Must-Read For Redskins fans: The Off-Man Defense

During the Washington Redskins vs. New York Giants game on Sunday there were a lot of questions/complaints about the Redskins soft coverage on the Giants receivers. Nobody had a good answer as to why they play so far back.

Nobody, that is, until John Keim, the best X’s and O’s man covering the Redskins, asked some people and wrote up an article about it.

That article, which appears here, breaks it down in easy to understand terms. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to  complain about the defensive scheme.

I don’t want to go into too much about it here because you really should read the article, but there are advantages and disadvantages to playing off-man coverage as there are to playing press coverage.

If you’re playing off man, you can read the quarterback and the flow of the play and react to that. If you’re not exactly in the right spot, however (7-9 yards off the line of scrimmage, depending on the specific defense called), or if you read the quarterback incorrectly, you’ll get beat.

It’s in the execution, not the defensive call.

In press coverage, you get a bead on the receiver but you have to focus mostly on him and it’s more difficult to read the quarterback. Press coverage also tips off that the defense is in man to man. It’s easier to disguise the coverage in off man.

So before asking “why”, read Keim’s article and learn.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Redskins Ticket Rage–Take a Deep Breath

The Washington Post obviously is very anxious to create a buzz about their multi-part series about issues within the Redskins ticket office.

When I awoke this morning I had an email giving the outline of the initial installment of the series and a link to the story.

In the first few paragraphs we were led to believe that the throng of Steeler fans that were in full throat at last year’s Monday night game were there because the Redskins sold general admission tickets directly to brokers. Later in the story, we find out that 443 tickets to that game were sold to brokers.

That’s not good, but it certainly doesn’t account for Steeler Nation disrupting the Redskins’ offensive play calling. Many, many more tickets than that were sold to Steeler fans. I think that there were 443 of them tailgating in the spaces immediately adjacent to mine in the Green Lot.

But, hey, good bit of investigation there, WaPo, for uncovering that broker deal. Oh, wait, you didn’t uncover it? The Redskins themselves did? And they stopped it? And they disciplined the employees involved? All by themselves?

Like I said, what happened clearly was wrong.

Apparently, anxious to sell some club seats, some in the ticket office packaged up some premium seats with some lower-bowl general admission seats. The former are available to anyone who calls up the ticket office and wants them, the latter are supposed to go to people on the season ticket waiting list (or to upper deck ticket holders as an upgrade with the vacated nosebleeds to people on the list).

The Redskins uncovered all of this last spring and disciplined the associates involved in an unspecified manner.

This is wrong on many levels but it also was a violation of team policy. Judging from Twitter and some message boards there is some inclination out there to go after Dan Snyder with torches and pitchforks. There is no reason to think that Snyder had anything to do with this.

Are you going to go after Snyder if the beer guy short changes you?

Tomorrow’s story in the Post will deal with something with which Snyder probably is more familiar. In order to get the premium seats you have to sign a contract. You can’t buy them for just a year. The contracts are for anywhere from six to 10 years.

Since 2005, according to the Post, the Redskins have filed 137 lawsuits in an attempt to prevent premium ticket holders (club seats and suites) from breaking their contracts.

The angle, of course, is that the mean old Redskins are picking on individuals and struggling companies by forcing them to honor contracts that they signed.

Certainly one would think that the Redskins could grant some leeway in these tough economic times.

And it’s possible that they do. According to a statement that they sent out this afternoon in anticipation of the Post’s coming story, they first attempt to negotiate a compromise with the party wanting to break the deal.

For every lawsuit filed they say “dozens” of successful negotiations have resulted in companies and individuals being able to get out of their agreements.

I hope that the Post story on Thursday offers up some key bits of information about these lawsuits. Among the things I would need to know before either condemning the Redskins or taking up for them are:

• What do other NFL teams do in such situations? I’m sure that the Redskins aren’t the only team with such issues. What do Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft do when someone wants out of a premium seat deal?
• This would require a legal opinion but I’d like to find out if what happens to future cases if you give someone a pass. In the story there is an account of one club ticket holder who wanted to get out a few years early and was sued by the team. If the team had just let this guy go, would that establish a precedent that would make it difficult for them to go after, say, a corporation with five years and a million dollars left on a deal for a suite?
• Was that one club seat holder offered a compromise? What were the terms of the compromise offered?

I guess when someone wants to break a contract with the Washington Post corporation they are perfectly free to do so.

