We're about 24 hours away from the draft so I thought I'd get this thing going early. First, let me apologize for the website being down yesterday. It's out of my control but was a not-too-unexpected hiccup when you're migrating hundreds of websites from one platform to another. I'm assured that everything is being watched extremely carefully to both prevent future down time and also to expedite getting us back online more quickly should the problem recur. I beg for patience.

Who are we going to draft? Consider this your thread to speculate endlessly in the comments section. Who knows? Actually, as CptChaosSidekick points out in a diary, though, at least one NFL commenter is fairly deterministic about the direction we're going:

Redskins narrow choices: The Redskins seem to be making one last check before selecting Oklahoma wide receiver Malcolm Kelly or Clemson defensive end Phillip Merling. A good portion of the Redskins' front office jumped on Dan Snyder's plane and visited both players Thursday. Kelly did some shuttle runs. They wanted to spend a little more time with Merling. It's pretty clear these are two of the Redskins finalists if they are available at No. 21 in the first round. The Redskins need a third receiver. They have also been looking for another pass-rusher.

CCS has questions about Kelly:

Malcolm  Kelly worries me.  He screams 1st rd wideout bust. I heard about him throwing Oklahoma's athletic staff under the bus because he isn't very good at running 40yds with a purpose. The times he recorded don't worry me as much as his propensity to bitch and bring money up already when he's yet to run one frigging route on an NFL field. So I think we should stay away from that young man.

I don't know if I'd go as far as to call him a bust, but I've already made my thoughts known on 1st round wide receivers. If we're looking for a tall, possession guy to move the chains, I don't think it's necessary to spend the 1st round pick to acquire a guy. Any questions that Malcolm Kelly raises about his own inability to, for instance, take responsibility for his own damned times is merely additional incidental info that compels me to go in a different direction. Besides, I want Jordy Nelson and we can wait past the first round to get him.

It's going to be an interesting draft. Unfortunately I will only be around the internet sparingly, as I'll be spending it with two of my fellow bloggers and beer. If you are desperate to get in touch with Skin Patrol, don't be afraid to make your presence known at either Behind The Steel Curtain or Arrowhead Pride. If you make some mention of Hogs Haven on those sites, I'm sure the respective authors will let me know and I'll find some time to shout back.

TexSkins should have a big mock draft post up before the actual dealy tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that. In the interim, post all your draft related thoughts here, as this is Your Washington Redskins 2008 NFL Mock Draft Open Thread or some shit. The draft is almost enough football saturation to make you forget it's the offseason, so enjoy the weekend guys. Cheers and HTTR.

This is your Pro Bowl open thread, we'll get into it here in a minute.

In the meantime, lots of other great bloggers went unnoticed in my last blogger roundup which. One of my favorite blogs, My Brain Says Rage, is none too happy with this hire. They open with Jim Fucking Zorn? and don't stop:

That's funny.

Deuce of Davenport channels Billy Maddison:

Big Daddy Drew appears skeptical, though KSK commenter signal to noise raises the more important question: Will this hiring force famous Redskins blogger extraordinaire Unsilent Majority to off himself? Nothing new from him since 2:00PM yesterday on KSK, I may have to email UM to make sure everything is ok. Reader(s) who find him alive and well on the internets somewhere should notify the rest of us immediately.

Scott Van Pelt Style: Jim Zorn? Redskins Done F'd Up Now. He also notes that Pete Prisco pulls no punches on Dan Snyder.

Deadspin's Daulerio points out that Jim Zorn is perhaps the 2nd fundamentalist coach in a row for the Redskins? Read for yourself:

Someone else's words, not mine, and I'm not even going to get into a religious discussion about it. But I thought that might interest some of you one way or the other.

Finally a positive prediction from Doug Farrar at Football Outsiders. But even he has to wonder:

I'd add: Can anyone succeed in this front office unless they're already in the Hall of Fame? Also, bonus, Doug Farrar talked with some clown named "Will Allensworth" about Zorn earlier this week. I've heard good things.

I already linked to the AOL Fanhouse MDS post with short-shorts video of Jim Zorn, though Sports By Brooks runs with it as well. You should just watch the video:

After watching the video, I don't really know what the big fuss is about being all super duper negative nellies on Jim Zorn. I quote: "I've got to improve on everything. Uh, mentally, uh, throwing the ball..."

Maybe I'm alone on this, but I think the ability to alter the ball's trajectory with merely the power of one's mind would be an incredibly valuable head coaching quality. Shaun Suisham should have a big year.

