The Washington Redskins - a perfect blue chip stock

BAILOUT the Redskins! Such is the state of things in Washington DC. Like most of the stocks traded on Wall Street, there are many assets that have no real value but continue to produce millions for its shareholders and owners. The Redskins are just like the stock market, look great on paper and generate millions to the owner but filled with high price, former blue chip stocks that have no real value when put to the test. This team is worse than bad, they are horrible and with no young, up-and-coming players to pin our hopes on, no star QB in the making, no player ready to bust out, if there was ever a time to blow the whole thing up it is definitely now!

Fans of the Washington Redskins have grown accustomed in the past decade or so to expect that their team with have a fighting chance to squeak into the playoffs and then, as the cheesy and cliché statement says, anything can happen. This is the hope that fans of this once-proud franchise held, probably fooling themselves into believing that this system, one where the owner is GM and often plays with the team the way that some us enjoy our fantasy football leagues, could ever and will ever work. More and more people are coming to the realization that this is nothing more than a pipe dream and that this system in place will never and has never worked. 

Unlike some of the horrible teams in the NFL, like the Lions or Chiefs, the Redskins are not in rebuilding mode, they do not have a rookie quarterback with a lot of promise (Stafford, Detroit Lions) or a team filled with young defensive players that get better week by week (Chiefs). The Redskins are a team full of over-the-hill, over-paid players with no fight and little talent. The performance that Jason Campbell put up in one half yesterday was one of the most pitiful performances by a starting QB in the NFL this year, he looked like the twin of JaMarcus Russell (Raiders). He couldn't hit a single open receiver, even though he was constantly under pressure thanks to the porous offensive line, he couldn't even hit the receivers when he had the time.The best decision of the day was to bench him to at least give the offense a quarterback that can make the reads and pick a receiver, though the results were not much better, at least he looked like a real quarterback.

With all of the low points in the game yesterday on offense, the saddest thing about the game was the fact that if Campbell hits Moss on that deep ball in the 2nd quarter, or Collins leads Moss a bit more on the long pass in the 3rd quarter, or Portis finishes his run off with a touchdown, the Redskins would have won the game. All they needed to do was to make one of those plays and the game would have been over but the truth would have been hidden for another week, this is NOT a good football team and the sooner we realize it and start looking for the future, the better.

The Chiefs are a sorry bunch of players that had no hopes of winning until the Redskins showed that they couldn't move the ball 10 yards on the WORST defense in the league, then they knew if they got the lead they would win the game. The Chiefs were giving up 400 yards/game and the Redskins couldn't muster more than 200 yards passing? Take out the long run and they amassed only 30 yards in rushing...PITIFUL! There is no other word to use to describe this team and it's players. the play-calling is horrendous but the fact that they couldn't do anything against the Chiefs is on the players and no one else. The offensive line is a disastrous mix of no-talent back-ups who are forced into the starting lineup because the GM on this team (whoever the hell that is?) did not foresee that there was a weakness there and has guys that should not even be in the league as back-ups and no starters.This is the bottom line in this deal, no accountability in the front office leads to poor performances by players that are not up to the task and a coach that is totally out of his league on every play.

For all of those who will rightfully state that Campbell is not the only one to blame, the fact that he can't hit open receivers and that he constantly makes the wrong decision at key moments is on him, nobody else. Collins needs to finish the year out at quarterback so that the Redskins can draft a young QB and live with the growing pains for the next few years. Campbell always seems to look like a deer in headlights, he never seems comfortable in the pocket and can't make decisions quickly, something that is key for any QB in the NFL. While other teams have young QB's that show flashes, Campbell has never done that, he has never looked good enough for a long enough period of time to warrant anymore time for him to prove himself, it's not going to happen, at least not here.

The reality of the game yesterday was, and will likely be, a blessing in disguise. This team has been riding on the .500 mark for the past few years but never looked like a contender. Every other team in the NFL, even the Lions or Chiefs show offensive flashes and can score points, what is wrong with this team? It doesn't even matter anymore, the fact of the matter is that this team is being led by 2 stooges, one that owns the team and all Redskins fans are going to be stuck with, and another guy that is his confidant but not equipped to be a personnel man in the NFL and last year's draft proved it. Out of 4 selections in the first 3 rounds, not one of them looks like a real NFL player, not good enough in this competitive league and the biggest reason that the person that needs to be fired today is Cerrato not Zorn. Cerrato has shown, year after year, that he is not the man for the job and that this team needs to hire a real, proven GM before they discuss any coach that will come in next year because things will get slightly better but not good enough to make this team competitive and built for the long run, not for a yearly crap-shoot to see what happens.

The bottom line in this is that the blame lies solely at the top, Daniel Snyder is the man who has hired Vinnie Cerrato, fired 6 coaches and insisted that all player personnel issues go through him even though he has no experience in football. Snyder's ego is the biggest hurdle that he has to becoming a good NFL owner. He used his savvy and business smarts to make himself a fortune and built an empire before his 35th birthday with his phone card business and several other endeavors. This drive seems to blind him to the fact that the NFL is not like other businesses, you can't just jump in and expect to succeed. If he would trust a real football mind with his franchise and simply do what Jack Kent Cooke did, pay the right free agents and support the team with enough money (something that Snyder has done well) he could sit back and at least know that the reason things are not going well is not his fault, now, he's the only thing that has been constant over these miserable years and thus, the main reason that this team will NOT improve if he doesn't change his ways.

One thing that should be apparent in this meltdown is that, no matter how much we, the fans, think we know about football (Snyder always says he's a fan) it pales in comparison to real football minds and that we should leave the details to the experts. Snyder  needs to look to other owners to take a lesson on how to run a successful team, do as the Rooney's have done for the past 40 years, hire a good general manager, a good young coach and get out of their way! If this doesn't change, no matter who the coach is and what high-priced free agent they bring in, the Redskins will continue to lose and look bad in doing so.

The good news about this is that it is only temporary, all of these things go in cycles. The Patriots, Colts, Cardinals, etc...used to be the most horrid franchises in the NFL and now they are perched atop the power rankings. The difference that these teams have versus the Redskins is the notion that the owner sits back and lets the football people make all of the decisions that will eventually will lead you back to success. If Dannyboy can finally realize this (not looking good right now) he can do the right thing and look for a GM first. After you have a real GM you let that person make ALL of the personnel decisions, including the coach you hire and the players you draft then, and only then, can you have a shot at becoming a real NFL team again and not this Junior Varsity version (offensively speaking) bottom feeder.