Category: Redskins

Since the All-Star Break

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It’s been awhile since we’ve posted at Defeating the Curse. I’d like to say the reason was because we were working on some really exciting things to bring to the fans; but we’ve just been quiet. (Cough… Redskins management…cough).

Depending on who you ask, a lot has happened since the NBA All-Star break. Right before, the wizards had a FANTASTIC win against the OKC Thunder. That game was in Washington’s control from the start. I like to use the phrase “statement game” a lot. This was not one. This was just the wizards living up to their hype and delivering when they needed to. And on a nationally televised game. From there we beat the Pacers, take the All-Star break and begin trade rumors. The trade deadline is today at 3pm ET. So far the Wizards are getting Bojan Bogdanovic and Chris McCullough and giving up Marcus Thornton, Andrew Nicholson and a 2017 first-round pick. Additionally Trey Burke is apparently in the trading block for a second round pick. If that goes through, you have to question who would play PG with the second unit. It is likely that more trades are in the works today.

The Capitals suffered a few losses while we were gone. One came to the Detroit Red Wings via shootout, the second to one of the more aggravating teams, the NY Rangers. Thankfully we crushed the Philadelphia Flyers, which is always a good feeling. With the bye-week behind them, the focus now is fully on Stanley Cup and playing their best hockey yet. This should scare every team. Especially in the East. As fans of our local DC hockey team, we also need to be keeping an eye out on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Having them sneak into the playoffs could possibly mean a rough road for the Capitals in the playoffs. No team wants to have to go through the Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins. Side note — The curse applies here. Who would really be surprised to see a sudden hot Tampa team knock out a Washington team in the playoffs?

On to the Redskins. The now awkwardly quiet Washington Redskins. At first I was proud of my team keeping silent, working behind the scenes and not making any insane splashes that we as fans are used to. Now, I’m concerned. Someone tell us SOMETHING. Are we signing Kirk? Can we Keep Pierre? All of a sudden DeSean said he likes it here and wants to play with a franchise QB…does that mean Kirk? Since the same timeframe as the NBA All-Star break, Redskin fans have had to deal with the Washington Post publishing articles that frustrate almost every Redskins fan. Click-Bait much? There was a small fire surrounding Chris Cooley claiming our GM was drinking again, and Pierre Garcon asking “Y’all hiring” on his Instagram, which is now where us fans are receiving most of their information. Couple all those things with reports leaking out that it’s looking more and more like Kirk will not be staying with the Skins and I’d go full boycott. Hey…at least Bruce Allen put up a new sign!

Pierre Garcon is going to receive a lot of attention in free agency

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There are two headlines every Redskins fan is sick of hearing this offseason. The obvious is the Kirk situation, the second is our two free agent wide receivers. I’m reluctant to bring up the WR topic yet again, however I am starting to get concerned. From the first pass that RG3 threw, Pierre Garcon has been there. Sure handed, ready to play, and with a fight in him that you could tell ignited the entire team.

Before we get into it, you need to understand that this isn’t a post about choosing between DeSean of Pierre. If it were up to me, we’d keep both receivers. DeSean’s speed is unparalleled. Every defense has to account for him, simply because he can blow the top off any coverage. Pierre is the tough, over the middle, earn every yard receiver. Both are important. Both are talented. Both want to stay, yet both might be leaving. No disrespect to DeSean, but it doesn’t seem like teams are as interested in him as much as Pierre. To me that is shocking. His stats since 2008 are incredible. But we’ll save that for another post…

Pierre Garcon is generating a lot of buzz. According to The Washington Post’s Mike Jones, the Los Angeles Rams, Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, and San Francisco 49ers are interested in Garcon’s services. Rumors are floating that the Ravens and Cardinals are interested as well. Thankfully he has stated many times he would love to stay in D.C., yet I find myself asking “who do you take in case PG isn’t around next year?” — My answer is Kenny Britt.

If I were Scot McCloughan I’d have a very difficult time deciding between the two. Kenny Britt is 28. Both DeSean AND Pierre are on the wrong side of 30. Kenny Britt is 6’3. DeSean is 5’10 and Pierre is 6’0. those few inches can make a huge difference. Especially with our red zone struggles. Kenny is also a 1000 yard receiver. 1,002 yard to be exact. Considering that was produced in the horrific Jeff Fisher-led Rams offense, I’m impressed. Who knew the Rams even gained that much yardage last year?! There are a few caveats you have to address however. Kenny Britt blew out his ACL/MCL back in the 2011/2012 season. He’s sprained his ankle, had a DUI, and overall kinda sucked before last year. Granted he was with the Tennessee Titans before Marcus Mariota and of course the Rams….two pretty bad teams.

