What do you do if you were GM

[Bigmuss1]

The secondary will absolutely need an over-haul, restructure the guys you can, then go after 1 star player in the secondary thru FA. Yes, we may not have a 1st round pick, but we have a lot of picks in the upcoming draft. Spend these picks on secondary and O-line depth.

Look to spend some $ on another star offensive player (Bowe) etc. Get the space by restructuring. Explain to players the cap penalty to current players and maybe get them to back load some of their contracts?

Oh, and fire current DC, it just has to happen to keep accountability alive in organization.

[Boss_Hogg]

There's a great chance that D. Hall will be let go after 2012, thus freeing up some cap room. I'm not sure how much tho.

[thesubmittedone]

Continue doing what we've been doing and go into this offseason knowing there shouldn't be any more surprises.

[DogofWar1]

If I were GM:
1. First things first, I march into Snyder's office and tell him straight, if he wants a consistent winner before 2014, he needs to get us our cap back. I explain the situation, in depth, where we can save money, where we're obligated, where our holes are, what it costs to fill them effectively, and tell him that without that cap room, we have no margin for error in 2013, and will still be hurting in 2014, since it can take time to get everything in working order.

If Snyder gets the money back, great, but mainly it needs to be made clear to him that that 18M is effectively 2-3 very good to star players in key positions. Maybe go over the 2012 offseason plan, and explain how the 18M penalty stopped us from getting Winston at RT (he can clearly see how Polumbus has done) and getting Carr at CB (he can see even more clearly how the secondary has played).

2. Normally here you'd want to prioritize your offseason, evaluate the young players, see where your needs are, evaluate the draft, etc., BUT there's one thing that needs to be done first.

Issue an ultimatum to Hall. Either he redoes his contract in the neighborhood of 3-4M dollars, down from the 11M he's due in 2013, or hand him his walking papers. That 11M can do a lot of good. Hell, that 11M could probably secure Jairus Byrd AND a reasonably decent #2 or #3 CB with the 3M left over (I'm assuming Byrd would get 8M a year). Or you could grab DRC (probably around 9M a year) and put the remaining 2M towards safety or RT or something.

So yeah, Hall either needs to come down to 3-4M a year, or get out.

3. Evaluate the youngins.

Keenan Robinson, Hankerson, Aldrick Robinson, Dezmon Briscoe, Richard Crawford, Jenkins, Hurt, Neild, LeRibeus, etc. etc.

Is Keenan Robinson good enough to take over for Fletcher? Are Hankerson, Robinson, Briscoe, in addition to Garcon and Morgan, sufficient at WR, or do we need another playmaker? How do the depth guys fit in the interior of the Oline? Is Jenkins developing as a DE, or does he need to move to NT, or is he just going to be quality depth, but depth nonetheless, going forward? And what's Crawford's, and for that matter, Bernstine's ceilings?

3. Prioritize offseason needs. Once we've figured out what we have, we can figure out what we need. IMO, at this moment, we need, in order of importance:
Safety
Cornerback (going back to the Hall problem)
Right Tackle
Safety (we need two, but we could settle for one assuming Meriweather is still here. If he's not...well it stays here, but gets much greater urgency)
ILB (dependent on Robinson, if he's ready drop down a few spots)
WR
NT (Neild, Baker, and Jenkins might all be capable, and Cofield is decent. We could manage one more year if we needed to)

4. Work on contracts.
Moss is due 5.8M. Fletcher is due 7.25M, appox. 3.25M of which is guaranteed. Brown is due 3.5M, of which 1.1M is guaranteed. Those are the biggies. Either these need to be re-done down to basically JUST their guarantees (for Moss, down to around 1M), or they need to be cut for the savings.

Other players like Madieu Williams will be shown the door as well. Basically, we'd like to free up another 8-12M from sources besides Hall, and try to go into FA with about 20M at a minimum in our pocket. Tough, but if we get 7M from Hall, 5M from Moss, ~3M from Fletcher, and 2.4M from Brown, we're looking at $17.4M-ish right there, and with some other cuts can get us close to 20.

