A fifth person was arrested in connection to the Sean Taylor case today according to ESPN. Details were scant other than the fact that the kid was 16.  You know, the more I hear about this case the more I picture it going down like Scooby Doo.  Five cowering kids breaking into a house to make a little money and everyone of them piled up real close like they do in the cartoons, knees shaking.  And some fool kid has a gun and instead of just saying “zoinks” he fires.  Maybe I’m naive.  Maybe I’m too easy on the kids, but geeze, this looks like amateur hour. Hard to imagine the guys who didn’t pull the trigger getting a lot of time here.  What do people think?  Does the trigger man deserve more time, or are they all equally guilty for being there?

The Redskins have appointed a new Pro Scout today and his name is Alex Santos.  Of course, this comes from the unstoppable Jason La Canfora. Jason seems to like the guy personally and professionally.  Frankly, I’ve never heard of him. While the job of pro scout sounds important (and in some ways it is), it is hard to think of it as a key position when you read from Jason that previous to this, Alex was picking up players at the airport among other duties.  On the one in a million chance that Alex Santos is a fan of the Rag, I’m not trying to make fun of you, Alex.  Everyone has to start somewhere.  Mike Holmgren started out driving guys around years ago. I’m just saying that there are probably a couple more steps up the ladder for you before you get much of a say in the war room.

The Redskins also announced that pretty much the only open job competition for the offseason is the punter position. This is certainly no surprise given that all 22 (or 21 if you count Sean Taylor) starters from last year’s playoff team are back. But there alse some interesting implications here that the Redskins really don’t want to admit.  For instance, whether they are busts or not, Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly are the third and fourth receivers. Technically, James Thrash and Anthony Mix are in the picture.  But the reality is that Thrash is a special teamer and mix is an interesting project.  Folks who got after us for not addressing the defense should think about this carefully.  If Thomas and Kelly aren’t ready, the cupboard is bare. At least with the d-line, we had a serviceable rotation last year.

Another thing this shows is that either Rocky McIntosh is going to be healthy despite hurting his knee very late in the season (unlikely), or the Redskins aren’t really ready to talk about it yet (likely).  Last year, HB Blades and Khary Campbell split time at the position and they played well.  The reason for not talking about it may simply be that they have a plan.

One last thing on the “punter battle.”  Say what you want about Frost but he was 18th in the league in gross and 21 in net putting.  The difference between “average” and “below average” in punting is about a yard.  The improvement we stand to gain here is a 3 or 4 yards a game in field position.  I know football is a game of inches and all, but it is a sign of this team’s stability and general solidity that the only competition worth talking about during OTA’s is this one. We should be very happy. Hail Skins!

-DW

According to ESPN and other sources, the prosecutor has taken the death penalty off the table in the Sean Taylor case.  Depending on who you believe, this was either because the shooter was 17 or because they couldn’t proove premediated murder. I’m more inclined to believe the latter given that many states seem to be killing kids under 18 these days.

Regardless of how you feel about the death penalty (and for the record, I oppose it), this seems fair enough to me.  They went there to rob the place and were surprised. That just doesn’t strike me as a death penalty kind of case.  They didn’t go on a killing spree.  They could have walked in and killed Sean’s girlfriend and child to make sure there were no witnesses.  they could have shot Sean five more times to make sure he was dead.

Instead, it seems like they were scared, fired, and got very unlucky that they hit a major artery.

Anyway, comments to the contrary are welcome, but it seems reasonable enough to me.  Let’s hope these guys make a deal, and we can put this all behind us and start the Jim Zorn era off with a big win in prime time.

-DW

All is quiet on the Redskins Front.  In other news however, Chris Henry announced that, yes,  he’s still available.   His voice mail may be acting up because he hasn’t been getting as many calls as he might have expected.  Also, because he is not allowed to bring camera phones into court, he may have missed a few calls.  So if any of you NFL officials out there are looking for a soon-to-be-suspended wide receiver, you might need to try him again on his new cellphone.  Pretty please? 

Henry has targeted the Cowboys and Saints organizations as the most gullible, saying that he would love to play for either team should their owners suffer some sort of severe impairment of judgment.   The Dallas Cowboys have already said that they are not interested.  Perhaps Chris should have given ol’ Jerry a wine cooler first.  

