The Washington Redskins Team of the Decade

So, as it turns out, the Washington Redskins haven’t had a great decade. If you’re a Redskins fan, you already know it. If your not a Redskins fan, you may be saying to yourself, what sport do they play again?

The Redskins record for the decade (2000-2009) is 70-87. They will have four 10+ loss seasons (including 2009 in which they have nine) and only one 10-win season (2005).

They have made two playoff appearances (2005, 2007) and have one playoff win (at Tampa Bay, 2005).

Those numbers are dwarfed by their number of head coaches: six, this decade.

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Lost in the Shuffle: The Washington Redskins’ Offensive Line

In the tragic comedy that was last week’s game vs. the New Orleans Saints, the Washington Redskins offensive line gave a flawless performance.

Even though it went mostly unnoticed in the reviews of the reviews, the LaRon Landry outrage, and the Shaun Suisham buzzsaw, the offensive line was the backdrop to the best offensive performance of the Jim Zorn Era.

For a group with no Pro Bowlers, and two starters who weren’t in the league at the end of last season, they pitched a shutout against the Saints. 

For the first time all season, the Redskins didn’t allow a sack.  Better still, Jason Campbell was actually comfortable in the pocket—and look at the result.

The Redskins gained 455 yards, 28 first downs, and scored 30 points for the first time under Zorn.  They converted on 7-of-12 third downs, a sign that the offensive line provided Campbell with time to keep their drives alive.

Rumbles of Campbell’s improvement, of Devin Thomas’s first career 100-yard game don’t happen without this patchwork offensive line being stitched together properly.

Since the second half of the Atlanta Falcons game (four-and-a-half games), Jason Campbell has been sacked five times.  At a rate of one sack per game, that puts the offensive line and Campbell among the league leaders.

For the last four games, Campbell’s sack rate is just 3.4 percent.  If this group blocked like that for the entire year, it would place Campbell fifth in sack rate behind Peyton Manning, Kerry Collins, Tom Brady, and Vince Young (and ahead of Drew Brees and Kurt Warner). 

The Redskins’ offensive line has had trouble with speed rushers.  Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Trent Cole abused left tackle Levi Jones two weeks ago. His impact was felt well beyond his three tackles and one sack. 

This week, Levi Jones gets the pleasure of trying to stop right defensive end Richard Seymour.  The Raiders hosted the Eagles, another NFC East opponent, in Week Six and nudged out a 13-9 win. 

The Raiders defense was dominant, Seymour was routinely in the backfield, and he ended up with four tackles and two sacks.

This game has the same sort of feel.

It will be up to Levi Jones and the rest of the Redskins offensive line to neutralize Seymour and the Raiders’ pass rush.

The Redskins have finally begun to realize their offensive potential with a month of stability on the offensive line.  It’s strange that great offensive line play has brought out the best in everyone on the Redskins’ offense.

What a coincidence.

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Shaun Suisham Cut, Unfairly Becomes Scapegoat for Redskins Loss vs. Saints

When the impossible happened on Sunday, the inevitable happened on Tuesday.

The Washington Redskins cut kicker Shaun Suisham and replaced him with Graham Gano.

It is a move seeded in irrationality, soaked in vengeance, and, almost equally as absurd, the perfect decision.

It’s irrational because Suisham is better than the next best option. He’s been an accurate NFL kicker with the Redskins for the past three seasons. In 49 games with the Redskins, he’s made 80 percent of his field goals (72-of-90). His 23-yard miss on Sunday was the first miss of his NFL career from 20-29 yards.

Shaun Suisham has cost the Redskins two wins in their last three games. In a 7-6 loss to the Cowboys, he missed two field goals. And then there were the Saints.

So the Redskins had to exact revenge and cut Suisham.

The problem with kickers is that their effectiveness is buttressed by a fragile trait: confidence.

It’s how Mike Vanderjagt went from being one of the best kickers in the NFL to out of the league in less than two seasons. Suisham was 13-for-13 earlier this year, but none of those kicks were under immense pressure. In the Cowboys game, he started to fold under pressure, and Sunday’s miss completed the collapse.

With Suisham gone, the scapegoat for a game given away, it’s all lollipops and sunshine, right?