I also suppose that I’m going to be called a “Snyder apologist” by some. Sorry, but there is plenty to dislike about Snyder without piling on with stuff like this. I’d rather have all of the facts before I make a judgement.

Update: TV station USA 9 reports that on his radio show, LaVar Arrington has said that Snyder “had to know” about the ticket sales because he is a “tyrant.” Now let’s see, Arrington is an unbiased source since he has no ax to grind with Snyder, right?

Rich Tandler is the author of The Redskins Chronicle, a journey through the history of the Redskins 1937-2008 and he blogs about the ‘Skins at RealRedskins.com.

Brain Orakpo about to Become a Holdout

With less than 24 hours remaining until the first practice the Washington Redskins have yet to sign their top draft pick, Brian Orakpo.

There has been no public negotiating which generally is a good sign. Michael Crabtree, the Texas Tech receiver taken at No. 10 is demanding top-three money, and that’s not sitting well with the 49ers’ management.

But no news isn’t necessarily good news. It would indicate that there is a waiting game going on involving the slotting system.

Rookie contracts generally are based on slots. Basically, a player get a little more money than the player drafted immediately after him and a bit less than the one take right before him. This “system”, such as it is, relies on slots getting filled so that there is a basis for comparison at a given spot.

As of right now, though, there isn’t a slot to determine Orakpo’s deal; in fact it’s not even close. He’s in the middle of a gulf. The Texas defensive end/linebacker was taken with the 13th selection of the first round.

On the higher side, the closest pick signed is Mark Sanchez, taken fifth overall. In addition to being eight picks away, Sanchez is a quarterback. They get the chicks and make more dough, so his deal is not a good basis for comparison.

On the low side is center Alex Mack, taken at No. 21 by Cleveland. So we’re looking at eight slots on that end. Orakpo is the man in the middle.

There is another way of getting this done. Mack got a deal that was 12 percent higher than that of the player taken 21st in 2008. The Redskins and Orakpo’s agents, Ben Dogra and Michael Lartigue of CAA, could look at the contract signed by Carolina running back Jonathan Stewart last year and add 12 percent to that.

The result would be a five-year contract worth about $15.6 million. Start there, build in a few incentives, call it a deal, and get Orakpo out on the practice field.

This would serve the team and the player well, but the agents will be hesitant of getting burned. God forbid the 12th pick and/or the 14th pick get deals 13 percent higher than last year.

The reputations of Dorga and Lartigue would suffer (from their point of view, anyway), they would stand to be accused of leaving money on the table, and they believe they will have trouble lining up first-rounders in the future.

So, the waiting game continues. If Orakpo misses Thursday and Friday it won’t damage his development to any great extent. But I’ll bet you that by Friday, Greg Blache or another defensive coach will be lamenting his absence and saying that each lost day is like missing two days. Sometimes that’s just coach speak but in this case, with Orakpo being counted on to man two positions, it’s not too far from the truth.

It could be worse. The Washington Redskins could be having trouble getting a sixth-round pick into camp as the San Diego Chargers are. And they hardly are alone, with only five of the 32 first-round picks having inked contracts as of Wednesday morning. Still, it would be good to get the guy they’re counting on so much into the fray as soon as possible.

 

 

Rich Tandler is the author of the new book The Redskins Chronicle, a Journey Through the History of the Redskins 1945-2008. You can find the details of this unique book at www.RedskinsChronicle.com. Tandler also has the longest-running Redskins blog on the internet at RealRedskins.com.

Jarmon Selection Was Succession Planning For Washington Redskins

 

The Redskins’ selection of Jeremy Jarmon came as a surprise to many; to almost everyone, in fact, except for readers of this blog (sorry, on the rare occasions that I get one right I have to toot my horn). Few were even aware that the Supplemental Draft was going on, not surprising given that the Redskins never before had taken a player in that draft.

But even though Mel Kiper wasn’t present and it was conducted via email instead of in Radio City Music Hall, there was instant analysis everywhere.

Message board posters who had not heard of Jarmon in the morning were panning the pick in the afternoon. The negative reviews were based mostly on the fact that the posters never had heard of Jarmon and the Redskins had a lot of nerve spending a third on a guy they’d never heard of.

Others compared it to the Jason Taylor trade of a year ago. Never mind that Taylor was well north of 30 and that Jarmon barely is old enough to drink legally. Apparently, expending a pick for a defensive end is expending a pick for a defensive end, no matter what the other facts are.

