Redskins: Opinions on Trent Williams, expectations, and more

A few of us have not read any Redskins draft grades.

Washington Redskins fans generally seem enamored with Memphis wide receiver Antonio Gibson and LSU UDFA Thaddeus Moss. Furthermore, fans are generally very optimistic that the Redskins have an elite talent in Ohio State edge rusher Chase Young, generally regarded as the best player in this year’s draft.

Well, the heart and soul of many of these Redskins old timer football fans is that this judgement is pretty much nonsense. An NFL old timer is considered someone who has been watching football since Lombardi. This writer is only 46 years old, but speaks with old timers all the time.

While many Redskins old timers believe that Young probably has a gifted skilled set, these fans have an eagle eye toward coaching as the key to success in the NFL. These old timers remember Lombardi and George Allen and Joe Gibbs, and maybe more importantly, their staffs.

These men on these staffs were teachers. A lot of these old timers know that Washington, like a lot of towns, has gotten away from teaching the game to kids and has become more obsessed with numbers and bios and muscles, I guess.

So, here is a list of some of the old timer principles on how to watch our Redskins and their organization this post-draft offseason and season.

• First, let us listen to the former players, former and current coaches mainly. Listen to breakdowns of plays, X’s and O’s, why a player lost a play. As the late Ken Beatrice used to say, “games most often are lost by teams.”
• When it comes to records, the Redskins are 0-0. Old timers are listening keenly to hear what coach Rivera and his staff’s expectations are from this group. Of course, old timers know that nothing can be formed until there is a game. While it appears the Redskins are in for a long season, listen to the head coach and stop filling out these win-loss records too soon. I trust no analyst in town who predicts their record, ever. These former players have taught me, like Ric ‘Doc’ Walker, to know that any team can win on any given Sunday. Or, any team can lose to any team on any given Sunday.
• The Redskins have a new head coach with a winning record. The Giants have an inexperienced head coach. The Eagles and Cowboys have Super Bowl winning head coaches.
• How the Redskins fare against the NFC East normally is a good tell for what kind of season they will have. Many Redskins fan, including old timers, still remember Mark Moseley kicking us into first place in 1982.
• It is nice hearing pundits who are talking about players, their speeds, even their next gen stats, but the key once again is watching for great effort and great mistakes. When an opposing defender is running free like that silly Madden game, it is normally an X’s and O’s coaching breakdown. Will we be seeing dropped passes? Gaping holes? And open receivers? This is a tell of a poorly coached play. There is no reason for a coach to not be yelling his head off from ear to ear whenever they have gaping holes, dropped passes, and coverage breakdowns.
• Old timers are expecting to win. The players must lead to that.

Addressing: Trent Williams. Many fans liked Trent. Seinfeld has a famous stand up where he explains the ludicrousness of how us fans like a player on our team, and then when that player is traded, he is hated. Seinfeld says in some ways, “we are just rooting for dry cleaning.”

Many Redskins fans are wishing Trent well and hoping that we see no gaping holes when we meet in the NFC Championship here at FedEx.

Something Trent has done is set a precedent for Washington brass. If a player wants to leave, ship him out overnight with the morning paper. Rivera got it right.