The Redskins had four chances to beat the Saints in the final two minutes and overtime. Suisham only screwed up one of those chances, albeit the best chance at victory.

After Suisham missed, Drew Brees still had to drive 80 yards in 1:50 with no timeouts. It’s unlikely that the Redskins stop them here, but certainly possible. Give LaRon Landry some of the blame.

Each of the last three weeks, Jason Campbell has had a chance to take the team on a game-winning drive in the final two minutes. The noodle he threw up to Jonathan Vilma makes him 0-for-3. The Redskins had just moved into Saints territory and could have given Suisham a chance at redemption.

Of all the progress Campbell has shown the last month, he hasn’t mastered the two-minute offense, a glaring omission on his résumé. Give Campbell some of the blame too.

The Redskins won the toss in overtime, finally another chance, which was promptly blown by Mike Sellers’ fumble. Sellers has been struggling so much with his blocking out of the backfield that most of the time he just lines up at tight end. Give Sellers some of the blame too.

There are always others to blame, but someone has to take the fall. As with any monumental disaster, there’s always a scapegoat that, whether it’s right or wrong, makes us feel better.

It allows us to match a face with failure.

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Washington Redskins Secondary: Under Fire and In Trouble vs. New Orleans Saints

The Saints offense is good.

Which got me thinking about Friday’s World Cup draw and Brazil. Saying the Saints offense is good is like saying Brazilians are good at soccer. When Brazil plays at its best, they transform soccer from sport to art form: The Beautiful Game. (See the second half of the Confederations Cup final vs. US.)

The same principle applies to the Saints and their offense.

When they are in rhythm like they were on Monday night against the Patriots, the Saints are unstoppable.

On paper, this looks like a great matchup. The best offense in the NFL comes to Washington to face the No. 2-ranked passing defense. A battle of wills.

But oftentimes, one stat can’t tell the whole story.

Even though the Redskins have only allowed 170.4 passing yards a game, that can be attributing to all the putrid games they played earlier in the year. In four of their 12 games, neither quarterback has passed for over 200 yards.

Not exactly the beautiful game.

It’s not that the Redskins secondary is non-existent; they just have a propensity for giving up big plays, 35 yards or more. They’ve given up five big plays in the last three weeks, all to the Broncos and Eagles.

The Saints offense thrives on big plays.

So things may not look good, especially since the Redskins will be missing their best cover cornerback, DeAngelo Hall.

That will leave much of the burden to cover New Orleans’ dangerous receivers to the recently benched Carlos Rodgers, Fred Smoot, and Justin Tryon.

Look for Drew Brees to pick on Carlos Rodgers early and often. Rodgers, an aggressive cornerback with only six interceptions in five years, was benched because he was beaten on two long touchdowns against Denver. He has been incredibly susceptible to the slant-and-go double move.

Both Smoot and Tryon have done well in the last few weeks filling in for Rodgers and Hall.

There seems to be little chance that the Redskins stop or even slow down the Saints offense. Two weeks ago, when the Cowboys spread the field in their game winning drive in the final four minutes, the Redskins looked clueless on how to stop them.

Maybe the grounds crew will “forget” to clear off the field on Sunday, and Saturday’s blanket of fresh snow that fell on Washington can help to ugly up this game and prevent the Saints offense from putting on a beautiful show.

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Jason Campbell’s Maturation: One Positive from Life in the Cellar

It is a sore subject in Washington.

Redskins’ fans can get a bit testy (or mercurial, for those of you nearing the end of another fine year with your Word of the Day calendar) about Jason Campbell.

They are frustrated because the book on Campbell has been written, the discussion is over, and Redskins’ fans are left resigned to the fact he will finish out the year. Campbell’s good not great, a game manager not a game breaker, and that’s that so let’s carve it in stone.

To gloss over the Redskins’ progress since the second half of the Atlanta Falcons game just because the team is 3-8 is foolish. There are real things happening with this roster, and the evaluation process doesn’t stop just because the playoffs are out of sight.

The Redskins have found an offensive identity, one that would make Joe Gibbs smile.

A bruising running attack that feeds the playaction pass along with short routes and three-step drops to protect Jason Campbell is what this offense was built to run. Credit the coaching staff for molding their gameplan to the talent on the roster.

Lost in a system seemingly built to protect Campbell and nurture his limited playmaking ability is the real progress he has made this year.

