OT: New Owner! New Name? New Season? New Everything!!! — Oh, and New Thread. All things Washington NFL FootBall (beat it, Dan-Bag!!)

[Jags]

Strong potential for the Young trade to blow up in their faces if he stays healthy.

This is one of those times where I won't be looking at it like that. It's tougher with a guy like Trent Williams, who we knew was 100% HoF-bound. Letting go of a guy like that for a low price was definitely going to sting.

But even the TW situation is mitigated by him wanting out so badly after what happened to him here. A guy that great wanting out for a totally justified reason on top of the organization being so terrible... As fans, I think just about everyone wanted us to do right by him. I'm glad he got what he wanted.

Chase Young is completely different. He hasn't really proven himself to be a game-changer, the injury will always be a concern, and there's buzz out there that he wants top money. Screw that. I don't care how well he plays somewhere else. He was too big a question mark here, and I'm not playing the "trade value in retrospect" game because that's a masturbatory exercise. I'm sure we took the highest bid, so we got what he's worth today, period.

"But he's a generational talent!"

No, he really isn't. He was supposed to be, but it didn't work out. He's a Ferrari that got stuck in a flood. You can dry it out, clean it up, and get it running again, but everyone that knows the truth will always be suspect of the condition of that car. I don't care if the next guy wins a couple races with it -- I don't want to get stuck holding the bag if it goes the other way.

We're trying to build something here. Can't do that on a shaky foundation.

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

"potential addition by subtraction"

IOW, eff'a buncha' negotiations with Chase's daddy and his "top 4 DE" song.

Amen.

Sounds like all the negative rumors surrounding Young over the years, or most of them, are true.

 

[Holtbyisms]

We're significantly worse of a team today and I suspect we'll still be worse after making those two picks next year. Not sure how this helps. I legitimately didn't want to draft young but that ship sailed. Needed to work with what we had.

 

[Capsman]

We're significantly worse of a team today and I suspect we'll still be worse after making those two picks next year. Not sure how this helps. I legitimately didn't want to draft young but that ship sailed. Needed to work with what we had.

Yeah teams may start driving the ball down our throats now …oh wait.

 

[RedRocking]

We're significantly worse of a team today and I suspect we'll still be worse after making those two picks next year. Not sure how this helps. I legitimately didn't want to draft young but that ship sailed. Needed to work with what we had.

Well, being worse the rest of this year will give us a better pick in a great draft.

If they hit on a LB, and OL with those picks then it’s a good start at re-distributing assets to areas other than the DL. The picks are valuable because of how cheap those guys will be, compared to the crazy contract Chase would have wanted. Sweat’s value would have been kinda hard to gauge in terms of a hefty contract.

Of course, none of this matters if they don’t use the extra cap space well. Besides the obvious areas, I’d like to see them get Sam another legit target - like how Miami has helped Tua’s development. Regardless, at least J. Allen, and Terry McLaurin are locked up as they are the kinda characters you want to build around. Chase, not so much.

 

[Cush]

 

[BobbyClarkeFan16]

I posted somewhere else, but I have to believe that the draft this year for Washington should be OT, TE, LB, OG and RB. And with $90 million in cap space, they should be able to fill in the rest of the positions and still have money left over.

At the same time, imagine selling a full scale rebuild to Jonathan Allen, DaRon Payne and Terry McLaurin. Tell me those guys aren't pissed about how this season has played out.

 

[g00n]

This is only a tiny bit surprising. That team is a confusing mess. They have enough talent to compete but underachieve virtually every week.

After the loss to DET on MNF you could see Adams' frustration boiling over. I bet that has something to do with it. I assumed he would be traded, but instead they fired the coach and GM.

 

[tycoonheart]

I had no idea Antonio Pierce was coaching. Loved him when he played for us. Didn't like him so much when he joined the giants.

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

Many thought RR and friends would be the first to be let go mid season. Glad to see AP get a shot at showing what he can do but these mid season firings rarely are a positive for the rest of the season. Coach firings mid season in the NFL don’t have the same effect as similar moves in the MLB, NHL and NBA. The season is shorter/condensed and the between game preparation more significant than the other sports.

