Broncos at Redskins: If You Rebuild It, They Will Come

Denver Broncos (6-2) vs. Washington Redskins (2-6)
1:00 p.m. FedEx Field
Again, it’s really hard to keep coming up with topics about a 2-6 football team. Not only that, but the 2-6 football team is basically playing with half their lineup out, so it’s hard to complain about the performance of backups when you know they have no chance to succeed in the first place. Can I gain anything by complaining about D’Anthony Batiste or Mike Williams or Fred Davis? Is it even an interesting read? The answer is no. I could complain about the moron who put this roster together (Vinny Cerrato), but I’ve done enough of that over the last two months. There isn’t much more to say. I could complain about Greg Blache again! That’s always fun. Wait…where are you going? Come back!

The truth is the moment Chris Samuels went down, the season was over. You could see it in the way the offense was playing the entire game against Carolina. They didn’t go downfield once. They didn’t try any counters and I believe they attempted only 2 draw or delay runs. It was as basic an offense as you could create, and they still had trouble keeping Jason Campbell upright and opening up rushing lanes. In the four games before that, even though the offense looked terrible, at least they were still trying to go downfield. They were still trying to open up the playbook. There was a feeling that the offense was just one good game, or even one good half, away from clicking. But once Samuels got hurt, Jim Zorn knew there was really nothing he could do. His offense was tied to his line being healthy. Once they started going down like flies, Zorn knew he was linked to a roster that was ill-equipped to handle injury.

So that’s where we are. If there’s one thing I’ve said consistently on this site for the past five years, it’s that in order to have a successful offense in the NFL, you have to have a solid offensive line. An average quarterback can win behind a great offensive line, but a great quarterback cannot win behind an average offensive line. That’s why I’ve sat here and criticized the Lions before it became the cool thing to do. Same with the Browns and Raiders. There’s no point in drafting a quarterback when there is no one to block for him. You cannot build your team from the skill positions inward. You have to, HAVE TO, build it from the offensive line outward. This isn’t popular among fans, and it isn’t popular among owners because offensive linemen don’t sell jerseys, but it’s the only responsible way to build an offense. The Redskins starting offensive line was among the top half in the league. However, the Redskins had no Plan B in case of injuries. Now they are stuck with two decent linemen (Casey Rabach and Derrick Dockery) and a bunch of castoffs and undrafted rookies.

Unless the salary cap goes away – and there’s a very good chance that might happen – this problem isn’t going to get any better. I can almost guarantee that the Redskins are going to go after a quarterback before they start rebuilding their line. There’s no point in talking about drafting Jake Locker, Sam Bradford or (God help us) Jimmy Clausen if there is no one to block for them. They will become the next David Carr. Even worse is the fact that rookie quarterbacks have had success in the past couple of seasons. Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco made the playoffs last season. Matt Sanchez has at least looked decent this year. Dan Snyder is going to see that and say “Hey, if it worked for those three teams, why couldn’t it work for us.” The real reason that those teams succeeded is because they had an offensive line in place for that young quarterback. The Jets and Falcons had spent the two previous drafts rebuilding their lines from scratch. The Ravens had been circulating in new blood, one position at a time, on their offensive line for even longer. That’s why those quarterbacks have been successful. Jason Campbell would probably look good behind those lines.

Here’s what the Redskins need to do. I’ll keep it brief because I’ll probably touch on it in more detail in later posts. They need to sign Campbell to a 1-year deal. It shouldn’t be hard, I don’t think many teams are going to try to sign him after they year he’s had. With the first round pick, you draft a franchise tackle. In free agency, sign either a tackle or guard. If there’s no salary cap, sign both. That takes care of two of the three glaring holes on the line. Use another high pick to draft a running back, because Clinton Portis is on his last legs and Ladell Betts is not capable of carrying the load for 16 games. The rest of the picks must be used for depth on the line. Then, if Campbell still can’t do anything, you draft a quarterback the following season and let Campbell walk. The defense will still be loaded. Chris Cooley will still be at the height of his game. The receiver situation at that point may be sketchy, but if that’s the weakness of the team, so be it. In two seasons, you’ve rebuilt the team AND allowed them to be moderately successful next year as well. In essence, you’ve rebuilt the line without giving up the 2010-11 season in the process.

Now to this game. The Broncos haven’t impressed me this season, with the exception of their win over New England. Their 6-2 record has some decent wins behind it, but it also has the Browns and Raiders in there, and a miracle win against Cincinnati. The key for Denver was the hot start. If Denver had started 2-2, who knows how long the players would have put up with Josh McDaniels. He almost had a team-wide revolt on his hands back in July and August. The hot start quieted the critics both outside and inside the locker room.

In the last couple of games, we’ve seen the Denver I thought we’d see all season. We’ve seen a Denver that couldn’t keep its offense on the field and couldn’t keep the ball away from the other team. They’ve lost the last two games by a combined score of 58-17, and that score is not inflated. Sure, losing to Pittsburgh is nothing to sneeze at. But getting dominated against an average Baltimore team could be cause for alarm.

The last couple of weeks have shown us that Kyle Orton can’t throw the ball more than ten yards from the line of scrimmage. All teams have to do is crowd the line and make sure tackles on bubble screens to Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal. Correll Buckhalter has never been a complete back, Knoshown Moreno is a rookie who needs another year to grow, and the offensive line isn’t good enough to open up holes like they did back in the earlier part of the decade. If the defense can tackle, this offense isn’t scary at all. Not with Orton at quarterback.

Defensively, the Broncos are much better than I thought they’d be. This is a front seven that has grown up quickly. Specifically, Elvis Dumervil has become a force. He has 10.5 sacks on the season, and a few other tackles for losses. D.J. Williams and Andra Davis have also contributed significantly. The real key, at least in my opinion, has been the addition of Brian Dawkins. I said it in the preseason. I said it a few weeks ago. The Eagles made a completely moronic decision to allow Dawkins to leave. It made no sense. Sure, he’s getting up there in years. But it was clear that he was still near the top of his game in Philly, and he was a team leader. He has become a team leader on Denver and his level of play hasn’t seen a decrease. He is second on the team in total tackles and solo tackles. He’s also second in passes deflected. More importantly, he has forced the younger players to step up, and they’ve responded.

I’m going to go out on a limb now and go on record as saying the Broncos are NOT going to win their division. San Diego is going to make their annual charge, and they will beat the Broncos in Denver last season. The Broncos only have about three winnable games remaining on their schedule, and I’m not sure a 9-7 record will be good enough to get them in the playoffs. This is a must win for them. Not only do they need to stop their slide, they need to grab a win on the East Coast before returning home for San Diego and New York. Otherwise, they’ll be facing the Chargers next week with a one game or no game lead in the division. The Redskins have the defense to frustrate Orton, but certainly don’t have the offense to score on the Broncos D. I doubt either team breaks 20 points, and the Skins may actually have a shot of pulling out a victory.