Here we are in the slow days of May. Though it doesn't seem to be slowing down our old friend Bruce Smith. How many DUI's is that now? Three? Wait, he has never been convicted.

Another guy who doesn't seem to be letting the offseason slowness get him down--Corey McIntyre, Buffalo Bills FB. Of course, his agent maintains his innocence, but just the accusation of "fondling himself outside a woman's home" is going to follow him around the NFL all season long. Does anyone see Najeh Davenport and not think, "That's the dude who crapped in that woman's closet!"

It's a long way until training camp opens and the real battles begin at the various positions, but let's ask ourselves in mid-May: Who do we think our top defensive backup is at this point?

For the purpose of this poll, we assume Daniels, Griffin, Haynesworth, Carter on the defensive line; Orakpo, Fletcher, McIntosh at LB; Rogers, Hall, Landry, Horton in the defensive backfield.

Is anyone else feeling Fincher? On this defense, the LB should really have a chance to have his name called a lot. He has now had some time to learn and develop in this system. I hate to overlook Smoot since he will spend a ton of time on the field this season. And I love Anthony "Meat" Montgmery as well--he is a monster.

I am casting my vote for Fincher today. Call it a hunch, but I think he will make a real impact on this defense before the season is over, in a divisional game with the playoffs on the line.

Poll

Who is our top defensive backup?

4%

Alfred Fincher

16 votes

9%

Chris Wilson

35 votes

18%

H.B. Blades

69 votes

21%

Anthony Montgomery

79 votes

10%

Kedric Goslton

37 votes

35%

Fred Smoot

128 votes

364 votes | Poll has closed

Phillip Daniels, who tore his ACL on the first day of training camp, said he will be back to 100% by the start of camp this year and wants to contribute. The WaTimes covered his story last week.

Phillip Daniels turns 36 next month, is rehabilitating from knee surgery that cost him all of last season and counts $2.156 million against the Washington Redskins' salary cap in 2009.

 

Favoring Daniels is the fact that the free agent class isn't deep. Carolina is expected to franchise Julius Peppers, and other players are aging (Tampa Bay's Kevin Carter) or are a better fit for a 3-4 scheme (Dallas' Chris Canty and San Diego's Igor Olshansky).

The lone marquee defensive tackle is Tennessee's Albert Haynesworth, and if the Titans can't sign him to a long-term deal, they likely will franchise him.

 

So that doesn't leave Washington many options. Even drafting a DL won't be enough. We need depth at this position so keeping Daniels makes sense to me. The Skins still have some cap space they need to eliminate. I'd imagine Marcus Washington would be the fall guy for that though.

 

Poll

Should Phillip Daniels get cut?

44%

Yes

71 votes

55%

No

88 votes

159 votes | Poll has closed

A little late, perhaps, but there is still time to make Clinton Portis this year's first two-time winner of the FedEx Ground Player of the week. You might recall:

Portis rushed for 145 yards and a touchdown on 29 carries against the NFL's top-ranked rush defense in the Redskins' 23–17 win over the Philadelphia Eagles to stay atop the NFC East at 4-1.

And that was good enough to earn him weekly honors. This week he's up once more for his 175 yard rushing performance against the Browns. Details:

Clinton Portis, Washington Redskins

Portis rushed for 175 yards and one touchdown on 27 attempts in the Redskins' 14-11 win over the Cleveland Browns.

You can also vote in the attached link above. He's going to have a tough time winning without your help, not because he didn't earn the award, but because he's up against Lendale White and Steven Jackson who both outscored Portis (though he holds the edge in yards). I tend to think Fantasy owners have an inordinate amount of control over who wins these things, and their fantasy numbers were better. Vote.

By the way... Mister Irrelevant, run by those wacky brothers Chris and Jamie Mottram, is one of my most favoritestest site on all the internets. This here is a good example why. While trying to figure out who I was going to vote for on the FedEx Air player of the week -- I have no interest in any of them winning, it struck me that if Jamie Mottram grew a beard he could potentially play for the Bills. See:

Trent Edwards, Buffalo Bills

Edwards completed 25 of 30 passes for 261 yards and one touchdown in a 23-14 comeback win over the San Diego Chargers.

via www.motheringhut.com

Am I making this up? Trent Mottram is a real entity? Test it with a beard, Jamie.

By the way 2.0... I realize the amount of content you've come to expect at this site has dropped significantly over the past few weeks. The reasons are many, the details of which I won't bore you with, but know that I'm doing everything I can to get the content amount and quality back to where I think it should be for the SB Nation Redskins blog. I'm working on bringing in more writers to make this more of a collaborative effort so that when real life strikes me down others will rise up more powerful than ever etc. You can't let life keep you down.

via www.laughinggame.com

We will get there. Meantime, I apologize for the temporary drop in content. I will make this thing work, reader(s).

