| Christmas in April- 5/4/07 by Stevo Christmas in April?? Only in one place: the football universe, where teams unwrap elite college players instead of socks and sweaters. As we all know, the Redskins traded away nearly every pick they had other than the number six overall. Not only was it the team's sole pick for the first four rounds of the draft, it was also a consolation prize that is all they had to show for the most heartbreaking Skins season in recent memory. With all that in mind, Joe Gibbs must've known they better make this one count. So who to draft... Defense would be a good place to start. . The "experts" unanimously decided that the defensive line was the unit that needed the most improvement. A valid observation to make, perhaps. I mean, who can argue with bolstering the defensive line that set a record for fewest sacks in a season? Apparently I can. Those suits are unbiased observers who probably didn't watch any of our games in real time last season, maybe not even one. I think a fan who intently watches every game as it occurs has a better concept of what his team needs. So in this fan's opinion, drafting Laron Landry out of LSU was truly the only way to go, and here's why: The defensive line will improve next year and Andre Carter is a big reason why. After his first disappointing season in Washington, it was very easy to lump him in with Adam Archuleta and Brandon Lloyd as the trio of overpaid, hastily acquired free-agents. He was certainly overpaid, but I doubt anyone could meet the expectations set by that big, fat contract. The following is speculation, but from what I heard, at the start of the season coach Gregg Williams felt Carter would be best utilized in stopping the run, even though his strength lies in rushing the QB. Take a look at Carter's stats from last year: First 11 games of season: 20 tackles, 2 sacks Last 5 games of season: 27 tackles, 4 sacks Now I don't know what happened, but it seems pretty clear that something changed in those last 5 games. Gregg Williams is reputed to be very stubborn, so it's easy for me to believe that he refused to change his system until 11 games into the season, when the team was 4-7 and essentially all hope was lost and at which point there was nothing to lose from mixing things up a little. If that's true, then the team certainly knows what to do with Carter this season. If it's not true and this whole Gregg Williams scenario is just in my head, well it doesn't matter because Carter still finished up the year playing at an elite level. It seems he's found his motivation. So the D-Line was bad, but the Achilles heel of the team last year was the inability to stop the deep ball. The Redskins secondary led the league in giving up passes over 20 yards, and personally, I've got some pretty bad memories from the last two games of the year when Steven Jackson and Tiki Barber made a fool of Sean Taylor who is supposed to be the last line of defense. If poor safety play and giving up more deep balls than anyone else (more than the Cardinals, more than the Saints, more than a lot of crappy teams that really only exist to be made fun of) isn't reason to draft the best available safety, then I don't know what is. And that brings me to my last reason for drafting Laron Landry: Sean Taylor. Sean Taylor needs individual evaluation in this article, apart from the rest of the secondary, and that is because Taylor is truly the best athlete and player on the defense. Of course last season for him was downright embarrassing (as it was for all Redskins), but when he's on, he's the only elite difference-maker the defense has. I hope everyone hasn't forgotten the storybook 2005 season when he single-handedly carried the Skins into the playoffs and then past the wild-card round by returning a fumble for a TD in the 4th quarter two weeks in a row against the Eagles and then the Bucs. Maybe the most significant game-changing defensive play of 2006 was Taylor's scooping up a blocked Dallas field goal attempt and returning the ball back into Redskins field goal range for the chance to win the game. I love all the Redskins (with the exception of Deion Sanders), but when something really big goes down on defense that saves the day, I usually expect to hear the announcer say "Sean Taylor!". So if Taylor is our secret weapon, shouldn't the team's number 1 priority be to keep him in position and playing well? I'm guessing that's the conclusion that Joe Gibbs and Gregg Williams came to. After all, it's not considered normal for a team to draft a safety with a top pick, let alone doing it twice in four years. Sean Taylor is an investment the team desperately needs to protect, and that is what drafting yet another young, talented safety is all about. |
Hurricane Stevo
| The Staff |
 | |  | |  | |  |
