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0 recs | 57 comments
Could Rex Grossman turn it around like Alex Smith?
How is this even a comparison? Let’s see: Smith has been on an offensive coordinator carousel his entire career. Grossman has been through, what, 2 systems? Grossman already saw Superbowl action while riding the coattails of the Bears defense, and fell short. Smith has made great strides and played consistent football. Grossman continues to turn the ball over more than a red-shirt freshman in college.
Both of these guys are playing the best football of their lives. If Rex hasn’t figured out how to take care of the ball by now, he’s not going to. It’s way past time to get someone who won’t force this team to play with a 2 turnover handicap each game.
willster - January 18, 2012
No, Alex Smith was more of finding the right fit, tailoring to his talents, and a confidence/getting the most out of him thing.
Rex already has his mind made up on what he is going to do. He’s also 32, old dog kind of thing.
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
agreed
grossman some sauce
Al_CaPWNED - January 18, 2012
I must have missed Willie Smith stepping up
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
You didn't think he was decent?
Aside from the safety and some QB pressures and sacks, I thought he wasn’t bad. Could potentially be moved to RT (though I would prefer we draft one).
mbedner - January 18, 2012
Id say he was better than expected
But right now shouldn’t be considered as anything other than a backup.
PJ_21 - January 18, 2012
He wasn't good, he is what he is, a developmental prospect. I'm happy to have him here and I'm glad he got some experience
Those are some pretty big things.
People can’t look at Willie Smith as a solution, its the same situation as Capers. He was clearly out matched. He’ll certainly add depth to the line, which is what we need. But at the same time he is still extremely raw.
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
I think it is safe to say Smith has far more potential than Shevlish Capers.
Tons of scouting reports on him said that he had the highest ceiling of any tackle in the draft. The only reason he was a UFA was due to his relative inexperience. He could very well turn out to be a fantastic player. It all depends on is work ethic and ability to adapt.
I think for the amount he played and his relative inexperience with the position, the few bad plays he had were minimal in comparison to the rest of the quality of his game.
mbedner - January 18, 2012
WOAH! Where did that come from? Maybe the most out of the UDFAs.
Capers was beyond heralded by many here and was looked at to be a steal.
I completely agree with you and, once again, I’m glad he got the experience this year. But he didn’t “step up”, he didn’t perform well. I’m sure he’ll learn from it and hopefully he’s a valuable Redskin for a long time.
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
It came from dcprosportsreport.com via cbssports.com
This is what they said:
I would find others, but I’m pretty lazy.
mbedner - January 18, 2012
How did he not?
UDFA who starts 4 games against Carter, JPP, Allen, & Cole. His easiest assignment was Carter and he made the ProBowl this year as a pass rusher.
It’s not like he played lights out and shut them all down, but I’d say he definitely played well above reasonable expectations given his spot on the roster.
I’m curious Parks, what were your expectations and what did he need to do to impress you?
SkinsLifer - January 18, 2012
If he didn't play like Chris Samuels did at college, then he's an utter failure.
iH8dallas - January 18, 2012
Apparently that's the case.
TerpsAllTheWay - January 18, 2012 via mobile
There were no expectations, he's a UDFA that hasn't even been playing football long.
He didn’t do a good job when he was in. Just b/c he started 4 games means he “stepped up”. He was given an opportunity by default, he hasn’t earned anything yet and, frankly, he wasn’t very good. Hopefully with the experience he received he can continue to develop and become a valuable part of our OL rotation.
But I’m not going to sit here and say Willie Smith “Stepped Up” just b/c he faced top pass rushers, those pass rushers ate him for lunch. If it was a 5th round pick that played like Willie then we’d be calling for his head.
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
Agreed
At this point my highest expectations are that he turns out to be a servicable backup, which I would be fine with.
SkinsOsTerps - January 18, 2012
So giving up 1 sack in each game is “eating his lunch”? He was apart of a piecemeal line that allowed 100+ yard rushers in most of those games. And from a rookie backup LT, I’d argue that 1 sack per game is pretty damn impressive.
Perhaps your expectations, like our starting LT, are a tad bit too high?
SkinsLifer - January 18, 2012
Completely Agree
mbedner - January 18, 2012
Look beyond the stat sheet. Its not just about sacks.
He struggled, it’s not a bad thing. Like I’ve said several times now, hopefully he’ll learn from it. The article was titled “Willie Smith Stepped Up Against Elite Pass Rushers”, I think that isn’t true. He stepped in, not up.
Yea my expectations are a little more lofty than an Oline that would give up 80 sacks per year.
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
How could you have lofty expectations with the rag-tag group of players we had this season?
Going into the season, I expected significantly worse than what they showed each game. They outplayed my expectations and I have to give a great deal of credit to the coaching staff — specifically the linemen coach. I think they far outplayed their own abilities.
mbedner - January 18, 2012
We must be watching a different o-line.
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
There was definitely a lull in the middle portion of the season, where the performance wasn't adequate,
but the first 5 games and the last 5 games, I felt the O-line played very good.
I’ve blocked out that ten sack Buffalo game, so please don’t use that as an example…
mbedner - January 18, 2012
Our quarterback got hit the 3rd most times out of any team in the league.
That’s not good.
