Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

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

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.

Redskins ' takeaways have high impact

At the midway point of the season, the Redskins have 19 takeaways after forcing just 17 all of last year. Not only has the quantity of the turnovers been high but they have had a major impact on the outcomes of the Redskins games. Many have occurred at key moments of the game and have either led directly to the points for the Redskins or have prevented what seemed to be certain scoring opportunities for the other team. Since all of the Redskins games have been close, many of the takeaways have been critical to the outcomes of games. I looked at all 19 of the Redskins turnovers this year and rated the impact of each of them. There is some subjectivity involved here, but here are the general criteria for the ratings: High—A takeaway that either led directly to a Redskins score or prevented one in a game that the Redskins won. Since all of the Redskins wins have been by six points or fewer, these turnovers played a hand in a Redskins win.

Here's the link to the full article:

In Depth: Redskins Takeaways Have High Impact

In terms of yards, Redskins D historically bad

Stat of the day, at least: The 2,520 yards that the Redskins have allowed through the first six games of this season is the fifth-most yardage any team in NFL history has allowed through the first six games of any season. Ever. The Redskins D, however, is not really that bad They are in the middle of the pack in terms of points allowed and, of course, they are 3-3. So what's going on? Take a look at my article on CSN Washington and drop back by and hit the poll.

Redskins Yield Yards, Not Points

[polldaddy poll=3965195]

Shanahan: Carlos catches them in practice

A quick clip from Kelly Johnson's weekly exclusive interview with Mike Shanahan. He says that Carlos Rogers catches interceptions in practice. Take a look and then take the poll: [polldaddy poll=3949156]

Smoot on the way out?

[caption id="attachment_1906" align="aligncenter" width="328" caption="Justin Tryon has taken Smoot's job"][/caption]

According to the Washington Times' Ryan O'Halloran's review of the Washington Redskins game against the Bucs, Fred Smoot participated in just one play the 16-13 win over Tampa Bay. One play. And that, O'Halloran said, came at safety near the end of the first half. Ouch. Justin Tryon has taken his place at nickel back and he played well. He has something that Smoot never had much of and has even less of now—speed. Tryon quieted some critics who thought that he should have been cut based on his coverage problems in the past two seasons. While he may not be ready for prime time he hasn't embarrassed himself when he has taken snaps in defense either this year or last.

Doughty to start

[caption id="attachment_1804" align="alignleft" width="132" caption="Doughty"][/caption] According to Larry Weisman of the Washington Redskins, Reed Doughty has been promoted into the starting lineup in place of Chris Horton. Horton made a key pass interference penalty in the Detroit game, setting up what proved to be the winning points for the Lions. But he made some key plays against the Rams, including forcing a fumble deep in Washington territory to preserve the Redskins' two-point lead. [caption id="attachment_1803" align="alignright" width="112" caption="Horton"][/caption] Defensive coordinator Greg Blache said that the defense will become more aggressive this week and blitz inexperienced Tampa Bay quarterback Josh Johnson. The promotion of Doughty would indicate that Blache trusts him in coverage more than he trusts Horton. The Redskins have been lining up with three safeties in passing situations frequently this year, so Horton is likely to see plenty of action. In fact, he might be one of those who blitz Johnson on passing downs while Doughty handles the deep coverage. Blache has decided that he needs to get out of his comfort zone if the defense is going to be effective. "I've got to be a little more of a maverick," Blache said.

Must-read —off-man coverage

[caption id="attachment_1617" align="aligncenter" width="278" caption="Smoot prefers press coverage"][/caption]

During the game time live blog and during the new Monday Night Town Hall Meeting (we're doing a Thursday Night Town Hall, too, right here, 7:00 p. m.) there were a lot of questions/complaints about the Redskins soft coverage on the Giants receivers. Nobody had a good answer as to why they play so far back.

Nobody, that is, until John Keim, the best X's and O's man covering the Redskins, asked some people and wrote up an article about it. That article, which appears here, breaks it down in easy to understand terms. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to complain about the defensive scheme. I don't want to go into too much about it here because you really should read the article, but there are advantages and disadvantages to playing off-man coverage and there are to playing press coverage as well. If you're playing off man, you can read the quarterback and the flow of the play and react to that. If you're not exactly in the right spot, however (7-9 yards off the line of scrimmage, depending on the specific defense called), or if you read the quarterback incorrectly, you'll get beat. It's in the execution, not the call. In press coverage, you get a bead on the receiver but you have to focus mostly on him and it's more difficult to read the quarterback. Press coverage also tips off that the defense is in man to man. It's easier to disguise the coverage in off man. So, check out the article and discuss it in the comments.

