Gibbs' Comment re: Redskins Defensive Line

[MikeBass]

Originally Posted by shally

or so GW says...

i speak only for myself, but what troubles me is that in the run up to free agency and the draft, the number 1 problem identified was the weakness of the d line.. now all of a sudden, it aint so anymore.

my question is, "what changed or caused gibbs to say a different line?"

and i may not know all the nuances of the defenses the skins were running, but even to a lay person it was obvious to me that the d line was being handled easily by most offensive lines. o linemen were NOT being tied up by our linemen and were getting to the second level where they were beating up on our linebackers and secondary.. did you see something different ?

or perhaps you saw opponent qb's running for their lives under pressure from our line or line + blitzers ? i didnt. i saw qb after qb sit back and pick us apart. so do you feel that the players we added in the back 7 are so good that they can now stick with our opponents skilled players for 5,6,7,10 seconds or what ever time it takes for the pass rush to get there ?

if so, then we are in fine shape for next year

The point is that we are not going to have to stick to anyone that long. Macklin and/or Landry and/or Springs will get to a QB quicker than any defensive lineman in football will. Which one will we blitz which on will pull back? No one will know because we will show teams all kinds of formations before the ball is even snapped.

It is going to be a thing of beauty

[shally]

Originally Posted by colkurtz

Shally do you think there is NO CHANCE of picking up a DL FA on June 1? Do you think they are targeting anyone?

i think i will take gibbs at his word.. he wasnt looking to add a d lineman in the early part of free agency and nothing has changed at this point to make me think they will add someone june 1..

i think we will add a couple of UDFA's in the next day or so but that is it.
i think we are done

[LadyNRedskinsfan]

ive said before, ill say it again. when GW got here, our DL was average and the secondary was solid. we finished in the top 10 in defense, same for the next year. i do not think that the secondary is to blame for the lack of pass rush or not being able to stop the run, but having the secondary upgraded should make the defense more flexible.

[dabro]

Originally Posted by colkurtz

This defense will improve with the better DB we've brought in. But the FO did say before the draft that the DL was a need and priority. Now, with NO CHANGES its suddenly ok?

They got cold feet on a DL choice, took the safer pick and now are trying justify it.

That's how I see it, too. The consensus was that Okoye was'nt good enough for the no. 6 pick, so they took the "safe" pick, where no one will try to second-guess them. I think they should have taken him anyway. Time will tell.

[shally]

Originally Posted by MikeBass

The point is that we are not going to have to stick to anyone that long. Macklin and/or Landry and/or Springs will get to a QB quicker than any defensive lineman in football will. Which one will we blitz which on will pull back? No one will know because we will show teams all kinds of formations before the ball is even snapped.

It is going to be a thing of beauty

no defense ultimately wins with trickery.. you win by physically whipping your man.

if you tell me you think our d line can do that, fine. but i will not accept that over a season we are going to get by on defense by sending enough people to overwhelm the blockers protecting the qb.

it didnt happen last year and it wont happen this year.. time and again what i saw was the overload just got collapsed on to inself and we had a scrum
that got no where near the qb.. then the qb had his offensive players running free against the remaining defensive players. converted third down. td. lost game

if we are going to try the same thing, we are going to have the same result

[Redskinfan28]

Originally Posted by smoak

Hopefully this discussion stays the path of contructive, but given the passionate nature of our feelings on the subject.... probably not.

If you can (or even care) watch Gibbs presser on Day 2. At the end he is asked if the team considered a d-lineman at any of their picks today. Some of you will want to open a vein, but Gibbs' response was along the lines of "not really". His claim is that the coaching staff really felt that the D-line was hurt by the poor secondary play last year and that they addressed that need this offseason. I agree completely, and I've posted about games that I've seen on NFL Network (Jags and Titans) where you can really see the secondary was the problem and not the D-line. The guys played off, missed tackles, blew quick reads, and really were garbage from day 1 in the preseason.

However, the D-line is FAR from blame free and getting very old VERY fast. I am disappointed we didn't end up with a D-lineman, but I am not disappointed that we seemed to take "best available" regardless of position.

Just wanted to see everyone's thoughts regarding 1) whether or not we imporved the secondary and 2) will it help the pass rush. Also, if someone has the games on DVD, I'd like to buy them all and do some play by play analysis of the defense and where the breakdowns occured. (Hey, its a long offseason and I don't watch baseball)

We have the worst DL in the league.

