Bill Barnwell/ESPN: Ranking each NFL teams offseason (Redskins #11)

[MikeT14]

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29180831/ranking-2020-nfl-offseasons-worst-first-barnwell-all-32-teams 

Here's our excerpt: 

Quote

11. Washington

What went right: After landing Ron Rivera as the team's new coach, the two-time Coach of the Year went right to work attempting to fix the defense. Washington brought back Kendall Fuller, reunited Rivera with longtime Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis, and took one-year fliers on defensive backs Sean Davis and Ronald Darby and linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis. The secondary has been a mess in Washington for years, and moving on from Josh Norman likely qualifies as addition by subtraction. The team topped the transformation off by using the No. 2 overall pick on Chase Young, who projects as a transformative pass-rusher.

What went wrong: Most of the deals I mentioned were reasonable, but the four-year, $40 million deal given to Fuller was too generous for a player who has played only one above-average season. The team also sold low on two disgruntled veterans in tackle Trent Williams and cornerback Quinton Dunbar, although I'm pushing some of the blame for the modest Williams return on deposed executive Bruce Allen. Dunbar, meanwhile, was charged with armed robbery last week.

Rivera didn't do enough to support second-year quarterback Dwayne Haskins. The only veteran receivers Washington imported this offseason were roster fodder like Logan Thomas, Richard Rodgers and Cody Latimer, the latter of whom was arrested Saturday on five charges related to discharging his weapon in a Colorado apartment. The organization added Antonio Gibson in the third round and Antonio Gandy-Golden in the fourth round of the draft, but its move to give up a second-rounder to jump up eight spots last year to draft edge rusher Montez Sweat cost it a chance at adding a more notable wide receiver with the No. 34 pick.

What they could have done differently: When Robby Anderson's price dipped, I would have liked to have seen Washington target the former Jets wideout on a similar sort of contract to the two-year, $20 million pact he inked with Carolina. Anderson is probably stretched as a No. 1 wideout, but he would have made an excellent No. 2 across from budding star Terry McLaurin.

What's left to do: Extend Brandon Scherff. After losing Williams, the next thing for Washington to do to protect Haskins is to retain its star guard. Scherff was retained via the franchise tag on a one-year, $15 million pact, and I'd expect the Iowa product to top that figure on an average annual salary across a new deal. A Scherff extension would likely come in somewhere around five years and $75 million.

 

 

[turtle28]

Trading up for Sweat was the right move last year. We couldn't have predicted that we’d have a chance to pick Chase Young this year and Kerrigan is on the down side of his career. I have no problem with the Fuller contract - of course we'd like the deal to be cheaper - but you can say that about every player ever signed. The guy needs to look up the Fuller deal, after two years I believe they can get out of it if Fuller isn't playing like a #1 or at least like a #1b.

Robby Anderson and Terry McLaurin play the same WR position, so no thanks to signing Anderson, especially not at that price. It wouldn't make much sense to sign another flanker. Upgrading Harmon on the opposite side at split end/more a possession WR would have made sense in FA. Anderson is fast but not very physical and I’d hate to move McLaurin out of the flanker position.

He hit the head on Trent & Dunny, but those two forced their way out of DC. They are on better teams now, but possibly will lose out on a big payday that the Redskins may have been willing to give to them if they had played in DC this year and played well, Dunny in particular.

He left out who they tried to sign (Greg Olson, Cooper & Hopper). If we had just outspent everyone to get those guys like Cerrato & Snyder did last decade and just had given out $150 million more in contracts for 3 free agents, we could have had them all.
 

Was that a good idea?
 

Maybe that's a good idea but it hasn't always worked out for this franchise to do that. 

So, after that didn't work out, they went cheaper in FA to let the young guys play and develop. I like that approach but I hope it's just for this season. If we are 5-11, Haskins continues to progress and then we get another top 10 pick then, I hope we sign a few guys on O & D next March and then, that can help take us from 5-11/6-10 to a playoff contender next year in 2021.

That’s the plan I hope Rivera has at least.

Edited May 21, 2020 by turtle28

[offbyone]

Interesting they are giving us so much love.  I think 11 is generous.  Landing Rivera was a huge positive, but outside of that we didn't do anything special and definitely failed in the long term improvement category.  Sure Chase Young is great, but that was a given.  They notably forget the lack of a tight end solution.  

[Jeezy Fanatic]

Firing Bruce, hiring Ron, and getting Chase Young is probably enough to offset not finding many impact players in free agency.