Earlier in the season, when the offensive line lost Chris Samuels and Randy Thomas, the besieged quarterback crumbled in the face of pressure. Instead of looking downfield, Campbell’s instinct was to tuck the ball and frantically find space to move. That is the mark of a lower-tier NFL quarterback and led me to question whether pocket presence was an innate ability and, if so, Campbell didn’t have it.

But in the last three-and-a-half games, Campbell has been good for a handful of great plays every game, mainly by using his feet to avoid the pass rush, creating extra time, all while keeping his eyes downfield. These are the types of plays that separate Top 10 quarterbacks like Ben Roethlisberger from the rest of the pack.

These are plays Campbell couldn’t have made a couple months ago.

Take last Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles and one play that stands out in particular. On the way to a touchdown that put the Redskins up 21-16 in the third quarter, Jason Campbell broke away from defensive tackle Mike Patterson and a collapsing pocket to find Devin Thomas for a 35-yard completion.

Video Evidence.

The play kept the touchdown drive alive on a crucial 3rd-and-7 and Campbell kept his eyes locked downfield.

This is a new part of the Jason Campbell story in Washington: The Playmaker. Whether the fans or the organization will accept this amendment remains to be seen.

Jason Campbell has been baptized in pressure this year, and like many tough times, they end up being a cause of greater good in the long run. He’ll be a better quarterback for fighting through this season, for getting thrown around 16 straight games.

He has been sacked 30 times this year, but only five times in the last three-and-a-half games. If pocket presence is a learned trait, Jason Campbell’s progress is real and cannot be ignored.

It seems unlikely that Campbell will want to come back after this season and commit to an organization that hasn’t committed to him.

With so many other pressing team needs, the organization should make a good faith effort at building bridges once burned with Campbell.

For a fan base looking for a fresh start, it still seems prudent to keep one eye on this season and not completely look ahead to 2010.

Because in the last five games of a dreadful season, the Redskins might find their quarterback of the future.

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Setting the Record Straight: The End of the Clinton Portis Era in Washington

As anyone in the glamorous world of used cars will tell you, age is irrelevant. The trusted used car salesman cares as much about the model year as he does buying a necktie made in the last 25 years or a properly fitting toupee. It’s the odometer that tells the truth, inescapable numbers in black and white.

Only a couple months past his 28th birthday, Clinton Portis’s odometer won’t roll over anymore. The truth has caught up with this road warrior.

In a decade where having a garage full of running backs has become the norm, Clinton Portis looks like a clumsy World War I tank. He has started every game of his career since Week Five of his rookie season (missed three games in 2003 and eight in 2006) and never had to split carries. In a full season, Ladell Betts has had the most carries backing up Portis with only 93 carries in 2007 (a year where Portis had 325).

While most players enter the NFL at 22 or 23 years old, Portis was an extremely young 21—his first regular season game was a week after his 21st birthday. For Portis, the running back maxim that life ends at 30 doesn’t apply. Since he started out two years younger, no one should be surprised he has lost a significant step at age 28.

This year, Portis’ lack of production is obscured by his numbers. He is still averaging four yards a carry for the year (124 carries for 494 yards).

But, Portis had one long 78-yard run against the Kansas City Chiefs on a day when he ran 15 times for 109 yards. That means his other 14 carries gained just 31 yards (an average of 2.2 yards per carry). Portis has only averaged over four yards a carry in one other game against the St. Louis Rams, who have one of the worst defenses in the NFL.

When you take that one 78-yard run out of his season totals, he is only averaging 3.38 yards per carry. That’s a whole yard per carry drop-off from last year.

 

The Offensive Line

For the first six weeks of the 2009 season, there were rumblings about Portis losing a step. He largely got off scot-free from major blame because the offensive line had been so bad and allowed so many sacks (30 to date).

The corollary was that bad pass blocking must equate to bad run blocking. The blame didn’t land on Portis; it fell at the feet of the offensive line.

The maligned Redskins offensive line has struggled in two areas this year: communication on blitz pickup and speed rushers. Their linemen (See: Mike Williams) are incredibly slow and have struggled to pickup a single blitz. But Ladell Betts has shown he is running behind some punishing run blockers who can get into the second level.