Here is my dilemma – Pierre and Kenny will both want somewhere around 8m/year. Do you pay that much for an unknown receiver, who is younger and could possibly produce an even more productive year with a Kirk Cousins? Or do you pay your guy, who knows the team, the plays, the QB and has proven time and time again he is an integral part of the offense, but….is older? Also, you can’t forget about Jameson Crowder. One of the few draft picks the Redskins have that is actually producing. He’ll want his money next year. He can be your Pierre Garcon replacement. They are almost identical, except for the fact that Crowder is younger.

The decision is tough to make. Unfortunately the Redskins front office has kept all of us fans anxiously waiting for ANY news. Scot McCloughan and Bruce Allen have some big decisions ahead of them. Hopefully they make the right decision…and KEEP PIERRE GARCON!

Thats right. I don’t want him to go anywhere. The most important fact is Garçon worked alongside Hall of Fame receiver Marvin Harrison, six-time Pro Bowler Reggie Wayne and surefire Hall of Famer Peyton Manning. You can see week in and week out he learned a lot from those guys. Hopefully he can stay and be that mentor to our up and coming receivers too.

4 Down Territory – What the Redskins need to do before Free Agency

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Now that the superbowl is over, and the 2016-2017 season is officially behind us, we can begin to look forward to the offseason. The Washington Redskins were titled the offseason champions for about the first 16 seasons of Dan Snyder’s ownership tenure. Since then Scot McCloughan has taken over and the Redskins have changed course a bit. There was a sprinkling of superstar brought in with the Josh Norman signing, but the Redskins have been building from within and building through the draft.

In this new blog series titled 4 down territory we will go quick hitters on 4 things I would like to see the Redskins do BEFORE the start of free agency.

First down – No surprise here, SIGN KIRK COUSINS TO A LONG TERM DEAL. I don’t even want to see a Franchise Tag placed on Kirk (Not Kurt Bruce, not Kurt). Kirk wants to be here in DC. Bruce, Jay, and hopefully Scot want Kirk here so let’s just make it happen! The Redskins have over 60 million dollars in cap space, what’s the 22-24 million that it will take to sign Kirk? He is clearly deserving, end of story, period, no ifs ands or buts. UPDATE: Kory Lichtenstiger decided to make his retirement official today so the redskins actually have about 65 million in cap space.

Second down – Allow Scot McCloughan to speak to the media. Actually, don’t allow Scot to speak to the media. It was reported by the Washington post that Bruce Allen won’t let Scot McCloughan talk to media because his job is to focus on talent evaluation. What’s wrong with that? As long as Scot is ok with that why should we care? Scot is a great talent evaluator, so let him be the talent evaluator! Let Bruce do the political talking, after all that’s probably what he’s best suited for.

Third down – Decide to keep Pierre Garcon or Desean Jackson for continuity of the offense. In my opinion it’s a no brainer, you have to keep Pierre. He is a vital part of this offense and shows up to play down in and down out. He is a known quantity and is consistent at it. Not to even mention all the great things he does off the field and in the community. The Redskins lost their offensive coordinator this offseason but the best way to overcome that is to keep continuity of the offense. After all, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

Fourth down – Prioritize which positions on defense need immediate upgrade and which players can still be stop gap solutions for some positions. With 65 million in cap space the Redskins can add some serious player upgrades on defense, but they need to prioritize which positions are worth spending high dollar on and which positions can be upgraded in later rounds of the draft or some cheaper options in free agency. In my opinion it goes, ILB, DL, S.

Defining “the Curse”

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Defeating the Curse. It’s the name of this humble little site. It’s also a hope and dream to us here. Constant texts and discussions about the moves made, the games played, and the money spent regarding all four of Washington D.C’s major sports teams. To anyone that may stumble across our site, the title either makes perfect sense, or they’ll question what the hell we mean. Before we can DEFEAT the curse, we must first DEFINE it. Seems simple enough doesn’t it? Sure…until you take a look at the past few seasons. Doesn’t matter the sport, the curse applies to every team.

Listen to any sports radio show after any loss here in DC and you’ll hear the same underlining theme: “We’re cursed. We’ll never be a successful franchise. We need to fire the coaching staff and start all over! What the hell were they thinking!?”This happens literally after every. single. loss. Why can’t the fans here in DC handle a loss? Well it’s kind of complicated. The past few seasons helped open everyone’s eyes to the curse.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about Washington D.C. The city where 2 of the 4 major sports teams, the Capitals and Nationals, are CONSTANTLY at the top of the win column each and every season for the past 3-5 years. Two “successful” franchises that have no problems winning. Getting into the playoffs is never the concern. Hell, getting past the first round is barely a concern. The Nationals are one of the best teams in the MLB for the past 3 seasons. The Capitals are usually ranked in the top 10 for the past decade. As of last season and this season, we’re ranked number 1.