Harris emasculated RR yesterday with the Young trade. If Harris was going to fire RR he would have done it already. Or RR would have forced Harris’s hand when the Young trade was finalized. RR May still get fired mid season but it doesn’t make sense now until the bye week.

 

[HTFN]

Many thought RR and friends would be the first to be let go mid season. Glad to see AP get a shot at showing what he can do but these mid season firings rarely are a positive for the rest of the season. Coach firings mid season in the NFL don’t have the same effect as similar moves in the MLB, NHL and NBA. The season is shorter/condensed and the between game preparation more significant than the other sports.

Harris emasculated RR yesterday with the Young trade. If Harris was going to fire RR he would have done it already. Or RR would have forced Harris’s hand when the Young trade was finalized. RR May still get fired mid season but it doesn’t make sense now until the bye week.

Well, unless the HC is involved in virtually zero play calling. Far as I can tell usually the reason is that an NHL head coach can install a basic system fairly quickly, but NFL coaches aren’t bringing a new playbook to week 8, so it usually doesn’t work when the coach is calling one side of the ball.

That said, I couldn’t tell you which side of the ball Rivera would disrupt, because it’s probably none of them.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

Many thought RR and friends would be the first to be let go mid season. Glad to see AP get a shot at showing what he can do but these mid season firings rarely are a positive for the rest of the season. Coach firings mid season in the NFL don’t have the same effect as similar moves in the MLB, NHL and NBA. The season is shorter/condensed and the between game preparation more significant than the other sports.

Harris emasculated RR yesterday with the Young trade. If Harris was going to fire RR he would have done it already. Or RR would have forced Harris’s hand when the Young trade was finalized. RR May still get fired mid season but it doesn’t make sense now until the bye week.

Speaking of emasculated, I think The Athletic gets all of this mostly right in their Winners/Losers of the TDL Breakdown today.

Winner: Washington Commandersowner Josh Harris​

Just three months into his tenure as Washington’s new owner, Harris made it clear his attention is trained squarely on the future as he traded away both of his starting edge rushers, Montez Sweat and Chase Young. Sweat, the 26th pick of the 2019 draft, went to the Chicago Bears for a 2024 second-round pick. Young, the second pick of the 2020 draft, went to the San Francisco 49ers for a 2024 third-round pick.

Sweat and Young are skilled, but neither would classify as dominant, and both have expiring contracts. So Washington’s ability to get two early-round picks for a tandem it was unlikely to retain is a win — particularly the Chicago second-rounder, which is likely to be among the first few selections of that round. Harris, who now has five picks in the first 100 selections of the draft, is collecting building blocks for the future.

Loser: Ron Rivera​

Rivera called Young a generational talent when the head coach drafted him over quarterbacks Justin Herbert and Tua Tagovailoa at a time when Washington badly needed a franchise passer (and still does). But Young, who has never improved on the 7 1/2 sacks of his rookie season, has yet to live up to expectations and has struggled to stay on the field. Harris clearly influenced this pick with an eye on the future. The rebuild and loss of their top edge rushers signals impending doom for the Commanders (3-5), who will struggle even more to win games. Washington’s draft selection order has improved, but based on Rivera’s results, it’s unlikely he will be on hand to help oversee the impending rebuild.

Loser: Chicago Bears​

Sweat is a good player, but people around the league don’t view him as elite. He has yet to record a double-digit sack season and entered 2023 averaging 7.25 per year. And then there’s the matter of his contract. He’ll be a free agent next offseason, so this very well could be a nine-game rental for the Bears, who aren’t in position to contend for a deep playoff run. Adding Sweat is a curious decision that certainly raised eyebrows around the league —and not for good reasons.

 

[Roric]

We already had a good amount of cap space heading into the offseason. Now without sweat and young we will have even more. What's gonna be the plan for free agency if they're rebuilding?

 

[ynotcaps]

I posted somewhere else, but I have to believe that the draft this year for Washington should be OT, TE, LB, OG and RB. And with $90 million in cap space, they should be able to fill in the rest of the positions and still have money left over.

At the same time, imagine selling a full scale rebuild to Jonathan Allen, DaRon Payne and Terry McLaurin. Tell me those guys aren't pissed about how this season has played out.

Agreed. I also think (OK, maybe the right word is "hope") that those guys are so fed up with the organization that they'll be fully behind the changes we all think (OK, again, "hope") are coming to the FO coaching staff. Allen, at least, is done with the status quo.