The most important aspect of the Redskins’ last six quarters is that the success of Ladell Betts (with a worse offensive line) is a direct indictment of Clinton Portis. Without Chris Samuels and Randy Thomas, Betts has gained 184 yards (4.5 yards per carry) since replacing Portis.

 

The Future

The future for running backs past their prime is not good, given roughly the same chance for a comeback as pagers. But anyone who tries to predict what will happen in the uncapped 2010 NFL season comes off looking like the ridiculous and bespectacled Professor Trelawney from the Harry Potter series.

So, the quandary for the Redskins remains that Portis is guaranteed $6.43 million of his $7.195 million base salary in 2010 (source: profootballtalk.com). He will certainly not have much trade value around the league, so the Redskins will either cut him or try to get one more year out of him.

In studying the careers of other great running backs, Clinton Portis may bounce around for another year after that, but it’s not out of the question that in two years he will be out of the National Football League.

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Washington Redskins-New York Giants: Osi Umenyiora’s Play of the Day

The Play of the Day is a weekly Washington Redskins feature throughout the 2009 NFL season. It takes a critical play, a turning point, or a play that is representative of a larger theme and examines it in-depth. Similar to NFL Matchup on ESPN, the Play of the Day is intended to provide insight and knowledge by breaking down a key play from the Redskins previous game.

This week, the Redskins were down 10-0 to the New York Giants with 2:26 left in the second quarter. They had a 1st-and-10 on their own 47-yard line with a chance to cut into the Giants lead before halftime.

That’s when Osi Umenyiora stripped Jason Campbell of the football and returned it for a touchdown.

Note: All the images in this slideshow are my original creation and copyrighted material. Please do not use them without express written consent, implied oral consent, or imagined telepathic consent of the author. Well, really just the first one.

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One Flaw in the Washington Redskins’ 53-Man Roster: Punt Returning

There is an easy story to write about the Washington Redskins: One that may play out again this year, as it’s one that wasn’t fixed by the Redskins 53-man roster.

Every year, the Redskins look amazing on paper yet have failed to post a winning record in 7 out of the last 10 years.

The special teams unit, which was ranked 25th by Football Outsiders, was a barren desert of production last season. From Shaun Suisham hitting a career-low 72 percent of his kicks to punters Durant Brooks and Ryan Plackemeier, to Antwaan Randle El returning punts. 

The Redskins organization has only fixed one of those problems (Hunter Smith as the new punter), hoped one problem would fix itself (Suisham), and totally ignored the other (Randle El).

Whether you use basic NFL statistics or advanced metrics, Randle El ranked near the bottom in punt returning. 

He returned 39 punts for a total of 254 yards, an average of 6.5 yards per return.  Among those who qualified with enough returns, Randle El ranks 21st, sixth from the bottom

He had 21 fair catches, the most in the league.

The guys from Football Outsiders didn’t like Randle El’s season either. Randle El is a bottom five punt returner with a value over average of -7.47 points. 

That means that Randle El, because he loses field position with poor returns and calls for so many fair catches, cost the Redskins 7.47 points over an “average” NFL punt returner.  He ranked 40th out of 43 eligible players. 

But in the big picture, what does that mean for the Redskins?

Take those seven and a half points and spread them over a couple games. Consider the Redskins had five games decided by three points or less last year.

By having Randle El return punts—especially in the grind-it-out NFC East—losing the field position battle in close games is tantamount to checkmate. 

That’s how a team good enough to go 10-6 winds up finishing 8-8.

The Redskins had a chance to turn around those numbers and turn a negative into positive earliere this week, when they released their 53-man roster.

They brought Dominique Dorsey and Anthony Alridge into training camp as possible replacements for Randle El, but they had a difficult decision to make: whether they had room to designate a roster spot for a punt returner.

Instead, the Redskins took Marcus Mason and sixth cornerback Byron Westbrook with the last few roster spots. 

Both provide immediate depth to core positions. Mason could rotate in like Shaun Alexander late in the year if Clinton Portis or Ladell Betts get hurt. Westbrook serves as the insurance policy for the first couple of weeks because of Carlos Rodgers’ lingering calf injury.

The Redskins missed a great opportunity to heal an immediate wound in their team.  Health insurance is great, but when you’re bleeding Band-Aid’s are better. 

