really like the maturity and candor that BOTH Weedon and RGIII showed in their interviews.. a couple of very classy guys

Liked the maturity, confidence and sense of humor.

One big question is that he said he was never hit at OK State. He's going to get hit plenty unless our line turns into an unstoppable wall. How he responds to getting hammered will be telling.

You'd expect that from Weeden, since he is 28. If we went into a Plan B mode [not bidding up for RGIII, no P. Manning, nor Flynn] I could see us drafting him with our second pick. In that case we'd either take the BPA at OT or WR in the first round.

As I expected Flynn was not franchised. No one should have expected him to be.

Franchising Fred Davis on the other hand is a very smart (nearly text book) use of the tag. First of all relatively low top salaries among TE's make the money affordable. Second of all the big question mark surrounding his pot smoking and ability to not do it again before he's tested multiple times this coming season make a longer term deal prohibitive. He's clearly a very talented player that baring another weed smoking incident they would love to keep. Considering it's the only position on the team that has starter talent at both starter and backup. Also considering how the Pats have shown how much of a matchup problem two talented TE's can be, if the Skins could even manage to find one impact WR, they could do some of the same two TE sets and lead to the Skins fielding matchup problems for the first time in years. If all that isn't enough, who else were they going to tag? Laron "Muscle Head" Landry and his rubber band Achilles that he refused to get fixed even after the best Achilles guy in the country told him to? You heard Carlos Rodgers, Landry is another guy who "wants out" (and also just like Rodgers probably resents the Redskins for paying him a lot of money to be a big disappointment)...

It's very easy to wait until an event occurs and then say "I knew that would/wouldn't happen".

The logic for franchising Flynn was based on a recently established precedent concerning a back-up who performs well in limited action set to become a free agent. In recent years, such players have fetched some trade value and the team used the franchise tag to ensure they got something in return. It's very possible that the Pack had other areas of concern for which they would use the tag or didn't want to commit, even for a short period of time, the cap space to carry a QB franchise tag or they may have simply not wanted to give their back-up a higher salary than their starter. In addition, perhaps they simply didn't want to be accused of violating the recently negotiated CBA by using the franchise tag with the intention of trading someone (something I think would be hard to prove, but perhaps they didn't want the headache).

As for franchising Davis, I didn't know there was a rule that says a team HAS to use the franchise tag on any player. That sentence should sufficiently dispose of the argument I didn't make (using the tag instead on Landry, since I have advocated not re-signing him). I think it's a dumb move for a number of reasons: The Pot issue is an issue. That he was caught and continued to smoke and piss dirty says alot about his intelligence, dedication to his craft and conscientiousness. Secondly, his career year came in a contract year. There are a ton of examples (notably....Haynesworth, Albert) of players who have that breakout year in a contract year get paid and severely drop-off. For someone who already had motivation issues, who doesn't help those issues by smoking pot in-season, this is a major red-flag. Finally, while New England has shown everyone how using 2 TEs can be valuable, it's hard to argue that Fred is as good or better than either of Hernandez or Gronkowski. Moreover, finding TEs with Davis' skill-set (Decent speed, Decent hands, average to mediocre blocker) is not really that difficult to do. In the thread dedicated to the franchising Davis issue, I listed off the top of my head, 15 or so TEs that I would take over Davis, or who have out-performed Davis in every measurable way. It is for these reasons I feel that using the tag on Davis is a bad idea. A good idea is to make him a reasonable, incentive laden 2-3 year deal, with the ability to recoup bonus etc. in the event of a drug suspension and allow him to test the market and if he got a team to throw significant dollars at him, then thank him for his time in Washington, wish him luck and allow him to walk. It doesn't matter to me that the TE franchise number isn't that high, Davis doesn't deserve it and should not be rewarded for his selfish behavior.

Nicely put ..... but I'd just rather see him off the team. This team needs to invest in high character players. The atmosphere/attitude of this organization needs a seriours overhaul. Letting Davis walk does show a commitment to change to some extent IMO.

As far as I can see there are two significant issues in Ashburn. There is a culture issue of which I think guys like Landry and Davis are a part of the problem and there is the talent issue. Davis is one of the few people that helps us in the talent area, but I feel like the culture at the park is a bigger issue.

Nothing compares to the issue of the skins' leadership(players, coaches and FO) being more concerned with image over substance. Nothing.

I like Davis,but if we traded trent williams,i'd be happy.all he has done when he has'nt been injured or suspended is let guys run by him or get called for 2 major holding penalties every game.Landry's heart is'nt in to being a football player or else he would have had his foot fixed asap after he was put on IR.
I'm tried of deadbeats collecting huge paydays,good riddance!