In all seriousness, how bad do you have to be for the Cowboys to decide that you’re a little too sketchy for them?  They have hired players who walked out into traffic.  They’ve had cokeheads and marijuana drug-lord-wannabes.  They’ve got a guy who can make it rain indoors and a guy who owned enough military hardware to invade a small country.  And yet, we’re watching them back slowly away from Chris Henry. 

As a Redskins fan, let me be the first to say: THANK GOD WE DRAFTED A BUNCH OF RECEIVERS.  We’re no longer looking for a wideout so I don’t have to stress about this issue.  If only for this reason, I think our draft can be considered a huge success.

Our fellow Fan-Sided bloggers at Striphype have been threatened with a law suit by their very own Bengals.  In one of the strangest moves by a team I’ve seen, the Bengals are saying that a web site devoted to promoting their team in a loving fashion is violating copyright by among other things trying to give away a jersey to fans and by using pictures that the Bengals don’t own copyright to themselves. Details here.

Now, let me put this out there.  As many of you know, I work for a business magazine as my day job.  I am incredibly aware of the importance of copyright to any organization.  I am, in fact, responsible for obtaining said copyrights. But the Bengals are nuts.  Not only are they wrong about what their rights are, but they are practicing poor copyright protection policies anyway as they are essentially suing someone for giving them free advertising.

Even a moron can see that public domain pictures and privately owned jerseys given away by the site are not under the control of the Bengals.  But because there is no way it is worth fighting this in court, Stripehype has complied. Not only has it redesigned the website, but the writers of the blog have declared themselves Cleveland Browns fans.  And I don’t blame them.

I don’t know if Dan Snyder knows Riggos Rag exists. I know he doesn’t care.  Or if he cares, it is only in the “oh, isn’t it nice there are a couple of guys that like the team enough to write about it” kinda way.  And that is as it should be.  I am aware that we are insignificant to all but like five people outside our own families .  The rest of you will just go read another blog if Dan decided to take us out.

But imagine for a moment that the Bengals have sent similar threats to all the other Bengal blogs.  They very well could have.  I don’t know.  Or if they haven’t yet, maybe they will soon.

For all you Dan Snyder haters out there and I know there are a bunch, consider yourselves lucky that Dan knows good PR when he sees it.  To my knowledge, none of the excellent blogs in my blog roll have ever been bothered by the Skins and many of us have been helped by them. With the exception of maybe the $75 parking and free agent gaffes, Dan has never done anything to hurt his fans.  Mike Brown is finding new and ridiculous ways to do it every day.

-DW

Jokes aside, there’s some actual NFL action going on this weekend and it’s time to comment about it. We’ve got our first glimpse of our 2008 Washington Redskins. 

The Redskins Insider at the Washington Post does a great job of capturing some of the feel of this weekend that I’m going to send you to them to read about it.  Some highlights include…

• Jim Zorn seems to have reasonable control over the team.  I like what little I see and the players (with one exception, see below) seem to respect and believe in him.
• Fred Davis missed practice today and the Redskins didn’t know where he was for several hours.  There’s some reference to the fact that he was out late the night before. You’re not making a good impression on a fan base that was already baffled by your presence here in Washington DC, Fred. 
• LaRon Landry made a good play to catch Clinton Portis from behind. They started jawing at each other and eventually had a race to see who was faster.  It was close, but by most accounts Landry won.  The thing I like about this is that it seems to be a major departure from the 2007 Clinton Portis who didn’t want to practice at all during the pre-season.  It seems like a different atmosphere. It’s easy to be positive in May so this doesn’t say too much, but the fact that everyone is being competitive  and enthusiastic is great.

ESPN is reporting that Emmitt Smith stopped by the Cowboys minicamp and advised PacMan Jones to make ‘Better Choices.’  He then allegedly advised Tank Johnson to stop driving while drunk and suggested that people should dress warmly when it’s cold out.  Smith’s previous ideas include the Weather Channel’s  ”Rain-makes-everything-wet” Theory and McDonald’s innovative 80’s McDLT promotion that “Keeps the hot side hot; keeps the cool side cool.”

