Chaos Revenant wrote:The Consiglieri wrote: and of course the redskins vastly outpaced expectations in 2010 and 2011 when they were projected to be the worst team both seasons, and instead finished 23rd, and 27th instead losing out on the Newton/Miller/AJ Green/Peterson sweepstakes, and the Luck/RG3 sweepstakes this year, and as a result having to engage in a massive asset removing overpay to get RG3 this month). I never count anything as locked in until the final game is over.
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The Redskins were never going to be the worst team in the NFL either year.
If anything, the year we massively overachieved was 2009 - we could have and probably should have gone 2-14 or 1-15, but we won some close games against awful teams (lucky for us - we got stud LT Trent Williams and not the massively overrated Sam Bradford, and there's nothing worse than locking yourself into a mediocre QB).
2010, you could say we overachieved, but we also lost a lot of close games as well
2011: We were never going to go 2-14, we added too much on both sides of the ball and had too good a draft. If not for injuries and bad luck, we could have been in the playoff mix.
Also, tanking in the NFL is more risky and more corrosive than it is in the NFL because the lower number of games makes each loss more meaningful.
As for the draft, I want Davis > MKG > Beal. I know Beal is the better skillset fit, but the length and athleticism of a Nene/Vesely/MKG frontcourt with Singleton/Booker/KS off the bench is tantalizing.
The Redskins were judged by scouts around the league to have uniformally the worst collection of talent in the NFL in 2010. THE WORST. Just as bad, if not worst, the Redskins were also seen to have the least depth in the NFL. THE LEAST. That's what happens when you have the worst F.O. in the NFL that trades away picks for veteran has been's, and never was's, and in bird brained pick for pick trades, and of course the war room moves on draft day as well which were traditionally league worst. In 2011 the Redskins were picked more than any other team I came across to finish as the bottom of the barrell suck for Luck winner.
Mike Shannahan put a stop to that, even w/hare brained stupid moves like the McNabb trade (which I bashed at the time, as an idiotic and fallaciously reasoned, but explicable move to get a bridge QB), winning far more games than expected by anyone.
Its funny, I disagree w/you across the board. Williams is actually a borderline bust, having not lived up to the hype, and being one positive weed test away from a year long suspension and a sabotaged career. I don't think he's a bust, he's just what was advertised, a high upside, high risk LT prospect that played way better as a RT than LT in college, and while a better match for the ZBS than Okung, is a definitively inferior LT to him.
As for Bradford. Mediocre QB? Tell me what QB in the league would light up the scoreboard after losing five of their top 7 WR's to season long, or majority of the season long injuries in your first two years, then add in injuries both years to Steven Jackson, killing your running game, than add a horrible OL, and pitiful defense. Bradford was sabotaged by all of these things AND injuries. He's a franchise QB in search of a weapon, one freaking weapon, and a line. There's a reason he was rated so highly, and a reason we tried to get him in a trade up. He's a fantastic prospect that did not walk into a beautiful situation like Rodgers (great WR's, great team) or Manning (best RB and WR in the NFL), or Newton (fantastic rb's, and a pro bowl WR and solid TE), or Stafford (Calvin Johnson, and best 1-2 punch TE combo in the league, as well as elite complimentary WR's), or Ryan (Roddy White, a good running game, a pro bowl TE, and Julio Jones now).
What did Sam Bradford have? A bunch of garbage, a broken down pathetic nearly league worst OL, and an injured stud RB and poor D (beyond the front 4).
As to tanking. No NFL team will ever do it, careers are way too short for players, and patience from owners is dramatically less than with other sports, but for fans, it has inumerable patently obvious pay offs, take the packers winning a pointless game in a season finale in 1988 and handing the Cowboys 3 super bowls as a result (Aikman), take Manning or Leaf, take Bledsoe or Mirer, take the difference between us sweeping the giants or getting swept by them costing us 2 future #1's and a 2012 2nd rounder? Take the history of 2nd overall taken QB's in the NFL (awful). It's more important than its ever been in history now because the NFL has been completely tailored to be manipulated by elite passing offenses (almost every rule imaginable in the league passed in recent years, handing QB's and WR's massive advantages against defenses, this is precisely why WR's and QB's have suddenly become productive in their rookie years (something that never happened in the past-exceptions: Marino, and Moss, good luck finding any others if you go pre aughts, and note the massive devaluation of the RB, affordable for cheap on draft day and in free agency alike) making QB's more valuable than ever in the history of the game.
To tank in the NFL can be absolutely essential. You don't win in this sport without a franchise QB, and you don't get a franchise QB without sucking out loud. Sure there are incredibly rare exceptions (point to Tom Brady, and I'll ask you to look for any HOF QB besides him to be drafted that low in the last thirty years, Unitas was much much much longer ago, point to Drew Brees, and I'll say he went 1st overall in round 2, point to Schaub and I'll say he's valued the same now as he always was, a lot of potential, but little actual pay off), and then how often can you get these guys in their prime w/o drafting them? Virtually NEVER. You have to tank to get them, you have to tank, or get really lucky to get their stud LT, or buy an aging one I suppose. Now stud DE's are less predictable, pass rushers, one of the 4 building blocks of dynastys, are a bit harder to scout, and miss a lot more, so sometimes teams get them outside round 1 (the giants are genius at this, having found the majority of their elite pass rushers like Osi, Strahan, and Kiawanuka, and the other guy whose name eludes me, outside of round 1, ditto the steelers, who stole a Michigan LB in mid-round 2, and turned him into one of the best pass rushers in the league in Lamar Woodley).
Anyway, ive been off topic enough.
