RTE I don’t think they can go on a HUGE spending spree, but recall they have approx $12 million in dead cap money coming off next year. (6 mill for Steven Davis, and almost 4 mill for Marco Coleman, +1 mill. for Sam Shade ) http://www.thehogs.net/html/Team/salary_table.php
Admittedly a TON of this is going to go into re-signing Champ* & the skins have said job #2 is to re-sign Smoot before he becomes a free agent after next season.
Still, Bruce Smith is a 3mil hit this year – there was some undisclosed shifting in camp this year on Bruce so I am not 100%sure he can still come off all the way in '04 – but he probably can come Largely off.
In short, they are in fair shape to resign Champ & replace Bruce with two better DT’s than they have now. Hopefully they can also get help in the draft – to be clear I am not saying they are in a great position to buy whatever they wish, just that a better D-line & running back can be brought in via FA & the draft & I don’t think it is INSANE to expect them to do it.
(*the Post says he rejected 55mill over 9 years: a cap # of approx 6mill per yr – of course deal could be structured anyway they want – Ty Law got 9 yrs 50 mil. from NE)
Spurrier to me always looked like the late Larry Linville (Major Burns) on MASH.
It also seems to me that he at first tried to run a pro team like a college team, which does not work. Maybe he is out of his element.
MY college (Ole Miss) loves his replacement Ron Zook. They beat his team two years in a row. I guess they could fire Zook and let Spurrier back, but that’s a loss of face. Lou Holtz is another example of a college coach who went pro and went back to the college level. Personally, being Spurrier, I would of NEVER left that Florida job. Who among us leaves a safe, secure HIGH paying job to go tio another high paying job where one can be easily fired in a season or two?
Notre Dame really sucks this year (well, they do!), maybe they can fire Tyrone Willingham and let Spurrier go there.
The O-Line is the key to any offense. Trust me, as a Giants fan I know way too much about it. The Giants started 3 rookies against the Cowboys. That hasn’t been done by any team in decades. We took them to overtime in a competitive game.
Why did we start 3 rookies? Because Luke Pettitgout, our best lineman by far, went down against the Rams the week before.
Why did the Giants fare so much better than the Redskins given similar circumstances? (Very little pressure on the QB.)
Although the O-line has been bad esp. penalty wise, most of the sacks, and all 4 of the sacks by Dallas were, according to Spurrier last night, due to the RB’s not picking up the blitzes.
The Redskins were down to thier 4th RB – who was playing out of position and the guy didn’t know what his “they are coming on a funky blitz” duties were. Of course if 4 RB’s are making the same mistakes over & over thru 8 games what does that come down to?
Coaching.
(& lets not let Snyder off the hook for not caring that Betts and Candidate weren’t good blockers which was the only thing that SDavis was known for his first 3 yrs in the NFL)
That’s a good point, jimmmy. One reason the current schemes don’t work is that the running backs aren’t making blocks - they routinely let pass rushers by. Better blockers would have solved that.
But this isn’t a team that’s awful overall. It’s a team that’s extremely badly coached. Every game, they’re outsmarted, whether it’s clock management or discipline. The Redskins are piling up a lot of penalties (not the most in the league, but a lot) - and many of them are foolish penalties, like false starts or unsportsmanlike conducts and personal fouls.
That’s a lack of discipline.
Also, one of the hallmarks of the Fun n Gun is that the QB audibles at the line of scrimmage. Ramsey is very young and very green, and consequently his audibles aren’t the right ones. For the Dallas game, the Cowboys said all they had to do was show a formation, wait for Ramsey to audible, and then move to another formation. That’s almost as bad as telling the offense what you’re going to do - and that’s another sign of poor, poor coaching.
Finally, I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard Steve Superior say something like, “Well, we didn’t play too well, and we didn’t coach too well.” He’s not instilling any sort of confidence in his players, and it’s showing on the field. Plus there was that flap with Bruce Smith, who was upset because he didn’t start last week. Right or wrong, you have to have a strong relationship with your team in the NFL, or they’ll quit on you. Superior seems to think that players will do whatever you tell them to, without question, just like in college. 'Tain’t so.
My vote is that he’ll leave of his own accord after the season’s over. He will not be fired during the season (anyone remember Terry Robiskie?). I don’t think he’ll be fired after it, either - The Danny knows he’d be better off if Spurrier did it himself. Then he can say he had nothing to do with the Ol’ Ball Coach a-leavin’. If he fired Spurrier, he’d be the bad guy - the guy who ran him outta town.