A Thought Experiment On Changes To Make

[turtle28]

2 hours ago, Woz said:

How many of the guys did the Redskins draft/sign come from playing in a 4-3? Most high schools and colleges play a 4-3, as do about half of the NFL (and if memory serves, most of the teams we signed talent away from).

In order to have someone overcome years of training in one system, you have to have good teachers. The Redskins have not had good teachers. That puts the talent at a disadvantage.

We can play the "what if" game until the cows come home, and never convince each other. I have at least granted the fact that the talent the team acquired was not good/ignored for too long. As far as I can remember, you have never admitted that the coaching staff(s) have been an issue. Isn't it strange that both Haslett and Barry had to go back to being position coaches instead of DCs after they left Washington (Haslett was last a LB coach in '96; Barry only went two years before dropping back down to positional)? If they were good coordinators, wouldn't they have gotten a shot somewhere that isn't the insanity circus that is DC?

Almost all players come from a 4-3 in high school amen college. It works for other teams but they draft better players than we did from 2010-2014.

We’ve been over this every since 2010. Most of the 2011 draft was a bust except for Kerrigan (who we drafted Instead of Watt) and Niles Paul. They made mistakes in 2012 and 13 on which defenders they took or who they passed on etc.  

There’s so many mistakes they made in the draft and Shanahan was the one scouting those players for the most part.

Then, Allen & co made a mistake in 2014 when they traded down instead of drafting Tuitt. It’s not like those players weren’t there to be taken that fit our scheme, we just drafts the wrong guys.

[e16bball]

One thing I think it’s important to keep in mind in the defensive front discussion is that from a talent standpoint, you kind of want to zig when most of the league is zagging. 

It’s why a big part of why I hated the 3-4 move when they made it. The 3-4 alignment was all the rage at that point, lots of teams were succeeding with it and lots of others were following suit. That meant that the demand for players who “fit” that particular front was at its peak, meaning that the players we needed to effectively transition (huge NT, outside pass rushers, downhill thumpers, versatile 5 techs, etc) were particularly scarce at that point. 

Now the trend is sort of moving away from a 3-4 base. Which, in my view, means we should stick with it. I don’t think you would have seen players as talented as Jonathan Allen, Reuben Foster, Takk McKinley, TJ Watt, etc. dropping to the late teens or 20s in the draft 5 or 6 years ago. But now, lots of teams don’t have a great fit for those types of guys. We can continue to take advantage of that  

 

The 3-4 is, and always has been, a little more “player type” dependent than a 4 man front. You can’t run it without certain kinds of players. The Redskins have pretty consistently struggled with recognizing that, especially in their continued attempts to get cute/go cheap at the NT position, but they’re actually pretty close to having the pieces in place now. With Ioaniddis/Allen and Kerrigan/Smith, they’ve got the DE and OLB spots in good hands moving forward. They’ve also got probably one ILB spot covered pretty well. They need a true NT in the worst way and they need an ILB who can cover (which they definitely don’t have on the roster currently), but they’re pretty close. I don’t think now is the time to change course. Finish the job of building that front 7, don’t start it over from scratch again. 

[turtle28]

1 hour ago, e16bball said:

One thing I think it’s important to keep in mind in the defensive front discussion is that from a talent standpoint, you kind of want to zig when most of the league is zagging. 

It’s why a big part of why I hated the 3-4 move when they made it. The 3-4 alignment was all the rage at that point, lots of teams were succeeding with it and lots of others were following suit. That meant that the demand for players who “fit” that particular front was at its peak, meaning that the players we needed to effectively transition (huge NT, outside pass rushers, downhill thumpers, versatile 5 techs, etc) were particularly scarce at that point. 

Now the trend is sort of moving away from a 3-4 base. Which, in my view, means we should stick with it. I don’t think you would have seen players as talented as Jonathan Allen, Reuben Foster, Takk McKinley, TJ Watt, etc. dropping to the late teens or 20s in the draft 5 or 6 years ago. But now, lots of teams don’t have a great fit for those types of guys. We can continue to take advantage of that  

 

The 3-4 is, and always has been, a little more “player type” dependent than a 4 man front. You can’t run it without certain kinds of players. The Redskins have pretty consistently struggled with recognizing that, especially in their continued attempts to get cute/go cheap at the NT position, but they’re actually pretty close to having the pieces in place now. With Ioaniddis/Allen and Kerrigan/Smith, they’ve got the DE and OLB spots in good hands moving forward. They’ve also got probably one ILB spot covered pretty well. They need a true NT in the worst way and they need an ILB who can cover (which they definitely don’t have on the roster currently), but they’re pretty close. I don’t think now is the time to change course. Finish the job of building that front 7, don’t start it over from scratch again. 

I’d love to get Roquan Smith in round 1 and then hope Vea falls to round 2. If we got those 2 our front 7 would be a hell of a lot better.