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
That stat is a bit misleading
Because that is just hits, that’s not sacks. I would bet our sack total is far less than last year and the 2009 season.
mbedner - January 18, 2012
I should say, that includes both hits and sacks, and doesn't look at sacks exclusively
mbedner - January 18, 2012
How is that misleading? The offensive lines job is to protect the quarterback
Do you really want a rookie QB to come in here and get hit 100+ times?
The line is very comparable to 2009, 2010. They gave up 41 sacks this year and in 09 and 10 they gave up 46. As Steve points out below, Grossman significantly helped this lines’ numbers look better.
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
No, but I also expect the O-line to be much improved this off-season
Probably true given Beck’s ten sack performance
mbedner - January 18, 2012
and the o-line can be much improved this offseason if Willie Smith is on the bench
i like the kid’s upside, but i’d be even a little leery as him being our primary backup tackle.
Steve Shoup - January 18, 2012
This is all I'm trying to say.
Yea and I’ve been saying that the past two years.
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
This is true,
but we all have the consensus that this is the year they focus on the offense. I think we all assume they do a remodel of the O-line this off-season.
mbedner - January 18, 2012
I completely agree
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want him starting; however, I felt the games that he did start, he played well. He has room to grow, but overall, I think he could be a starting RT in two or three years.
mbedner - January 18, 2012
i thought he showed flashes of potential
but each game there were enough plays that left me scratching my head, and the Philly game he was abused.
Steve Shoup - January 18, 2012
But that's why they're a backup.
You’re not going to have Joe Thomas being backed up by Jake Long.
iH8dallas - January 18, 2012
What does this have to do with anything?
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
Because Steve is uneasy with him being our backup.
Backups are backups for a reason, probowl level play isn’t excpected of them.
That’s why Flynn is a hot item right now. He had an All-Pro performance as a backup.
iH8dallas - January 18, 2012
But good teams have quality depth.
Something we don’t have and hence starting a UDFA and dumpster diving for other pieces (Polumbus)
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
i'm not suggesting we need a star, but i'd like to have another decent guy in there
if TW gets suspended or hurt, or say our rookie RT gets hurt, than an extended look of Smith could spell big trouble for this offense.
You are talking about a guy who would have been on pace to finish worst or next to worse in every pass blocking category.
Steve Shoup - January 18, 2012
Where do you suggest we find this depth?
iH8dallas - January 18, 2012
a cheap free agent
while there might only be two FA’s capable of starting at Tackle (and Anthony Collins might be cheap enough to get for this role as well), there are 4-7 others who could be decent stopgap tackles. They might not be good full time guys, but could fill in better for a game or two.
My point is if we rely too much on Willie Smith, and don’t have a fallback plan we will likely get burned.
Steve Shoup - January 18, 2012
Or if they retain Brown a 3rd or 4th round prospect
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
oh god i just died a little inside
and our starting QB next year, died a little on the outside
Steve Shoup - January 18, 2012
I would say JUST looking at sack totals is misleading. If you're QB is getting hit all the time, the O-line isn't doing its job, and the QB can't effectively do his, no matter how good he is
StephanHart - January 18, 2012
+1
Parks Smith - January 18, 2012
i know people dont' like this acknowledgement of Rex
but the line looked a lot better b/c of him.
Out of the 24 QB’s that took 50% or more of their team’s snaps, Grossman was pressured the 5th most (37% of the time), of those plays though, just 13.9% of those were converted into sacks, which was the 4th lowest among those 24 QB’s.
Now of course other QB’s might do more with the ball and complete big time passes, but Grossman at least avoided sacks for us, which made our line look a lot better. Even if Grossman was more middle of the pack you’d be talking about an extra 5-8 sacks.
Steve Shoup - January 18, 2012
That's true
We really need to get some better talent in there. TW is one phatty away from bagging groceries
Al_CaPWNED - January 18, 2012
haha
Steve Shoup - January 18, 2012
one sack per game would be 16 on the year and more than ANY tackle in the league gave up this season
But lets look at Smith’s numbers this way. He was involved in 22% of the pass blocking snaps this year and gave up 3 sacks, 10 QB hits, and 7 QB pressures, so of his 151 plays, 20 of them, he let his man get to the QB. Let’s look at it this way, if you extrapolated the data (and i’ll round up to 25% to make it easier) you’d have 12+ sacks, 40+ hits, and 28+ pressures. Now i would hope at least the hits would come down, as no lineman has even given up as many as 20 hits a year in the last 4 seasons.
Steve Shoup - January 18, 2012
haha
Steve Shoup - January 18, 2012
What's up with Tandler's "Can Rex Turn It Around?"
Of course he can’t. He is a second-third string QB at best. Which is cool, it’s the world’s greatest job.
But Rex is set in stone. He’s a verified turnover machine.
iH8dallas - January 18, 2012
Rex doesn't turn around
he just turns over.
SkinsOsTerps - January 18, 2012
Off-season….things to write about go way down, except of course at Hogs Haven.
Kevin Ewoldt - January 18, 2012
You guys are a fountain, dribbling with content during the offseason
Al_CaPWNED - January 18, 2012
Why would you have
Two third string quarterbacks?
CJHutch - January 18, 2012
Fwiw
In Mel Kiper’s 1st mock draft he has us taking Morris Claiborne. Which would be amazing, but I’d be shocked if he fell to us.
2up2down - January 18, 2012
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