Dominique Dorsey, a former CFL special teams player of the year, would have made a great Band-Aid.

Instead of taking a third quarterback and a punt returner, the Redskins made other choices.

Choices that might cost them 7.47 points this season.

Choices that might mean the difference between making the playoffs and missing them.

If only we could find a punt returner that costs $100 million, then Daniel Synder might finally be interested.

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Colt Brennan Injured, Chase Daniel Cut: What are the Washington Redskins Doing?

This wasn’t how it was supposed to end.  One was supposed to beat the other, not complete annihilation. 

In what looks like a quarterback armageddon for the Washington Redskins, both Colt Brennan and Chase Daniel are out.

The Redskins have placed Brennan on the injured reserve list with a torn hamstring and a hip injury, making him ineligible to play the rest of the 2009 season.

We thought the best position battle for the Redskins 53-man roster ended with 4:26 left in the last preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars when Brennan left the game with an injury after an incompletion on third-and-five. 

To make matters worse, as Brennan was getting worked on by the trainers, Chase Daniel drove the Redskins down the field for one final touchdown.

But that final push wasn’t good enough to beat out Brennan or even to win by default—Daniel was among the 22 players cut by the Redskins on Saturday.

Instead, the Redskins are going to carry just two starting quarterbacks into the season: Jason Campbell and Todd Collins.

 

Colt Brennan

This wasn’t how it was supposed to end.  No one, not even Chase Daniel, wanted it to end like this.

All the organized team activities, all the mini-camp drills, all the practices in the blistering August heat mean nothing as Colt Brennan will miss the entire 2009 season due to injury.

The Redskins’ Superman in the 2008 preseason looked like he had come down with a case of kryptonite flu in 2009. 

Where we saw Brennan as flawless a year ago, the nagging doubts that had been repressed by the 2008 preseason came back with a vengeance this year.

Brennan finished the preseason with 249 passing yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions. 

If you looked at just the four preseason games alone, there is no doubt that Colt Brennan did not deserve to make this football team, had he been healthy.

He tried to play 2008 Superman and force passes into tight spaces.  That’s the story of the second interception, the one against the Steelers.  And what’s worse, he made his mistakes, like this one, in the red zone. 

Against the Patriots, he looked completely lost in the pocket.  He was sacked four times, not because of failures on the offensive line, but because he held on to the ball too long—afraid of failure. 

He threw his third interception of the preseason on an out to D.J. Hackett at the goal line.  It was a horrible pass, at least two to three steps behind his receiver and was returned for a touchdown.

We also saw Brennan struggle with his low release point, sometimes unable to find passing lanes between the defensive linemen.

In the final preseason game, we saw a different kind of Colt Brennan.  He wasn’t playing the part of a gunslinger; he looked more like an insurance salesman.

All of Brennan’s passes were to short passes to wide receivers that were wide open or checkdown passes to a running back.  He also threw two passes away. 

This was Colt Brennan trying to maintain the status quo…survive and advance. 

Unfortunately, he couldn’t survive the final five minutes of the last preseason game.  But he’ll still get to keep his spot as the honorary third quarterback, even from the injured reserve list.

 

Chase Daniel

This wasn’t how it was supposed to end.  The funny thing is: he never had a chance.

Chase Daniel came into the Redskins training camp as an afterthought.  The Redskins had their three established quarterbacks and Daniel was just along for the ride.

It only took two preseason games for Chase Daniel to make his mark.  It was a fade route for a touchdown to Marko Mitchell.  It was a 22-yard scramble that sparked excitement. 

It was the fusion of Brennan’s struggles and Daniel’s brilliance that created controversy.

In the last preseason game, Daniel and the Redskins offensive line was overwhelmed by the first-team Jaguars defense.  It was a neutral performance, marred by poor offensive line, one that signaled an end to the ride. 

But then when Brennan got injured with less than five minutes left in the game, Daniel had his one last shot.

On the Redskins final possession of the preseason, Daniel took them on an eight-play, 63-yard drive in just over a minute. 

It was redemption personified.

It looked like the last straw on Brennan’s back. 

To the Redskins coaching staff, it looked like a nice try.

Chase Daniel, should he clear waivers, will be a member of the Redskins 2009 practice squad.

