Human beings have a need to quantify and label. It makes things neater and easier to analyze. Since the beginning of the 2011 NFL season, fans and media have used the term “rebuild” to describe what head Coach Mike Shanahan is doing with the Washington Redskins. But after seeing the cuts that he made to the team yesterday to reduce the roster to 53 men, I’m not sure “rebuild” is an accurate way to describe what he is doing.
Rebuild: to make extensive repairs: reconstruct <as in: rebuild a war-torn city>; to build again <”He planned to rebuild after the fire.”>
One could say that extensive repairs have been made to this Redskins team. It is not as if there wasn’t a lot to repair with the damage caused by position-depth neglect and dysfunctional management. But, the repair was actually made the minute owner Dan Snyder hired General Manager Bruce Allen and then stepped out of the way.
Allen continued the repair of the team by hiring Executive Vice President/Head Coach Mike Shanahan as soon as the 2009 season was over. Shanahan immediately went to work to make the team his own after inheriting an organization loaded with older players, not a lot of depth along both lines and divas like defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth.
When I think back on the moves Shanahan made last year, I see a coach doing what he could to remove some of the elements that were left over from the Cerrato/Snyder era without totally incapacitating the team. No disrespect intended to the guys he released. He was just putting his stamp on the Washington Redskins.
Consider some of these events/moves from 2010: 1) releasing older former head coach Joe Gibbs guys like wide receiver Antwaan Randel El, cornerback Fred Smoot and defensive tackle Cornelius Griffin; 2) bringing in quarterback Donovan McNabb and ultimately benching him because he wasn’t the right fit; 3)the battle of wills with Haynesworth and 4) replacing decent players like offensive guard Derrick Dockery with his own guys – in this case Kory Lichtensteiger – one of Shanahan’s 2008 draft picks in Denver.
I don’t know if Shanahan sat down and said to himself, “If I do this is 2010, then I can do this is 2011” but he might have. He obviously has a long-term plan. But I don’t really think he is rebuilding the Washington Redskins so much as he is reforming them.
Reform: to put or change into an improved form or condition; to amend or improve by change of form or removal of faults or abuses (or the intransitive verb definition: to become changed for the better)
A lot of us who watch the Redskins closely felt that the team would be very young when cut-down day came and it is. Thanks to Gary Fitzgerald of Redskins.com for doing the math so I don’t have to break out my calculator, we know that the average age of this roster is 25.58 years and this includes 25 players with less than three years of experience. On the opposite side of the age line, there are 11 guys that are 30-years old or more. These geriatrics are FS Oshiomogho Atogwe (30), QB John Beck (30), OT Jammal Brown (30), LB London Fletcher (36), WR Jabar Gaffney (30), QB Rex Grossman (31), OG Sean Locklear (30), WR Santana Moss (32), P Sav Rocca (37), TE/FB Mike Sellers (36) and WR Donté Stallworth (30).
The current roster will likely change but so far, Shanahan’s reformation includes veterans.
Speaking of veterans, Mike Sellers is one guy that many predicted would be gone by now and yet he is not. A source early in training camp indicated that Sellers might be released but that was before tight end Chris Cooley was injured. Sellers, the team’s longest tenured player, has always been valuable as a special teams player, blocker and at the fullback position. For now, he is valuable at tight end because of the situation with Cooley’s knee. Also, his value to the team as a leader in the locker room should not be underestimated.
While he’s had his share of issues, both with the Redskins and without, Sellers has been to the Pro Bowl (after the 2008 season), continues to be a top special teams return tackler and was special teams co-captain for Washington in 2009. Former Redskins’ coaches Joe Gibbs and Jim Zorn both held him in high regard.
“Mike is really a team guy,” former Redskins head coach Jim Zorn said in 2009 after Sellers had landed his current contract. “He’s been very vocal about pulling guys together and holding guys accountable.
