What a difference one week makes! The Redskins are choosing between either the Jaguars or the Browns flunky head coach for our new open defensive coordinator spot, while Sean McVay is now the leading candidate to take over as head coach to try and calm the dumpster fire that is the LA Rams.  The Chargers have officially jumped ship on San Diego and are heading to LA too and the Raiders are in the process of moving to Vegas.  Moves everywhere! I love this tweet by the Lightning about the Chargers new logo:

 

If I didn’t hate the Lightning so much for sweeping the Caps in the playoffs in 2011 I might have actually retweeted it (BTW Congrats Ovie on 1000th point – do me a favor and let me get to my seat next time before you do it though, dammit).

Defensive Coordinator:

The skins brass did the right thing last week and canned Joe Barry along with the rest of the defensive staff. You never want to be the guy that’s happy someone lost their job, but I would be lying to you if I didn’t crack a smile when I heard the news. Without diving into stats, the Redskins were one of the top 3 worst defenses in the league.  Now that’s not all Barry’s fault. We know there is an apparent lack of talent across the board on that side of the ball. However, when your defense gets worse from your first year to the next, it’s over. Whoever comes in next has an tough task ahead of them. Let’s look at the front runners.

Mike Pettine:

Bio: Oh boy a Cleveland Browns coach. How in the world would he get an interview?  Pettine was named the head coach of the browns in 2014 and was fired in 2016 after he finished 10-22 over those years. Pettine, much like Barry, got a pretty raw deal though. The Browns were starting over with Manziel and his defense was actually pretty good.  He had multiple defensive pro-bowlers in 2014.  Everything fell apart in 2015 when the team slipped to 3-13 and Manziel went crazy.  Pettine was the DC for the Jets under Rex Ryan from 2009-2012 where his defense was top 5 year after year.  When Rex was fired, he followed him to Buffalo where he had another great defense which propelled him to head coach consideration.

Take: I actually kind of like this pick. Here’s a guy who actually made the Browns somewhat competitive, especially seeing what happened to them this year. He is a disciple of Rex Ryan. He is an aggressive play caller and scheme orientated.  The skins would be a bltiz happy team which would be a nice change from the ultra-conservative defense we had last year.

Gus Bradley:

Bio: And behind door #2 we have Jaguars old ball coach, Gus Bradley. Gus was the head coach for the Jaguars for the past 4 years where he went 14-48. Even with that poor of a record, it seemed like everything was fine until the Jaguars fell apart this year when most people had them as a lock for the playoffs. Before that, Gus was the defensive coordinator for the Seahawks from 2009-2012, where he helped their defense go from 27th in the league to 4th by the year he left.

Take: Not a good choice here. I get that he was a head coach and that experience is vital, but this guy was a product of a talented system in Seattle which was proven by his record in Jax.  Gus is a Joe Barry replica. The skins defense would be almost the same as this year if we picked him.

Hopefully there are some more candidates available after the Super Bowl but Pettine has the clear advantage here in my mind.

UPDATE: McVay was hired by the Rams as I wrote this article. Will look into the potential offensive coordinators in another article.

Playoffs:

This week we are all Packers fans. The Packers did Redskins nation a huge solid last week by avenging us while blowing out the Giants and making Beckham have a temper tantrum.  Now they take the Cowboys in Dallas.  Nothing would be sweeter than seeing Rodgers expose that Dallas defense and force them to start throwing the ball to catch up. However, this isn’t Romo’s team anymore so we can’t bank on a late season melt down. That being said, here are my picks for this weekend:

Texans at Patriots: Patriots. Duh.

Seahawks at Falcons: Falcons. Tough one but the Seahawks have been too inconsistent and that defense isn’t the same as past years.

Steelers at Chiefs: Chiefs. This will be a back and forth game, but the chiefs defense will put them over the top.

Packers at Cowboys: Packers. Packers are hot right now and Aaron Rodgers is feeling it.  If that Packers defense can hold down that run game, even just a little, this game could get ugly.

With the 17th Overall Pick, the Redskins Select:

Zach Cunningham, ILB, Vanderbilt.  The first team All-American lead the SEC in tackles and was a finalist for the Butkus Award (Nations best linebacker). Standing 6’4″, 230, he looks more like a WR out there than a LB. Plug in the tape on this guy and you’ll scratch your head at first. He doesn’t make big hits. He, more often than not, tends to wrap up the ball carrier, standing high, and spin them to the ground. Other times, he’s standing vertical in the hole and absorbs the ball carrier. Made me wonder how a guy with such poor tackling form led the SEC in tackles. Yet, he doesn’t seem to miss many tackles, get pushed back, or run over.

As you watch, you’ll notice what great position he is in all the time. He diagnoses plays exceptionally quick and finds himself in the right spot constantly to make the play. His acceleration to the point of attack is top notch. His height and speed help tremendously in coverage as well, and he’s not afraid to get physical with a crossing TE or slot WR. I’ll admit, at first I wasn’t a fan of this guy. He seemed like he didn’t have the tenacity to be a NFL linebacker and arm tackles way too much. But the more I watched, the more I fell in love with his size, athleticism, and positioning. He tackles high but he doesn’t get juked out and that alone would help our defense slow down the run. Plus, Linebackers need to be more versatile than ever these days and this kid is the definition of versatile. He would match up well with any TE. He can use rush the passer and use his length to swat passes. Hell, we could use him just to block FGs (he blocked a FG this year by jumping over the center). He will have to add some weight and strength when he comes to the NFL, like all rookies, and when he does he could be a stud for a long time.

I am eager to see what his combine stats end up being, but as of now this would be a solid pick and one that would fit McCloughans “NFL is a big mans game” motto.