Then you have Ben at The Curly R saying that Jarmon has to get on the field in 2009 in order to justify the selection and agreeing with Greg at Hog Heaven saying that the third was a bit too high and that the pick was a sign of impatience.

The view here is that Jarmon doesn’t have to play a single down in 2009 for the pick to be a good one and that the selection displayed some forward thinking for which the Redskins aren’t known.

Actually, it would be disappointing if Jarmon did not see time on special teams. At 6-3, 278 with a 4.79 time in the forty, he would be a scary sight rolling down the field on kick coverage. But with Phillip Daniels starting at left defensive end and Renaldo Wynn backing him up there is no need to line up Jarmon at DE this year. He has the frame to pack on another 15 pounds or so and when he does that he will be the perfect size for a run-stuffing defensive end.

Unfortunately, Jarmon won’t be able to accomplish that in the month of August. I see him getting a few snaps in the rotation but not much more than that (barring injury, of course).

And that’s fine. Because in drafting Jarmon, the Redskins have done what they have failed to do so often in the past–succession planning. Daniels and Wynn are unlikely to be here in 2010 and certainly both will be gone in 2011. So the Redskins have replaced Daniels. They have their starting left DE of the future on the roster.

Was a third too high? Again, instant analysis of the value of a draft pick is an exercise in futility. It certain, however, that the Redskins would not have been able to get him had they bid a fourth-rounder for him. Lions GM Martin Mayhew has acknowledged that his team had bid a fourth and 0-16 Detroit would have had first priority.

But even if you don’t buy Vinny Cerrato’s assertion that with a full offseason workout and a combine appearance Jarmon would have been a second you can still make a case that he was worth a third. In the NFL, it’s common practice to give up a pick in next year’s draft that’s a round better to acquire a pick in this year’s draft. You pay a premium for getting the services of the player a year early. So, if you take the assessment that Jarmon was a fourth-round talent in the 2010 draft it’s fair value to spend a third to get him a year early.

It’s a good sign that the Redskins actually are thinking ahead. This doesn’t mean that this will become a pattern or that Jarmon won’t be a bust. But it is one small step away from the Cycle of Futility in which the team has been mired for much of this decade.

Rich Tandler is the author of The Redskins Chronicle, a Journey Through the History of the Redskins 1937-2008. You can get details at RedskinsChronicle.com. Tandler blogs about the Redskins at RealRedskins.com.

 

Washington Redskins Forgotten Classic: Williams Nails Down the Job

This game, the 1987 regular season finale, had no significance in and of itself for Washington. The Redskins already had wrapped up the division title and their playoff seeding was set.

The significance of this contest was the Jay Schroeder started the game and Doug Williams finished it. Based on the fact that Schroeder was ineffective and that Williams rallied the team to an overtime win, Joe Gibbs gave Williams the nod to be the starter for the playoffs.

The rest, as they say, is history, such as the 35 points the Redskins racked up in the second quarter of Super Bowl XXII with Williams pulling the trigger.

You have to wonder what might have happened if Schroeder had played well, or even just OK. I don’t think that the Redskins win it all with Schroeder behind center, but you never know.

From the pages of my upcoming book The Redskins Chronicle:

The Metrodome—Doug Williams replaced an ineffective Jay Schroeder at quarterback and, along with Barry Wilburn and Ricky Sanders, sparked a 27-24 overtime win over the Vikings.

Williams entered the game midway through the third quarter with the contest tied at seven. Washington’s only score had come courtesy of Wilburn. The Vikings, already leading 7-0, were driving, perched at the Redskin seven.

Quarterback Wade Wilson tried to sneak a pass through double coverage, but he found the belly of Wilburn at the goal line. Wilburn headed upfield, broke through the pack and got into the clear.

The final obstacle to his team-record 100-yard interception return was removed when Todd Bowles dispatched receiver Anthony Carter with a block around the Minnesota 40.

Williams had an instant impact, throwing a 46-yard touchdown pass to Sanders on his fourth play to put his team up 14-7. After that things cooled for the Redskins and heated up considerably for Minnesota.

Starting with the first play of the fourth quarter, the Vikings ran off 17 points in five and a half minutes of play and the Metrodome was rocking as the home team led 24-14.

The Redskins responded quickly, driving to a field goal by Ali Haji-Shiekh to cut the lead to seven. Then, with 2:21 to play, they regained possession at their own 40. On third and one at the 49, Sanders ran a hitch-and-go and was wide open to catch Williams’ pass for 51 yards, tying the game at 24.

