Verdict on our Off-season so far

What do you think about our Off-season so far.

Feel free to elaborate on your vote.

 Everytime I copy and paste texts it comes without the paragraphs. Forgive the ramblings, I have no one to talk football with here in Samoa so I'm just trying to solicit your opinions and thoughts on the Skins minus the usual spam from Spooky and the likes. Anyway here it is again, my apologies fellow posters.

So far this off-season I am pleased with the way Vinny & Snyder handled things EXCEPT for that offer for Johnson. They did a thorough job of selecting a head coach though in the end, no one of note wanted the job so we took our OC and made him HC. This may have been the best option after Marucci, Spags and all other guys said no. We will see if Zorn can make the cut as a HC 3 years from now. He has a good background from his Seahawks days as both a QB and coach and this will certainly help our JC and our offense as they re-invent themselves in the WCO. He has brought in his own OC, RB’s and QB’s coaches and hopefully our offense buys into his system and takes it from there.

The FA period was a good change for us, we managed to show discipline and for whatever the reason we didn’t spend, (whether it was due to shallow Free Agency or fiscal discipline by Snyder) we did the right thing and cut the deadweight we had (Brunell and Lloyd) and made room by letting some of our FAs go. However, some guys we should have kept like (Prioleau, Macklin) for depth reasons however these decisions are debatable and probably Blache & Vinny have good reasons for letting them go.

Then came the Chad Johnson affair which totally went against the trend we have been setting i.e. not trading away our high picks for FA (and a pricey one at that). Vinny looked like a smart guy up til then, although this move smells more of a Snyder call than Vinny’s. I guess the heart is in the right place with them vying for Johnson, away from Dallas & Philly. Imagine if the Boys or Eagles have landed Johnson? Again the price was too high but we had to do something than just letting our rivals take him. I am not kissing Vinny’s backside and Lord knows I was one of those calling for his head for the last 2 years however his decisions as head of personnel in the off-season deserves recognition. This is the second year we have made smart decisions in FA and the draft and we are making good strides in addressing the poor state of our salary cap. I think Vinny, Zorn and even Snyder deserves the benefit of the doubt so far though judging by the Chad Johnson saga, we still have that crazy streak where we go haywire and make some really dumb offers and trades that gives away our picks for FAs that may have well passed their best years.

Unfortunately, only time will tell whether all these moves we made (Zorn as HC, drafting 3 offensive players, no impact DE/DT etc…) were the right ones.

HTTR

P.S. - Oh, I didn't get the chance to put in the 'Sucks' option for the pessimists, I pressed the enter button too soon.

I voted better than last year.  That much is obvious.  I hope a year from now, just prior to the 2009 draft, we can say this year was great, and really be excited about a second great draft in a row.

Not a horrible off-season, but no reason to celebrate either.

With respect to Free-Agency I would like to see a middle ground. Signing a train-load of over-priced veterans (like they have done previously) is not smart. But going to the opposite extreme and signing zero talent does not feel like the right answer either. I would like to see a couple smartly targeted free agent signings at key spots. For example, the London Fletcher signing last year was HUGE. Also the Pete Kendall signing last year was HUGE. How about we sign in a quality Defensive Lineman sometime between now and opening day!!

The draft was pretty good but not a home run. I like trading out of the first round. I like our two Big Wide Receivers. But the Fred Davis pick was strange. I also would have kept our early 4th round spot (#103) and got an earlier crack at a DB. I like the punter that we picked.

I voted Great for the following reasons,

Free agency we did not go sign any one of note. We did not throw money away and get nothing in return. I am sure the cap had some to do with it, and maybe just better management of the players and the team. I am so hopeful that Danny and Vinny are learning.

Trades prior to the draft. The team did not make any foolish trades to get players with problems and wanting large contracts. Maybe we tried and were denied and maybe it was just a lot of smoke and mirrors. Either way we did not trade away our draft picks nor get any players that may have caused us problems. In my opinion a very smart move.

The draft, we went in with 9 picks and ended up making some trades and got 10 picks. In my opinion we had a very good draft and took care of many of the problems we have on the offensive side of the ball. I like the fact that we kept our draft picks and had a plan and actualy followed the plan on draft day. I give them yes Dan and Vinny an A for that.

In my opinion the Redskins have talked foolishly this offseason and yet they have not done anything foolish. The draft will take time to know what we got. On paper it looks pretty darn good to me. What we actualy got time will tell. I am very optimistic that we are now starting to build a team.

I am so looking forward to this year! I am also looking forward to next years draft as long as we keep our picks again!

HTTR

I second the "cautiously optimistic" point of view.

Simply put...I don't want to end up disappointed when I know this is a BRAND NEW offense scheme they are implementing.

That takes time....sigh.

Skinsgal99