 Personally I’d like to thank Emmitt “Captain Insight” Smith for giving us that blinding glimpse of the obvious.  It’s this kind of keen observation that makes him such a valuable addition to the ESPN broadcast team. 

Tags for this Article: Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious, Cheap Shots, Cowboys, Emmitt Smith, Okay I made some of this up, Pac Man

It’s true.  Everyone is pointing and laughing at the NFL joke that is the Dallas Cowboys.  As Landry Hat himself pointed out, Texas’s own President George W. Bush made fun of the Cowboys when the Superbowl-winning New York Giants came to visit the white house. 

It’s true that Jessica Simpson jokes were getting old, but Simpson and Romo have been kind enough to give us some new material.  For Tony’s Birthday, Jessica messily devoured a cake shaped like the Dallas Cowboys Star (see picture).  If that isn’t symbolic, I don’t know what is.  Note the deer-in-the-headlights look of panic in Romo’s eyes.  He knows he’s doomed.  Oh yes, he knows.

 Clearly, local bloggers everywhere have followed the example our President has set for us. The very funny site Kissing Suzy Kolber has added two articles mocking the Texas team. First, they launched another episode of the Wade and Jerry Show, which is always good for a few laughs. And then they went on to make fun of Terrell Owens in yet another skit.

Finally, the great people at Bang Cartoons have a new hysterical cartoon called Pac Man Does Dallas. 

So let us all enjoy this new renaissance of Cowboy-inspired humor.  It’s good to be a Redskins fan! 

As usual life intervened a bit on my draft thoughts.  Apparently Guy also has no draft thoughts worth posting.  So he left it to me to talk about the players.  Before we talk about the details, let’s give Vinny Cerato, Dan Snyder, and Jim Zorn a round of applause for recognizing not only the value of the draft, but also the value of stockpiling as many picks as possible without giving up value. 

This draft looked like a classic Bobby Bethard draft.  For those who don’t remember, Bethard was the architect of the 80’s Redskins dynasty and was the master of moving back in the draft and often eschewed 1st round picks for the chance to take more and equally good players later in the draft.  It should be noted that there is a major change between now and then.  This was in the pre-salary cap era where you could stash young players on giant rosters for years as they developed, and the draft went significantly more rounds.  This meant that you could own diamonds in the rough until you spiffed them up.  Today, a bigger premium is placed on finding players that can contribute somewhere, especially on special teams, right away. Keep that in mind when looking at the later draft picks.

Devin Thomas- To be honest, I know less about Devin Thomas than most of the other receivers at the top of the draft.  Because he played only one year of Division I football and because he was a junior (and couldn’t participate in the Senior Bowl and other all-star games), he wasn’t on the radar of most experts until later in the process.  But many of them had him listed as the top receiver in the draft. I’m no fan of the Big Ten and he is probably one of the few players considered for the first round that I didn’t see play at least twice. Thomas is supposedly the perfect fit for our system.  Yards after the catch are his specialty.  He’s pretty fast (4.4) and relatively tall (almost 6′ 2″) and he led the Big 10 in yards in his only year. The knock on him is his inexperience, and I actually expect Malcom Kelly to be ahead of Thomas in camp.  But in two or three seasons, Thomas will be the star of this receiving corps, and I’m thrilled to have him.  Avoid the rush.  Buy your Thomas jersey now.

Fred Davis- I’ll admit it, when this pick was announced my response was unprintable. I didn’t understand why we needed a TE when we had Chris Cooley. But as Zorn discussed the prospect of sliding Cooley around the formations and using him at TE, WR, and FB, I got excited about the idea, particularly in the Red Zone.  Imagine being on the 1 yard line with Davis and Cooley lined up as TEs, Sellers and Portis in the backfield and 6′ 4″ Malcolm Kelly split out wide.  Are we going to hand off to Portis?  Sellers?  Are we going to fake the hand off and hit Sellers in the flat?  Or is Cooley going to run the short out along the end line? Or will we throw the high fade to Kelly in the corner?  The possibilities are endless.  And if you don’t want the jumbo package in, we can split four receivers wide, spread the D out and then run it up the middle.  Davis gives us the kind of formation flexibility only the best teams can take advantage of.