It’s like winning the silver medal in the Olympics when you clearly deserved gold.  Only it’s Jim Zorn who’s the Russian judge.

 

Where Are The Redskins Going?

With only two quarterbacks on the roster, the Redskins are taking a risk.

They are taking a risk by betting that Jason Campbell, 27, and Todd Collins, 38, won’t get hurt. 

They are betting that the value they will get from another position will be more than the insurance of a third quarterback.

They think are in need of immediate help, not another insurance plan.

But there’s a reason you buy insurance: just in case.  That’s all backups are in the NFL, a just-in-case plan.

But is Marcus Mason’s contributions for three-to-four plays a game and as the up-man on kickoffs really worth not making Chase Daniel a part of the Redskins 53-man roster?

Where is the merit of preseason games if Daniel doesn’t make the team?  What more could he have done?

The practice squad allows the Redskins flexibility to call Daniel up if there’s an injury to Campbell or Collins.  But it’s also a giant risk.

Assuming Daniel clears waivers, and no other team needs a promising young third-string quarterback, he’ll be signed to the Redskins practice squad.

But then the Redskins take a risk every week that another team with an injury at quarterback doesn’t look over to the Redskins and call Chase Daniel’s name. 

And that’s a risk, I wouldn’t be willing to take.

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Marcus Mason or the Offensive Line: How Do the Washington Redskins Run Wild?

There is a prevailing truth about the Washington Redskins that everyone mentions, but no one can explain: The Washington Redskins have no depth at offensive line.

Then there’s this:

For the past two preseasons (2008 and 2009) the Redskins backup running backs have performed exceptionally well. 

How do these two truths coincide with one another?  The backup offensive line is terrible, but the running backs it blocks for do exceptionally well?

How should credit be proportioned for the Redskins dominant second-team rushing attack?

One explanation is that the offensive line is good enough to overpower third- and fourth-string players, but would provide meager protection against first-team defenses.

Possible.

Another explanation is that the Redskins backup running backs succeed despite poor blocking because of their superior talent. 

Also possible.

There has to be some explanation why Marcus Mason, last year’s preseason rushing leader, was cut by the Redskins.  There has to be a reason why it looks like the Redskins could carry only three running backs again this year and Mason, Dominique Dorsey, and Anthony Alridge might all be let go before Sept. 5.

 

The 2008 Preseason

About this time a year ago, Marcus Mason was dazzling D.C., a splash of color on the blank canvas of preseason football.

Mason did the impossible:  He turned the third and fourth quarters of meaningless exhibitions into must see TV.

With his scintillating display of speed and elusiveness, the local kid from Georgetown Prep made a name for himself. 

Mason led the 2008 preseason in rushing with 66 carries for 317 yards.  Now, it should be noted that the Redskins played five preseason games, one more than most, but Mason still averaged 4.8 yards per carry.

But what do those yards per carry really tell us?  What role did the second-team offensive line play in Marcus Mason becoming the breakout star of the 2008 preseason?

By going inside the numbers and examining Mason’s every carry, a story begins to emerge.

Marcus Mason should have made the Washington Redskins 2008 roster. 

Statistical Explanations in italics: One metric we can use to evaluate Mason is his Success Rate (developed by Football Outsiders).  Success Rate measures the consistency of a running back and how often they are able to put their team in a good position to keep making first downs. 

In order to be considered a success, a running back will have to gain 40 percent of the needed yards on first down, 60 percent of the needed yards on second down, and 100 percent on third and fourth down (because if you don’t get it, the drive is over).

Out of Mason’s 66 carries, two (one rush for six yards and one rush for one yard) are not in the NFL’s official play-by-play records and cannot be judged.  We’ll chalk it up to being the preseason for the scoring officials as well. 

Out of the 64 remaining carries, two carries occurred extremely late in a blowout against Carolina (a 3rd-and-13 and 4th-and-8) which were unsuccessful.  Since this was not a normal running situation (and a team would not run on fourth down in a regular season game), these carries are not counted either.

Out of his 62 eligible carries, Mason successfully ran 32 times, a Success Rate of 51.6 percent.  The league average during the 2008 regular season was 46.8 percent, so Mason was almost five percent better than the league average.

