Receivers dominated in Seattle game...

[Laron Burgundy]

It's probably the biggest factor that's never talked about. Seattle this year. San Francisco last year. Dallas a few years back. Teams that go an entire season with freakish luck on the injury front usually go on to do big things.

They also crash harder the next year.

Well heck, even San Fran this year. Counting the Justin Smith and Alex Smith injuries they've had starters miss just 6 games this year. That's just astounding. Is it just incredible luck for them and bad luck for us, or are they doing something we could emulate? I know the common cliche is every team is banged up at this point, but realistically Seattle and San Fran have had almost 0 major injuries the entire year.

[thesubmittedone]

The one thing that kinda sucks, in my eyes at least, is knowing that we've always seemed to be a team that has suffered a lot of injuries. It amazes me that the seahawks had marshawn lynch a little banged up and that was it. The only starter they were missing for much of the season was their rg. Literally all their starters combined to miss 13 games this year. We had day one starters miss 88 games this year. A lot of people don't even count Jammal Brown as an injured starter, but he certainly would have been over Polumbus. As good as we were this year, if we could have a little luck on injuries we would make the playoffs EASILY, it wouldn't come down to a week 16 duel.

But it also showed the impressive amount of depth Shanahan has brought us here. We haven't seen that since Gibbs 1.0, period.

[Monkfan63]

Seattle had no answer for our offense before Griffin got injured, and that was way before that bad snap, that was just the final tare. They were getting their asses handed to them! Plus their secondary was pushing our receivers down and holding onto others because they couldn't keep up with them. .

Seattle had no answer for Atlanta too in the first half. Why do people assume because a team falls behind early they cant make adjustments? Face it, Seattle is a very good team.

[RedskinsInFebruary]

RG3 deserves a dominant o-line. As do the Redskins and Redskins fans.

If there are resources leftover after building one (and after shoring up safety and finding a d-lineman who can rush the passer when needed) I'd be all for adding a receiver.

[Jumbo]

RG3 deserves a dominant line. As do the Redskins and Redskins fans.

If there are resources leftover after building one (and after shoring up safety and finding a d-lineman who can rush the passer when needed) I'd be all for adding a receiver.

Many were noting yesterday how SF's line (one of the most admired) has three first round picks.

[JMUSkins]

Seattle had no answer for Atlanta too in the first half. Why do people assume because a team falls behind early they cant make adjustments? Face it, Seattle is a very good team.

Oh, they're definitely good. I think we beat them last week with a healthy RG3, though. Ah... already desperate for next season to start!!

[Bacon]

Seattle would not have beaten us with a healthy RG3. It would have been close, but RG3 was clutch all season long. We would have found a way.

Hell, maybe we could have held on with Cousins. We weren't given a chance though.

What does this have to do with our WR corps?

[JMUSkins]

Seattle would not have beaten us with a healthy RG3. It would have been close, but RG3 was clutch all season long. We would have found a way.

Hell, maybe we could have held on with Cousins. We weren't given a chance though.

What does this have to do with our WR corps?

Nothing... but tangents prove that math is fun!

[Rypien1191]

I have been saying since the season started that were going to need a true #1 big body possession WR for the red zone and as teams adjust to our offense. RG3 is going to need a safety valve that can get open by himself, not just scheme. Be it Bowe, another FA, or another draft pick.

[VeroViper]

I have been saying since the season started that were going to need a true #1 big body possession WR for the red zone and as teams adjust to our offense. RG3 is going to need a safety valve that can get open by himself, not just scheme. Be it Bowe, another FA, or another draft pick.

Agreed. Atlanta gave a lot to move up to get Julio Jones. Look how that turned out. We have a nice group of receivers as it stands now. But we need to find RG3 a true #1 in the next couple of years.

[LoudMouth12thMan]

Actually I disagree to some extent. I watched the all 22 and we had receivers running wide open on more than one occasion. Griffin either had pressure, didn't see them, or a combination of both. RGIII played poorly after the injury and missed some throws and open receivers.

[Renegade7]

BTW, to the OP - you put skill positions in the title. If Helu isn't healthy I'd look to adding a better third down back (than Royster). In which case my vote would change to yes. 

I know, I intentionally did that. This is bigger then just the WR core, its about our offensive arsenal in general. I get tired of the retort that we are fine because we were up 14-0 nothing when it was done almost entirely running the ball to get to the redzone. Multiple receivers disappeared throughout the season, and we're in danger of Garcon/Davis being Moss/Cooley duex because Griffin is God and everything is just going to be A-OK.

I know I'm not the only one that noticed how many games we won because of our dominant running game more so then Griffin dominating in the passing game. The last Giants game comes to mind, and several of our loses standout with just the absence of Garcon. It's more then just the Seattle game, but that was just the last straw for me. Its not so much as me being pissed as me not wanting to ignore something that is a well masked problem when everything looks like its clicking.

