John: I would like to ask for your thoughts on 2 questions: 1) As bad as the offense was last week, and as many open receivers as Beck didn’t see, I almost thought he had improved from the previous game. Of course, it may have just been the fact he wasn’t on his back all day but still. Do you think there is anyway this weekend he can combine the positive reinforcement he gained by not getting slammed every play last week because he was getting rid of the ball quickly, and the lessons he learned from film study this week that there were open receivers that he failed to take advantage of. 2) I have heard several people say, including Greg Cosell (in your interview, thank you very much) that Beck has a strong arm. You have had the opportunity to watch Beck practice and play. I have not seen him through a decent deep ball this year, in pre-season or in games. It seems like his is almost always short and it looks like he just doesn’t have a strong arm. Maybe it’s just an accuracy issue, but I’d like to know what you think of his arm strength and does he actually ever through a good deep ball, in practice?
Thanks,
Charlie C.
Charlie: Beck improved from the previous week, but still couldn’t lead the team inside the red zone until 2 minutes remained in the game when the Niners relaxed their coverages. But, yes, it’s something he can build upon. He got rid of the ball faster, but he missed shots downfield. Will he look for more? Don’t know. But he can enter this game feeling better about how he did last week than the previous week. As for his arm, I’ve talked to players who say it’s plenty strong enough. Talked to GMs and scouts who have said the same. But accuracy is the issue. Going back to the spring, I have yet to see him consistently hit his targets downfield.
JK
John: Please give me your assessment of LaRon Landry. He really doesn’t seem to me to be playing at the level that was expected this season. I know he has had some injury issues, (although I still don’t know why a guy who went on IR after 9 weeks last year had not recovered fully by the start of training camp, lock out or not) but after last season, I was hoping that he would be a Pro Bowl caliber player for sure. How do rate his play so far, both mentally and physically, and do you think he will ever be an elite player in the NFL.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks,
Charlie C.
Charlie: LaRon has been OK, but clearly isn’t making as many plays. I’ll be curious to see how he progresses in the second half. He missed all of training camp; that’s tough to do and then to come out and play at a high level. Now his Achilles is sore again. He was elite for the first eight games last season, but has not been at even a Pro Bowl level this season. LaRon is best when he can be a physical player who relies on instincts (those same instincts got him in trouble vs. Buffalo).
JK
John: Busy week with all the personnel changes, do you think David Anderson will be able to jump right in and make any impact? Also, should the Skins be running the hurry up offense more often and earlier in games? Not only will it keep the opposing defense on its heels, it seems Beck (and the whole offense) plays much better. Granted it is usually during garbage time, but the play calling seems to be better and more aggressive too…thoughts?
Thanks,
Martin Hain
Martin: They don’t like to use that too often and with so many new faces, it can be tough to run on a regular basis. Teams that do well with it tend to have a lot of experience together. They have three rookies starting; makes it difficult. Teams are letting them drive downfield late in games so it’s tough to measure how effective this has really been.
JK
John: Shanahan in my view, squandered year 1 in terms of starting to seriously rebuild this team, but this year he seems to be in full blown rebuild mode. I can’t recall a coach who ever publicly used the word “rebuild” while they are in the process of it. It would seem too destructive a term in particular to the veterans on the club who want to win now, especially right in the thick of the season. So I don’t get the media’s fascination to get Shanahan to openly use the word “rebuild” and in turn if he does or doesn’t use the term it implies something significant. Why should he be different than any coach in the NFL who likewise eschews openly using that term?
Do you agree that Shanahan is indeed rebuilding and if so do you follow why he won’t use that term openly?
Mike
Mike: Not everyone is worried about how he terms what he’s doing. When you take over for a regime that won 12 games in two years, what do you do? You rebuild the roster. And that’s what he’s done; it’s been clear from the time he came in that this needed to be done. If I were a coach, I wouldn’t use that word either. When players hear that it’s code for: losing. It can be a negative word. I’m guessing the rebuild would be easier to swallow, too, if they had a legit young QB playing. Then you see light at the end of the tunnel. Now? Have to wait for next season for that.