The curse part? Well let’s start with the Caps. In the last 9 seasons, we’ve missed the playoffs once. Worse than that? We’ve lost in the second round 5 times. Including last year, when we were also ranked number 1 for the regular season. The Nationals last year won the N.L East only to choke and lose the NLDS. Sounds like 2014…oh and 2012. Cursed. The horrific part, are these are two of the more successful teams! The ones that generate national headlines and actually fill the seats with loyal and passionate fans week in and week out! Which isn’t that easy considering the play approximately 948 million games a season.

Next let’s take a look at the Washington Wizards. A team that nobody knows how’ll they do until its already happening. Including the players. This season started off horribly. Games were unwatchable. As loyal as we are at this site, it was getting harder and harder to sit through some of those games. Then, somehow, we decided to not suck. The bench began to help out and our defense became pretty damn legit. It was probably a Christmas miracle. Especially when you consider that since December 1st we’ve been one of the best teams in the NBA. Better than the defending champs might I add. We’re stringing along home wins and now road wins. Want to know how the curse plays into all of this? As I’m typing this article, I’m worried and convinced that I am simultaneously jinxing our team. Going back to the 2013-2014 season, the Wizards won the first round of playoffs only to lose conference semifinals. It’s only natural for me to feel like all the success is too good to be true.

Finally comes the Washington Redskins. The definition of cursed. From 1999 when Snyder bought the team, we’ve went through coaches and staff and players like a kids at a candy store. Spending money and bringing in the ones that looked the most appetizing. The Gibbs 2.0 era worked for a little bit. Until he retired to go race cars or something (Cursed.) Replaced with Jim Zorn. Curse. Then we bring in a nice, appetizing, “successful” coach; Mr. Crab himself, Mike Shanahan. From there the curse would have a field day. Albert Haynesworth, Donovan McNabb, RG3, the list goes on.

Then you take a look at the competition. The Giants somehow go from having a trash defense last year, to a great one this year. The Eagles go from the Chip Kelly debacle, only to turn it around in less than 2 years with a franchise QB and competent head coach. Our only saving grace was that the Cowboys were going to keep Tony Romo behind center and give us all a fighting chance. Until the curse decided to injure him, and have an out of nowhere QB come in and not suck (thanks to a rookie NFL leading rushing RB). All this and I haven’t even gone into our current roster, its issues and how the curse made Aaron Rodgers realize he was good at being a QB until the second quarter of our playoff game last year.

So what is the curse? It’s simply that Washington DC, in all 4 of the major sports, has the ability to be great, but finds a way to choke when it’s all on the line. We are on the cusp of having no championships to easily attaining 4. Each time is able to turn that page and become truly great. Dynasty mode. It may just be because I’m a homer and think our teams are the best. If you were to realistically take a look at where each of the franchises are, you’ll see that they are all trending up. Right now we’re riding the Caps and Wizards to hopefully break the curse and bring home a trophy.

#DCRising

DC Better than Both Super Bowl Cities?

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That’s right, you read it right! Is Washington D.C. better than both Boston and Atlanta? YES!!! In basketball that is. The Wizards beat both the Celtics and the Hawks this week. Not only did the Wizards beat them but you can say they put a beat down on them.

The Wizards are arguably playing their best basketball of the season right now. Is that what matters right now? Probably not, it matters most in April, May and June. Is it sustainable? That remains to be seen. The Wizards starters are playing a lot, and averaging minutes near the highest in the league. The Wizards bench can be suspect at times, but Jason Smith, Kelly Oubre, Trey Burke, and Tomas Satoransky have been stepping up in key moments. I think you can credit Wizards head coach and coaching staff put together by Scott Brooks for the improvement of players and the improvement of the team, specifically Otto Porter and Kelly Oubre.

We know that the Wizards can win at home, going on a 14 game win streak. The question really remains is that can the Wizards improve on the road at only 7-14? I think its really a tough road with teams like the Cleveland Cavs and Toronto Raptors ahead of them, but I think it’s possible. The Wizards have been playing lights out since December but is it really sustainable??? I believe the Wizards are eventually going to need a little bit more of bench help. The hope that I am holding onto is that players like Oubre, Satoransky, Burke will come through. Over those players I am really hoping that the Wizards rim protector, Ian Mahinmi, who they thought will be able to contribute when they signed him to a 4 year 64 million dollar contract, will be able to play in the second half of the season.

Earlier this week John Wall said the ultimate goal of this season is to reach the Eastern Conference finals. I think John was pretty reasonable with the team goal but the team needs help from the bench and I think Scott Brooks knows that. Whether Grunfeld knows that or not seems to be seen, with the trade deadline approaching.

In my opinion the Wizards can reach their goal of Eastern Conference finals but it will take a total team effort to include the bench. The Wizards need to find bench help at little cost to the team and to the future of the team or they need some improvement from their current bench (Ahem Ian Mahinmi) to reach their goal.

For now let’s just celebrate John Wall’s 4th all star appearance and the Wizards 14 game home win steak.