In another time, in another place Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder would be rubbing his hands together in gleeful anticipation of a check writing marathon. With all of the big name free agents up for grabs from this 2011 free agent class, it would have been a fantasy football team owner’s dream come true. The possibility for spending money boggles the mind.
The sad truth is that, as the deadline for the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) approaches, it is more and more likely that nothing truly constructive will happen between the owners and the NFLPA. It appears that the “L” word is going to be the big one of the off-season… and guess what… it isn’t “love”.
Rick Snider of the Washington Examiner wrote a fine article predicting a timeline of the coming off-season and it’s pretty scary. He describes a realistic scenario where the off-season is thoroughly interrupted because of the strategy of both sides of the CBA battle not wanting to give in too soon. The real possibility exists that nothing will get done until as late as mid-August.
Beside the casualty of small businesses sustained by the game of professional football in cities all across America in this battle, there is another victim – a product named "Quality NFL Football.”
Snider predicts that the negotiations will not be completed until the zero hour, two weeks before the regular season begins. If things take as long as Snider thinks they will, there will be no time for Organized Team Activities (OTAs), mini-camps, training camps or preseason games.
They will push the season back a couple of weeks and by the time a CBA is in place, enough money will have been lost that I would bet that owners will want to "get the show on the road."
“Hurry up!” they will say. “We did it! Let’s play football!”
Although most players will continue to work out this off-season as usual (will they want to pay for trainers?), what kind of product are we going to see when they finally take the field? OTAs, mini-camps and training camps not only help players learn their team’s systems; they get them into football shape. Players get strong. They increase their endurance. They make violent physical contact with other players.
We’ve heard Redskins safety LaRon Landry talk about that first hit in preseason and getting it out-of-the-way. How many players will get hurt because they are not in good enough shape to play the game - especially if the league moves to an 18 game regular season? What kind of product are teams likely to put on the field with players that have had an inadequate amount of practice?
(All of the teams will have had to deal with the same problem of no practices… this lends equality to the situation at least...)
An irony in all of this is that Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder has finally become the owner fans have wanted him to be for ten years: hiring General Manager Bruce Allen and a credible head coach in Mike Shanahan, and then stepping back and letting them do their jobs. This is the beginning of this team becoming successful. Even so, this past 2010 season had the Redskins struggling to put a quality product on the field several times. I would hate to see this (think Philadelphia Eagles, Monday Night Football and a score of 59 – 28) become the norm rather the exception because of this situation with the CBA.
In 2011, the Redskins will be heading into Year Two under Shanahan. In any other situation, there would be optimism that the offensive and defensive systems would be more successful. If Rick Snider has become the Nostradamus of the NFL (and he gets it right a lot), it likely won’t happen for the Redskins this year.
Will the successful teams in 2011 be the teams that have the least amount of change both in system and in personnel? With such few practices before the regular season begins, I would not be surprised if not bringing in new talent requiring learning a new system is the recipe for success in 2011.
Unfortunately for Redskins fans, there are so many needs on the team, that new talent must be introduced into the team. Without camps and OTAs, how are the players going to learn the system and what are we going to see when they finally take the field?
All of this doesn't even take into account the prospects of scrubs coming in to play if there is a player lockout or strike and the resulting fan revolt if said fans are forced to pay full price for tickets.
Hail.
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