Yea, I think that falls under the umbrella of the culture issue and it was one of the things I expected to see almost immediately address when Shanny was hired. Larry Michael in a lot of ways represents everything that is wrong with the culture in Ashburn. Stein, while joking, isn't far off in his description of that guy as "Minister of Information". Moreover, getting it back to the issue at hand, nothing in an interview with Michael by a member of the team brain trust will catch those guys off-guard. They know exactly what L.M. will ask and will give a prepared answer which is why these comments bother me so much. I will say that the idea of posturing is one that I hadn't considered prior to reading it here, and I am not sure I buy that.

Does my vote for RG3 still count? lol...but for 2 Kings Ransoms. :-/

I guess we are getting RGIII

I Doubt rg3 starts the season as the 1st string qb,i just hope rex does'nt!

Actually I didn't wait until it occurred. I posted my expectation that he would not be franchised in the "sign Matt Flynn" thread and a couple other Flynn discussions before the playoffs even started.

None of the usual suspects expected him to be tagged. Insiders like Lombardi and LaCanfora and Shefter etc. all at various times publicly said that it wasn't likely they would.

Anyway I wont go into the passel of reasons why you don't franchise a guy who has two career games under his belt.

The career year thing with Davis is exactly why you do franchise him: You get another year to answer that question, without commiting big money.

Again franchise tag on a TE is cheap for a good TE. Because the "top" TE's salaries actually average out to be a relative bargain. It gives them an EXTRA year to answer the unknown questions. so if he pisses cheech & chong bong water again they aren't stuck paying fat signing bonuses and guaranteed money, OTOH they get a chance to keep him if he keeps his nose (pee?) clean.

In an emerging era where two gifted TE's seem to be a significant matchup advantage (and Depth as Cooley does have his share of injuries) Tagging Davis makes all the sense in the world. Not franchising him would literally require them to draft a top TE prospect (at cost of picks they probably don't even have now) or sign someone at HIGHER COST and possibly older age, like Dallas Clark; who will probably be on the radar of any team that manages to sign Manning; Just to maintain the current level of Depth.

With Laron Landry gone (creates a new hole in the talent pool with no really good free agent safety's available) and so many Other needs to fill, and presumably the plan to trade picks for RGIII in the works, WHY ON EARTH WOULDN'T YOU FRANCHISE HIM???? Because of character issues? Or to change the "culture"? Man you know as well as I do you can't do that all at once.

This is the problem, we all want the team to fix EVERYTHING all at once, or at least in a very condensed time frame. While we all ALSO want the coach to get the team to the playoffs at the same time. Or the "fire the coach; we must have sacrifices to appease us" talk starts up.

It's everything ANY coach could possibly do to make up for: Jason Campbell, Landry and Carlos Rodgers. Myriad lost draft picks to guys long gone like Jason Taylor, stupid signings like D Hall and Haynesworth, complete failure to draft decent WR talent with multiple high picks. Almost NO late round or undrafted free agent "finds", Old and used up players who were retiring or nearing retirement or should have already retired (the entire o line when Shanahan took over).

It amazes me how much the fanbase underestimate just how bad a situation this team was and still is in... IMO It's still on the downswing... The ship has only just BEGUN to turn away from the ice bergs it was bashing its hull into. Just like keeping Reed Doughty keeping some of these players is a necessity because you simply can not replace them all at once, and whats more, even when you DO replace them, you might not be getting a BETTER player, or a player who is better RIGHT AWAY. Some of these guys (like Doughty) are here because you can't just dump every single player AND COMPETE at the same time. And this Fanbase has shown it has ZERO tolerance for not competing no matter how unlikely they are to do anything. So please don't talk about the Colt's, they are doing something that would have THIS FANBASE (and Fearless leader Fan#1 Dan Snyder) rioting in the streets... screaming bloody murder 8-)

The team had the best draft and FA period last year in at least a decade. Almost everyone brought in started at some point. Compared to Snyderrato picks who didn't even finish TC or PS and/or average players with your #1 pick who had the losers attitude. I think that Shanahan has slowly been cutting away at the cancer culture. Players who come here for the paycheck and laugh it up after a loss.

That's why we need to keep Fletcher - he's a leader with fire on defense.

On offense we should go for Nicks. Get us a Pro Bowler in the middle. Draft for a big OT, in case williams flakes out or Brown gets hurt.

I also think we need to us our FA money for a big X WR. Something we haven't had in a long time. I'd like to see Davis and Cooley as the two TE set.


I've been one of the biggest booster for RGIII. He's a leader and will bring hope, energy, amazing ability, as well as being a student of the game. Players will join this team to play with RG3. Dump Rex now; and Beck. There is NOTHING either of these guys can help RGIII with, except develop bad habits. I was right in my prediction - now we shall see if the king's ransom was worth it. I think it will be. THE NEW REDSKINS HAVE ARRIVED!