Couldn’t resist making at least one jab, eh?
No one is “predicting” an 8-8 finish, merely arguing that it’s possible.
It’s okay, though, so long as you don’t disappear when the Eagles inevitably crash and burn and you get back some of what you give.
Huh?
How is this:
not a prediction?
Yeah, “somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-8” is a bold, exact prediction.
Nope, it’s not a bold, exact prediction. But, much closer to a “prediction” than an “argument that it is possible”.
We’re all homers in threads like these. I’m not trying to rouse any rabble. Just think it’s off the mark to say that’s not a prediction.
I don’t even think it’s that bad of a prediction. I think this is going to be a tough year to read because of the shortened off season. I don’t have a huge amount of trust in the post-Elway Shanahan. But, you never know.
I’m an Eagles fan who was fond of the Redskins (only hating them when they played the Eagles) back when Jack Kent Cooke was in charge. I welcome the day when Snyder has to sell the team. I feel bad for the fans (I have plenty of family who still count themselves as Skins fans) who have had to live through his regime.
Regarding Maclin, the concern is it might be something more serious than mono. Last I heard he was back in St. Louis for more tests. Haven’t heard anything about the results. Everyone is downplaying the seriousness of it, but there has to be some concern if they’re still doing tests at this point in time.
Yeah, I was overly harsh. Their TEs are very solid, as is Fletcher if he can still hold up. Love Brandon Banks. But Moss is a WR2 playing WR1, and an inconsistent CB is a bad CB.
Agreed; and as an Eagles fan this is what I expect most teams will do to us.
We’ll see, but I see a guy too convinced of his own genius. They needed to rebuild a year ago, but instead they brought in McNabb and played a bunch of old guys. Now they still need to rebuild, and he’s doing it with retread QBs; I guess what I’m saying is, I always prefer the “tear everything down and start anew” approach, instead of the “add a few guys and try to win now;” and I see Shanahan doing more of the latter.
Maybe. Those top 3 could easily reverse.
I think for this season, I might take the NYG. Not sure what Ronnie Brown has left in the tank.
They started last year, but, yeah… McNabb was a mistake. Seems to me that Shanahan expected too much out of the OLine. He thought he could limit McNabb’s mistakes with a strong run game, but the OLine was a mess and Portis’ inability to stay healthy pretty much threw that plan out the window. They gave up way too much for McNabb, though at least they were smart enough to give themselves an out after a year. I’d have rather kept Campbell another year and kept the picks, though.
They do need to rebuild, but their options have been limited with as few picks as they’ve had and they have gotten rid of a lot of dead weight the past two years. I actually like what they’re doing: they’re focusing on one aspect of the team through free agency and the draft and putting bandaids everywhere else, building the team one piece at a time. Personally, I’d much rather that than trying to do it all at once. At least with one semi-functional part of your team you can rely on it and hope someone else in another part steps up and steals you a game or two.
The Dallas 1st string is looking better than it did at this time last year.
Bit of a stretch to say that Vick is the best quarterback in the division. He obviously was last season but Romo and Eli have been much better looking at their careers as a whole. That isn’t to say that Vick won’t be the best quarterback in the division this season, too, but I’d like to see him produce for two years before saying he’s the best.
No argument with McCoy as the best back in the division, but I think the Giants’ running game is better.
Maclin/Jackson/Smith would certainly be the best three-deep lineup in the division, in a vacuum. But football isn’t played in a vacuum, else the players would suffocate. Maclin and Jackson have missed most of training camp, and Maclin’s not likely to be fully healthy in time for the start of the regular season. Smith certainly will not be; AIUI, the best case scenario for him is a Week 3 return, and with the thick Morhinweg playbook I think it will be a while after that before he can be used in more than one or two personnel groupings.
With that in mind, I’ll take Austin/Bryant/whoever and Nicks/Manningham/whoever for now.
There were a lot of “the most deluded fans” here at the Dope, at least with respect to McNabb. Hell, for the standards of this discussion, I was one of them, even though I was against the trade: I figured McNabb would give us one good year, maybe two, but would be washed up by the time the rest of the team came around. I can’t recall anyone at the time of the trade who thought he’d suck from the get-go.
Some of the scuttlebutt repeated by the Washington Post last fall was that Bruce Allen and Mike Shanahan engineered the McNabb trade without checking with the younger Shanahan, who had a system that McNabb didn’t fit into. I have no idea whether that’s true, but either communication or common sense broke down somewhere among that group of three people (four if you include Snyder), and they’re all still there. That doesn’t bode well.
I find it hard to swallow the idea that The Ultimate Leader doesn’t know what kind of offense his own kid runs.
I find it much easier to swallow the idea that Bruce Allen has no fucking clue what he’s doing, which is pretty much borne out by the fact that the Buccaneers roster went to shit the moment Jon Gruden got Allen hired to replace Rich McKay.
That Kyle Shanahan couldn’t have expected McNabb doesn’t pass the sniff test.
The choices were to stick with Jason Campbell (who still hasn’t really looked all that great even in Oakland), get the best available QB in the draft and expect to lose for a couple years, or get the best available veteran QB. McNabb was certainly the best available at the time for the right price.
While McNabb was probably working towards the end of his career, there was nothing that indicated he would have such a bad season. To be honest, I’m still thinking he’ll have a reasonable season in Minnesota as a placeholder until Ponder is ready.
I don’t think anyone seriously entertains the idea that McNabb had a bad year because he’s not any good. Especially considering his production with whole rosters of #3 wideouts in Philly.
The offensive line was just atrocious; Peyton Manning wouldn’t have looked good back there either.
The whole business of the Redskins essentially giving up on McNabb in midseason makes no sense to me. Yeah, the idea that the Shanahans didn’t bother talking to each other makes no sense, but neither do any of the other explanations I can think of.
I mean, even if Bruce Allen or The Danny went out and got McNabb without consulting the Shanahans, you’d think they’d be sufficiently professional to redesign their offense to make the most of McNabb’s skill set. They would’ve probably liked more than five months before the regular season to do that, but it hardly seems impossible. It really seems to suggest to me that whatever the problems are with the Redskins, the Shanahans are probably part of the problem. Not that I’m excluding Bruce Allen from consideration here, just saying that replacing Allen wouldn’t solve the problem by itself.
Skins’ QB competition is getting interesting. Maybe they should just continue switching off every series the whole season.
I don’t see any reason not to go with Beck. They’re not going to win the division even if Joe Montana shows up for the last week of camp, and Grossman’s clearly not their quarterback of the future*. Beck might be.
*I really thought that guy was going to be a star after the Bears’ Super Bowl season. For the first half of that year he was Peytonesque.
any skins fan worth his salt is NOT rooting for an 8-8 season. this is the year of the Luck and whoever tanks the hardest wins the most. we’re talking about the next Peyton Manning here.
Boy, are things going badly for the Giants or what? Rough, rough preseason. I’d point and laugh like everyone expects of a Philly fan, but that’s too painful to poke fun at.
I was looking over the “experts’ picks” on ESPN and NFL.com. It’s strange to me that the Eagles are so hyped, so over exposed, and yet not a single one of the 18 or so experts picked them to win the Super Bowl. Only three picked them to even reach the Super Bowl. Strange and reassuring, that. Not that I think it’s wrong, just interesting.
End of the 3rd Quarter for Giants-'Skins. Good thing Rex Grossman is such a horrible quarterback; if they still had someone like McNabb the Redskins would be up by three touchdowns.