When the Redskins put out their 53 man roster on Saturday, the list of cuts contained hardly any shocking names. The biggest name release was RB Keiland Williams, who I believe the Shanahan’s felt could pass through waivers (Detroit picked him up), thinking he would be there in week three or four when they were ready for him. Losing Williams hurts the Redskins, but not to a level they were unprepared to deal with with they took his playbook and released him.
It also wasn’t surprising that longtime Skins like Horatio Blades and Chris Horton got the axe. Neither played very well in the preseason. I think Blades has a legitimate beef: the team kept Rocky McIntosh over him, which may have been undeserved, but Horton on the other hand looked as lost in coverage as he has ever since he first won the job in 2008. The fact that the Redskins had listed him as their first backup to FS O.J. Atogwe was more or less the death knel of Horton’s tenure, and explains why he looked so lost in the preseason.
None of these cuts were surprises. The reason that we’re without a surprise departure to begin the season is totally by design: at the positions where the rebuilding Redskins were overloaded with talent (wide receiver, running back, outside linebacker), the Redskins kept everybody. They did not cut a player who was not in their long term plans for a guy who was. They kept Donte Stallworth and they kept Niles Paul and they kept Markus White and Rob Jackson and they kept Ryan Torain without losing Evan Royers (waived; practice squad).
It’s a rare sign of a word I’ve been incredibly hesitant to use with this organization: rebuilding. There’s no doubt that Keiland Williams had more value to this team than Donte Stallworth does due to his versatility and the fact that Stallworth is third on the depth chart simply amongst veterans on a team with lots of young receiving talent. There was no real spot on this roster for two rookies in Leonard Hankerson and Niles Paul, and the Redskins were able to avoid the pressure to decide between which one of these two players was more useful to them now by keeping both. To this, I tip my cap for the Shanahans for taking a bad situation and making the right, if unorthodox decision. Too often, Zorn/Cerrato or even Gibbs/Williams stripped useful future talent off the roster because they couldn’t figure out a way to make the player fit in the plans for that year.
Having 8 receivers on the roster brings up an entirely different problem. Where are Leonard Hankerson, Terrence Austin, Niles Paul, or Donte Stallworth actually going to get any reps on offense? We know the Redskins are a 2 WR base offense that just doesn’t use very much formation diversity, usually only going 3 WRs in third downs or in long yardage. The Redskins rarely go with 4 WR sets. Even if we up the frequency of those formations in 2010, we know the receivers who will be playing include and is limited to Jabar Gaffney, Santana Moss, and Anthony Armstrong. Between those three, two of those guys are already at their athletic peaks (Armstrong, Gaffney), and Moss is on some sort of decline into the realm of possession receiver. Armstrong can still get vertical on most defenses, but Gaffney was stretched in this role even in his prime, and the days were Moss streaks down the sideline behind the safeties was last seen roughly four years ago.
This is specifically a problem for Hankerson and Austin who need reps to develop as our starters of the future. Hankerson may not get on the field much all season, and though Austin could find himself in the receiver rotation getting 10+ snaps a game, plenty of those plays will be runs. I thought Keenan McCardell did a really good job coaching this group in his first year as a position coach in the NFL, but its one thing to find talent deep on your roster, it’s another thing entirely to develop that talent without game or practice reps for those guys. Our coaches are sure to learn a lot about the character and mental makeup of the players deep on our roster at those skill positions, but not much about their on-field abilities. Now, lets pause for a second and think back to the part where the Redskins couldn’t find a role for both Chris Cooley and Fred Davis on the same field, even though the Redskins lacked talent on the outside the last couple of years. It’s mind-boggling to figure that now, with all these receivers that need to get on the field, that situation is going to rectify itself.
So it’s not that my beef with the Redskins on the day they re-signed Santana Moss, and acquired Jabar Gaffney and Donte Stallworth all on the same day is a thing of the past. If anything, the problem with those signings should be more self-evident now that they’ve kept 8 players at the receiver position on the roster. There are a number of redundancies out there. Having Gaffney and Moss is redundant. Having Moss and Austin is redundant. Having Stallworth and Armstrong is redundant. 8 receivers does not suggest great effiency of the 53 man roster; quite the opposite, actually. It suggests internal conflicts between relying on veterans and wanting to develop players for the future.
And really, that’s the theme of this roster as we head into the 2011 season: internal conflict. It’s not really clear what the Redskins are or intend to be. It’s quite clear from the preseason that if the Redskins want to run the football and stop the run, they have the horses on each side of the ball to do just that. But then the fact that the Redskins are rostering 12 TEs and WRs would seem out of place, and the Keiland Williams cut looks even more curious should this be a run/defense/special teams oriented team. I think the Redskins themselves believe that better times are in the near term future. And that very easily could be the case. But for a team that most of us were pegging for 4-6 wins during the lockout (those were full-season totals), then went on a tear during the preseason, the conflict of the roster suggests that the team isn’t going to get caught up in what was working so well for the preaseason. The understanding is that this roster is a work in progress, and so the fact that it looks like a roster that is going to look very different five weeks from now is simply reflective of the reality of the situation. The Redskins team that takes on the Giants in September will not be the same team that takes on the Eagles in October.
What this roster needs to be able to do is keep the team in the game, in line to get a big W early on against a division rival. The team isn’t going to go through the year with 8 WRs and just 2 Guards. That’s just how they will start.
There are many voices inside Redskins Park pulling the roster in many different ways, but as long as everyone rows in the same direction this season, the makeup a transisitional roster will not keep the Redskins from accomplishing their goals early in this season.
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