Holdman: Dawn of the Dead

At the end of the 2005 season, it appeared certain that Warrick Holdman did not have a future with the Washington Redskins. After the Redskins took him back after exploring some alternatives, it appears that Holdman is back from the dead and ready to fight for a starting job at the open weak side linebacker spot.

You can reach Rich Tandler by email at WarpathInsiders@comcast.net

About a year ago, Warrick Holdman’s NFL career seemed to be doing quite well. He had just come on board with the Redskins at the age of 29 with 61 career starts under his belt. There were two starting jobs in play as weak side starter LaVar Arrington was still recovering from a knee injury and middle linebacker Antonio Pierce had bolted to the New York Giants via free agency. Holdman was reunited with linebackers coach Dale Lindsey, under whom he had enjoyed his best seasons in Chicago.

When the season started, he found himself at the periphery of the Arrington controversy as he continued to start in place of a healthy LaVar. Eventually Holdman found himself square in the middle of the storm as he struggled on the field. He often appeared to be lost in the defense. Here is what was said about him here after the Redskins’ Week 8 36-0 blowout loss to the Giants:

And this is not an isolated poor performance. Holdman has started all seven games this year, has played the lion’s share of the defensive snaps and yet they need to put out an Amber alert for him. He has 15 tackles. Yes, a small fraction over two a game for a starting NFL linebacker. You can fall on piles or tag runners who have fallen down and get that many.

After his performance in the Meadowlands blowout Holdman found himself parked firmly at the end of the bench. When the season ended he became an unrestricted free agent. Joe Gibbs frequently mentioned a list of the team’s free agents that the team wanted to bring back; Holdman’s name never was mentioned. The other 31 NFL teams, all of which had Holdman’s 2005 performance documented on film, took a pass on him as well. After free agency began he was unemployed and, apparently, unwanted.

Then after about a month, Holdman’s fortunes began to turn. The Redskins had released Arrington and wanted a veteran on the weak side to compete for the job with the inexperienced Chris Clemons and whatever linebacker the Redskins might draft (that turned out to be Rocky McIntosh). They brought in a few mid-level free agents and made some offers, but nobody bit. So in mid April the Redskins turned to Holdman who was, to use the words of Steve Spurrier when explaining the preponderance of former Florida Gators on the Redskins roster, cheap and available.

Brought back from the dead and given another chance, Holdman is making the most of it. Last year he wasn’t signed until the middle of May and he admitted that he was out of shape. “I had been in free agency, going on trips, eating steak and wining and dining,” he said.

When you’re with Gibbs’ Washington Redskins, May is not the time you need to start getting yourself in to shape. You’re already hopelessly behind at that point. He reported to minicamp last year at 240 pounds. Holdman came in this year at 233.

He knows that his performance last year was not up to snuff. "I owe the Redskins from last season," he said.

Gregg Williams has rewarded Holdman’s efforts by putting him at the top of the depth chart going in to training camp. “Warrick right now is having a great camp,” said Williams during minicamp. “His suddenness without the pads on is excellent. Right now, Warrick has done the best job coming out of this camp with Roger and Chris breathing right down his neck.”

A lot can happen in camp, and Holdman’s status as the starter is far from secure. However, the fact that he occupies the top spot on the depth roster is quite surprising if not miraculous.

A year ago it appeared that Mark Brunell’s career as a Redskin was all but over. After a horrid 2004 that ended with him firmly on the bench, there was no reason to believe that he would contribute anything in 2005. Redskins fans cringed at the thought of Brunell ever have to take a meaningful snap for Washington. At minicamp, however, Brunell showed improved arm strength. Twenty minutes in to the season, he was the starter who would eventually lead the Redskins into the playoffs.

A month or so ago the thought of Holdman lining up at weakside LB was a cringe moment for Redskins fans as well. Is Holdman’s solid 2006 minicamp a precursor to a similar story of redemption for a veteran?

