NFL Offseason 2009

Everything else
1

Yeah, yeah, we have a few games left to go. For 28 teams, though, the offseason’s already begun, and those of us with no rooting interest in the AFC and NFC Championship games can start looking ahead to next year and try to forget things like 0-16, 2-14, or going 2-6 down the stretch to miss the playoffs.

Kansas City just hired Scott Pioli (according to various ESPN sources) to be the new general manager here, replacing the ineffective Carl Petersen (finally). I like the hire, and Pioli’s got his work cut out for him. The Chiefs have precious few players that would start on 50% of the rest of the teams in the league, and their youth movement has just a few proven players in Dwayne Bowe, Brandon Flowers, Branden Albert, Derrick Johnson. Everyone else is either too old to be effective, too young to be effective, complete rubbish, or Tony Gonzalez. The defensive line in particular is bad, but we’ve got two first-rounders and two second-rounders playing there already – how much more money can we throw at it?

Over with my other team, the Redskins, Dan Snyder hasn’t fired anyone yet, but the offseason is young, give him time.

2

I’m obviously not as close to the Chiefs situation as you are, but I suspect they are closer to contending then you seem to think. They will have to make the right moves, of course, but they have more talent then it might appear. And the whole reality of a youth movement is that it will take some time for the youngsters to become effective. But that could happen very fast. The real question is whether Thigpen is the right guy at QB and if not how quickly they can get someone who can solidify that position. And whether you have the right head coach for the new regime. Hopefully Pioli doesn’t just replace Edwards with Crennel or something like that.

Meanwhile Seattle officially introduced Jim Mora today. I’m optimistic if only because he sounds more offensively flexible than Holmgren seemed at times. Mora made it clear they will do what their talent allows them to do and not be committed to the west coast offense. That hopefully means a bigger committment to the run.

3

Not true, my friend. The Skins just laid off 20 employees…

I really hope the Skins don’t decide to “win” the offseason by buying a bunch of overpriced free agents. The Skins have been very good lately…but I’m scared. I am scared they’re going to throw a buttload of money at Albert Haynesworth…who is healthy about as often as Shawn Springs…

4

I don’t think we have the money to get a bunch of overpriced free agents.

I don’t know the cap figures for everyone, but the Redskins need to do something about the cornerback position and the offensive line.

CB - like you said, Springs is always injured. Fred Smoot is funny, witty, and quotable, but really only a decent nickel back. DeAngelo Hall is crazy overrated. And Carlos Rogers is INFURIATING. Is he even capable of picking off a pass? It seems like every game I watch, here’s Carlos Rogers dropping a sure pick.

Offensive line, everyone but Samuels is replaceable. And very, very old. I guess we have Stephon Heyer for one of the positions, but I really wish we’d taken that Fred Davis pick and grabbed a guard or something.

I will also be amazed if both Twaan and Moss make it to training camp. I adore them both, but that’s a lot of money tied up in the WR spot, combined with Thomas and Kelly.

We could also stand to replace Mr. Questionable, Marcus Washington.

5

Over here in Boston we have:
With Scott Pioli gone-what will our drafts and talent evaluations be like? My opinion, same as always. NE has built an organization and as long as the owner and coach are here it will be a contender.
Another Offensive Coordinator gone, another year. I will say Denver got a good one. He could have more immediate impact than losing Pioli,as Bill gets the next one in line up to speed. But with this Offense…not a bad position to learn.
And the big two storylines…
Is Brady going to be able to play? Will Matt Cassel stick around(Franchise tag) just in case, or does he get traded for a 1st and something and if we have to roll with one of our other unproven bench guys.
And the other- defense.Are they too old? Easy to say looking at the last game lineup(Seau exc) but it really isn’t true, they just are not that good…is it time for Bruschi to go? no, leadership alone makes him a keeper, and with Mayo next to him and hopefully Thomas is healthy we are fine in LB land, corners? That is the big need.

6

Until Dan Synder dies, sells the team, or figures out we need a real GM with a plan to succeed (that Synder needs to leave alone aside from writing checks) we will never be truly good again. Even the teams that have gotten to the playoffs recently are no serious threat to win it all. Why? Because we trade away most of our draft picks, draft worse than probably any team in the NFL with the remaining picks, and have a horrible track record with free agents we sign who tend to under perform while drawing a paycheck beyond what they could ever get anywhere else.