PS: I'm a stupid for not mentioning this. If you are interested in becoming a front page contiributor to the site with special powers to make front page posts without me having to promote them, email me at hogshaven@yahoo.com.

It's time to get democratic, which, to steal a line from Winston Churchill, is the worst way to make decisions except for all the others besides slug racing.

Here is the deal... The American Mustache Institute released their finalists for the Robert Goulet Mustached American of the Year award recently. For those of you unfamiliar with this very prestigious accolade, get literate:

The American Mustache Institute (AMI) will name the first ever “Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year,” recognizing the most impactful Mustached American of the past year. The winner will be announced Oct. 25 at ‘Stache Bash 2008, a benefit for Challenger Baseball, a baseball league for children and adults with disabilities.

More than sixty nominations were submitted for the “Goulet’ award, and AMI’s certified mustacheologists narrowed the finalist pool to 16 qualified Mustached Americans who have distinguished themselves during the past year.

First off, they take this very seriously so no cheating. They have some kind of complicated (for me at least) to comprehend voting tracing system so vote early but not often. Said voting ends in something like a few weeks, so just get it out of the way now. One of the "16 qualified Mustached Americans" happens to be someone I lobbied aggressively for personally with my extensive connections with the AMI. And that person is of keen interest to Redskins fans, as he is truly one of the greatest Mustached Americans this year. Of course I'm talking about:

Art Monk

When former Washington Redskins wide receiver Art Monk retired from the National Football League, he was the career receptions leader. And while he no longer holds that distinction, in 2008 he was honored by voters and elected in the the NFL Hall Of Fame, where he received one of the longest ovations in Hall of Fame history. Throughout it all, Monk has been a philanthropist in his community and proudly sported the 'stache for decades, even as he watched other less deserving (non 'stached) athletes gain entry into the Hall of Fame, never once losing faith that his facial hair would be rewarded.

Of course the above needs to be amended (I'll send out the email) to read the longest ovation in NFL Hall of Fame history.

Competition is no joke, as there are a lot of fine mustaches to choose from. He's not going to vote for himself, it's up to you. The reality is that some huge portion of NFL fans lament the fact that the game has become me-me-me-me and this tendency is most prevalent as it relates to wide receivers, who probably have giant football envy over the fact that RBs and QBs are skill positions that get to run plays more often. Art Monk? Quintessential pro, who not once demanded more footballs from Joe Gibbs or others. He did his job, even when his job was the statistically ignored and unlamented act of blocking down field. He is the prototypical team player at a position that has since become the poster child for everything wrong with the National Football League. And this year he finally got into the Hall of Fame after long last, thus vindicating team players and mustached madmen everywhere. What are you going to do, reader(s)? Are you seriously going to click away from this post without voting for him? Because you do that and you lose whatever moral highground you ever get when you say things like "Golly I sure wish Player X would just pipe down and do their job just like my grandpappy Wilbur did during WW2" or "Jeepers, Batman, that mustache ride was terrific!"

Vote.

And while I've got you all riled up for ballot filling, hey, Clinton Portis is nominated for the FedEx Ground Player of the Week:

Clinton Portis, Washington Redskins

Portis rushed for 145 yards and one touchdown on 29 carries against the NFL's top-ranked rush defense in the Redskins' 23-17 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.

And, I'm told:

The winners are determined solely by online fan votes.

The best part is that if Portis wins FedEx will make a $1,000 donation in Portis' name to the local Safe Kids USA coalition in Washington DC. FedEx is teamed up with Safe Kids USA – a national non-profit organization that works to prevent accidental injury among children – to deliver safer kids by making weekly $1,000 donations in the winning players' cities. The funding directly benefits pedestrian safety improvements throughout the year.

So if you feel like not voting you might as well go find a kid and punt them into the street because you obviously don't care about child safety or America or American child safety. Be that way.

And if you feel like voting but for DeAngelo Williams or Ronnie Brown instead you get to explain why they deserve it over Portis despite the fact that neither of them bust through the chest of and then subsequently ate nearly all the crewmates of the Philadelphia Eagles for like a million yards. In space, Mike Sellers lead blocks right through your torso.

As I tip my hat to Extreme Skins, some explanation is in order. The Barbarian is Kedric Golston. The Mountain is, of course, Anthony Montgomery, uncleverly altered to Anthony Mt. Gomery in reference to his frame -- 315 pounds, 8 feet tall, shoots lightning bolts out of his arse, that kind of thing. (I don't know why or where I come up with this garbage.)

