free agency - updated. how did your team do?

[AlohaStyle]

i guess my issue was re the jersey number and i got a bit carried away but i still think that what he actually said re the jersey was pretty much what you suggest, in a slightly different way. i think he would have been very happy to keep it private but the interviewer raised it - to me, he made a bit of a joke about it and then moved on as fast as he could.

as for money, i guess if he really performs, he'll have a case down the track. but agreed, that if he was to start any of that now he'd be opening himself up to some serious criticism.

He talked about the jersey number on a phone conference call with any and all reporters that wanted to be involved. He didn't just talk about it in that video. It even talks about the conference call in the article I linked... I didn't even watch that video until you commented on it. I don't know how the issue came up in the conference call so it could be innocent and he was just answering questions, but I still think he could've and should've just played it off rather than saying he wanted it and time will tell to see if he gets #10 or not.

So how the hell did you end up a Redskins fan living half way across the world anyway?? Good for you Ken, I like all kinds of sports and like to take in events wherever I'm at. Terrible to see that Rugby player breaking his neck...

[Ken Gargett]

He talked about the jersey number on a phone conference call with any and all reporters that wanted to be involved. He didn't just talk about it in that video. It even talks about the conference call in the article I linked... I didn't even watch that video until you commented on it. I don't know how the issue came up in the conference call so it could be innocent and he was just answering questions, but I still think he could've and should've just played it off rather than saying he wanted it and time will tell to see if he gets #10 or not.

So how the hell did you end up a Redskins fan living half way across the world anyway?? Good for you Ken, I like all kinds of sports and like to take in events wherever I'm at. Terrible to see that Rugby player breaking his neck...

lived and worked in DC years ago when i was a lawyer - and the skins were a great team. loved them and DC and been a fan from the day i arrived in the states for the first time. they were playing the rams or the saints - i forget - and friends grabbed me at the airport, tossed my gear off at her parents and we headed in to georgetown to a sports bar. they won. and won their last superbowl not too long after. (and when i was in canada i was actually mistaken for a skins player - no idea who - but that made me very proud and the woman who thought that utterly delusional).

we have to remember that most of these guys would be lucky to avoid jail if they could not run fast or catch a ball (ditto for a lot of our sportsmen). being ambushed like that - i suspect he has tried his best to be diplomatic while doing the right thing answering questions and it has come across as something it is not. all that said, the number on the back seems truly the most minor issue imaginable. i suspect this bloke will be targeted by idiot journos desperate for a story and trying to catch him off guard.

[poisonowns]

we have to remember that most of these guys would be lucky to avoid jail if they could not run fast or catch a ball (ditto for a lot of our sportsmen).

I don't get this. How do you come to this conclusion?

[Ken Gargett]

fair enough, perhaps "a lot" is a little extreme, though the trouble so many sportsmen - and this is certainly not aimed at any individual or sport - end up getting into suggests a reasonable number. and how often have we heard an athlete say (or thought ourselves, without speaking for others), that if not for sport, they believed they would have taken a far more dangerous and possibly less legal path in life.

part of the point i was trying to make was that these guys are not trained speakers or consummate politicians and if a journo hassles them about a topic, they'll often get themselves in strife by saying something, however well meaning, that gets jumped on, blown up, taken out of context, misrepresented.

[titla1k]

The Pats did quite well I think. Their secondary is starting to hark back to the early 2000s which can only be good thing. Agreed that we need more depth on our D line. Jones and Nink are probably playing more snaps than they should, so a solid pass rusher will go towards strengthening our front 7

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[stillinger]

Ken, incomplete for the Skins. If they can improve the Oline and not be awful on the D, then it will be a B+. But offseason is always where they are best. Jackson and more talent at WR is a need, though, you think they would like the Roberts money back for a safety. They should be better on RG3 health alone, but the d should be better. CB is still a problem, and I don't know that they have a young safety ready to take minutes. I expect they're active when Jun 31 cuts happen.

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[Ken Gargett]

Ken, incomplete for the Skins. If they can improve the Oline and not be awful on the D, then it will be a B+. But offseason is always where they are best. Jackson and more talent at WR is a need, though, you think they would like the Roberts money back for a safety. They should be better on RG3 health alone, but the d should be better. CB is still a problem, and I don't know that they have a young safety ready to take minutes. I expect they're active when Jun 31 cuts happen.

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agreed - still a lot of work but the issues were big enough that not everything can be fixed at once.

agreed re defence and Oline.

one of the positives re jackson is that it remove the need to use one of the few draft picks on a WR. roberts seems to be well regarded. they have garcon, jackson, roberts, moss, aldrick robinson, hankerson and three junior/lesser WRs. you wonder if they'll keep moss and one or two others could go.

thomas looked promising before the injury took him for the season. if he comes back, a big plus but a long way to go for that.

the draft will presumably be very heavy on CB and safety and possibly Oline. perhaps another tight-end lower down.

one thing people seem to forget is that over the last two seasons, they have only lost one player on free agency that they wanted to keep - lorenzo alexander (and he was largely special teams). also fletcher to retirement but he was well pass his best.

toss in that we won the division just two years ago and that if rg3 is fit and firing, with jackson and hatcher, we should be a better team.

i think that they could surprise a lot of people this year.

[poisonowns]

fair enough, perhaps "a lot" is a little extreme, though the trouble so many sportsmen - and this is certainly not aimed at any individual or sport - end up getting into suggests a reasonable number. and how often have we heard an athlete say (or thought ourselves, without speaking for others), that if not for sport, they believed they would have taken a far more dangerous and possibly less legal path in life.

part of the point i was trying to make was that these guys are not trained speakers or consummate politicians and if a journo hassles them about a topic, they'll often get themselves in strife by saying something, however well meaning, that gets jumped on, blown up, taken out of context, misrepresented.

I hear what you're saying. I like to think that with the amount of dedication and commitment it takes to be a professional, in a league such as the NFL, they could have channeled that energy elsewhere in life. These guys definitely aren't the best public speakers, that's for sure, but sports writers are just hungry for a story and any little shred of anything will be made into "news".