Tryon as Plan B

[caption id="attachment_1373" align="aligncenter" width="457" caption="Rogers may fly the coop in 2010"][/caption]

After I posted about Justin Tryon yesterday, I thought a bit more about what Darrell Green said about him. In particular, this part jumped out at me: ". . . he's a starter in 2009, 2010 or whenever the opportunity comes." What jumped out at me was the mention of 2010. Carlos Rogers will be a free agent next year, restricted or unrestricted depending on whether or not there is a new CBA. If he hits the free agent market he is likely to be a fairly highly sought after player assuming that he has a solid 2009. That's fine; you want to have players that other teams want. But you don't want to be in a position where you're forced to break the bank because you have nobody on the team that can replace that player. So, if Tryon lives up to Green's words, the Skins will be in a pretty good position when it comes to dealing with Rogers. If the bidding gets too high they can just let him go, knowing that a solid replacement, a player that they—gasp—drafted. Now, I don't want everyone to think that I believe that Tryon is as good a Rogers or that I'm trying to run Rogers out of town. Neither of those is the case. I think that Rogers is highly underappreciated. He drops passes that other CB's wouldn't be in position to get their hands on. But the world of sports is unlike that of other businesses in that the prices are set by your dumbest competitor. Often the Redskins are in the role of being that dumbest competitor. In this situation they might be able to draw a line in the stand and, if the bidding goes past that, let Rogers walk and have a cornerback who's working off of a fourth-round draftee rookie deal for the next two seasons. It's probably too much to hope to think it would be the start of a trend or anything like that, but any succession planning taking place at all is a welcome development.

Will Orakpo become a holdout?

[caption id="attachment_1000" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="When will Brian Orakpo see the field?"][/caption]

With less than 24 hours remaining until the first practice the Washington Redskins have yet to sign their top draft pick, Brian Orakpo. There has been no public negotiating which generally is a good sign. Michael Crabtree, the Texas Tech receiver taken at No. 10 is demanding top-three money, and that's not sitting well with the 49ers management. But no news isn't necessarily good news. It would indicate that there is a waiting game going on involving the slotting system. Rookie contracts generally are based on slots. Basically, a player get a little more money than the player drafted immediately after him and a bit less than the one take right before him. This "system", such as it is, relies on slots getting filled so that there is a basis for comparison at a given spot. As of right now, though, there isn't a slot to determine Orakpo's deal; in fact it's not even close. He's in the middle of a gulf. The Texas defensive end/linebacker was taken with the 13^th selection of the first round. On the higher side, the closest pick signed is Mark Sanchez, taken fifth overall. In addition to being eight picks away, Sanchez is a quarterback. They get the chicks and make more dough, so his deal is not a good basis for comparison. On the low side is center Alex Mack, taken at No. 21 by Cleveland. So we're looking at eight slots on that end. Orakpo is the man in the middle. There is another way of getting this done. Mack got a deal that was 12% higher than that of the player taken 21^st in 2008. The Redskins and Orakpo's agents, Ben Dogra andMichael Lartigue of CAA, could look at the contract signed by Carolina running back Jonathan Stewart last year and add 12% to that. The result would be a five-year contract worth about $15.6 million. Start there, build in a few incentives, call it a deal, and get Orakpo out on the practice field. This would serve the team and the player well but the agents will be hesitant of getting burned. God forbid the 12^th pick and/or the 14^th pick get deals 13% higher than last year. The reputations of Dorga and Lartigue would suffer (from their point of view, anyway), they would stand to be accused of leaving money on the table, and they believe they will have trouble lining up first-rounders in the future. So, the waiting game continues. If Orakpo misses Thursday and Friday it won't damage his development to any great extent. But I'll bet you that by Friday, Greg Blache or another defensive coach will be lamenting his absence and saying that each lost day is like missing two days. Sometimes that's just coach speak but in this case, with Orakpo being counted on the man two positions, it's not too far from the truth. It could be worse. The Washington Redskins could be having trouble getting a sixth-round pick into camp as the San Diego Chargers are. And they hardly are alone, with only five of the 32 first-round picks having inked contracts as of Wednesday morning. Still, it would be good to get the guy they're counting on so much into the fray as soon as possible.