Mason was even more successful on first down converting on 58.6 percent of his runs, and 51.7 percent on second down.  What pulls down his average is that he wasn’t successful on any of his three carries on 3rd-and-1 or his lone 4th-and-1 attempt.

Since the Redskins wouldn’t use him as a short-yardage back anyway, his numbers should have looked even better to Head Coach Jim Zorn and the Redskins coaching staff.

It was not only surprising that the Redskins didn’t keep Mason on their 53-man roster, but it was the downright wrong decision. 

Marcus Mason shares a lot of similarities to Ahmad Bradshaw of the New York Giants.  Both are 5’9’’ and have similar ability to break off long runs with ease.  Bradshaw is a little faster and Mason is a little bigger, but the Redskins could have used Mason the same way the Giants did Bradshaw—a missed opportunity.

 

The Offensive Line

We all know they’re important; we just have a hard time measuring their impact.

Most of the same cast and characters than appeared on the second-team offensive line in 2008 came back for 2009, so that makes the comparison between years a little easier.  Chad Reinhart, Will Montgomery, and the recently cut Devin Clark all played a part on both lines.

One statistic like Success Rate doesn’t tell the whole story.  We need multiple statistics to begin to understand what’s happening. 

Football Outsiders introduced a statistic called Adjusted Line Yards, which shows how many yards the offensive line is responsible for on a given play.  They are 120 percent responsible for lost yardage, because they got pushed back so far that the runner could not advance. 

They are 100 percent responsible for 0-4 yards gained.  They are only 50 percent responsible for 5-10 yards gained because the running back began to outrun the line and 11+ yards gained are all credited to the running back because he had moved beyond his blockers.

Using those measures, the Redskins second-team offensive line graded out poorly, averaging only 3.32 Adjusted Line Yards. 

We can use this statistic in combination with the percentage of runs Mason had over 10 yards and the percentage of times he was stuffed at the line for no yards or negative yards.

Of his 66 carries, Mason had 11 carries go for 10+ yards, or 16.67 percent.  He also had 11 carries, or 16.67 percent of his runs stuffed at the line. 

So a third of the time, Mason was either breaking a run into the open field or not breaking the line of scrimmage. 

A low Adjusted Line Yards combined with a high percentage of 10+ yard gains and stuffs at the line tell the story of highly inconsistent offensive line play and one that relies on the running back to manufacture a sustainable running attack.

In 2009, the line hasn’t been any better.  When you combine the numbers for Mason, Dorsey, and Alridge, they are averaging 3.94 yards per carry.  The three have been stuffed a whopping 22 percent of the time and have only had 10 percent of their runs go for 10+ yards. 

When an offensive that struggles with consistency fails to have those huge runs, their yards per carry mark plummets.  With six percent more runs being stuffed and six percent less going for big yardage, that’s why the 2009 average is almost a full yard less than in 2008 (3.94 to 4.8).

 

The 2009 Preseason

Not only does Marcus Mason face the same challenges as he did in 2008, he is facing them with decreased playing time, fewer touches, and more competition.

In 2008, he averaged 14.8 touches (carries and receptions) per game.  With Dominique Dorsey and Anthony Alridge also needing the ball, Mason has only averaged 10 touches a game in 2009. 

In fairness, the fourth preseason game is where the backups play most of the game.  If Mason were to get the 20 touches he did in the final preseason game last year, it would give him 12.5 touches per game in 2009.

In those fewer touches, Mason is producing at a lower rate that last year.  He only has a 36 percent Success Rate in 2009 compared to 51.6 percent in 2008.  But with such a small sample size, only 25 carries, there is only so much we can infer.

For Mason, the problem has always been that the Redskins have too many running backs.  With Clinton Portis, Ladell Betts, and Rock Cartwright handling kickoffs, there’s no room for another runner who doesn’t contribute on special teams. 

That’s why Mason was cut in 2008 (when he deserved to make the team) and why he will be cut again in 2009 (when he didn’t deserve to make the team). 

If anyone is going to earn a spot against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday night, it will be either Dominique Dorsey or Anthony Alridge because of their punt returning abilities.

There has to be one team in the NFL that needs Marcus Mason as a change-of-pace back similar to Ahmad Bradshaw. 

Unfortunately, for the second straight year, that team is not the Washington Redskins.

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