5. Having established offseason needs, and evaluated current talent resulting in cuts and freeing up some space, we send off the scouts to look at the draft kids, while the GM stays home and evaluates FAs (** means top target, * means high priority target).
S - Byrd**, Delmas*, Golson*, Phillips*, William Moore, Michael Mitchell, Colt Anderson, Mundy
CB - DRC**, Talib**, Sean Smith*, Antoine Cason*
OT - Clady*, Albert*, Baker*, Long*, Loadholt, Vollmer, Bushrod (no one gets ** because frankly they're all too expensive or likely to be re-signed)
ILB (haven't researched many)- Erin Henderson, Justin Durant, Jovan Belcher
WR - Bowe*, Wallace*
NT - Not really any premium prospects in the market, honestly

I'd also prioritize a blocking RB to replace Royster, but those aren't terribly costly.

Anyways, I go HARD at Byrd. Flowers, chocolates, and a 5 year 35M contract at a minimum. Next, I look at DRC very hard, and maybe make a 5Y/45M offer. I also watch Talib, if he hits the market, I'm looking at him, but keeping numbers low because of danger of a year off. Probably willing to offer a maximum of 4M for him, but only for 1 year. If he plays well, give him a 3-4Y contract next year.

Another option is to pursue two safeties (maybe Phillips at Strong and Byrd at Free) hard, ignoring CBs, and attempting to retain Hall on the cheap. In this case, our 2nd would probably go towards a CB.

Probably avoiding the RT market unless we get our money back. Same thing with WR. I'd love to upgrade but safety and CB is more pressing. If Fletcher is deemed too old, and Robinson is not deemed ready, then I'm looking at ILBs too, but I would have to search for bargains. Probably first call I'd make would be to Goff. Tell him that if he can heal and be in shape, we'll give him a solid shot at the job.

Ultimately, I think I'll want to spend to within a couple million of the cap in order to cover costs of draft picks.

6. Draft. Throughout, I'm keeping an eye on targets I like, and if they fall, I'm considering trading up to snag them. We got a lot of picks that made the roster the last two years, and I'd prefer quality over quantity this time. If I can get a prospect I like earlier on at the cost of a late rounder, I'm pulling the trigger no question.
- 2nd rounder in most scenarios is targeting a safety, like Vaccaro. If we secure 2 starting safeties in the offseason, IN ADDITION to Meriweather (which probably means we neglected CB), I might look at CB in the 2nd, maybe someone like Amerson if he's there, or Trufant. I'm also keeping an eye on RTs. If anyone falls, like Lewan, I might pull the trigger on a small trade up to secure him. Otherwise, I probably hold off. I might also peek at who's available at ILB, NT, DE, and WR, but unless a solid 1st round talent falls I'm focusing on S, CB, and RT.
Guys I like here:
Safety - Vaccaro, Reid, McDonald, Lester, Elam, Jefferson (pretty much any of the top 6 safeties)
CB - Amerson, Trufant, Poyer, Fuller
RT - Matthews (won't fall, but still), Lewan, Aboushi (but only later on in the 2nd, which would probably require a trade down)
- 3rd rounder is largely dependent on the 2nd. If I go safety, I'm probably going CB, or RT. Still look at NT, WR, DE, ILB, etc. but still very much focused on S, CB, and RT. One guy I'm keeping an eye on if I don't go RT in the 2nd is Aboushi. If he's still there in the 3rd, he's probably almost the highest guy on the board by that point. Fluker, if he's still there, gets a look too.
Beyond that, I'm probably looking at BPA with deference to the positions of need, as usual.

Anyways, that's what I'd probably do top to bottom, but I won't be angry if Bruce and Shanahan make moves differently, I trust them to make the smart choices.

[skins island connection]

Well, I'd write myself a note to NOT sign some one-hit wonder player to a 50 mil contract; not gonna call any names [ Garcon cough cough ], but there's a few players who can be traded, i.e.; Royster. He's just not impressing me in the least bit, and RB position is something we can afford to flex with.

Unless another CB worthy can replace Hall, he's gotta be kept; think its bad now, wait and see if he's gone; we will break all defensive negative records. Just sit him down and discuss a much lower salary; if he doesn't bite, then he'll have to go. But my fear is he will go to another NFCE team and give us headaches for years to come.

[Oldfan]

I'd fire Shanahan and start over. I want the Number One franchise in the NFL. I don't think Mike is either willing or able to achieve that goal.

