Remaining Redskins

by Skin Patrol on Jan 18, 2008 12:38 PM EST in Redskins Analysis

The case was made for two Redskins to remain that way. First, from Redskins Insider Jason Campbell lobbies for Al Saunders and the rest of the offensive coaching staff:

Quarterback Jason Campbell is among many Redskins players eager to learn who will be the team's next head coach. If the job goes to assistant head coach-defense Gregg Williams, Campbell hopes Williams will retain the offensive coaching staff.

"I feel we have great continuity on our team and our staff," Campbell said.

Campbell is especially supportive of play caller Al Saunders. The team's associate head coach-offense, Saunders "is a great coach," Campbell said. "He does a good job with the things that we do. We're improving in a lot of areas and coming a long ways ... as far as offensively. It's an opportunity for us to continue to grow, but it all comes down to who's the head coach."

This should come as little surprise since poor Jason has had to suffer through different offensive coordinators throughout his career. He understands what it means to learn an entirely novel offense as he's done so 5 or 6 times now. Continuity is important for a lot of positions, but none moreso than the signal caller.

That was my quota for the day on praying at the alter of "continuity", which isn't always best though I think it would be in this instance. If you tire of my constant Gregg Williams cheerleading, Ben provides the case for why Gregg Williams should NOT be the head coach.

The other Redskin who wishes to remain so is Rock Cartwright:

This offseason, Cartwright hopes to remain a Redskin, period. He is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent.

One day after the Redskins' Wild Card playoff loss to Seattle, Cartwright admitted he was uncertain of his future.

"I want to be here," Cartwright said. "I don't want to be anywhere else. But it's not up to me, it's up to the front office. I do have a family I need to take care of. That's the bottom line, so we'll see how it goes."

The Official Site also includes statistics showing that Rock Cartwright is now 4th all time on the list of return yards for a Redskin and has a better career return yard average than, unbelievably, Brian Mitchell. I thought he was the 2nd best kick returner in the league behind Cleveland's Josh Cribbs. His 25.8 average per return was phenomenal and he was third among active kickers in 20+ returns, with 42. Only Cribbs (who had an incredible year) and Maurice Hicks had more, Hicks by 1 yet needed 11 more total returns than Rock to do so. In any event, go check for yourself. What the numbers show is a returner who will rarely, if ever, leave you in questionable field position because he makes damn sure to get you the 20+ yards you need. Rock doesn't dance, he doesn't break all that many runs for distance, but he's about as reliable a kick returner as exists in this league. What he didn't do that Cribbs and Hicks did was fumble the ball, which further speaks to his reliability.

I'm out for the weekend and wish you all the best. Yours truly will return on Tuesday, though hopefully TexSkins, who has done a fantastic job tending shop, will keep you posted on any new developments in my absence. Cheers.

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I'll do my best, Cap-i-tan...

And as far as the coaching search goes, the Redskins finished talking to Mora and began talks with Colts' DC Ron Meeks.

Meeks was here in 2000 as Secondary coach, so there is some familiarity.

The first article states that after finishing the interview process, Snyder is going to take the rest of the day to consider the candidates and decide who will be coach or who else to call in. My guess is that he won't decide anything until probably Monday.

In any case, I'll try to get a post up as soon as anything is reported.

by TexSkins on Jan 18, 2008 2:31 PM EST reply actions

Just heard

Jim mora is officially out of the running!

by Sincethebeginning @ Hogs Haven on Jan 18, 2008 4:52 PM EST reply actions

The mystery candidate

They keep talking about (especially on the John Riggins Show) is...Mr. Marty!

I wouldn't mind an Al Saunders team, but it's just important to me that NO MATTER WHAT, Al stays. Worst case scenario, we get a new OC with a SIMPLE, EXECUTION-STLYE offense. That will stymie the learning curve, and all that's required is anal-retentive repetition.

I hope rock stays, too. Lets say 4 years, 6 mil with 2 on lock. Or,we could just use one of the 3 receivers we have with return experience. I hope that after some major roster changes (I would get rid of the entire reciever corps except the versatile Randle El.

Also, instead of keeping three QBs on the active roster, we can have two active with Randle El as #3. Plus a young guy on the practice squad...that should save some dough.

by JustinU804 on Jan 19, 2008 9:57 AM EST reply actions