Quick note before we get into the Pro Bowl. yesterday I said: "No bloggers were awarded points for going with some variation on the popular Bourne trilogy, which is obviously the first place I'd go. Will this be the Zorn Supremacy or Dan Snyder's Zorn Ultimatum? You see what I did there? I suck at this." I open up NFL.com this morning and staring back at me is a video titled: The Zorn Identity. I'm unemployed, NFL.com, and will work on the cheap. I could be writing this shit, just give me a chance. Related news, Adam Schefter's diction is simply phenomenal.

(Some) Players react to Zorn hiring. Red Snapper:

Cooley: And of course Matt Hasselbeck had nothing but good things to say, he would, though: There is a Pro Bowl today. A quick glance at the starters reveals no Redskins (unless my eyes deceive) which is strange, since apparently the starting special teams includes a kicker with no one to snap the ball to him. You need Ethan Albright to start, give the man his 15 minutes. Chris Cooley, Chris Samuels and Albright should all see some field. HTTR.

PS: I have no beef, Andy Fenelon, please don't destroy me!

DC Sports Bog, Vintage Zorn

Real life plans interfere with my blogging starting... now. I have buku to do until ~ Mondayish and not enough time to do it in this weekend. Planning ahead, I will probably not have time to post a Super Bowl open thread on Sunday, though hopefully one of the site's other hosts will put up a more robust one in the meantime.

What I want to hear from all seven of you is: 1) What are your Super Bowl plans? 2) What will you be eating? 3) What won't you be drinking? 4) Who are you rooting for? 5) Who have you picked to win? Etc.

This game was all but meaningless for me except for the fact that a division rival was in the mix. However, now that Patriots O-Coordinator Josh McDaniels and Giants D-Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo have been mentioned as possible head coaching candidates -- especially the latter, as word continues to diminish on the likelihood that McDaniels will either get interviewed or join the staff even if -- consider the game a case being made for either of them. Should the Giants come out and shut down the Patriots, interest in Spag! will reach epic level for Dan Snyder, who loves a nice shiny thing as much as the next guy.

Have a good, safe weekend and enjoy your Super Bowl. Cheers, HTTR.

WHAT? First time in Hogs Haven history that the Redskins are playing in the 2nd season. I'm too excited to feign humor or info so just use this space to get crazy about the game. If we win, my pants might come off.

Hail To The Redskins.

If you want a real gameday blog, go check out The Curly R as Ben knows a thing or two about putting up a gameday thread and I don't. Field Gulls also puts me to shame as he knows how to center graphics, and I don't. Also, Shrug knows how to win my heart:

He's good people.

Spork 'em good, Redskins!

Something witty!

Today, right now, Skin Patrol's Texas Tech Red Raiders and my beloved Virginia Cavaliers play their first ever head to head game in the Gator Bowl, on ABC.

Texas Tech has already gone down the field and scored and Virginia is typically not equipped to play a team that throws 60 times in a game.

That said no one wins close games better this year than Virginia.

Enjoy.

New awful Gator Bowl logo from here.

I'm off to watch the game - someone's turn to take over.

As I'm leaving, Adrian Peterson just fumbled on what should have been the last play of the second half... er.... WTF?

Brees throws an interception, then Tillman drops the ball at the 30, which is recovered by the Saints.

With two seconds left in the half, Gramatica nails a 48 yarder, and breaks both of his legs in a celebratory outburst.

The importance of winning this game cannot be stressed enough as all roads to the playoff run through victory in Minnesota. Gameday info is here and kickoff is set for 8:15PM Eastern. The world will be watching. Since I'm such an awesome weatherman: low is 6 degrees with snow approaching certainty at 70%. The sun will be going down around four hours before kickoff. But none of that matters, because the cowardly Vikings play in a dome.

Make sure to stop by: My blogging amigo at Daily Norseman and The Curly R (he has a 5 questions up with a Vikings blogger). Ever reliable, Lee Gibbons has up his FYI for the game. Gibbs is 8-1 against the Vikings. Childress has never lost to the Redskins. Something must give. Both teams come off impressive wins, us against the Giants 22-10, them against the Bears 20-13. Besides the margin, our victory is the more impressive since we beat a playoff caliber Giants on the road and they beat a snoozing Bears team at home.

How do we win this game? Force Jackson to beat us in the air. There needs to be a serious and adult attempt to stop Adrian Peterson, even if that is many parts futile. He is that offense, that team, and giving up an early lead to Peterson will make it very difficult for us to emerge victorious. Early scoring would go a long way towards forcing them to air the ball out more (though this is really pointless -- if I had Adrian Peterson I actually would use the run to catch up with opponents).

Injury Report: LaRon Landry is probable and necessary if we're going to prevent long, long, gone runs by Peterson. Keenan McCardell is probable but necessary for 1st downs. Mike Pucillo is out, which means if Casey Rabach goes down, the team is going to call me on my cell and demand I snap the ball to Todd Collins. Doubtful, Todd Yoder is. (Nerd alert!)

