WT: Redskins have some pieces that fit, some that don’t (Haslett quote)

[KingGibbs]

Why does Reed get thrown under the bus here. He has been, BY FAR, the best of the entire crop of safeties. Yeah, he bungled a look against the Falcons trying to disguise the defense, but come on. The Falcons are undefeated.

It's ridiculous how much **** he catches on here. He is a backup that is called upon to occasionally start. He is not a pro bowler, but I think he does a better job than most give him credit for.

Guess who led the team intackles last week. You got it.

[Oldfan]

I think you guys are making a mountain out of a molehill. The man was just trying to say that he is doing the best that he can, and that's all he can do.

[S.T.real,lights,out]

I think you guys are making a mountain out of a molehill. The man was just trying to say that he is doing the best that he can, and that's all he can do.

Its on thing to say im doing the best i can....its another thing to say im doing the best i can with what i have to work with.

[Mad Mike]

"I come to work, I work hard, I do the best I can with what we got and try to put these guys in position to win games and be successful on defense,” “That’s all really I can do.”

Maybe I'm reading into this too much but this sounds off to me. Throughout the Defensive struggles this season players have publicly went to bat for Haz saying "scheme is too easy of a excuse, at some point players have to make plays" - LF. Various players have echoed Fletchers echoed that statement the past few weeks. I talked to one defensive player this morning who already said "sounds like he's just saying we suck and it's not on him".

On the heels of Shanahan "evaluation" gate this can't be good for morale. Coaches slipping/cracking in the media, undisciplined play, and lack of intensity by the defense are telling signs. Maybe that's why there is talk of Haslett having till Thanksgiving to show improvement.

Maybe I'm just reading too much into the quote on a bye week..

Yes you are.

At some point Redskins fans have to realize we had no depth coming into the season due to past management and salary cap issues. Once all of those injuries hit we were screwed. The reality is that on our defense the only guy remaining who would be a sure starter on any team is Kerrigan. Fletch would have a good shot, but a younger, faster player with potential to get better could win out. That's it. In other words... on defense... our players DO suck. But that's not what Haslett said. He just said he's doing the best he can with the players he has.

I'm not completely sold on keeping Haslett long term, especially if a really great D coordinator comes available. (change for the sake of change often makes things worse) But the fact is that he's done a pretty good job since he's been here and the failure of the defense this year isn't his fault.

[skinsforlife101]

[QUOTE=Forehead;9259840]Maybe I read it on here, maybe I heard it on the radio, but somewhere I remember getting the idea that Haslett never wanted to run a 3-4, he wanted to run a 4-3, but Shanahan was convinced the 3-4 was the direction the league was going and insisted on that scheme. Is there any truth to this? As for the OP, is does sound like a bit of CYA on Haslett's part, though I think he's right. There's not much you can do to hide Reed Doughty and Madieu Williams, among others.[COLOR="Gold"]

I heard it to it may have been on ESPN. I was watching CSN Philly and they were talking about the Redskins situation a little here is what Merrill Reese had to say, "You can't blame it all on Jim Haslett bottom line he did not hand pick the players to go out on the field each Sunday Mike Shanahan did, ultimately Jim Haslett is becoming the fall guy just like Juan Castillo was here in Philly". I for one 100% agree with Merrill Reese if you think about it long and hard is Jim Haslett Mike Shanahan version of Vinny Cerrato. His personal puppet to take the fall when things are going the wrong way.

[Mad Mike]

Bring in Rex Ryan next year to be D coordinator haha

Only if he brings Darrelle Revis with him.

[S.T.real,lights,out]

At some point Redskins fans have to realize we had no depth coming into the season due to past management and salary cap issues. Once all of those injuries hit we were screwed. The reality is that on our defense the only guy remaining who would be a sure starter on any team is Kerrigan. Fletch would have a good shot, but a younger, faster player with potential to get better could win out. That's it. In other words... on defense... our players DO suck. But that's not what Haslett said. He just said he's doing the best he can with the players he has.

You're right he didn't say they suck....he said they suck in a nicer way.

[21Knock_U_Out]

Who is our best player on defense? I would say Fletcher, and he turns 65 this year. I love Fletch and he can still play well but come on we need better tallent at many positions on defense. I agree that defense wouldn't be as bad if we had someone better calling the plays. How good though? I highly doubt top ten.

[Sticksboi05]

Can we please end this and fire this loser.

[justice98]

He's overseeing quite the precipitous drop from last season's defense, which by most measures was fairly decent, to this season's. We had the 13th ranked defense last year. It can't be the two safeties alone. Pretty much everybody else is the same. The Otogwe/Landry/Doughty/Gomes conglomerate gave up 70 fewer yards passing a game, oddly enough. And only Otogwe had any coverage ability to speak of.

Haz's failing (at least this time) is his inability to scheme up pressure. Orakpo might be more valuable than he gets credit for. They're due for about 10-12 fewer sacks this year vs last. And I don't know what the differential for QB hurries is, but I'm sure it can't be good. We can't get to the QB at all and our secondary is atrocious, that's gonna be a recipe for disaster every single time.

Last year, we were talking about "they finally get it" on defense and supposedly, the ill fitting parts were jettisoned. But here we are.

---------- Post added November-9th-2012 at 11:24 AM ----------

Who is our best player on defense? I would say Fletcher, and he turns 65 this year. I love Fletch and he can still play well but come on we need better tallent at many positions on defense. I agree that defense wouldn't be as bad if we had someone better calling the plays. How good though? I highly doubt top ten.

It probably should be Kerrigan, but he's been Johnny Invisible for a month now.

[kingdaddy]

Puts players in position to win? The Giants loss is one that's completely on Haslett. He put our players in position to lose after our rookie QB rallied the team to a go ahead TD. That loss killed the entire season.

[DeadExField]

Stop making excuse for this bum DeadEx. The dude was a bum in NO, he was some trash in STL, and he has been a complete.... FAILURE!!!! in DC.

Fire him yesterday!!!!

You know very well I want the team to move on from any loser currently employed for the Redskins, player, coach, etc.

I'm just saying whoever comes in next, I sure do hope they bring their own ingredients with them because the ones we got are pretty foul

[Birdlives]

He should have been fired during the bye week to allow the new coordinator to get up to speed.

[clarkskin]

Just out of curiosity, what position are you in where you get to talk to Redskins defensive players?

[Isifhan]

"I come to work, I work hard, I do the best I can with what we got and try to put these guys in position to win games and be successful on defense,” “That’s all really I can do.”

If he was being honest with himself this is a crock of crap. There have been multiple film breakdowns showing head scratching at best defensive alignments that should never have happened. Perfect example I'm forgetting who broke it down but it was a 3rd and 2 and we showed a 5 man bunch formation on the left side. 3rd and 2! Of course Cam sees this overload and smartly runs to the other side and picks up an easy first down.

Now it's not all Haz's fault there's plenty of stupidity to go around on the players side as well but Haz has been severely lacking. I would have fired him now and evaluated Raheem the rest of the season. Unfortunately that won't happen unless we of course continue to suck and he gets fired later in the year. By then it will be too late. Nothing Haz is doing has shown me he's going to improve coming out of the bye week. Good coaches scheme well even when players get hurt. Losing our guys hurt us bad but there's no way that we should have fallen from middle of the pack to historically bad in one season, especially with all of the depth that was trumpeted over the off season. After this season if not sooner I'd get rid of a majority of the defensive staff since the players look to have given up on them already and find someone specifically fit for the 3-4. I don't care if it's an assistant, or head coach from the college level or whatever but they would need to know the 3-4 inside and out.

I have my doubts Shanahan would do that though. Oh well.