2005 Point & Laugh At The taterskins Thread

[MDS]

He lost me at #1 beat guy for the Eagles

[General_Failure]

When Art says beat, what he means is ...

[PhillyPhanInDC]

I was waiting for him to slip KJ into that response. I was disappointed. You know he was thinking it though.

No way. Let KJ go to the rival taterskins? Ha. He was merely throwing up a smoke screen in the hopes that the Skins wouldn't steal him away from Philly.

[ice grillin you]

from peety king...


DENVER -- For all the fans of the NFL's other 28 teams, those teams trying to get to where Pittsburgh and Seattle are going, and where Denver and Carolina tried to go this weekend, here are my shirtpocket notes from the last few, very eventful days:

1. Who do I think is off to the best start for 2006?

Clue: The owner rubs you the wrong way.

Another clue: When I finished interviewing the coach of this team last weekend, he shook my hand, wished me well and handed me a Bible tract.

Another clue: The team has a safety, a really good one, with a phlegm problem.

You've got it. The Washington taterskins. By signing ex-Chiefs offensive coordinator Al Saunders, the choreographer of the league's highest-scoring offense over the last four years, owner Dan Snyder now has spent approximately $4.6 million on Saunders and defensive game-planner/play-caller Gregg Williams -- in 2006 salary alone. An outrageous sum? Not for a man whose team will rake in something like $325 million in 2006. Would you pay a small percent of your gross revenue for the men you believe are the best offensive and defensive play-callers in football? If you wouldn't, you're not trying to win at any cost. For all the times I've killed Snyder over the years for his wasteful spending and jock-sniffing trophy collecting (most notably with the signing of way-past-his-prime Deion Sanders), this, as I said after the Williams signing a couple of weeks ago, is just smart business.

Now the one thing I'd throw in here as a caution -- and it's something Mike Shanahan echoed to me over the weekend -- is that there's an awful lot of bosses right now on Washington's offense. Joe Bugel used to be a head coach. Joe Gibbs has called plays forever. Quarterback coach Bill Musgrave has taught the quarterbacks his way. Now with Saunders coming in the door, how will the day-to-day coaching work?

These guys will say all the right things about all-for-one and one-for-all, but I'm big on the chemistry thing among coaches in locker rooms. How will Bugel react to Saunders telling him he's going to do things a little differently than Bugel's been coaching for 100 years? How will Gibbs react to Saunders saying, "Coach, I know you like Jason Campbell as your quarterback of the future, but for my offense, Patrick Ramsey is 10 times better?"

The point is, there's going to have to be a whole lot of ego-checking. I think it can be handled -- I can't tell you how impressed I am with the reincarnation of Gibbs and his readjustment to NFL life -- but it is something to be monitored.

Dick Vermeil left every facet of the offense to Saunders, and Saunders was so controlling that he never would call the same play over a four-game span. His theory was that if teams studied the Chiefs, he didn't want them ever to see anything predictable in the four previous games Kansas City played. "I think that's taking it a bit too far,'' Vermeil told me last year, "but you can't argue with Al's success. It works. He's done a fantastic job. And the fact is, teams do have trouble adjusting to what we do.''

[Rome]

Wait a second... Saunders never called the same play over four games?

Okay, say a team has 65 offensive plays per game.  That means the Chiefs would run 250 or so different plays and never run the same play twice during a four game span?

Is it just me or does that sound implausible?

[MadMarchHare]

Depends on how much difference there is to a "play".  Is off-tackle right different from off-tackle left?

[Feva]

Speaking of writers with irrational man-crushes who beat off to scrub players... at least ol' Petey got to see a half decent season out of his perennial league MVP. 

[PhillyPhreak54]

I would bet that some of the owenrs of teams in smaller markets, despite the revenue sharing program, will start kicking up a fuss about the amounts that coaches are being paid. Both of the Skins coordinators are making more than some head coaches. It wouldn't affect the Eagles because Lurie will spend on coaches, but teams like Buffalo and Arizona might bitch.

WashTimes; Tags concerned about coaching staff deals

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said yesterday he is concerned about the large amount of money the Washington taterskins have spent on their coaching staff.
    The taterskins gave assistant head coach-defense Gregg Williams a three-year contract extension worth about $8 million early this month. The team hired Al Saunders from the Kansas City Chiefs to fill a similar post on offense last week. Saunders, who will be introduced today at taterskin Park, agreed to a three-year contract worth about $6 million.
    Williams and Saunders each will make more than many NFL head coaches.
    Tagliabue, speaking to reporters before the AFC Championship game, said such salaries for assistant coaches are an issue in the context of the ongoing league battle between high-revenue and low-revenue teams.
    Some owners say clubs like the taterskins have a competitive advantage because they generate high revenue from sources like local broadcast rights, stadium signage and skyboxes that are not pooled and divided among all the league's teams.
    Owners of low-revenue teams have been pushing for more of that money to be pooled. The owners will resume discussion of the issue Thursday in Orlando, Fla. However, Tagliabue said he isn't optimistic they can bridge their differences by March 3, when the free agent signing period begins.

[Sgt PSN]

I heart pointing and laughing at the skins. 

[General_Failure]

Coaches cap. The NFL is out to get the taterskins.

[ice grillin you]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2308407

[rjs246]

We havne't heard from the douchecrew in a while. I wonder where they went?

[Feva]

Maybe you slept through this.

[SD_Eagle5]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2308407

That's a 'Gibbs type player' if I ever saw one....

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2308407

That's a 'Gibbs type player' if I ever saw one....

We all know he'll skate and won't miss a game.