Malcolm Kelly- Personally, I wanted Limas Sweed.  Sweed is almost as big but he has a better 40 time and played for a good program and a pro offense.  Oklahoma’s offense still relies a bit more on the option attack than I’d prefer.  But heck, I’m not a professional talent evaluator, and I’ll trust the Skins liked what they saw.  Kelly has incredible hands and knows how to catch in traffic.  He is the ideal security blanket for a young QB.  If you are Jason Campbell and you know you are about to get hit, you can throw to Kelly and feel safe that he’s going to come down with the thing even if you don’t throw a perfect pass. The knock on Kelly is his lack of top end speed.  His 40 numbers have been reported as high as 4.7 and as low as 4.5.  While 2 tenths of a second seems miniscule, it is the difference between being Terrell Owens and Peter Warrick. For those who forget Peter Warrick, he was a Heisman winner that was about as exciting in college as any player.  He was Reggie Bush before Reggis Bush except he was a receiver. Warrick dropped in the draft because of his 40 times, and many experts said it was a mistake, but he turned into a giant bust.  He simply could not separate from NFL quality corners.  If Kelly really is a 4.7 type receiver, then he is at best a decent possession target.  That’s fine.  We need one of those, too.  The key is to not lay unrealistic expecations on him.  The ceiling is probably Michael Westbrook or Rod Gardner without the stigma of being a first round bust. No one would have minded either one being a Redskin if we hadn’t blown top 10 picks on them.

Chad Rinehart- A division IIA All-American tackle, Rinehart projects as a guard at this level.  He’s a project, but one Joe Bugel is known for.  Being a IIA guy, I don’t know anything about him, but Scouts Inc says he has an explosive first step but has bad technique.  He’s a tall guy who plays too high.  Joe will get that out of him quickly.  The great thing about this pick is that in the hands of the wrong coach, this is the kind of guy who has a short career.  In the right hands, he can blossom into a star.  Joe Bugel is the right hands.  Interior o-line is one of our needs and Rinehart was an excellent pick in a draft short on interior line help.

Juston Tryon- I love Tryon.  I’ve seen him play several times at Arizona St. and I think he’s a steal. People don’t like him because of size issues, but we’ve seen first hand in DC what a short corner with skills can do. When I watched Tryon, he was a tough tackler who wasn’t afraid of contact or press coverage even though he was a little small.  He was a decent returner with good acceleration, but his top end speed was basically average. We’re never going to ask him to cover big receivers, but I think he’ll make an excellent dime CB and maybe better.  He should be able to step in and play in the dime right now while Rogers is recovering.

Durant Brooks- What do you say about a punter?  Brooks was the best punter in college last year and I like the idea of bringing in someone to challenge Frost.  People generally don’t seem to like Frost but I can’t honestly see how he is noticeably worse than other punters. Brooks will hopefully be a nice addition though.

Kareem Moore- Another IIA prospect that I’ve never seen play.  Moore is described as a playmaker and an excellent returner. Moore’s problem is size.  At 5′ 10″ and 210, he may be too small to play safety in the NFL and too big to play CB. 

Colt Brennan- I love this pick. This is the perfect no risk, high reward pick. Brennan holds practically every passing record that matters in Division I. Most people perceive this to be part of the system he was in, and that his arm is too weak for the NFL.  Probably true. But the West Coast Offense can turn a weaker armed QB into a star. And he has established the fact that he can work in a system that is based on timing.  If there is a place where Brennan can thrive it is here.  Hopefully, we’ll never have to find out.  I’m hoping Campbell will blossom into a Hall of Fame QB and never get hurt.  But if not, Brennan looks like an excellent investment.

Rob Jackson- The key to Jackson having a career is whether he can add bulk without losing quickness. At 258, he’s too small to anchor against the run.  It is possible he can carve out a career as a 3rd down pass rusher, but as of now, he looks like a practice team player at best.