Fitting also that they should duke it out as both joined the team around the same time, in the same draft, separated by just 43 other players in 2006. And although the hype was larger for Montgomery, who was rumored to be physically dominant, it was Golston who had the first laugh. A recap:

2006: Golston played in 16 games, with 12 starts, and recorded 59 tackles (35 solo), a half-sack and one fumble recovery. He finished third among Redskins' defensive linemen in tackles.

 

• Made his NFL debut in Week 1 vs. Minnesota, recording four tackles (three solo).

   

• Earned his first NFL start in Week 3 at Houston. He logged three tackles and a fumble recovery.

   

In Week 6 vs. Tennessee, he recorded a season-high seven tackles (three solo) and a half-sack of QB Vince Young. It was Golston's first career sack (combined with fellow 2006 rookie Anthony Montgomery).

But Montgomery with the last laugh:

2007: Montgomery emerged as a regular starter in his second NFL seasons. He logged 47 tackles (35 solo), a half-sack and two fumble recoveries.

 

• In Week 5 vs. Detroit, he helped the Redskins' defense limit the Lions to just 68 rushing yards.

   

• He logged a half-sack of Brett Favre in Week 6 at Green Bay. He also had two tackles and one pass deflection.

   

Recorded three tackles in Week 17 vs. Dallas. He helped limit the Cowboys to just 1 rushing yard in the game.

So who is laughing now? Who knows, says the Official Site:

The Redskins have a competition brewing at defensive tackle, where Kedric Golston and Anthony Montgomery are in a "heated" battle for the starting job, defensive coordinator Greg Blache said on Monday.

More from Greg Blache via The Washington Times:

"That position, no one owns that," Blache said in his weekly meeting with the media. "That's a position that's definitely going to be won week to week, day to day. We look at those guys actually on the same basis. That's been a heated competition since the start of OTAs. They've both been told that. They both bring certain strengths to the table. It's just matter of who's got the hot hand at a given time. This is a 'What have you done for me lately' business and a guy that gets a little fat, thinks for a second, 'That's my job,' they're mistaken."

It's tough to pick a winner this early. If I'm going by stats, and that's typically where I go first, Golston is winning this thing: he out tackled Montgomery's 2007 numbers in his rookie year, despite fewer starts, and neither distinguished themselves elsewhere (both have .5 sacks and it is four against three passes defensed, wash). A more reliable analysis would factor in snaps, but guessing that Golston had fewer and more tackles, I have to lean on him.

But Montgomery won the position battle last year, which tells me the coaches weren't only interested in stats, at least at the time.

Looking forward I'm picking Golston to win on this one, given that a season's worth of stats (two, really) is enough of a sample size to state: For whatever reasons Kedric Golston found his way to the football more when he was on the field than Anthony Montgomery, and that's what I want defensive tackles to do. But let's do this the democratic way, poll below:

Who wins the position battle at DT?

Poll

Who wins the position battle at DT?

53%

Kedric the Barbarian

101 votes

46%

Anthony Mt. Gomery

89 votes

190 votes | Poll has closed

Besides that Hall of Fame Game tickets went on sale today, there isn't much a happenin'.

I'd go except for the inconvenient fact that I have no actual income, that my debt is constantly increasing; and tickets cost $40-50. Or I could take the pretend moral high ground by claiming the real reason is because I'm boycotting the entire city of Canton or some shit like that.

Or I could tell you that two mock drafts I think are reasonable have the Redskins selecting Malcolm Kelly. Football Outsiders says:

Sportz Assassin says: Seems reasonable enough that he'll drop, as his combine results and subsequent blaming of Oklahoma will probably drop his stock just enough for us to get him later in the 1st round.

Beyond that I've really got nothing but a busy week in front of me that will demand more time away from this space. In the meantime, here's my shamelessly self-interested poll question because I need your input for the Redskins upcoming 2nd round pick in the SB Nation Mock Draft: Presuming the Redskins selected a cornerback in the first round, say like an Aqib Talib type player (or they actually selected Aqib Talib) what position would you address... in the second round? Reader(s) are encouraged to write in player names.

Also, this is Whiplash; I've seen him live and he is every bit as awesome there as he is in Taco John commercials.

Poll

Assuming Redskins addressed CB in the 1st round, what should they address in the 2nd?