[aceinthehouse]

Switching from 34 to 43 on defense is worth 10 spots alone.

[turtle28]

3 hours ago, aceinthehouse said:

Switching from 34 to 43 on defense is worth 10 spots alone.

I doubt it. It may be worth a few, but you don’t win w/o great talent. Now, our front 4 got better w/ the addition of Chase, our LBs are going to be equal to the last several years after London retired - just avg unless Foster is totally healthy which is unlikely - and our secondary is not likely to be better than it’s been most of the decade - again avg at best.

On top of that the Alabama part of our front 7 hasn’t played in a 4-3 since HS. Kerrigan, Ioannidis, JHC and Settle haven’t played in a 4-3 since college. That was years ago for those guys, 10 years ago for Kerrigan, 5 years ago for Ioannidis, 5 for KPL, 4 for JHC and 3 for Settle. 
 

JHC has never played WLB in a 4-3, he only played ILB in a 3-4. Maybe it’s not a big change & different for our young front 7 players and Kerrigan, but maybe it is. They have to install an entire new offense and defense possibly w/o a real offseason where they have Mini-Camps, OTAs, Training Camp and Preseason. Our team is going to be behind the eight ball bc of all this change and what COVID has done to this offseason. I think it’s unrealistic to expect this D to be 10 spots better just off of a switch in schemes. If the talent isn’t there to be better than avg and I don’t know it is other than at our front 4, then I don’t see how the D isn’t what the talent says... Average.

 

 

Edited May 21, 2020 by turtle28

[e16bball]

6 hours ago, Jeezy Fanatic said:

Firing Bruce, hiring Ron, and getting Chase Young is probably enough to offset not finding many impact players in free agency.

This. Big this. 

I assume most of this ranking (and any positive ranking of the Redskins offseason) stems from moving from Jay and Bruce to Ron and Kyle. And adding in the player virtually everyone considered the best prospect in the draft just ices the cake in terms of overviews of our offseason. The rest of the personnel moves sorta fade into the background because (a) there really weren’t the many that moved the needle in either direction and (b) who cares? The wicked witch is dead and so it’s a happy new day in munchkin land. 

[naptownskinsfan]

50 minutes ago, e16bball said:

This. Big this. 

I assume most of this ranking (and any positive ranking of the Redskins offseason) stems from moving from Jay and Bruce to Ron and Kyle. And adding in the player virtually everyone considered the best prospect in the draft just ices the cake in terms of overviews of our offseason. The rest of the personnel moves sorta fade into the background because (a) there really weren’t the many that moved the needle in either direction and (b) who cares? The wicked witch is dead and so it’s a happy new day in munchkin land. 

[MKnight82]

Getting rid of Bruce Allen is bigger than what any other team did this offseason.  

[ovfd55]

3 hours ago, MKnight82 said:

Getting rid of Bruce Allen is bigger than what any other team did this offseason.  

Agree 

Also don't think there was a bigger upgrade going from Greg Manusky to Jack Del Rio as DC in the NFL this offseason

[naptownskinsfan]

7 hours ago, ovfd55 said:

Agree 

Also don't think there was a bigger upgrade going from Greg Manusky to Jack Del Rio as DC in the NFL this offseason

I've never been a fan of Rod Marinelli and the Tampa 2 as a primary scheme, so the Cowboys come pretty close with their hire of Mike Nolan.  

I also looked at the OC hires this off-season, and I've got to say......a lot of retreads got jobs.  Bill Lazor is back as an OC,  Hell, Chan Gailey was out of football for three years and he got an OC job.  

One of the most under the radar coaching signings was the Steelers hiring Matt Canada as their QB coach.  If they give him a voice in the offensive gameplan, I expect some dynamic things to happen. 

[turtle28]

6 hours ago, naptownskinsfan said:

I've never been a fan of Rod Marinelli and the Tampa 2 as a primary scheme, so the Cowboys come pretty close with their hire of Mike Nolan.  

I also looked at the OC hires this off-season, and I've got to say......a lot of retreads got jobs.  Bill Lazor is back as an OC,  Hell, Chan Gailey was out of football for three years and he got an OC job.  

One of the most under the radar coaching signings was the Steelers hiring Matt Canada as their QB coach.  If they give him a voice in the offensive gameplan, I expect some dynamic things to happen. 

If Ben’s elbow doesn't hold up, the Steelers are going to be avg at best again. Coordinators can only do so much. The steelers O was downright awful at times last year w/o Ben.