Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Tandler on Redskins Nation: Grudge match with the Giants

Skins Social: Good Redkins or bad Eagles?

Jen X and I took your questions after the Redskins' win over the Eagles; take a look at the video after the jump.

O-line shuffle possible?

By Rich Tandler

The Redskins may be ready to make a switch along the offensive line after giving up 10 sacks to the Bills last week.

The word on the grapevine is that the Redskins will move Will Montgomery back to center and will put rookie Maurice Hurt in at left guard.

It would be the first regular-season NFL action for Hurt, a seveth-round pick of the Redskins in this year's draft. He played well at times in training camp and in the preseason but, like most late-round rookies, he lacked consistency.

If Trent Williams returns from a sprained ankle, the Redskins will have four of their five opening day starting offensive linemen in place. The fifth, left guard Kory Lichtensteiger, is out for the season after suffering a knee injury Oct. 16 against the Eagles.

In this clip from Redskins Nation, taped on Thursday morning, I said that I did not think that Williams would play against the 49ers. Now, I think that the outlook is slightly more optimistic as Mike Shanahan seemed to indicate that the decisions on making the shuffle along the O-line would hinge on whether or not Williams would play. He is a game-time decision.

 

How big a need is running back?

This is continuing along the luxury/necessity theme that we've been visiting here. Can the Redskins roll just fine at running back with Ryan Torain, Keiland [caption id="attachment_5620" align="alignright" width="100" caption="Ryan Williams"][/caption] Williams, and maybe a veteran free agent or a late-round draft pick? Or if a running back like Ryan Williams (right) is the top player on their draft board in the second round should they pull the trigger? Ryan O'Halloran and I debate the question in our weekly installment of Point-Counterpoint.

Go here to read the article on CSN Washington.

 

Court today, free agency tomorrow?

It's possible--but highly unlikely--that the NFL could resume normal offseason activities sometime this week, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. The NFL and the NFLPA square off in court today and a quick resolution is one of several possible outcomes that I discuss on CSN Washington this morning.

Go here to read the article on CSN Washington.

What do you think? Will the free agency floodgates be opened anytime soon? Or will this drag through the legal system all summer?  

Coaches, teammates did stand behind Campbell

Jason Campbell was traded to the Oakland Raiders last year but he still makes his offseason home in the Washington area and on Tuesday night he talked with Chick Hernandez on Comcast SportsNet. The Redskins starting quarterback from midway through the 2006 season through 2009 started off the interview being philosophical about the trade to the Raiders. “You understand that in this business that decisions are going to be made whether you agree with them or whether you don’t,” said Campbell. “You have to be able to move forward and count your blessings as they come.” But when Hernandez asked if he thought he got a fair shot, Campbell said, “I feel like no one ever stood up for me. “I felt like I was out there fighting and scrapping hard, I never really complained when we lost players and even when we plugged guys in off the street to come in and have to block for you. Not one time did I complain, not one time did I go off the record and say anything.” Let’s examine what Campbell said here. The statement that nobody stood up for him doesn’t really hold water. Joe Gibbs stood up for him. Despite some rough spots in 2007, including a four-game losing streak that dropped them from 5-3 at midseason to 5-7 and on the verge of elimination from the playoffs, Gibbs stuck with Campbell until he suffered a dislocated kneecap against the Bears. That put Campbell out for the rest of the year. Todd Collins came in at quarterback and the Redskins won that game to start a four-game streak that got them into the playoffs. Exit Gibbs and enter Jim Zorn. The head coach’s support for Campbell did not waiver one bit. Despite Collins’ stellar finish in ’07, there was no open competition for the starting job. There wasn’t even secret competition for the job. Campbell was the unquestioned starter for all 32 games under Zorn despite a 12-20 record. Zorn did bench Campbell once, after going scoreless in the first half of a Week 6 game against the then-winless Chiefs at FedEx Field. The next week Campbell was back in the saddle as the starter. Other than that one half, Campbell took virtually every snap. Not only did his coaches stand behind him, his teammates did, too. Never on or off the record did any Redskins player ever throw Campbell under the proverbial bus. By the way, Campbell was benched by Raiders coach Tom Cable after two games in Oakland last year and there was a quarterback controversy involving Campbell and Bruce Gradkowski that did not end until Gradkowski’s year ended with a shoulder injury. But we hear no complaints about nobody standing behind him from there. Were Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato not standing behind Campbell in 2009 when they tried to trade for Jay Cutler and seriously considered moving up in the draft to draft Mark Sanchez? Yes. However, things like that happen frequently in the NFL. As Campbell said, “Decisions are going to be made whether you agree with them or whether you don’t.” The mistake that Snyder and Cerrato made was not in trying to upgrade the most important position on the team, it was in letting their interest in Cutler and Sanchez become general public knowledge and handling it in the ham-handed way that has been the trademark of the franchise ever since Snyder bought the team in 1999. Now let’s move on to the part where Campbell talks about never complaining when the team lost players and when they “plugged guys in off the street” to block for him. His statement is mostly true, although after the Giants thumped the Redskins 45-12 at FedEx Field in December of 2009, CSN’s Kelli Johnson asked Campbell if he thought that some of his teammates quit during the game. “I’ll be honest. I used to be one of those guys who tries to beat around the bush a little bit,” Campbell said. “But I’ll be honest, I think some guys have [quit].” By and large, however, Campbell did take the high road while handing off to Quinton Ganther and having Levi Jones protecting his blind side. But, so what? Very, very rarely do you hear any NFL quarterbacks complaining about who is blocking for them or to whom they are handing off or about the quality of the targets of their passes. It’s just part of the code. You focus on your job and do the best you can with what you have. I don’t think that Jason Campbell is in line for any special awards or accolades for doing what most professional quarterbacks—make that most professional players in any sport—do on a routine basis. I’m not trying to make this in a Campbell-bashing session here. He is as good a person as I have ever met. But I also don’t want to let him revise history as he has and have everyone accept it as the truth because he is a good man and, to some extent, a sympathetic one.