[skinsfan1]

Originally Posted by LadyNRedskinsfan

ive said before, ill say it again. when GW got here, our DL was average and the secondary was solid. we finished in the top 10 in defense, same for the next year. i do not think that the secondary is to blame for the lack of pass rush or not being able to stop the run, but having the secondary upgraded should make the defense more flexible.

yea but the front four were old when we signed them now they are what 4 years older except for carter and golston we have a aging front four and really no oone to look forward to in the future

[colkurtz]

Originally Posted by MikeBass

It is alright for you to think that but Gibbs, GW and myself think otherwise and we are ready to move on into the season with the defense that they assembled. I am pretty sure that it will be top 10 with all of the talent that we picked up in our defensive backfield. Landry, Springs and Taylor in themselves are scary. Smoot, Macklin and Rogers are solid if Rogers can hold on to the ball( he could've had around 6 interceptions last season if it was not for those bricks that he calls hands)and then you have Stoutmire and PP who are a little above average, man those packages are going to be something to watch. I hate it for opposing offenses.

Faith in Gibbs and Co in his fourth season must be earned. I am not a "doubting Thomas", nor [generally] a naysayer. But after a 21/48 record in his second tenure; and a controversial defensive strategy he doesn't get a free pass from me. But what do I know? If I was so smart I'd be out there coaching and making the big bucks.

On the other hand, if you're going to pull the: "I agree with whatever the coaches say because they are so smart" argument - what are we going to talk about? The weather?

[dabro]

Originally Posted by skins111111

a stud D-Line can make and average secondary look awsome and on the other hand a poor secondary can make a good D-Line look bad.

1-We now have an awsome secondary
2-Gibbs and the FO are very happy with Daniels and Griff comeing back healthy and with the developement of Golston and Montgomery. not to mention the progression of Carter

A stud defensive line won't give the QB time to throw when he wants to, so I agree with the first part of your statement. I do not agree that an average secondary makes the DL look bad. The DL is either getting to the QB and forcing mistakes, or they're not.

I'll withold judgement on whether we have an "awesome" secondary... Maybe on paper, but with the Skins that normally means "but not in reality".

If the entire DL can stay healthy this year, we should be OK there. Historically, they won't!

My attitude now: "Show Me!"

[colkurtz]

Originally Posted by shally

i think i will take gibbs at his word.. he wasnt looking to add a d lineman in the early part of free agency and nothing has changed at this point to make me think they will add someone june 1..

i think we will add a couple of UDFA's in the next day or so but that is it.
i think we are done

Shally, NOW I'm depressed. I'm excited to watch this offense get better with JC ...

but I'll just have to curl up in a ball and suck my thumb while the defense is playing.

[shally]

Originally Posted by Redskinfan28

We have the worst DL in the league.

we did last year... not much, if anything, has changed

[skinsfan1]

Originally Posted by colkurtz

Shally, NOW I'm depressed. I'm excited to watch this offense get better with JC ...

but I'll just have to curl up in a ball and suck my thumb while the defense is playing.

i think i'll just drink more beer and the d will look better by the fourth quarter

[Skins7ny]

Originally Posted by jaylen

We're such an incompetent franchise right now it really disappoints me . I've been a Skins fan for over 30 years and we just don't seem to have a clue.

I know exactly what we're gonna do, we're gonna trade away next years draft in the next few month's in getting some d lineman someone else doesn't want or doesn't wanna pay. I keep hearing about the Lion's Redding and others being available and it fits with our dysfunction to give away next years draft picks to get players we could have simply drafted ourselves.
Greg Williams should have been fired in the off season simply because on his side of the ball he allowed so many breakdowns rather it being bad judgements on free agents or the lack of communciation and bickering within the defensive staff.

My joy (and shock) at us not having traded a single 2008 draft choice today and taking our medicine for our past devaluing of our draft choices is tempered by the knowledge that every GM in the NFL is going to line up to call our FO offering their unwanted D-lineman for one of our premium 2008 choices. JUST SAY NO! Even if there are guys out there who I like, such as Alex Brown, let's stay away from it. Give GWilliams the chance to prove that he can have a top-10 defense with the D-line he has, and then, whether he succeeds or not, use 2 of next year's first three choices to improve and get younger in our D-line. That is what I would do.

[shally]

Originally Posted by colkurtz

Shally, NOW I'm depressed. I'm excited to watch this offense get better with JC ...

but I'll just have to curl up in a ball and suck my thumb while the defense is playing.

i think the offense will hum this year and we will be treated to the growth of a great young qb... but i think we are going to have to outscore people much of the time to win..

on the other hand (the glass half full).. i think we will have a defense that is at least better than last year's defense. that should be enough to swing a few losing games into the win column.. so the games will be close and competitive

[LadyNRedskinsfan]

Originally Posted by skinsfan1

yea but the front four were old when we signed them now they are what 4 years older except for carter and golston we have a aging front four and really no oone to look forward to in the future

true, but with andre carter, demetric evans, golston and montgomery , we have enough young(er) guys to rotate with griffin, salave'a, daniels and wynn.