JK
John: Your buddy RedskinsST21 from twitter – I had a question about interceptions and Fred Davis. It seems a really high # of the picks this year have been balls thrown to him. Is that more because he is our only legitimate threat – and gets alot of targets and – so he’s double covered and grossbeck just lock on to him? Or is he not breaking off the routes correctly and is this something to be concerned about going forward? Thanks John always love the insight.
Zach
Zach: Knew it was you. Davis has been the target on five interceptions; Santana Moss was the target on three. Here’s the rest of the breakdown: Jabar Gaffney (two), Donte Stallworth, Leonard Hankerson and Anthony Armstrong one apiece. It breaks down to about how often a guy is targeted. Moss had two bounce off his hands that were picked. Davis could have run a better route on one of the picks, but in most cases it was a bad decision. However, that’s where trust comes in: if a guy is a little bit off on his route, maybe by a yard, that could be the difference in a pick or a catch. But the QB has to throw it before he breaks. Still, I think it’s been more bad throws than anything.
JK
John: thanks for your insights into the Redskins. It’s another painful season but I always look forward to your insights and humor. My question is about the impact the unusual offseason has had on our roster progress. I do not know all of the details but do recall that the net impact was to reduce the pool of available players and to reduce the timeframe over which trades could be executed. That must have had a negative impact on teams like ours trying to execute more extensive overhauls of their rosters. I am sure this had an impact but not sure to what degree and this would seem to factor into the level of progress we can expect in year 2. Can you please add some insight into this?
Sean Cook
Sean: Thank you. My kids do not always appreciate my humor. There were actually a lot of players available, but not a lot of time to pursue them. And it was hard to make trades; some trades would have been made around the draft and obviously those could not be executed. But the extra time in the offseason did give them a longer time to investigate who they wanted to pursue. And you can only turn over a roster so much in one offseason. They always knew it would take more than one good offseason to do this – and they really didn’t get going to the heavy work until the 2010 offseason. It’s almost as if they used last year to see what they really needed.
JK
John: Is Bruce Allen serving as the buffer between Shanahan and Snyder? Certainly, Snyder won’t do anything rash like fire Shanahan after the season right?
Brian
Brian: Bruce does serve as a go-between; people I talk to around the league consider him a good “politician.” But I haven’t heard of any issues between Shanahan and Dan Snyder. And, no, I don’t think he’ll do anything rash. I know Mike had told people he has known for a while that this would take time. There’s no way he told Snyder otherwise. Why tell your boss you’ll get it done in a year? This roster did require many new parts, which means a few years before legitimate success. Yes, with Snyder you never know. But it would also cost him a major chunk of change to get rid of the staff. I just can’t see it happening at this point.
JK
John: I want to be patient with Shanahan, and I know he’s only one and a half years into the rebuild, but I’m not seeing any progress. Even if you look past the QB situation (McNabb was a flop, he got Kerrigan instead of Blaine Gabbert, no one else available) what has he really done? No offensive line depth, no new weapons in the passing game, no consistent running game. On D he’s completely flipped over the D line and he’s added Kerrigan and Atogwe… but it’s not enough. Is it unrealistic for fans to expect that we should be a little further along than this? The team looks awful.
Joe
Joe: I’m surprised in the lack of development in the run game as much as anything. Injuries prevented that from perhaps happening this season, at least to this point. I thought if they stayed relatively healthy they could finish 7-9, but if any linemen got hurt they’d be in trouble. Any of them. Then you lose Moss and Cooley? Not good. That’s played a role, but I would have thought they’d be a little further along. The defense is fine, but not special. There’s no identity on offense. We don’t know who the real QB of the future is yet. They still lack playmakers. The defense is improved, but still needs a couple more parts. The tough part is that they didn’t tear down the roster as much as it needed when he first arrived. That delayed the true rebuild and that meant another year of …. this.
JK
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