[pjfootballer]

IfIssue an ultimatum to Hall. Either he redoes his contract in the neighborhood of 3-4M dollars, down from the 11M he's due in 2013, or hand him his walking papers. That 11M can do a lot of good. Hell, that 11M could probably secure Jairus Byrd AND a reasonably decent #2 or #3 CB with the 3M left over (I'm assuming Byrd would get 8M a year). Or you could grab DRC (probably around 9M a year) and put the remaining 2M towards safety or RT or something.

So yeah, Hall either needs to come down to 3-4M a year, or get out.

4. Work on contracts.
Moss is due 5.8M. Fletcher is due 7.25M, appox. 3.25M of which is guaranteed. Brown is due 3.5M, of which 1.1M is guaranteed. Those are the biggies. Either these need to be re-done down to basically JUST their guarantees (for Moss, down to around 1M), or they need to be cut for the savings.

Other players like Madieu Williams will be shown the door as well. Basically, we'd like to free up another 8-12M from sources besides Hall, and try to go into FA with about 20M at a minimum in our pocket. Tough, but if we get 7M from Hall, 5M from Moss, ~3M from Fletcher, and 2.4M from Brown, we're looking at $17.4M-ish right there, and with some other cuts can get us close to 20.

Don't forget to rework Trent Williams deal. He'll be making a bundle next season. I'd like to reduce his cap hit.

[DogofWar1]

Don't forget to rework Trent Williams deal. He'll be making a bundle next season. I'd like to reduce his cap hit.

I've seen different numbers for Williams, ranging from 6M to 8M in terms of costs. Thing is, he's due more in 2014 (I think like 11M after everything), and a LOT more in 2015 (like 14M after everything). I'm not sure I'd want to push that back, when he's due the least amount of any of the next three years next year.

[pjfootballer]

I've seen different numbers for Williams, ranging from 6M to 8M in terms of costs. Thing is, he's due more in 2014 (I think like 11M after everything), and a LOT more in 2015 (like 14M after everything). I'm not sure I'd want to push that back, when he's due the least amount of any of the next three years next year.

You can always tear it up and re-do the deal entirely. That is his rookie contract if I'm not mistaken. Before they put retrictions on the contracts.

[pjfootballer]

I suppose, but he's playing like an elite LT, so his contract wouldn't shrink much for next year if we redid things, he'd still probably be in line for a 10M/year contract. I mean, I wouldn't have a problem shifting 3-5M from 2013 to 2014, when we get our cap back, but I think if we can avoid it we should.

Point taken. I'm all for what is the best way to give us some cap relief from the 18 million penalty.

[DogofWar1]

You can always tear it up and re-do the deal entirely. That is his rookie contract if I'm not mistaken. Before they put retrictions on the contracts.

I suppose, but he's playing like an elite LT, so his contract wouldn't shrink much for next year if we redid things, he'd still probably be in line for a 10M/year contract. I mean, I wouldn't have a problem shifting 3-5M from 2013 to 2014, when we get our cap back, but I think if we can avoid it we should.

[gaskinsfan]

Get the cap money back if at all possible and then fire Shanny.

He's the personnel man behind letting the defensive priority go.

[redskins4ever28]

There's a great chance that D. Hall will be let go after 2012, thus freeing up some cap room. I'm not sure how much tho.

Why didnt we try to trade hall?
Because no one would tAke him?
If we would ahve even gotten a 6th rounder for him, we could have freed so much room and still got something out of it, would have been great.

[USS Redskins]

After another disastrous season, Fire Shannahan and the entire staff. The guy is lost and I fear that RG3 will follow him into the wilderness. He aint getting it done on the field or in the front office. Three years is plenty to turn a team around...he has Failed miserably... The team is awful and lacks starting talent and depth. When records are being compared to Spurrier or Zorn, then you know its bad.

Find a Head Coach who specializes in QB play and would utilize RG3's skills. A coach who runs a 4-3 D. Also, a coach who does not insist on being the complete master at everything.. no tyrants. No retreads. No one who coached in the 80's.

Go over roster with a fine tooth comb... watch tons of tape.. see who plays and who quits. Cut and start from Scratch if necessary.

[NewEraofSkins08]

A lot of these ideas are pretty solid. Just want to chime in, after watching this pathetic pass-rush since Orakpo's been hurt, if the training staff thinks he's 100% healthy we should extend him. Also, pray that our scouting department can find a few mid-round picks in the next few years that can be above-average starters.