Ranking the Redskins #1-#8

		Who are the Redskins’ best players and who are the ones who are starting just because there isn’t enough talent to push them out? If another team had a shot at anyone on the Redskins’ roster to use for the 2005 season, who would they gobble up and who would they say thanks, but no thanks to?
To help answer these questions I ranked the Redskins starters from the most expendable to the most valuable. Today, numbers 1-8. In inverse order, here are my rankings of the Redskins starters, including punter and kicker, based on what I think they might do in 2006. Their 2005 rankings here (Part 1, Part 2), where applicable, are in parenthesis: 8. G Randy Thomas (12)—He may well have been headed to Hawaii before he went down with a broken leg in Week 16. The leg will limit him in preseason activities but he should be fine for the start of the season. 7. DE Andre Carter (NR)—Carter will have to adjust from being a standup linebacker last year to playing with his hand in the dirt. If he can adjust, and stay healthy, he’ll be the answer to the one glaring need the defense has had the last couple of years, a strong pass rushing presence on the line. 6. T Chris Samuels (7)—The time may have passed for him to move up into the ranks of the truly elite left tackles in the league, but he’s as solid as they come. 5. Sean Taylor (5)—A full offseason with the defense staff and his teammates should help make him the deadly force in the defense that seemed to be his destiny when the Redskins drafted him. 4. Cornelius Griffin (1)—When he missed some time with a groin injury last year the defense suffered from the lack of his dominating presence in the middle of the line. 3. RB Clinton Portis (2)—After Portis set the team season rushing record last year, do you notice how he’s no longer being called a “system back”. 2. LB Marcus Washington (3)—He blitzes, stuffs the run from sideline to sideline, covers as well as any linebacker in the game, and has a knack for making the big play. In addition, Washington is now the inspirational leader of the defense; his great worth ethic and relentlessly positive attitude make him a natural for the job. 1. WR Santana Moss (9)—The comment here last year was, “He had better contribute a lot of big plays, as it appears he’s not capable of much else.” He did contribute a lot of big plays and, on top of that, he displayed a talent for turning little plays, like a slip screen pass behind the line of scrimmage, in to big ones. Everyone is looking forward to see what he can do with some more effective receivers on the other side to draw some of the defensive attention away from him. Ranking the Redskins #9-#16 Ranking the Redskins #17-#24 Rich Tandler is the author of The Redskins From A to Z, Volume 1: The Games. This unique book has an account of every game the Redskins played from when they moved to Washington in 1937 through the 2001 season. For details and ordering information, go to http://www.RedskinsGames.com

Brunell Injury Raises QB Questions

You can reach Rich Tandler by email at WarpathInsiders@comcast.net

The news today that Mark Brunell broke the index finger on his left hand—his throwing hand—in workouts earlier this week is hardly earth-shattering stuff. While the expected 2-3 weeks that he will be out of action may force him to miss the team’s June 16-18 minicamp, there should be no problem with him being in shape and in rhythm for training camp, even given the fact that he’ll have to learn Al Saunders’ new offense.

What the injury does, however, is bring up the question of what would happen if this had occurred in, say, October. Would it be Todd Collins at the helm or would second-year player Jason Campbell get a shot?

The conventional wisdom is that Joe Gibbs would go with the veteran Collins as the caretaker should Brunell wind up on the sidelines for a significant amount of time. Applying the conventional wisdom to Gibbs’ handling of quarterbacks, however, is not always the best way to go. For example, who really thought that Patrick Ramsey’s job tenure as the starting quarterback would last less than 30 minutes last year?

The problem with Collins is that, while he is a solid citizen and he presumably understands Saunders’ offense better than almost anyone alive having worked under it for five years in Kansas City, he NFL playing resume is loaded with holes and question marks. In 11 NFL seasons had has started 17 games with 14 of those starts coming in 1997 when he was with the Buffalo Bills. In that season he threw for just 2,367 yards and posted a quarterback rating of just over 69. That’s not quite Brunell 2004 bad—he put up a 63 rating—but it’s close.

The Bills were so impressed with Collins’ potential after that season that they let him go to Kansas City. The Chiefs were so impressed with his ability that he didn’t take a single snap for two years while sitting behind the likes of Rich Gannon (pre-Raiders) and Elvis Grbac. Since 2001 Collins has been anchored on the bench behind Trent Green. He has attempted 27 passes in that time. Every single one of them has come when the Chiefs were comfortably ahead.

For seven years he’s been no better than the #2 guy. Contracts have come and gone and Collins has not found a chance to challenge for a starting job. That means that he hasn’t been looking for one or that he has been looking and there have been no takers. Both possibilities say something about Collins and not in a positive way.

Experience is a good asset and something that Gibbs values. But can it really be said the Todd Collins is an “experienced” quarterback? He many know Saunders’ offense inside and out in meetings and in practices but he has not demonstrated that he can execute that offense in a regular-season game situation. He has not faced a pressure two-minute drive in at least nine years unless you count the preseason. And if that impressed Gibbs, Babe Laufenberg would have been the team’s starting quarterback in the late 80’s.

Actually, Laufenberg’s and Collins’ careers are remarkably similar. Both spent most of their NFL careers glued to the bench getting one chance to start and failing to make the most of it. Collins is no Randall Cunningham or Trent Dilfer, fading former starters brought in as insurance. For that matter, he’s no Gus Frerotte, who demonstrated the ability to hold down a starting job for a few years.