I DVRed pretty much every game this year because I didn’t think they deserved more than an hour of my time each week. As it turns out they didn’t deserve that as they collapsed in spectacular fashion. I have been there through the glory days in the first Gibbs era and watched pretty much every game after that even when we stunk on ice because there was always a chance we could get better but this team is pretty much dead to me now until one of the 3 things I mentioned first happens.

7

Jim Schwartz (the Titans’ defensive coordinator) is the new Lions head coach. Guess he was tired of winning games.

http://www.freep.com/article/20090115/SPORTS01/90115089/Lions+hire+Jim+Schwartz

8

Mitch Albom: Detroit – Where coaches come to die.

9

I thought that was Oakland.

10

Schwartz is a smart guy and a lot of Titans fans have suspected he’d make a great HC. He’s a BIG stats guy. He knows stats for everything. In fact, I’ve always thought he was a little TOO cerebral. He plays the percentages too often. The Titans were the least blitzing team in the NFL this past season because of that thinking. OTOH, it really worked. The Titans had a great defense.

That attititude might work even better at a HC level, where he can use his planning skills and ability to identify trends to make more sweeping changes. It was a good hire for Detroit, but I still feel sorry for Schwartz.

11

I agree, but note…his name is SnYder. Not SYnder.

Even the teams that have gotten to the playoffs recently are no serious threat to win it all. Why? Because we trade away most of our draft picks, draft worse than probably any team in the NFL with the remaining picks, and have a horrible track record with free agents we sign who tend to under perform while drawing a paycheck beyond what they could ever get anywhere else.

Hyperbole much? If things were that bad, we’d be the Detroit Lions. Let’s face it, this was an 8-8 team. Not the worst, not the best. Average.

If you critically look at our draft record compared to others, we actually draft pretty well. Notably, our 1st-3rd round choices have done well historically, and we haven’t missed on many 1st rounders. Most teams have a gigantic bust on 1st rounders every so often (a few recent 1st round busts in our own division I can recall are guys like Freddy Mitchell of the Eagles, and William Joseph of the Giants) ; I can’t recall a 1st round pick the Skins have had that hasn’t worked out okay.

The real problem is that the Skins are stuck in “win-now” mode; just one more FA will do it. And that’s just not true. The FO is constantly trading away 3rd and 4th round draft picks; which are really the most valuable picks to build a team. So we end up with a team with little depth and no young guys for the future. The critical error with the Skins, including both the management, and the fans, is that there is no patience.

And I lump Redskins fans in as part of the problem, because as a fanbase, we’re completely rabid and cannot understand that a rookie HC going 8-8 in the toughest division in football…is actually a pretty good year. Zorn inherited an aging team, built to play an offense that was totally different from what he wanted to run. You need to have patience to let him rebuild the team he needed to…but I’ve already heard a lot of the “Fire Zorn” crap. And yes, I know Harbaugh is in the AFC Championship game with the Ravens, but despite Redskins fan denial, the Ravens are just a better team than the Redskins.

Another example of fan insanity: I don’t know how many times I’ve heard fans judge the 2008 draft as a total bust…even though logically you cannot evaluate a draft class, especially one with WRs drafted high (who historically take at least a year to develop), after one year. But 3 games into the season you started hearing crap from fans that Devin Thomas and Malcom Kelly were busts. It’s utterly ridiculous.

Seriously, the best thing for our franchise to do is have a few bad years where Zorn, or whomever, can rebuild the team for the future. Because this “win now” crap just doesn’t work. But I don’t know if Snyder, or the fans would have the patience to go through with it.

12

Every team’s fans do this, actually. It’s nuts. Usually, there is a tendency to compare to other teams, too. The Eagles’ second round WR pick is playing and doing well! Therefore, our second round WR picks must be busts! That’s how the thinking works. There’s also the reverse thinking. If a rookie DOES play his first year, people think he must be a stud and the pick was great.