Christopher Horton- I’ve seen Horton play a couple of times, and he’s a great hitter.  He fills the box as the 8th man as well as most college safeties.  But he gets burned on the long ball.  He is the exact opposite of Kareem Moore.  It is possible that the two could make an interesting tandem where Moore plays the passing downs and Horton plays the running downs.  It is also possible neither of them achieve anything.  Horton should be an excellent special teams addition and given how few safeties we have on the roster, there should be room for him.

That’s the haul, and I think it is a good one.  We have to trust that Vinny and the boys knew what they were doing, and it sure looks like they did. With minicamp starting tomorrow, we’ll get a quick look at the kids and see.  Come back tomorrow to see how we did.  Also, in the next week or so I’ll be starting to review the whole league’s draft from the point of view of how it changes your fantasy draft.  Stop in, get the scoop.  Hail Skins!

-DW

And so begins the new era of the Redskins.  Resisting the urge to up the ante for Chad Johnson, the Redskins instead figured out that trading down for more picks was the way to go. I could quibble with the amount we got in the deal.  Because essentially I felt like the 1st and 3rd we gave them is roughly equal to the two 2nds we got so the 4th for 5th swap was really our only net profit.  But the key is that the Redskins did something smart teams do– They took advantage of market inefficiencies. 

The difference in cost between the last pick in the 1st round and the 1st pick in the 2nd round is larger in price than it is in skill.  By moving into the 2nd round we were able to get first round talent for a second round price tag.  And we were able to get more of it.

Let’s face it, with three 2nd round picks, even the best teams will pick one star, one ok starter and one bust with those picks.  By taking three big targets for JZ and Campbell, we insure that at least one of them is the target we need.  These picks give us instant credibility all over the receiver corps.  With the big targets underneath and Moss and Cooley stretching the field, the offense is now truly three dimensional.

I’m going to save my specific talk of the picks for my post tomorrow that breaks down the whole draft.  But I couldn’t possibly have imagined it going any better.  Even Mel Kiper liked what we did.  Well, that scares me a bit.  But it is so much nicer to read good things during draft reviews even if Mel Kiper is often an idiot.

More as the draft unfolds tomorrow.

-DW

He just couldn’t resist it.  Months of discipline and careful spending have been flushed down the toilet.  Let’s face it, it’s not FUN to keep your core players and expand through the draft.  There’s no immediate gratification.  Dan Snyder had to try to throw all his draft picks at the Bengals to get a big splash for his team.  We’re just lucky that the Bengals are crazier than we are.

 We don’t know all the details, but unless the escalation clause that turned that third round pick into a first rounder involved us winning the superbowl, we offered waaaay too much for a 30 year old disgruntled wideout.   I think Chad Johnson would be a great addition to any team, but not at that price tag.   Especially not when you consider that Chad Johnson would want  a new contract to go with his relocation.  Two first rounders and a huge chunk of our salary cap is not a sound investment. When the hell will we learn?

After being denied by Cincinnati, we apparently ran straight to Arizona.   Jason La Canfora wrote here that we haven’t given up on our search to piss our draft away.  More recent posts talk about our trips to visit actual draft candidates, but they sound almost like an afterthought.  I’m really worried that those draft picks are burning a hole in Dan’s pocket. 

I’m not opposed to a trade, but we’re stuck with a reputation for paying too much and teams are less likely to give us a fair deal.  A year of frugal discipline would have helped us wash away the stain of bad trades in the past.  But now that’s all gone.  Even if we hold onto our picks and draft well, we still hurt our credibility and cemented our crazy spending-spree reputation for yet another year.  

I want very badly to like Dan Snyder.  I really do.  He’s a real fan and I don’t doubt he loves the Redskins as much as I do.  I just wish he would see that his meddling is hurting the team rather than helping it.  Or, at the very least, the appearance of his meddling is hurting the team and he needs to get this PR and bad reputation sorted out.  I’m still ashamed of the way we treated Gregg Williams and totally botched our coaching search.  I suppose it’s possible that I’m blaming Dan unfairly (who knows what really goes on behind closed doors?), but the media keeps using him as a punching bag and he can’t seem to avoid making himself look like a clown.  One way or another, the responsibility is his, and instead of correcting it he seems to have made it worse this year.