There are those who will take this article as a rip of Collins but it’s not intended as that. His resume is what it is and I just want to make sure that everyone is aware of it before they go saying that Gibbs is going to hand him the #2 quarterback job.

Jason Campbell

Collins and Campbell have faced exactly the same number of pressure NFL situations in the past seven years; that is to say a combined total of none. Those who say that Campbell hasn’t demonstrated that he would be able to handle the starting job have a valid point. The problem is that there is absolutely nothing here that creates any confidence that Collins could get the job done if the starting job was thrust upon him.

We don’t know if a Brunell absence is something that Gibbs will have to deal with this year. But if you think you know how he’d handle it if it does, you need to guess again.
Rich Tandler is the author of The Redskins From A to Z, Volume 1: The Games. This unique book has an account of every game the Redskins played from when they moved to Washington in 1937 through the 2001 season. For details and ordering information, go to http://www.RedskinsGames.com

Sean Taylor: Scared Straight?

You can reach Rich Tandler by email at WarpathInsiders@comcast.net

The news that Sean Taylor has reached a plea agreement with Miami prosecutors that will keep him out of jail and land him an NFL suspension that will be minimal if there is one at all certainly was welcome among all those who follow and, especially, who are employed by, the Redskins. The situation, which has been going on for a year, isn’t quite concluded yet. Taylor has to do some community service type things in Miami area schools and he’ll be on probation for 18 months. But it’s just about over and there are a couple of things that need to be said about it in retrospect.

First, most of those who are complaining that this was a case of someone with money get off easy don’t know what they’re talking about. And I’m not claiming that I know what I’m talking about in this instance either. I wrote here a while ago that the charges against Taylor didn’t seem to fit what had transpired on that day in West Perrine, the depressed community near Miami. If felony charges carrying mandatory jail time were pressed every time there were threats and punches exchanged on the streets of places like West Perrine, the courts and prisons would be jammed to the gills.

Regardless of that, if you want to say that Taylor bought his justice or got off easy because he’s an NFL player you need to demonstrate that others, less rich and famous that Taylor, got more severe treatment for committing similar offenses. It’s my educated guess that many, many more such perps end up with community service and probation than go to jail. I don’t have any statistics to back that up, mind you, but neither do most of those crying foul in this situation, either. If anyone has any information to the contrary, please feel free to forward it to me.

The most important thing about this whole affair, however, is not the celebrity justice aspect but the mere fact that it happened. That fact may well have saved Sean Taylor’s life.

A year ago Taylor was not anywhere near where he needed to be and what he was doing did not remotely resemble what he needed to be doing. He was blowing off phone calls from Joe Gibbs and that was the least of his problems. According to this excellent article by Robert Andrew Powell, he possibly carried a gun into a club. Taylor was hanging out in West Perrine with a buddy who was up to all sorts of activities ranging from unsavory to illegal if the contents of the buddy’s house after he moved out are any indication. Instead of spending his days at OTA’s in Ashburn, working out and polishing his knowledge of the defense he was cruising around the housing project in an ATV.

Obviously, this is not a path that a young man who is very talented in his profession and is worth millions of dollars should be on. In fact, it was incredibly stupid for him to be where he was doing what he was doing. Taylor, though, didn’t see it that way. He was bulletproof and he could do whatever he wanted to do, the consequences, if any, be damned.

The consequences came in the form of a felony arrest warrant. Sean Taylor was facing the possibility of spending a good chunk of the rest of his life in jail. No matter how flimsy the charges may have seemed or how much the prosecutor may have seemed to be overreaching in pressing such serious charges, the time behind bars was staring him right in the face.

It appears that he has been scared straight. On the first day of training camp last summer Taylor stayed out in the hot sun and signed autographs for all of the kids who wanted one. While he wasn’t exactly glib with the media he was much more accommodating than he had been in the past. The more cynical out there might say that this was just PR, an attempt at image rehabilitation. While they might be right to an extent, it does appear that he genuinely has changed for the better.

This could well turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to Sean Taylor. Had Joe Gibbs known what path Taylor was on last year, he himself could not have written a better prescription to knock him off of that path and get him onto the right one. Taylor certainly would not have listened to any lecturing. It took something like this to give him a shot at turning his life around. We will see whether or not he completes that turnaround.

Rich Tandler is the author of The Redskins From A to Z, Volume 1: The Games. This unique book has an account of every game the Redskins played from when they moved to Washington in 1937 through the 2001 season. For details and ordering information, go to http://www.RedskinsGames.com