I'm going to start this post with a public warning to everyone who has read this blog over these last few months. When I was invited to come aboard, it was the middle of March, otherwise known as the depths of the NFL doldrums for me. The Super Bowl had long since passed and as a precaution for my own well-being, I had shut my mind off of the Redskins so as not to drive myself to insanity by realizing just how far away football season was.
Well, now training camp has started and so too resumes my personal Redskins Obsession Period. You know, the one where we can win the Super Bowl and visions of Clinton Portis, Chris Cooley and sugar plums dance through my mind all day long. I hope you're all prepared for the Skins-centric turn this blog is about to take as the 2008 NFL season approaches. You've been duly warned.
So the players returned to training camp over this past weekend, but what's the big deal? I mean, it's not like anything really important can happen in the very first day of camp.
Oh, wait.
So, in what is pretty old news by now, Washington's projected starter at left defensive end, the 35-year-old Phillip Daniels, goes down for the season on the very first play of 7-on-7 drills, then reserve d-end Alex Buzbee was lost for the year as well after rupturing his Achilles' tendon. Before the end of camp on Sunday, the team dealt for superstar Jason Taylor, who had famously pissed off the Miami Dolphins by participating in reality show "Dancing With The Stars" instead of training with his teammates earlier this offseason.
All that stuff has been pretty well documented, with the usual expert analysis from the Redskins Insider. As for my take, I kind of have to agree with La Canfora & company on this one. This deal does not get done if not for absolute necessity, which is why I like it. When Taylor was being shopped around in the previous months, word was that the Redskins were not major players, whereas in the past we would have been all over this deal from the outset. But under the circumstances, we went from having a glaring hole in our lineup to almost an upgrade at the same position, doing so in an unusual 48-hour span.
Some will point out our return to trading away valuable draft picks, in this case, next year's 2nd round pick (and a less valuable 6th rounder in 2010). However, if you look at our recent commitment to keeping draft picks, and the fact that we actually USED three 2nd round selections in this year's draft, and I think we can afford to trade next year's. So that's what I think about it, what about you?
I'm gonna try to keep updating the major headlines throughout Skins' camp without just repeating what has already been written in the Post or by other more reputable people than myself. Also, I realize that not all of our readers follow the Redskins like I do so feel free to send suggestions or other ideas, sports-related or otherwise, to us at the train of thought at gmail dot com (spelled out like so to avoid spammers). Let's hope for somewhat tamer storylines from here on out, especially with the injuries (for serious, guys!).
Good trade for the Skins, Jason Taylor is still a beast who single-handedly creates a pass rush. I mean you're talking about the Defensive Player of the Year two years ago who is supposedly still in really good shape. I don't see any question marks to this trade, especially since you don't have to restructure his contract.
ReplyDeleteI gotta say the more I think about the Taylor signing, the more I love it. Obviously you don't want to lose anyone for the season, but it's so much better for this to go down now and have a chance to gel/ let him learn our defensive schemes. We pulled the trigger, gave up a fair value (A second rounder is a heavy price, but as lsouth pointed out, you're getting a former d player of the year). And let's face it, I can see Taylor playing 16+ games for us this year, and something you definitely couldn't say about Daniels even before this most recent injury. A good move all around, even though it's not like we planned it out that way.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and check out Jason's brutal post on skins insider about Cerrato from a few days back. Summary: Lying to the media isn't new, but he understands why no one (media, fans, players) believe a word that he says. Damn.
Also, to combat the popularity of a news source trusted by fans that Snyder and Cerrato publicly despise, we now have an official redskins blog. I'll check it out, but all of these attempts to control the message about the skins by snyder a pretty pathetic. They just won't work, period. They piss people off (Like replacing Frank Herzog for a crony of snyders) and make him look like a clod in the process.
This being said, if he builds a 130,000 seat stadium on the site of RFK with his own money, all is forgiven. Unconditionally.