“He’s done a great job at the point of attack,” he went on. “When he gets there, he’s bringing all of his [273 pounds]. He just knows the offense like he’s read the book five times. … He’s just been playing free. You can run at a higher speed when you know what you’re doing.”
Back in 2007, when Gibbs was head coach for the team, Sellers was dealing with an injury (back) that Gibbs feared might keep him from playing in a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. At the time, the Bucs were leading their NFC South division and the Redskins were batting .500. Sellers was running back Clinton Portis’ lead blocker as well as a pass-catcher out of the backfield and had become a guy Gibbs counted on.
“He plays a big role for us,” Gibbs said at the time. “It will be real important for us to get him back as quick as possible.
No doubt, after reviewing game tape of an earlier contest against the Detroit Lions that season, the Hall of Fame coach would have wanted Sellers back. In that game, the jack-of-all-trades player had a big day, scoring a key touchdown and, in one catch-and-run play, laying a hit on Lions’ safety Kenoy Kennedy that flattened him and left teammates scratching their heads in amazement.
“It’s unbelievable,” Chris Cooley said after the game. “I mean, he just puts his shoulder down, but what else can he do? He’s too big to do anything else. It’s not like he’s going to make a move.”
Listed at 280+ lbs. at the time, after a 24-yard catch the veteran did lower his shoulder and basically ran over Kennedy “with all the subtlety of a runaway dump truck” as Dan Steinberg delightfully described it in the Washington Post.
“Just one man’s opinion, but I think he’s probably the most underrated football player on our team, certainly offensively,” then offensive coordinator Al Saunders said. “He plays more roles than any other player in our offense, and it’s probably the most difficult position. . . . He plays tight end, he plays fullback, he plays the slot inside, he plays wide receiver and he plays running back. That’s five positions.”
Mike Sellers is now four years older and his body has seen a bit more action. He arrived in the District of Columbia in 1998 as a free agent from the Canadian Football League and, except for a one-year stint with the Cleveland Browns and two years away from the NFL, he has been a Washington Redskin. In his NFL lifetime, Sellers has appeared in 161 games with 63 starts at fullback, H-back and at tight end. He has made 21 touchdowns. It would be difficult to overestimate his value to the Redskins at fullback – at least in the past – because in seven of his ten seasons with the Redskins, he has blocked for three 1,000-yard running backs (in a single-season): Stephen Davis in 1999 and 2000, Clinton Portis in 2004-05 and 2007-08 and Ladell Betts in 2006.
Asked about Sellers during his press conference Monday, Shanahan made a point about the type of value Sellers brings to the team.
“He helped himself by having the mindset to go in there and not be disappointed that Darrel Young was getting a shot to be the starting fullback,” the coach said. “Mike is a pretty strong guy mentally. It’s always tough as you get older to go and work as a third and fourth-team tight end. He never wavered and worked hard at both the Y and Tiger position. He still backed up the fullback position. When he played in the game against Tampa Bay, he played well at the fullback position. And he can play special teams. He’s a guy that can help us in a number of different ways and I appreciate how hard he’s been working.”
With Mike Shanahan moving the Redskins to a younger state, it was a surprise for some to see Sellers stay on the 53-man roster. If Shanahan was rebuilding the team, I would be surprised myself. In looking at what he has done – and not done – the head coach has definitely changed this team and brought it to a better place. This includes keeping guys around who add value not only in their talent but in their experience, focus and motivation. Look again at some of the veterans on the team: Atogwe, Brown, Fletcher, Gaffney, Moss, Sellers and Stallworth. These are guys that can bring along the rookies and young players, mentor them and teach them how to do “it” right.
There is something special going on with this team right now and the players will tell you it is so. It can be seen in the locker room, on the practice field and so far, in the preseason games.
Shanahan’s discipline, drive and confidence combined with youth and experience is a combination will not allow a losing mentality. It is a combination that does not allow for the entitlement of a few or individual drama. It is an equation that results unity and purpose. It is definitely in an “improved form or condition” over the last ten years.
Reform.
Hail.