Welcome to midseason or thereabouts, which coincides nicely with our bye week. We get to face the Cowboys at FedEx field but not for 10 days. Meantime, thanks to Big Blue Shoe at Stampede Blue for organizing and collecting votes for the now-annual SB Nation NFL Midseason Studs and Duds of 2008, where a gaggle of us bloggers vote on best and worst of this maturing season. Clinton Portis you done good, son. Enjoy:

 

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Clinton Portis is playing like an MVP right now.

The Studs

NFL Mid-Season MVP: Clinton Portis, Redskins

Comment from David the Falconer at The Falcoholic:

The homer in me wants to say Michael Turner, but he's done the majority of his damage against the league's weakest defenses. Portis has put the Redskins on his back and carried them 100 yards or more down the field most games, and for that he deserves my vote.

Best Player on Offense: Clinton Portis, Redskins

Comment from Skins Patrol at Hogs Haven:

He also has 150 yards receiving and has had his role increase with the injury to Ladell Betts Not everyone knows this, but Portis is the best pass protecting RB blocker in the league and is a big reason why Jason Campbell is playing well this season.

Best Players on Defense: Joey Porter, Dolphins

Comment from BigBlueShoe at Stampede Blue:

I thought this guy was DEAD. How the hell does he have 11.5 sacks and 3 forced fumbles? I mean Jeezus, it is only Week Nine and he has 11.5 friggin' sacks! The hell are they feeding them down there in Miami?

Best Rookie: Chris Johnson, Titans

Comment from cgolden at Revenge of the Birds:

No explanation needed. Just watch this kid play and it's obvious why he's truly special. Were we really questioning his status as a first round pick six months ago?

Best Coach: Jim Zorn, Redskins

Comment from WCG at Windy City Gridiron:

I hate doing this, but in that division the Redskins should have easily been the worst team.

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Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio has seen better days.

The Duds

Mid-Season Worst Player: JaMarcus Russell, Raiders

Comment from Dave the Falconer at The Falcoholic:

Consider that this guy was the first overall pick in the draft. Then consider that he can't throw a pass without collapsing into a heap.

Mid-Season Worst Rookie: Vernon Gholston, Jets

Comment from cgolden at Revenge of the Birds:

He's learning a new position so this probably isn't fair but seven tackles in eight games for a top six pick is simply unacceptable. You'd think he could at least be a situational pass rusher.

Mid-Season Worst Coach: Jack Del Rio, Jaguars

Comment from Chris at Big Cat Country:

Can I vote for Del Rio and the Jaguars for every possible spot?

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See what I did there? "Not everyone knows this, but..." then I state what many would consider a subjective evaluation as if it were an objective fact. But, point of parliamentary procedure, as a matter of fact, it turns out to be the case that, Clinton Portis is the best pass protecting RB in the league. He deserves all the praise he gets.

The timing was wrong on the vote (shortly after our disaster against the Steelers) and I was worried Coach Zorn would get too penalized for that, but we got him called as the man of the half-year. What he has done with this team is simply phenomenal, and I'd be a liar if I said I knew from the start we would turn out so well under his coaching. I was very skeptical about the overall move and could not be happier to have been so wrong in doubt.

Readers are strongly encouraged to post their own votes and/or justifications and let me, us, know what we got wrong or who we unfairly left out.

Per WPXI:

Per Redskins 360: It is an individual award, which makes the nomination of the Redskins even more extraordinary. I'd just as soon have 21 than some award, though.

The run is even more impressive viewed in context. We lost our starting quarterback (Jason Campbell) and faced an impressive run of teams, including: 1) the Vikings, in their hood, and they missed the postseason by one game, 2) the Super Bowl winning Giants, in their hood, when they could have clinched a playoff spot with a win over us, and 3) the Cowboys who were in a position to set a franchise record. Any suggestion that they weren't trying as hard they usually would given that they'd already clinched their playoff berth is responded by: That shit wasn't even close and if the Cowboys can't get up for even an allegedly meaningless game against a hated rival, that reflects something wrong with their team, not ours.

Anyways, congratulations to all the individuals (and team) nominated. It was an emotionally powerful season.

Final stat line was 3 catches for 41 yards and a touchdown. Per the Post:

Interesting coincidence that Cooley was taking passes from the guy his now head coach mentored. If Jim Zorn can enable Matt Hasselbeck to pass touchdowns to Chris Cooley, I have every confidence he can do so with others as well. Cooley will not be stopped. (By the way, for a very entertaining article on the perhaps changing nature of the NFL tight end, please head over here at Mile High Report. I enjoyed the post, you may as well.)

The AFC was held to one sack by Vanden Bosch, and without having watched every single snap of the game I can only probabilistically claim that Chris  Samuels wasn't responsible. So maybe he had a good game too. Or maybe he didn't. Nothing here informs either way.

The NFC, just like the Redskins against Buffalo, honored Sean Taylor in a unique manner to open the game:

I appreciate the sentimentality of the gesture and it impressed upon me that though these crazy sumbitches may try to kill each other once a week on the field, there's a healthy dose of unity among the players such that they'd go to these lengths to honor Taylor who, for most of them, wasn't even a teammate. Also credit is due the league for permitting Cooley, Samuels, and Albright to honor their fallen comrade with #21 jerseys. I am just thankful that the entire tragedy was handled as well as could be expected by the league. And that's all I have to say about that.