Redskins linebackers: Who ' s up and who ' s down

As the Redskins coaches continue to evaluate the players currently on the team, I continue to give you my evaluations of who's on the way up and who's on the way down. This week at CSNwashington.com, I looked at the linebackers:

Ascending starters OLB Brian Orakpo—His progress was hindered somewhat by the transition to the 3-4, the lack of a decent pass-rushing threat on the other side, and a dozen or so unflagged holds by opposing offensive linemen. Even with an “off” season he was a Pro Bowl alternate. ILB London Fletcher—It’s hard to say that a 35-year-old linebacker is advancing but Fletcher may be the exception to the rule. After struggling in the 3-4 early in the season he figured it out as the year went on and improved from month to month.

Go here to read the entire article

Have the Redskins hit rock bottom?

The first step to solving a problem is realizing that you have one. Maybe the Redskins players have come to that realization.

After the Eagles game, the players were apologetic. They truly felt bad that they had laid such an ugly egg on national TV and in front of a large crowd at FedEx Field that was looking for a reason to be enthusiastic. And while they didn’t necessarily think that the beatdown was a fluke, they didn’t think that is was much of anything to be worried about in the long term. The team had the memory of having beaten the Eagles in Philadelphia earlier in the season and the strong temptation was to think that it was just an off night, that they got punched early and often and couldn’t recover. In their minds, it wasn’t that there was a great talent disparity between the two teams; it was just an off night. Then they gutted out a win in Tennessee despite a mind-boggling run of injuries being suffered both before and during the game. A week later the Vikings won after a Brandon Banks punt return for a touchdown was called back by a penalty for an illegal block that didn’t have any effect on the play. That gave them a crutch. It was a game that the “could” have one, maybe even on that they “should” have won. There were no such illusions after the Giants game.

There also are some thoughts about Albert-Shanahan in the article:

I don’t quite know how to react when people blame Mike Shanahan for the Albert Haynesworth mess. Since when is establishing rules, norms, and procedures, the kind that any organization needs to be effective, being on a power trip or being a control freak? Not that Shanahan has handled things flawlessly. But blaming him for the fact that Haynesworth’s relationship with the organization is now irreversibly in shambles would be like blaming the cop for a burglary because he arrested the guy who broke into the house.

Go here to read the complete article.

Come chat about the Redskins

We'll get Tuesdays With Tandler going at about 6:00 PM tonight (this being Tuesday and all) on CSNwashington.com. Can they make a playoff run? Do they have a running back they can count on? What about the Redskins' lack of a home field advantage? Come chat about it. Just go here starting at 6:00

Back to the future: Redskins channel ' 09 defense

A recurring theme during chats, Twitter conversations and blog comments is that the Redskins would have been much better off is they would have left the 2009 Washington Redskins defense alone. That group was ranked 10^th in the NFL in terms of yardage and many fans long for the days of that 4-3 scheme as opposed to the 3-4 unit that has spent most of the year at or near the bottom of the NFL’s yardage heap. Those who liked the 2009 defense must have loved Sunday’s game against the Vikings. It’s as though they found a Hot Tub Time Machine and transported that ‘09 unit to FedEx Field.

Be sure to check out the mind-boggling stats about the running game later in the article.

Click here to read the complete article.