Alright, so I'm gonna attempt to write an entire blog on my cell phone(I failed and as you can see have since edited it), connected to the Bob Evans' wifi while I'm waiting for my Sante Fe to go through winterization... this should be fun... oh and it isn't letting me use capital letters or some punctuation, lovely... here we go.
So I was thinking about how much surroundings and circumstances design and build who who people become in sports. I have a couple different concepts that I believe we have all thought of before. I want to put a slight spin on it though.
The first being. Even if we knew who would be great ahead of time, if they came to the Redskins or we drafted them, would they become the players they are today?? Ofcourse I am putting this in a Redskins spin because we've really missed on opportunities in the draft and even free agency over the past 15 years. Now obviously in some situations that is an absolute NO. Would Tom Brady become Tom Brady for any other team besides The Patriots? I definitely think not. Every single team passed on him multiple times. Part of what made Brady who he is today are his coaches and more specifically, Bill Belichick.
The idea that if I took a trip back in time ten years and all my knowledge of the last ten drafts and loaded our team with Haloti Ngatas, Chris Johnsons, DeMarcus Wares, Clay Matthews and Reggie Waynes, would they become the same players we know and love today??? Would Danny even heed my factual wisdom??? Here's a list of a couple big misses we've had(and every team has had a some) over the last 10 years. I'll give you a look at who we could have had and also could have had even if we took the same position player, assuming that the position we drafted was in fact the correct need at the correct time. Just something to remember, my draft strategy is very different then the skins, I am a trenches first kind of guy. O and D lines are what I care for most. That may or may not show up in this list.
2001: 15th Pick: WR Rod Gardener - passed on: Reggie Wayne, Drew Brees, Matt Light and Chad Johnson
2002: 32nd Pick: QB Patrick Ramsey - passed on: Bart Scott, James Harrison, Michael Lewis
2003: No 1st Rounder - Lost the 13th pick to the Jets for Lav Coles(REALLY?) and thus missed on Troy Polamalu, Dallas Clark and Nnamdi Asomugha. After only having a 2nd rounder selected WR Taylor Jacobs and passed on Anquan Boldin, Dallas Clark, Antonio Gates, Osi Umenyiora, Lance Brigss and Asante Samuel.
2004: 5th Pick: Correct Selection of: FS Sean Taylor - 3rd Rounder: Chris Cooley. No 2nd and 4th. 5th could have been Michael Turner, Wes Welker, Jason Peters
2005: 9th Pick: Carlos Rogers / 25th Pick: QB Jason Campbell - Passed on DeMarcus Ware, Jamaal Brown, Aaron Rodgers, Roddy White and had NO 2nd or 3rd rounder.
2006: Again no 1st, 3rd or 4th Rounder - lost the 22nd pick but had the 35th pick and took LB Rocky McIntosh and thus missed: Nick Mangold, Marcus McNeil, Greg Jennings, MJD, Brandon Marshall, Miles Austin... rough draft
2007: 6th Pick: I believe correct pick of LaRon Landry despite passing on: Adrian Peterson, Patrick Willis, Revis Island. SHOCKER, the Redskins also had NO 2nd, 3rd OR 4th round selections
2008: No 1st rounder: 3 2nd rounders: 34th: WR Devin Thomas, 48th: TE Fred Davis, 51st: WR Malcom Kelly - missed on A TON: Ray Rice, Desean Jackson, Jamaal Charles and when they traded away the 1st rounder missed out on Chris Johnson, Sam Baker and Rashard Mendenhall
2009: 13th Pick: The correct selection of LB Brian Orakpo, despite Clay Matthews and Brian Cushing both being available. No second rounder because of the One-Year-Not-So-Wonder Jason Taylor trade and yet didn't seem to miss on anyone exceptional.
2010: 4th pick: Trent "Silverback" Williams - No 2nd rounder(thank you Donovan McNabb) thus missing: Nate Allen, Jermaine Cinngingham, Carlos Dunlap, Mike Williams and Ricky Sapp.
What do we see most from this list? Well, i don't expect us to make all the right choices when it comes to players. But the fact that we selected 4 good players in 70 rounds of drafting over the last 10 years is a problem. That is an astonishing embarrassment!! This has to change or The Washington Redskins will never win another Super Bowl ever again. Mark my words.
Before we shut this down I want to take a final look into the idea of how circumstances and surroundings effect a player. I'm only going to use one example and I'm sure you'll think of a lot yourself.
What if it sounded a little more like this: With the 1st pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, the San Fransisco 49ers select: Aaron Rodgers, Quarterback from California...
What would have changed? Prior to the draft it was unknown who the 1st pick would be and Mel Kiper Jr actually had Aaron Rodgers as the 3rd best player available and the top QB with Alex Smith as the 4th best player and 2nd best QB. I remember people saying that had Rodgers gone 1st then it would have changed the whole board because like 6 teams in the top 10 would have selected Alex Smith. In hind sight it was the wrong decision as we can all see. We have to look at how the situation was different.
Aaron Rodgers got to sit behind Brett Favre, arguably the best QB of all time on a 10-6 team that won their division. Alex Smith started right off the bat for a team who went 2-14 the year before. Rodgers also got to mature while watching the whole Ted Thompson-Brett Favre situation hit the bloody wall. By the time he came out to start, it was a fresh start for the city and the expectations of his 20 pick falloff a couple years earlier had made it much easier for him to play without the weight of an organization on his shoulders. You also have to look at what impact his coaching staff had been. Alex Smith went into 1st time Head Coach Mike Nolan's defense first, rookie head coaching hands. It must be noted that Mike Nolan is currently the D-Coordinator for the Miami Dolphins and not the Head Coach of the 49ers. Mike McCarthy just ended up as the right person for the Green Bay Packers and Rodgers became the right Quarterback and thus the story is now what it is today.
Would Rodgers been the same if he was a 49er. Impossible. Worse? Maybe. Better? Possibly. Different? Absolutely.
Now how do we make sure the Redskins move closer to the Green Bay Packers then the San Fransisco 49ers in this scenario. I have some ideas. But Danny doesn't care about my ideas...
No comments:
Post a Comment