Haji-Shiekh missed a potential game-winning 33-yard field goal attempt in the final minute and the game went into overtime.

The Vikings never saw the ball in the OT. Washington won the toss and Sanders returned the kickoff 36 yards. Sanders then caught two passes for 32 yards to key a foray down inside the Minnesota 10.

Joe Gibbs immediately called for Haji-Shiekh, who displayed the kicker’s best friend—a short memory—as he ended it by drilling it through from 26 yards.

Rich Tandler’s upcoming book The Redskins Chronicle is the complete history of the team. To get notified when the book goes on sale go to http://RedskinsChronicle.com.

James Thrash Contemplates Retirement

It appears that James Thrash has a decision to make.

According to Dave Elfin of the Washington Times, Thrash has been struggling with a neck injury all offseason. Medication took care of the pain during the offseason down time but once workouts started in March the bulging disc flared up again. He has yet to participate in any of the team’s OTA’s.

It appears increasingly likely that Thrash will need surgery if he is to play for the Washington Redskins this year. That has the 34-year-old receiver/special teams demon contemplating retirement.

Although the coaches love him because of his work ethic and his eagerness to do whatever they ask of him, Thrash may be very much on the bubble this year when it comes to making the roster. As the third wide receiver last year, he caught nine passes, the same number that he caught the year before.

Four receiver spots are set in stone—Santana Moss, Antwaan Randle El, Malcolm Kelly, and Devin Thomas. A fully healthy James Thrash would have a tough time holding off speedy rookie Marko Mitchell for the fifth and probably final WR roster spot. A wounded Thrash, who has spent 12 seasons in the NFL, certainly would be facing an uphill battle.

His choices seem to be fairly clear cut. He could try to rehab his neck without surgery and give it a go in training camp. Or he could have the surgery and hope that he’s ready to return to fight for his job.

I’m not sure how long the recovery from his surgery would be—the doctors themselves don’t know until they go in and do the procedure—but one would have to think that being ready for the July 30 start of camp would be very difficult.

Or Thrash could retire. He appears to be fighting that but it may be inevitable. He has seen seven specialists about the injury, perhaps hoping that he can find an optimistic prognosis.

For now, the Redskins are not pressuring him to make a decision. However, when they start signing their draft picks they will need to release players in order to stay at the 80-man limit. They will need Thrash to make a commitment by then.

I’m not about to make any recommendations here. Regardless of whether he retires this year or a few years down the road I certainly hope that Thrash will be able to walk away from the game with a decent quality of life rather than needing a cane.

Redskins’ Release of Jon Jansen a Matter of Timing

Jon Jansen’s release, a move that the Washington Redskins announced earlier today, came as a surprise. Dan Snyder flew the team’s aircraft, Redskins One, to Michigan to pick up Jansen so that Jim Zorn could deliver to news to him in person.

By releasing Jansen, the Redskins took a cap hit of some $6 million. On the surface, the timing is somewhat puzzling, but once you dig a little deeper it makes more sense.

Apparently this is a move that Zorn has wanted to make since the end of last year. However, had the move been made at the start of free agency, it would have been very difficult to fit the contracts of Albert Haynesworth, Derrick Dockery, and DeAngelo Hall in under the cap.

Also, at that time, Jansen was the only experienced depth the Redskins had at the tackle spot. Even though, in the view of Zorn and just about anybody who watched more than five minutes of the 2008 Redskins’ offense with Jansen in the lineup, his skills had slipped considerably from his prime seasons, it would have been foolhardy to release him and leave nothing in reserve. The fact that the penciled-in starter is Stephon Heyer, who still is a work in progress, make it even more important for the Redskins to have a solid reserve at right tackle.

Then, just before the draft, one shoe dropped for Jansen. The Redskins signed Mike Williams. The fourth overall pick in the 2002 draft was about 70 pounds overweight and hasn’t played since 2006. He’s a veteran project but a warm body (actually, Zorn said that he was as big as two bodies) nonetheless.

The other shoe fell when the team signed Jeremy Bridges. The Southern Mississippi product has started 39 games in six seasons with the Eagles, Cardinals, and Panthers. At his low end, he represents quality depth and at the high end, he could beat out Heyer for the starting job.

So the Redskins had two potential replacements for Jansen. During minicamp and OTAs, they tried him at backup center but he failed to impress there.