And because no post for the immediate future can be made without some reference to Jim Zorn, here was this at the bottom of same article:

You're also dating Zorn, lest there be anyone out there who thinks we went with a young guy.

Per Art Monk for the Hall of Fame Campaign, the most comprehensive resource for all things Art Monk into the HoF, has all the history on Paul "Dr. Z" Zimmerman's campaign to keep Art Monk out of the Hall. As an example:

Which drove many of us nuts for sometime. However, Dr. Z has since come around and pledged that he will vote for Art Monk. Bygones be bygones and all that, I'm willing to completely forgive Dr. Z so long as this wrong is righted and Art gets his way into the Hall. The most recent quote from Paul Zimmerman, per a very reporter-like Michael David Smith investigating, is worth repeating here: You vote for Art, Paul, you're no longer an asshole.

Reader(s) are asked to recall this ESPN Page 2 Article pointing out that our very own Ethan Albright, the Red Snapper himself, was once considered of low quality by a video game:

Worst player... like a fox!

At the time, Albright faked apathy:

Though, more likely than not, he cried himself to sleep and cursed the game's creators nightly while promising to prove them wrong on the field.

One commenter noted that it was strange that any person could rank as low as Ethan in some categories:

That criticism was right on, and now Madden will forever regret underrating the greatest snapper in the entire NFL. Congratulations are in order for Ethan Albright; he's going to the Pro Bowl: He, along with fellow Redskins Pro Bowlers Chris Cooley and Chris Samuels, will be sporting #21 jerseys in honor of the Meast. More details on that here.

In other news, the team signed 14 players. Here is the guy who will actually make the team:

Huh. So were these guys signed in anticipation of cuts due to financial difficulty or is this just filling a roster now that those pesky limits aren't in place? More importantly, who signed off on these guys? I'm not sure who Executive Vice President-Football Operations Vinny Cerrato (a substantial promotion, reader(s) will remember, from his former title in 2005 of "vice president of football operations," see, once you get to just old plain V.P. of Football Operations, there's no place else to go from there, where can you go from there? Where? Executive -- these go to eleven, etc.) ran the decision by since we don't have a HC, we don't even apparently have an OC or DC or decided waterboy as far as I can tell. Were these 14 names the exclusive decision of Vinny Cerrato? Can we have fucked up the coaching search more?

Per the Official Site:

A fitting tribute to a great player. It's impressive that he managed to maintain the league's lead in interceptions with nearly two games less than many of his peers.

The honor speaks for itself, much as Sean Taylor's play on the field did, and thus I don't have to.

Yesterday, Clinton Portis was named the FedEx Ground NFL Player of the Week for helping the Redskins demolish the Dallas Cowboys on our way to clinching a playoff spot. I understand that FedEx is an NFL sponsor and appreciate many times over them recognizing the great work of Clinton Portis -- and thanks a mil(lions and millions) for purchasing the naming rights of the stadium, too, because it would totally suck if we named the stadium after some Redskin legend instead so that we could claim them with pride everytime someone announced our home games, whatever. But since FedEx is effectively a mailing service it seems strange to identify great play with mailing it in, a euphemism typically reserved for the way the Cowboys played last week, and not how Portis played last week. Anyways...

The entire team is playing very solid football, but CP deserves all the credit in the world for his 23 yard touchdown against Dallas, when he shrugged off contact by two defenders and managed to keep his balance for the touchdown.

So what if these awards are invented, congratulations are in order for Coach Gibbs, who won the Motorola Coach of the Week (with a hat tipped to Extreme Skins):

BTB just asked me about Coach Joe's alleged extension and I couldn't help but admit that such a thing would never hurt my feelings. I don't know if he's going to be the best coach of the year without a Super Bowl win, but he's certainly turned around a 5 win team in spite of the circumstances. He managed to beat out Mike Tomlin of the  Steelers and Tom Coughlin of the Giants.

Quick rant: I haven't been at work this week because I don't really do that anymore. This has afforded me plenty of time to enjoy either Oprah or else ESPN all day every day while the rest of you jokers are busy being productive adults. ESPN has been totally hijacked by NYG vs. NEPatriots constantly. I cannot turn on the god damn TV without seeing someone demand a hypothetical matchup between this year's Patriots and the 1985 Bears or whomever. The entire thing is exhausting and I really look forward to watching the Patriots destroy the Giants just so we can be done with the entire faux dramatic bullshit. Nothing that happens after this moment will change the fact that this year's Patriots are one of the best teams of all time, even a first round exit from the playoffs (which won't happen).

As impressive as the Miami Dolphins' 14 win undefeated 1972 regular season was, their 3-0 postseason -- that closed with a Super Bowl victory over Your Washington Redskins by a score of 14-7 -- defined the year. Beyond that, as far as I'm concerned:

1. The 1972 Miami Dolphins weren't as good a regular season team as the 2007 New England Patriots regardless of what happens this Sunday.
   
2. The 2007 New England Patriots won't be as good a team in their entirety as the 1972 Dolphins up and until that moment they hoist the Lombardi.
   
3. The Redskins are still in a position to defend the good name of the 1972 Miami Dolphins by refusing to lose anymore games this season. Should the Redskins win on Sunday, they march into the playoffs. Should they win out, and should the Patriots play them in the Super Bowl, the good guys will have an opportunity to prevent New England from being as complete a winner as the 1972 'Phins. Is that going to happen? I don't effing know, but it's nice to believe that history still, in no small part, remains in the hands of this great team we claim as our own.