I want to wish all reader(s) a very Merry Christmas, unless that offends you, in which case happy holidays that's a tough break, for you. I'll be visiting family, friends, and loved ones for the next few days and will probably be away from this space for a short hiatus, though feel free to explore it at your leisure and I'll do my best to get diaries promoted to the front page to fill time (this is a plea to all Hogs Haven contributors to do the same, if possible). You guys have been outstanding. Once I get back home one lucky reader will be getting mailed free print of the Redskins Encylcopedia as promised.

Marv won't be settled down and neither should we. He  says:

I really like that quote, and now that the Redskins have arrived at win-or-go-home time (or virtually win-or-go-home time if there remains some mathematical possibility that we make the postseason with a loss) it speaks to the team. We cannot afford anymore losses. And we get a chance to win one in prime time, tonight, at 8:15 Eastern in New York, partly cloudy tonight with a high of 15 degrees.

Jason Campbell is out so Todd Collins gets his first start and 2nd action this regular season. Randle El is officially on the quarterback depth chart. The Saints already took care of business against the Cardinals so we're still waiting patiently for them to lose so that we can start playing with destiny in the right hands. Stiiiiiill waiting.

But that won't matter if we can't win tonight. Hopefully the the Giants will know for damn sure that they've been in a fight when all is said and done.

Big Blue View open thread.

I still cling, perhaps hopelessly, hopefully not, to the possibility that Your Washington Redskins squeeze into the playoffs for an opportunity to postpone the dreaded offseason, if only for a few weeks. Actually if we make it in we will win the Super Bowl, I said it. Right now we sit 9th though have a tie breaker over both the Cardinals and the Lions ahead of us. Enormously complicated tie breaking procedure is here, but know that head-to-head weighs heavily in all situations. We're not going to have to deal with division tie breakers since we won't catch the Giants, so in all likelihood it will be us battling with the Cardinals, Lions, and Vikings.

So who do we root against? The Cowboys are currently losing to the Lions. Settle down, there's plenty of game left. I think the Cowboys will pull it off, though I can't watch since that would put me in the uncomfortable position of rooting for a hated rival. Not going to happen.

I'm not smart enough to figure out whether the Eagles need to lose another game for us to beat them in the wild card race, but I'll assume that to be the case. Currently the Eagles are beating the Giants 7-0. If some smarty pants reader(s) would like to assist me in working out tie breakers, I'd be much indebted to you. Does it matter?

The Seahawks host the Cardinals today in what presumably will be a Seahawks win, barring some intervention by the Any Given Sunday Gods. We just need them to lose one more game through the rest of the season (and we need to win all ours -- no easy task) and we'll be fine against them.

Minnesota travels to San Fransisco today in a game that's probably the least worrisome of the bunch. We get to play the Vikings in two weeks. If we win then, we will have taken the Vikings down to 7 losses regardless today's decision, and will have firmly established our tie breaker against them.

You also might want to watch the Broncos hosting the Chiefs.  Why do I care? Does the outcome matter one bit? No, but where Gus Johnson goes, I follow. The guy straight up casts some broad.

That prediction actually makes us a 55.8% dog (that could be wrong, I can't add or subtract because I'm a dumbass) since that's the clip at which I'm picking losers against the spread. I suck.

So what's happening elsewhere? Although I've effectively given up, Hog Heaven says we win out we play after the regular season. I don't think that's wrong, I just think it's unlikely that we win out. That said, if we do, I think Greg is correct. The playoffs for the Redskins start tonight in the sense that once we lose, we're out. Make sure to stop by Windy City Gridiron if you're curious about today's opponents. Statistical FYI from Redskin Report. The last time we beat the Bears, 2005, we did not score a touchdown. Sweet. This is what it looks like when sharks eat their own (can you smell it?):

This is what it looks like when people do. It appears as though the suspects in Sean Taylor's murder want to distance themselves from one another. That might be difficult. In a related story, Colin Cowherd proves that you can't spell "mishandled" without ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME. Jesus H. Monkey Fist, he can't even be wrong without reminding us how awesome he is. A sampling of Cowherd contrite, but not really, emphasis added:

You're a daily opiner? So is that to say that any single one of your listeners, any human being, ever, in the history of humankind, has gone an entire day without holding at least one opinion for a fleeting moment? Colin Cowherd is unique (he's an unmatched dickhead, for instance) but not because he has opinions daily. You did not research properly, Colin. You didn't ask teammates what 21 had been about for the past year and you didn't bother to investigate the circumstances of his prior arrests. If a lack of luxurious time is what prevented you from doing the research, maybe you should have just shut the fuck up from minute one. Bla.

Oh yea, the game. I hope you have the NFL Network, if not, hit up the bars. Here's the company line.

HAIL TO THE REDSKINS