5%

DT

4 votes

34%

DE

26 votes

17%

OL

13 votes

29%

WR

22 votes

1%

Another CB, because I'm crazy

1 votes

1%

Safety

1 votes

0%

LB

0 votes

4%

Get that extra QB early on

3 votes

0%

TE/FB/H-Back even though Pete Schmitt obviously fills all these depth needs

0 votes

6%

Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey

5 votes

75 votes | Poll has closed

None of this is scientifically done. The last place I'd start is here, with the majority of an insignificant sampling size saying: I still don't know what the shit is going on. I've now read more than one media commenter proclaim without hesitation that Zorn's hiring to head coach will be met by Redskins fans with a majority of apprehension -- and that has certainly been the reaction by most bloggers -- but perhaps that simply reflects the general perception of Redskins fans as overwhelmingly grumpy types that like to shoot Dr. Z emails about how much of a giant asshole he is for taking so long to vote Art Monk into the Hall of Fame. I don't know if that perception is justified whatsoever, but there's reason to doubt the conclusion; the polls I'd pay attention to to gauge the typical Redskins fan response have showed approval as the norm. Per Extreme Skins for instance:

That's still just around 2500 votes in as of this moment, and just of Extreme Skins members, but whatever anyone thinks of ES, I'd say it is a fairly representative sampling of what a large portion of the Redskins fanship feels. And nothing about those figures is contradicted by this poll at the Official Site: Reading the results into the ES poll, it would appear that at least some of the people who want to wait and see (not an option there) are still marginally supportive of the move whereas some smaller number of wait and see folks are negative about it. In any event, we see a majority of deciders still reaching the conclusion that Zorn is better than not-Zorn. With a hat tipped to Dan Steinberg, I pause now to honor Deuce of Davenport's majestic shirt design skillz as it seems an appropriate time. Buy them while they're still available:

Finally, this Adam Schein article at Fox Sports is loaded with polls, though we'll get to them after we flesh out his thoughts on our newest Head Coach. His position cannot be characterized as "wait and see":

Yowza.

The polls on that same site leap out at me, at least as of this moment, in the somewhat inconsistency of their results. Who will be the best new coach (out of John Harbaugh, Mike Smith, Tony Sparano, and Jim Zorn)? Zorn is 3rd with 22% of the vote. Who inherits the best situation? Zorn is 2nd with 34%. The evidence shows that there's at least one guy who that poll thinks will be a worse new coach (Mike Smith, Atlanta) and at least two that inherit worse situations than Zorn (Smith and Tony Sparano, Miami). And they ask: Who will be the first coach out of a job? Surely either Sparano, who has a worse situation, or especially Smith, who has a worse situation and a smaller percentage of voters thinks will succeed, should be more likely to win on this question. And they answer: Jim Zorn, 66% of respondents, more than all the other three coaches combined.

Which says something about the general state of our front office, at least in the minds of NFL fans that frequent Fox Sports. We're a more favorable coaching situation to inherit than Miami and Atlanta. Jim Zorn is considered to have a more promising future than Mike Smith. Yet there is very little doubt that in spite of these two things, Jim Zorn will be the first shown the door.

For the record, though I found the results inconsistent, and though I think Jim Zorn could very well make a fine head coach and agree that he's entering a more favorable situation than at least Miami and Atlanta and maybe even Baltimore, I ended up voting for him being the first ousted. My general prediction for Zorn's tenure tends to coincide with that of Fox Sports readers: This is not an easy city owner to work for (that's not entirely true, he pays well). I would love to be wrong.

Convention demands I address the prior poll's results, ignoring that the damn thing went up on the 31st of last month. Here are your cribnotes: Todd Collins won as the people's choice for starter against Seattle, and then promptly lost us the game. That last bit isn't entirely fair to the Todd, but two picks is two picks.

The obvious question to ask is who you'd prefer as the next head coach of Your Washington Redskins. New names are dropped daily, so it should not take much time for the question to become stale -- for instance, Rex Ryan might be our defensive coordinator? -- but we'll try anyways. I assure you that the order I've placed the coaching candidates is completely randon and not at all an attempt by yours truly to influence you whatsoever. That Gregg Williams is first is merely coincedental. I'm way above that kind of thing, as I'm sure you all know. Also, Ben has really been all over every candidate that gets mentioned, so get wise by heading to his space (he endorses Russ Grimm, which I think is an unlikely pick but one I could certainly get behind) (Mr. Irrelevant wants more Russ Grimm). Here comes the poll:

Who do you want as the next Head Coach of the Redskins?

Consider the thing below, no longer a cookie monster, but still very credible in my opinion:

Poll

Who do you want as the next Head Coach of the Redskins?

3%

Marty Schottenheimer

12 votes

7%

Other

31 votes

46%

Gregg Williams

179 votes

13%

Russ Grimm

52 votes

3%

Jim Fassel

15 votes

11%

Bill Cowher

45 votes

1%

Jim Schwartz

6 votes

2%

Any Colts coordinator

8 votes

0%

Al Saunders

2 votes

9%

Cookie Monster!

38 votes

388 votes | Poll has closed