Like many of you in the D.C. area, I have been fighting my way through extended power outages, marathon snow-shovelling sessions, and cabin fever. I thought it worth noting in this space that when I went to bed for a three-night stretch without power, I was wearing almost exactly the same thing I wore at the last two Redskins games in December, down to the last layer.
One night when I found myself staring at my breath as it steamed out of my mouth into the bedroom, my thoughts turned to this All-Decade roster we are building. I was really curious to see how the running back vote was progressing and I was trying to imagine how that would affect how we build out the rest of the team. I knew it was going to be tough for anyone to beat out Big Mike Sellers, but I really wondered about the battle between Larry Centers and Ladell Betts.
Washington Redskins All-Decade Team So Far
Offense
QB: Brad Johnson, Jason Campbell, Mark Brunell
OL: Chris Samuels, Jon Jansen, Tre Johnson, Randy Thomas, Casey Rabach, Derrick Dockery, Ray Brown, Ethan Albright
RB: Stephen Davis, Clinton Portis, Mike Sellers, Ladell Betts, Larry Centers
Note: The vote was close enough that we kept the 5th running back. The fact that the 5th guy is Larry Centers made it very easy.
Defense
CB: Champ Bailey, Darrell Green, Shawn Springs, Fred Smoot, DeAngelo Hall
Special Teams
P: Hunter Smith
So Larry Centers made the squad. That makes me very happy. Between Centers, Champ Bailey, and Sean Taylor (who I named to the team in the first post) we have three top-flight pass catchers and we have not even sniffed the WR position yet. This is somewhat by design--when we start talking wide receivers, it will be good for all of our morale if we constantly remind ourselves that Taylor and Bailey are ready and available as starting wide receivers.
Kicker
Next week we will tackle the following positions: Wide receiver, Defensive Line, Safety. That will leave Tight End and Linebacker as the final pieces before we add an extra guy or two to the team. As for today, I figured we should get the Kicker spot taken care of and I am at a huge loss. I took a cursory look at the guys who recorded field goal stats in the 2000's and it was even more depressing than the Offensive Line look-back. I put Hunter Smith in automatically but I am unprepared to do the same for any of the kickers we have had lately.
I have picked out a sample group of guys to choose from today, but please...if you have a guy you want to make a case for, be my guest.
I feel like I am leaning toward Nick Novak on the strength of that one kick against the Cowgirls after Sean Taylor returned a blocked Mike Vanderjagt kick at FedEx.