Snyder and Cerrato: At it again

Seriously these guys are like Crockett and Tubbs, except when Crockett and Tubbs were done blowing things up, they had caught the bad guys. Snyder and Cerrato just get bad guys. Everyone was scratching their heads as to why Snyder wasn't burning up the free agent market this year. The answer is that he was apparently waiting for the regular season, where he could make the splashy Taylor signing (good, despite the injuries) and DeAngelo Hall (just plain bad.) Losing before a bye week is the worst, because everyone is miserable for two whole weeks. I still have visions of Santonio Holmes streaking past Carlos Rogers, but Rogers is still having a pro bowl year despite that play and an overall bad game. Bringing a cancer into the locker room of a 6-3 team that is second in the toughest division in the league to the defending world champions isn't the greatest move. Why would you risk jeopardizing a team that has shown more promise than almost all of the Snyder-era teams?

Hall isn't even that good. He has been thrown to 66 times, and QBs have completed 40 of them for over 500 yards. The guy is only 24 and has already been dumped twice. Not by teams like the Giants and Steelers, but such franchises as the pre-Matt Ryan Falcons and the Raiders. When Al Davis would rather eat $8 million dollars than have you poisoning his 2-6 team in the league's worst division thus far, there may be a problem. When the Falcons still retain the rights to Michael Vick, but think you are a cancer, there might be a problem. Maybe the guy hung out with Michael's little brother Marcus Vick down in Blacksburg a little too long and picked up some bad habits.

Let me take you back to December 16th, 2006. There was an incedent where the ever-classy TO, Hall's friend, spit in Hall's face and never got flagged. TO then went to out-muscle the undersized Hall in the endzone before just straight burning him for his second touchdown in the first half. At time Romo was essentially in his rookie year and TO's head coach hated him. What could happen now? To add insult to injury, to make room for Hall, Cerrato released Leigh Torrence. This guy was no Deion, but he was a promising young player that we got for nothing and was improving. When is Snyder going to at least consider the philosophy that has made teams like Philly and Pitt perrenial contenders where you find these little known guys and use them as much as possible for as little as possible before they get the huge contracts? I would be willing to bet Torrence ends up with New York or Philly and it comes back to burn us this year.

Torrence was a Gibb's guy. He was community-oriented, and made such an impression on his teammates one of them cried upon hearing of his release. Instead, Cerrato kept his guy, one of the ten he drafted and kept on the roster, Tyron, who has done nothing. He could have put the nearly invisible Malcom Kelly on IR, but once again, it is his guy and he wants to prove something. I have said that all along Zorny has been winning with Gibbs' team, which is fine. Snyder and Cerrato seem hell-bent on ruining yet another good thing.

There are a few advantages to getting Hall. We paid almost nothing and lost no draft picks for once. Even if he doesn't learn the defense right away, maybe he can take the punt returning job from the anemic Randle El who has done nothing at that position this year. It is essentially a contract year for Hall, so hopefully he works hard to get some money. And finally, with Springs coming back against Dallas from his calf injury, maybe we can put him at safety with Rogers, Smoot and Hall as corners in the nickle package that the Skins seem to employ more than any other team in the league. But even with these positives, you can't shake the feeling that every time Snyder and Cerrato take one step forward, the entire Redskins organization takes two steps back.