They may have given him a shot in training camp, but he was due a $1.5 million roster bonus in July. If they had him participate in the second round of OTA’s starting on Monday to give him a last shot, they would have been gambling. If he were to sustain a serious injury during the OTAs, the team would have been on the hook for the roster bonus and his 2009 salary.

Some have asked why they didn’t wait until after June 1 to spread the cap hit out. Since 2010 currently is an uncapped year, June 1 doesn’t exist. Well, it’s on your calendar, but there is no cap hit break for releasing a player after June 1. They don’t want teams prematurely dumping dead cap in next year.

Jansen, of course, is the longest-tenured Redskin. He never quite got his play up to a Pro Bowl level but he was as solid a tackle as there was in the game from about 2000 through 2003. Although he repeatedly expressed frustration with Steve Spurrier’s blocking schemes, he resigned with the Redskins prior to becoming a free agent in 2002.

That contract made sense. The one that didn’t make sense was the one that Joe Gibbs signed him to in 2007. The $23 million deal carried $10 million in guarantees and it is the leftover money on that deal that created the nasty cap hit the Redskins sustained today.

 

Washington Redskins Should Continue .500 Ways in 2009

The 2009 Washington Redskins will be about a .500 team.

I say this with confidence and not because I possess a crystal ball that allows me to peer into the future and see events to come with clarity. It’s because I can see the past and recognize that a .500 team is what the Redskins are.

From 1995 through 2008, a span of 14 seasons, the Redskins have been within two games of the break even mark every year but two. Those two years, 2003 and 2006, they were just three games off the mark of mediocrity, finishing 5-11.

The Redskins are so average, in fact, that they are distinctively mediocre. Since 1995 every NFL team has either lost 12 or more games in a season or has won 12 or more at least once. Every team, that is, with the exception of the Redskins.

They are the NFL’s perpetually half-full, half-empty glass.

They have tried to break out and either fill or empty the glass but the fates work against them.

The ‘06 team could easily have dropped a dozen games but Troy Vincent blocked a late game-winning field goal attempt against Dallas and Sean Taylor’s brilliant scramble—and a face-mask penalty committed in the process—set up a Nick Novack game-winning field goal on an untimed down.

On the other side of the coin the 2005 team won ten and could easily have won two more but they suffered close, frustrating losses to Denver, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Oakland, and San Diego.

It’s clear that the Football Gods have determined that the Redskins of the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries are a middling team. There is no compelling evidence to suggest that they will escape that fate this year.

Defensively they added strength to strength with the additions of Albert Haynesworth and Brian Orakpo. Those two could move the Redskins D from good to great.

But there is little chance that the offense will be even good. Jason Campbell is in his make or break year and even if he makes it he won’t be anything approaching an elite quarterback. Was Clinton Portis’ slump at the end of last year an indication that his career has hit the wall?

The receiving corps could be good if at least one of the two receivers drafted in the second round last year, Malcolm Kelly or Devin Thomas, has a breakout year. That could happen, but holding your breath waiting for it is not advised.

The offensive line has potential—the potential to be a train wreck. The ten that they keep on the roster mostly will be a combination of the old and injury prone and the young and untested.

If the Redskins are to finish on the upside of the fated limit and win 10 games the defense must provide the offense with short fields. Haynesworth needs to collapse the middle and allow the defense to increase significantly its sack total from the 24 it posted last year. The pressure needs to make the opposing quarterback throw the ball up for grabs to force turnovers.

Should Campbell and company get opportunities to make some 14-yard touchdown drives or, better yet, watch from the sidelines as the defense records a pick six, life will be a lot easier and the Redskins could record a double-digit win total.

But if the defense merely remains strong but is of limited help to the offense in terms of providing highly favorable field position, the Redskins are likely to trend towards the down side of their potential. They simply aren’t strong enough offensively to drive 80 yards to score every time they get the ball.

Where will the 2009 Redskins fall within the range of six to 10 wins? It says here that Haynesworth is enough of a difference maker on defense that the team will be able to overcome a leaky offensive line and score enough to post a 9-7 record.  

Washington Redskins’ Fate in Haynesworth Case in Goodell’s Hands

The Washington Redskins are in line to take a slap on the wrist for possibly jumping the gun in signing free agent defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. According to a Yahoo! Sports report, the NFL is investigating the Tennessee Titans’ complaint that the Redskins tampered with Haynesworth prior to the start of the free-agency period.

