cowboyuptx said:
Actually, their offensive core is very young overall. (These ages have been rounded up)
Portis - 25 - 5 yrs.
Moss - 27 - 6 yrs.
Lloyd - 25 - 4 yrs.
Randle El - 27 - 5 yrs.
Cooley - 24 - 3 yrs.
To be fair........ almost all the players Dallas drafts are 23 or 24 years old on draft day. Portis has been in the league since he was 20!
Ware - 24 - 2 yrs.
Canty - 25 - 2 yrs.
Burnett - 25 - 2 yrs.
Newman - 28 - 4 yrs.
Williams - 26 - 5 yrs.
I see Gibbs' strategy........ he's looking for players that left school early and have been schooled in the NFL and are (in his mind) about to hit their prime.
However, these players come at a premium..... draft picks. The thing is, Washington is hoping all these players will take their game to the next level, but none of those guys have proven anything in this league.
Meanwhile, Dallas drafts more mature players, with just as much upside.
AND
They add just as many free-agents, who are mostly older, but they're proven comodities.
If you combine FA and the draft, Dallas added twice as many players as Washington did, because we kept our draft picks. The odds for improvement are in our favor.
That's why they dont have any depth.
I agree you are reading Gibbs plan well.
I did not say they were an old team. I did not mention core at all becasue Gibbs can not be trusted with the concept(he was calling Smoots and others core Redksins just before letting them walk in free agency) and mor eimportnantly because that wasn't my point
I said they did not add much young talent. They added 2 WRs in the middle of their NFL careers. Lloyd, Portis and a few others were very young when drafted. As was Julius Jones for instance. Doesn't make much difference because NFL players have shelf lives revolving as much around the number of NFL hits they take as it does with actual age.
FWIW, Nothing wrong with adding 20 yeard olds but you will deal with immaturity. Thats why Lloyd isn't in San Fran. It's also why Dallas is drafting 24 and 25 year olds. BP doesn't want to have to groom them for 3 years. We do that with undrafted guys.
I would agree the signings of Lloyd and Randel El are gambles for them meant to make up for the lack of a draft. They are guessing they get the Santana Moss effect with them but how many NFL players can you name who spent 3 or 4 years in one spot then blew up for another team? Its a small list. Hit or miss who knows.
But you can't look at their paychecks and call them propspects.
The other big signing was 29 year old Archuleta. Not a prospect at all.
They also lost their best defensive athlete in Arrington. Skins can use whatever excuses they want but the team mysteriously gelled and got better when Arrington's playing time increased and he was their best player in the playoffs. Funny how they didn't trust him all year but did when the season was on the line.
The Skins have 1 young prospect. 1. QB Jason Campbell. He was a 3rd round prospect to most teams but he is a young prospect at least. They don't really have any others.
Brunell is certainly in the offensive core. He's older than dirt. If he has to be replaced by Campbell it's very unlikely they are overcoming his lack of experience any time soon.
In the grand scheme its not about cores or one side of the ball though. You need young players with upside to provide depth and development. Guys like Bradie James who you draft, develop then replace departing quality starters with. They got Cooley in the draft. He's the kind of guy they are not getting at any other positions though because they don't draft anyone.
I am not saying they will suck but regardless of team if you are not adding 5 to 7 guys with 2 or less years NFL experience each season you are not adding young depth that can develop. I recognize the issue because thats what we did in the mid 90s. Our core was not over the hill at all but we just stopped adding talent who could develop because we couldn't draft well.
