REDSKINS 101

I'm not quite sure when it happened but at some point in the last 15 years or so Redskins' fans began to question everything the front office did. Coaching moves, players moves, and what lawn service Fed Ex Field was using.

No matter the move there was usually a vocal majority ridiculing it.  Granted in the years with Vincent Cerrato and Dan Snyder calling the shots a lot of the criticism were warranted.

However, those two aren't calling the shots anymore. Now acquisition of players rest with general manager Bruce Allen and head coach Mike Shanahan.  When those two took over there was a lot of personnel moves that needed to be made. The first was getting rid of a lot of over inflated salaries.  Then it was on to rebuilding the team.

Sure there were groans about adding Donovan McNabb, though I personally think that was the last of the Dan Snyder moves then a Mike Shanahan/Bruce Allen move, and of course we can't forget starting Rex Grossman and John Beck last season, but honestly who else was going to play quarterback? From what we've seen so far of Jake Locker, Christian Ponder, and Blaine Gabbert (all QBs the Skins could have drafted in 2011) suffering with Rex Grossman and John Beck for a season to get Robert Griffin III was worth it.

Unlike Snyder and Cerrato, Allen and Shanahan are trying to buy a winner right off the bat. They're trying to build a young core group that can make several runs much like the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts of the last decade. So instead of reaching on a quarterback they looked at who might be coming out the following season and felt that waiting it out with Rex was the best option.

Then this past off-season the Redskins (along with the Cowboys) were hit with a very unfair salary cap fine which severely hurt their free agent prospects.  With a solid front seven the thought would be that the Skins would go after cornerbacks and offensive linemen.

Cornerbacks were thin in free agency this season so the prices were steep and the Skins didn't really bring in anyone. The same could be said for offensive linemen. Anyone who would have been an upgrade to what the Skins already had were a bit out of price range. 

Instead Allen and Shanahan decided that getting weapons for their rookie quarterback was probably the best move. They signed Pierre Garcon and Josh Morgan. Garcon had a fabulous debut before suffering a foot injury and Josh Morgan, well we'll just have to wait and see since his biggest impact so far has been to cost the Skins 15 yards on a bone head penalty which led to a loss to the Rams.

In spite of some of the missteps by the defense and special teams this offense of the Redskins hasn't been this good since Steve Spurrier was here. 

Even though we all groaned about not getting defensive backs or linemen I believe surround RG3 with weapons was the smarter move. Even if the Skins would have filled their holes in the secondary and on the line (which they wouldn't have been able to afford to do) they probably still wouldn't be better the 1-1 right now. In fact I'd probably still have them at 9-7 as a final record except the difference would be they'd be winning games 17-14 or 21-17, something like that. Instead their games have been 40-32 and 31-28 and RG3 looks like the real deal.

Had Allen and Shanahan not surrounded RG3 with these weapons he might not be 39 of 55 passes, with three touchdown, only one interception and a passer rating of 111.6% and the risk of being booed in the home opener against the Bengals. No, Allen and Shanahan did everything they could to make sure the Griffin was a success in his first year in the NFL and will focus more on holes in the 2013 off-season.

There are a lot of naysayers out there in Redskins Nation who want to see Shanahan fail (why I don't know) but so far it seems that he's dialing up the right player moves and is setting up this franchise to be successful long after he's retired from coaching.

Tags: Bruce Allen, Dan Snyder, Football, Mike Shanahan, NFL, RG3, Robert Griffin III, Washington, Washington Redskins

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