Washington Redskins/NFL: Quality of Product in Danger

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.

Washington Redskins: Season Is Over But Not For Long

The football season came and went quickly this year. It seems like just the other day I was standing down on the practice fields during the Washington Redskins’ Organized Team Activities (OTAs) wishing I’d remembered to put on sun block. Larry Michael from Redskins Nation was saying, “Only 30 more days until the first preseason game, folks!” and we were grumbling about defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth training down in Tennessee rather than with the team.

While the season is over for the Washington Redskins, the playoffs will keep NFL fans busy for a while longer. The playoffs go throughout the month of January, the Pro Bowl is January 30 and the Superbowl is in early February (the 6th this year in Dallas).

Thankfully for professional football addicts like me, because of things like the NFL Network and the Internet, it’s true that the football season never truly ends anymore. There is free agency and the draft. Then shortly after, players reconvene in mini-camps and OTAs all throughout the league.

This year, that intense beauty pageant for top college football players that is called the NFL Scouting Combine starts on February 23 and goes through March 1, 2011. There is comprehensive TV coverage of this on the NFL Network.

(By the way, it’s interesting that the NFL uses the pronunciation of the word that is associated with a piece of agricultural equipment – i.e., a harvester - and uses the form pronounced com’bine as opposed to putting the emphasis on the second syllable as in com’bine… which means “to bring into a state of unity; to join forces for common purpose” which is the reason NFL teams and owners originally created the event - in order to ascertain medical information on the top draft eligible prospects in college football. I’m just saying… I guess the former pronunciation is cooler).

With the Superbowl being played on February 6, there is less than three weeks from that last game of the 2010 season until “it” all starts over again.

Free agent signings and movement will be interesting this off-season because of the situation surrounding the CBA. With the 2011 NFL Draft (thankfully, still) taking place on April 28-30 (at Radio City Music Hall in New York), top college football players will have the professional football world’s attention. They will keep minds occupied from the final whistle of Super Bowl XLV, through the combine until the end of the draft itself.

This off-season, the Redskins have some free agents with contracts expiring and what happens where they are concerned will garner a lot of attention. Key players about which head coach Mike Shanahan must make decisions are quarterback Rex Grossman, wide receiver Santana Moss, cornerbacks Carlos Rogers and Phillip Buchanon, right tackle Jammal Brown, defensive end Kedric Golston, linebacker Rocky McIntosh and safety Reed Doughty. Generally “free agency” ends about a week before the draft.

There was talk about what position(s) the Redskins need to concentrate on in the draft as soon as it was determined that they were not going to have a shot at the playoffs. With the situation unfolding around quarterback Donovan McNabb being benched there is speculation that he will not be back for the 2011 season. If not, the quarterback position must be addressed. By the same token, all season long we have lamented the neglect by the previous regime of the offensive and defensive lines. Additionally, many have opined that there are skill positions on which focus is important. Running back (will Clinton Portis be back? Is Ryan Torain a 25-carry-per-game back?), wide receiver (a taller end-zone threat to compliment Moss who rules in the slot?) and safety (ever since we lost Sean Taylor, fans have wanted to find a similar compliment to LaRon Landry… we’ll never have a pair like those two would have been but one can dream). 

Also, with Shanahan saying he wants the team to "go younger," the draft will be even more important. At least since it is General Manager Bruce Allen and Shanahan running the organization rather than Vinny Cerrato, we can count on having some draft picks left when the event comes around.

Last year, many of the Redskins players stayed around for much of the off-season. McNabb was brought to the team in early April and he was often out in Ashburn working out and getting to know his teammates. If the players take the same initiative this coming season, there will be things to report on and discuss.

Shanahan had his players in mini-camps on April 16-18 (voluntary), May 7-9 (rookies; voluntary for veterans) and in June from the 16th to the 18th last off-season.

The team had also OTAs on May 17-19, 24-26, June 1-3, 7-8 and 10-11.

During most of those times, there were reporters present and stories being relayed.

Training camp was, of course, a huge deal by the time it arrived in late July. There were record numbers of fans in attendance on the days they were allowed and, in the case of this past year, with the abundance of interesting story lines, national media as well as the local press showed up in Ashburn.

The remainder of the 2010 season going into the 2011 off-season will likely go something like this:

Playoffs - Now through January 23rd, 2011 (division championships are that weekend)

NFL Pro Bowl - January 30th, 2011

NFL Superbowl XLV - February 6th, 2011

2011 NFL Scouting Combine - February 23rd through March 1st, 2011

Free Agency - signings begin in late February, early March and end approximately a week before the draft

2011 NFL Draft - April 28th through April 30th, 2011

2011 OTAsOTAs on March 29th and Seattle began the first voluntary mini-camp of the season from April 13th through the 15th)

2011 Training Camps Begin - Mid- to late July 2011 (the Cleveland Browns had the earliest training camp last season when their rookies had to report on July 23rd)

2011 NFL Preseason - Early to Mid-August 2011. In 2010, the Hall of Fame Game was played on August 8th

2011 Regular Season Schedule - Last year, the first game was played on Thursday, September 9th, 2010

There will be a few times during this off-season when things will seem dull in Washington. The players and coaches all need some time off and they will take it. But in these days of instant access to the news, there will almost always be something about the Washington Redskins to discuss.

Whew… that’s a relief. I thought it was all over.