We can easily let the situation continue and hope it improves naturally or acknowledge that this is something that could hold us back from getting over the top. That 3 game losing streak before the bye can be directly attributed to Garcon not playing and no one being able to pick up the slack to keep the passing offense effective enough to win. It is a problem and something we should not just ignore and let fester. We don't have to spend money we don't have given I do feel free safety is way more of a priority, but ignoring it will not make it go away.

[skinny21]

We can easily let the situation continue and hope it improves naturally or acknowledge that this is something that could hold us back from getting over the top. That 3 game losing streak before the bye can be directly attributed to Garcon not playing and no one being able to pick up the slack to keep the passing offense effective enough to win. It is a problem and something we should not just ignore and let fester. We don't have to spend money we don't have given I do feel free safety is way more of a priority, but ignoring it will not make it go away.

I gotcha. I agree in that we could definitely stand to improve this group, I just think there is a lot of potential for improvement without changing anything. Return of Davis, Helu, more experience for the young guys and more familiarity with the qb, etc., etc. That's all been discussed, and all of that is just potential, but there are a myriad of ways we might have in-house improvement.

Now I can understand wanting more of a sure thing. I'd guess we're not likely to change things much this year (between cap and other priorities), but look instead to next year to see if these guys pan out. So... if that's the likely case, I'd say just hope these guys aren't as bad as you think and root for these guys to step up next year. Because If they don't we can look forward to Mike addressing it in 2014.

That's one thing I really like about Mike, he doesn't half-*** things. He wants a QB? He drafts two. Wrs? He signs two (tries for Royal as well). D-line? Carriker, Cofield, Bowen, Nield. Anyway you get my point. He'll work to fix it, assuming it does prove to be broken.

[NoCalMike]

The 'Skins had to go 2 and a half quarters of scoring 0 points for the Seahawks to finally take the lead. It wasn't like they suddenly came roaring back to dominate this team.

Lets not forget just how long the game was 14-13 in our favor, as our fanbase was clinging to hope that the offense could muster ANYTHING with a hobbled RGIII under center.

Even after RGIII's injury, they still didn't take the lead until the 4th quarter. This is the biggest reason people are criticizing keeping RGIII in so late. People figured that if you put Cousins in, even if he got off to a slow start, he had ample time to get accustomed and into a rhythm, but in the game he was put in so late that his margin for error was basically negative 100.

In the Atlanta game on the other hand, Atlanta was up by 2 possessions late in the game and Matt Ryan crumbled under the pressure and made poor decisions, keeping the door open for the Seahawks.

In both games, the Seahawks were facing a "killshot" from their opponent, and were bailed out for different reasons. The difference is Atlanta had enough firepower to make up for it in the end, and Washington did not.

[Laron Burgundy]

Actually I disagree to some extent. I watched the all 22 and we had receivers running wide open on more than one occasion. Griffin either had pressure, didn't see them, or a combination of both. RGIII played poorly after the injury and missed some throws and open receivers.

It's funny that the people who actually watched the all 22 know this, but sometimes watching broadcasts doesn't give you that view. Luckily our coaches watch the all 22 and know that we're fine.

Our red zone td % was 4th in the league for the season, and 1st for the last 3 weeks by a mile despite Griffin's injury. We don't need a big possession receiver as some have mentioned. When Davis comes back that certainly helps there (guarantee we're running heavy formations near the goal line and morgan/hankerson are big enough to fight for jump balls).

I know, I intentionally did that. This is bigger then just the WR core, its about our offensive arsenal in general. I get tired of the retort that we are fine because we were up 14-0 nothing when it was done almost entirely running the ball to get to the redzone. Multiple receivers disappeared throughout the season, and we're in danger of Garcon/Davis being Moss/Cooley duex because Griffin is God and everything is just going to be A-OK.

Stats for first 2 drives before RG3 got hurt:

61 yards on 11 carries.
68 yards on 6 completions in 9 attempts.

Seems pretty balanced to me, more or less what we did all year.

The 3 game losing streak before the bye can be attributed to bad safety play against the giants, poor catching by the receivers against pittsburgh, and getting away from the run too much against the panthers. It wasn't like those games were all on the receivers. I don't even know what you mean by Garcon/Davis becoming Moss/Cooley. That they are the only passing options? Because Morgan/Moss/Hankerson are all better than Antwaan Randle El or Brandon Lloyd or the other #2's we used. Do you remember 2005? Our 2nd receiver had 200 yards on the year when we threw the ball 450 times. Niles Paul almost had more than that this year and he was our 3rd string tight end.

Our wr go 4 deep. The only other team in the league who can say that is Green Bay. Also remember that we are not a pass first offense, therefor our wr put up fewer numbers. Our biggest priority on offense is RT. People seem to think we desperately need another wr and point to Garcon's absence for it, but how does ANY team look when it's #1 wr goes down? Now imagine a team whose #1 and #2 receiving threats go down for a few games at the same time. It's just unreasonable to think our offense shouldn't miss a beat at all when that happens. You name a team that can excel when that happens, aside from maybe GB, and then sure, we should copy them, but unless losing our top 2 threats becomes a habit I really don't think its even remotely an important issue.