From what we know, the evidence that negotiations started prior to the permitted hour is mostly circumstantial. Dan Snyder had dinner with Chad Speck, Haynesworth’s agent, at the combine and some players made some comments indicating that they had knowledge of early contact that could constitute tampering.

The fact that Haynesworth signed about six hours after the start of the signing period, by the way, is meaningless. It’s possible to get it done that quickly if both sides are motivated to do so. The team has the numbers loaded into a spread sheet and, as negotiations commence, all of the “what if” scenarios can be run immediately.

The Redskins came up with numbers that Haynesworth liked and, rather than risk the Redskins taking their money elsewhere, Haynesworth and Speck agreed to the deal. The actual paper contract gets drawn up as the player travels to Ashburn and he signs on the line in the afternoon.

Although the actual evidence may seem to be somewhat flimsy, there doesn’t have to be a smoking gun for the Redskins to get nailed here. This isn’t a trial where a jury has to find them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Roger Goddell can do whatever he wants. He can decide that there was enough smoke to deduce that there was a fire.

Goodell’s discretionary power can work in the Redskins’ favor, too. He could reasonably conclude that the Titans were not going to sign Haynesworth under any circumstances. Their final offer just wasn’t close.

But if Goodell thinks there was tampering it’s not likely that his call will be, “no harm, no foul”. If the wide receiver lines up too close to the line and covers the tight end, they throw a flag and walk off five yards even though the infraction has no material impact on the result of the play.

A fifth-round pick is about the equivalent of a five-yard penalty but the Redskins don’t have fifth to give, having thrown it in as part of the Jason Taylor trade.

The guess here is that it’s 50-50 that Goodell sees enough to bust the Redskins for tampering and if he does the Redskins will get hit for their fourth-round pick and Snyder will have to write out a check for about $100,000.

Pro Football Weekly Off Base About Vick, Redskins

Last week in their “Whispers—NFC” section, Pro Football Weekly “reported” the following:

Would the Redskins take a chance on Michael Vick? Don’t rule it out. Owner Daniel Snyder loves the big splash and might be willing to gamble on Vick, who grew up in nearby Newport News, Va. There’s no question that the Redskins would like an upgrade at quarterback with Jason Campbell entering the final year of his deal, and they likely would be willing to gamble on players with questionable character, given the $54 million deal they gave to CB DeAngelo Hall.

Where to start with this nonsense? First of all, there is no source cited. The title “Whispers” implies that the content is some sort of inside information that was discreetly passed along to an investigative journalist. This is “Voices in My Head.”

This is a writer sitting at his keyboard just dreaming stuff up. He is connecting dots that he drew.

Also the thought of jettisoning Jason Campbell in favor of a quarterback whose career rating is five points lower than Campbell’s is questionable at best. Add in the fact that said quarterback will have accumulated at least two and possibly three years of rust and the notion that Vick would be an “upgrade” is just plain stupid.

Yes, Snyder likes the “big splash” but putting the quarterback position in the hands of Vick would not be a splash, it would be lunacy.

Even if Snyder was prone to engage in lunacy he isn’t likely to make a move that would take cash out of his pocket. Vick is a lightning rod and Washington is the political correctness capital of the world.

It appears that the Redskins are having difficulty selling season tickets (I’ve received two phone calls offering me non-premium seats in the past month) and Snyder would be risking disaster from the backlash that would come from the convicted dog killer taking snaps for the home team at FedEx Field.

PFW isn’t the first media outlet to talk about Vick going to the Redskins and they won’t be the last. What makes this little entry so ridiculous, though, is the last part equating DeAngelo Hall’s character to that of Vick.

Certainly Hall is not angel and a case can be made that the Redskins took a gamble in giving him some $23 million in guaranteed money. He whined and pouted his way out of two organizations and had some noteworthy clashes with coaches.

In 2007, he was fined $10,000 for showing support for Vick, his teammate both with the Atlanta Falcons and at Virginia Tech, by displaying “MV7” in the black shade under his eyes. The “MeAngelo” moniker is well earned.

Hall is not, however, has not been convicted of multiple felonies. He has not spent two years in the federal pen. He did not drown dogs. To compare his character to that of Vick, who has all of that on his character resume and much more, is an outrage.

Let’s say I hired someone who had been convicted of picking pockets. By PFW’s logic, I also would hire Bernie Madoff. Both the pickpocket and Madoff stole money, right?

PFW used to be a reliable source for NFL news and views. Made up hit pieces like this one have brought it down to the level of the National Enquirers of the world.

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