for their efforts the last five years and I wish them nothing but the best.”

It remains to be seen whether Haslett receives any compensation in connection with his departure. If he does, it’s more like a firing than a mutual parting.

For Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers, the “mutual parting” worked because Harbaugh had something else lined up. Maybe Haslett already does, too. Either way, the last major coaching vestige of the Shanahan regime is now gone.
 

Iamtdg

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Bruce Allen at a presser this morning actually said "We are winning off the field".

No lie.
 

Sheik

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Bruce Allen at a presser this morning actually said "We are winning off the field".

No lie.

What the hell? What does that even mean? That would drive me nuts as a fan. WGAS what you guys do off the field? I don't go to games or purchase Sunday ticket because Santana Moss served soup to some homeless guy on thanksgiving.

gtfo with that garbage. Focus a little more on winning on the field, who cares about nfl play 60?
 

LAZARUS_LOGAN

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Wade Phillips to interview for Redskins DC job.

By Kevin Patra.

he Washington Redskins have lined up one interview for their newly opened defensive coordinator position.

NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported Saturday that the team will interview Wade Phillips this week, according to a source.

The hire would be an intriguing one for Jay Gruden's team that already has 3-4 personnel in place.

Phillips was last defensive coordinator in Houston in 2013 and took over as interim head coach when Gary Kubiak was fired during the season.

The son of legendary coach Bum Phillips has succeeded in every defensive coordinator position he's been in. From 1981-2013, Wade Phillips has manned five defenses, as either a DC or coach, that have ranked in the top three in yards allowed and 16 in the top 10, per Pro Football Reference. Only five of his defenses have finished the season ranked in the bottom quarter of the NFL. In his final three years in Houston, the Texans ranked seventh (2013), seventh (2012) and second (2011) in total defense.

The Redskins reportedly enhanced executive A.J. Smith's role in the front office recently, per ESPN. Smith was working as a senior executive for Washington but is expected to take on a larger role in football decisions.

Smith, the former Chargers general manager, has experience with Phillips from their days together in San Diego.

Phillip's son Wes is the tight ends coach on Gruden's staff.




Like we didn't see coming. Seems as if Redskins like getting former Cowboys' players and coaches in hopes of some "revenge motivation".
 
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The Washington Redskins' offseason purge began with their defensive line as they released veterans Barry Cofield and Stephen Bowen on Friday, John Keim of ESPN.com reports..

The moves occur one day after the Redskins signed veteran defensive end Ricky Jean Francois. By releasing Cofield, the Redskins will save $4.12 million in salary-cap space. His cap charge would have been $7.7 million had he been on the roster.

Cofield played four years with Washington, primarily at nose tackle. He never missed a game with the Redskins until this past season, when he dealt with a high ankle sprain as well as groin and abdominal issues that landed him on short-term injured reserve. He ended up playing in eight games. Before last season, Cofield had missed just one game in his first eight seasons.

Cofield played his first five seasons as a defensive tackle with the New York Giants. He switched to nose tackle in the Redskins' 3-4 upon signing with them in 2011, finishing his time in Washington with a combined nine sacks. In 2013, he recorded 36 tackles and 2.5 sacks. There's still a chance the Redskins could re-sign him later, according to a source. But Cofield also is dealing with an undisclosed injury issue.

Bowen's release saves the Redskins $5.5 million in cap space this season. He was scheduled to count $8.02 million against the cap, a hefty sum for a player who turns 31 later this month, has battled knee issues in recent years and had microfracture surgery late in the 2013 season.
 
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