It really does take a few years before you can know one way or the other. Yet, even the so-called draft experts fall into the trap. They qualify their post-draft reports by noting it takes years, but sometimes they go too far anyway. Scott Wright (nfldraftcountdown.com, which is a popular site) wrote after the draft last year that the Titans had one of the worst drafts of the weekend. He said it would sink their year, and they wouldn’t make the playoffs, much less get any production. Chris Johnson was panned by most critics as not being an everydown back (which MAY still be true) and not helping the team. But he made the probowl and was probably the second best rookie of the year (offensively, anyway). A lot of people thought Ryan and Flacco would mean a year off for those franchises, as they prepped their new QBs. Didn’t happen that way.

So yeah, people speak too soon.

13

Yep Jerod Mayo is a BUST.

I hear you Rob, but I think with successful franchises the tearing down of drafted players is less. People didn’t take apart Chad Jackson until year 2.5/3. NE players expected good things, but not in year one. I think when the fans already have good players to root for. We are not waiting for a savior, unlike say Detroit or Oakland.

14

Well, with Washington, we were expecting either Kelly or Thomas to contribute in some way this year, and we went 6-2 to open the season with impressive wins in Dallas and Philadelphia. Our two losses weren’t unreasonable, either - a loss to the Giants before Zorn got his sea legs, and a loss to the Rams on a last-second field goal. Next week the Rams stunned the Cowboys and the Giants got blown out by the hapless Browns, so mixing in the other upsets made it not seem like such a big deal.

Washington lost a LOT of close games last year. We also won a lot of close games. We never won by more than 8 and we lost by 10 or more only twice (Baltimore and Pittsburgh). That’s both bad and good. Good in that we stayed competitive in almost all of our games, but bad in that we couldn’t put anyone away.

I like Zorn. I think we’re actually building a good team, and if we keep Zorn around long enough, Jason Campbell will develop into a very good if not great QB with an equally good young group of receivers.

But buy the man a blocker! Geez!

15

I think it is ASSHOLE, you are one.

16

I’m a longtime Skins fan but Snyder is pushing me to a new team. I liked some of the things I saw this year but it seems like there’s a long way to go and I have no faith in Snyder doing the right thing during the offseason. Hopefully Zorn gets a few years.

17

Completely agree.

Aw sugar, did I hurt your feelings? Nice overreaction to a very minor comment.

18

Good point, but that’s partly because you don’t need the rookies as much, as you say. That savior syndrome is pretty big. It’s also easier to laugh off the ones who DO bust, like Jackson. I have to say Jackson really surprised me. I thought he was a great pick that year.

19

No, you are an asshole for correcting my spelling. No overreaction at all.

20

And this is the problem. You draft 3 receivers in the first two rounds (2WR and a TE) and they do jack squat. Just look at the drafts from the last 5 years or so: http://www.nfl.com/draft/history/fulldraft?teamId=5110&type=team

Just horrible. This last draft despite having more than our normal amount of picks we got what one impact player and he came out of the 7th round?

, and we went 6-2 to open the season with impressive wins in Dallas and Philadelphia. Our two losses weren’t unreasonable, either - a loss to the Giants before Zorn got his sea legs, and a loss to the Rams on a last-second field goal.

Which nullified one of the wins in Dallas or Philly.

Washington lost a LOT of close games last year. We also won a lot of close games. We never won by more than 8 and we lost by 10 or more only twice (Baltimore and Pittsburgh). That’s both bad and good. Good in that we stayed competitive in almost all of our games, but bad in that we couldn’t put anyone away.

Almost all games in the NFL are close. Good teams win close games.

I like Zorn. I think we’re actually building a good team, and if we keep Zorn around long enough, Jason Campbell will develop into a very good if not great QB with an equally good young group of receivers.

But buy the man a blocker! Geez!

I like Zorn and I like Campbell as people. Not sure they are the right answer but as I have said before it is kind of moot with the management engine this team has. Regardless of what philosophy you want to try to be successful (focus on UFAs, focus on the draft, trade, etc.) we don’t have the people with the chops to pull it off. We can look forward to a bunch of mediocre seasons with the occasional playoff appearance but will never be a threat to win the superbowl until Snyder wises up and throws some of that money he has into a good GM and leaves him alone for three years.