 

[Midnight Judges]

That trade makes no sense for the Bears. Like, what the hell are they doing.

Young would have been gone either way. He would have demanded a huge generational player contract based on perceived potential/reputation and the Commanders would be idiots to give it to him given his production. They were already on a collision course for him to walk for nothing.

 

[ynotcaps]

Many thought RR and friends would be the first to be let go mid season. Glad to see AP get a shot at showing what he can do but these mid season firings rarely are a positive for the rest of the season. Coach firings mid season in the NFL don’t have the same effect as similar moves in the MLB, NHL and NBA. The season is shorter/condensed and the between game preparation more significant than the other sports.

Harris emasculated RR yesterday with the Young trade. If Harris was going to fire RR he would have done it already. Or RR would have forced Harris’s hand when the Young trade was finalized. RR May still get fired mid season but it doesn’t make sense now until the bye week.

Yeah. Lots of us have hoped (prayed?) for at least a JDR firing, but as several here have stated, that doesn't seem to be Harris's style.
I also think your point about interim coaches is spot-on -- and I would be surprised if Harris, based on his patient, analytical approach, tossed RR (and much staff) aside only to leave some other guy holding the bag for the rest of the season with a diminished and demoralized team.
I think we're stuck w/ RR for the rest of the season, and it's fair that he should be left to run out the string with the roster and overall situation he's heavily responsible for.
Ron's GOT to know that 100% gone the day after the season ends, and the kind of guy he is (to his credit), he's not going to start firing folks from his staff. So my guess is this shit-show is going to finish the season in place -- all to the benefit of our draft position.

 

[bacchist]

Maybe now we can draft some OL

 

[g00n]

Whether or not RR plays out the string this season probably depends on how shitty things get internally and whether he asks for it. I think JH is probably planning a full re-launch of the franchise next season and RR is not going to be part of it unless he performs a miracle. He'll want to do all this in the offseason but may have his hand forced if things get stupid.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Source: Bears fire RB coach over behavior issue

The Bears announced the firing of RB coach David Walker, who was dismissed, according to a source, because of workplace conduct.

www.espn.com

Da Bears….

 

[John Price]

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

It's going to be an awkward rest of the season if they don't shitcan Ron. I don't know that they'd do that to him but this is pretty much a worst case scenario for him. The team is frustrated, the owner has pushed the “give up” button, and he’s a lame duck.

Also, it’s Taylor Time. I know what game I’ll be watching on Sunday.

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

We already had a good amount of cap space heading into the offseason. Now without sweat and young we will have even more. What's gonna be the plan for free agency if they're rebuilding?

I don’t think it will be a complete rebuild. Contrary to what some on here think RR and friends have built a solid base of young players on both sides of the ball. A lot better base than what RR inherited when he took the job.

The secondary needs shoring up, resign Curl and find a vet CB to go with Juste and Toast.

LB, they need a couple depending on what defense is run moving forward. Davis is good. They need some starters and depth.

DE is now a need.

DT, needs depth.

O-line, they need a guard and at least a RT. And someone to groom for LT.

TE, they need one. Thomas is basically a large, slow, WR. He can’t block for shit. They need someone at TE who can at least attempt to block.

WR, they appeared stocked at that location. Samuel should be let go.

RB, on paper appears to be a strength. If EB hangs around they’ll need someone who can run out of the shotgun. Gibson will be gone.

QB, Howell has shown progress but they need to keep looking until they find a franchise QB.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Yes RR has laid a decent foundation. It’s just on someone else to take it to the next level of success.

 

[kicksavedave]

The more I think about it the more I dislike the Young deal. A generational talent drafted 2OA getting traded before his rookie contract is up for a 3rd round pick is terrible. Should have kept him for next year.

We should have exercised his 5th year option, so we could evaluate him over more than 8 games, and not had to decide on him and Sweat at the same time. This front office is brain dead. Utterly moronic.

And make no mistake, the GM reports to Ron, so Ron runs the football decisions. Glad Harris is slowly firing him before our eyes.

 

[Roric]

The most f***ed up thing about all of this is that I got my mom a sweat jersey, her favorite player, for her birthday last month