From Pearls to Powder

Len Hauss #56 (1942-2021) was the very definition of a Solid Center. He played the position for 14-years with all of them being with Washington. His Rookie year he started 10 of14-games. He would start every single game for the rest of his 14-year career. Len was selected to the Pro Bowl (when that really meant something) some 5-times. The current team could use a player like Len Hauss.

Off-season football is a tease quite unlike any other sport. It begins with “Black Monday” when nearly one-fourth of the League’s coaching staffs are sent packing. Every move from then on is proctologically examined. Impending doom or soaring success are the two options available for ascription. The height of the lunacy is the Draft. The player grading system is dysfunctional. You’ll notice that the top two Receivers on this WFT roster are a 3rd and 5th-Rounder. Diggs was the 21st-Wide Receiver selected. The first was Amari Cooper. Diggs has more Receptions, Touchdowns, and Yards than Amari. The second selected was Kevin White. He had 28-Receptions all told. Other than QBs where there is a definite relationship between the 1st-Round and Playoff success the whole thing is a Craps Shoot. But, the real Pearl Clutching waits for Training Camp. After last week’s exhibition in Detroit the pearls have been ground to dust.

Extrapolation Rules

An old colleague used to say that he was, “Drowning in data, but starved for information.” The problem with Training Camp and pre-season is that the data is limited to miniscule portions. But, the attempts to make real information out of it are continuous. Two data points don’t make a trend, the old Professor would say. No one writing the screeds about the team for money attended that class. One data point often makes a solid lock.

Dan Quinn has to manage not only his football squad alone. He has to manage a media that’s no where near as hostile as New York. (John Harbaugh is going to find out how sleepy a burg Baltimore really was.) But, it isn’t paternal and cozy like Pittsburgh’s. The scribes in town are talking to a fan base that defaults to pessimism without prompting. Twenty-five years of kicks to the gut by Dan Snyder will do that. They don’t need to feed the angst machine raw meat. Unfortunately Quinn did that for them last Saturday.

From a football standpoint, ok, it wasn’t all bad. But, from a PR standpoint it was dismal. He promised the Starters one series. The Defense did just fine with their series despite missing the Starters up front. A sack, a turnover, and a score all in one play will check the box. The Offense, phew, they threw up a stinker of a three-play series. Backup Center Julian Good-Jones continued his extended performance impersonating a Traffic Cone. One throwaway after a hurry. One sack. One Draw Play. One yard. That was it. With that collection of data we now know the End of Days is at hand.

Hey, it was an ugly series. And, it’s likely to be the only one to view before the season starts. Nature abhors a vacuum. This one was filled with nothing but doomsday predictions. Colin Cowherd is a weather vane. The wind blowing in from Washington had an odor to it. He does what pundits do: He went to the extreme with it. Even JP Findlay had to push back on him. Are we not entertained?

Quinn had to feel he was between a rock and a hard place. If he followed his inner Coach voice he’d have told his charges; “Men, that was unacceptable. You’re going back out and you’re going to stay out until you score.” But, he was ripped mercilessly for Jayden Daniels being in the game late against Seattle when the score was lopsided. Daniels got hurt. Football lifers who tried to defend Quinn’s decision were simply shouted down. He eventually did the fall on the sword thing.

If you think this week has been loud and agitated then try to imagine the howls and shrieks had JD5 been hurt during an unscheduled second series. Imagine harder. It would have been louder than your initial instincts.

A Fine Mess

The old comedians Laurel and Hardy would almost inevitably end up in some sort of pickle. “Well, Ollie, a fine mess you’ve put us in this time.” It feels like that. There are pitchforks out for Adam Peters. They’re always parked by the door at the ready. The team cut the old starting Center thinking they could land Free Agent Tyler Linderbaum. That didn’t work out. The contingency plan was on hand; Nick Allegretti. He would be an upgrade over Biadasz. He probably would be if he could only get on the field. Calf and Hamstring strains are notoriously insidious. Everything feels fine and healed after a few weeks. But, it comes back soon after startup. That’s Nick’s deal. The MRIs don’t show anything. It’s not right, though. He came for one practice and went right back out.

The team gave Good-Jones every chance in the world to take the spot and run with it. He can’t do either. That’s obvious.

Sixth-Round Draft selection Matt Gulbin is going to make the team. The design was to have this be a developmental year. He’s now Center #2 by default with Center #1 a solid question mark. This week he will get the load against the Ravens in the joint practice and the Friday game. Don’t expect top-flite performance. This is learning by drinking from a fire hose.

It’s a fine mess, indeed. But, it’s not unsolvable.

What Could Go Wrong?

One of the tenets of the old job was that planning for any project or evolution had to have answers for the question; “What could go wrong?” A friend was screaming in all Capital Letters that the COACHES haven’t put good players on the O-Line. It’s not for lack of trying. Adam Peters has thrown some serious Draft and Salary Cap Capital at the Line. The current Left Tackle is a 3rd-Rounder. The Right Tackle is a 1st-Rounder. The injured Left Tackle represents 4-Draft selections. Chris Paul was drafted by the team. Sam Cosmi was inherited, but was also drafted. And, he’s the best player on the Line at the moment.

When Laremy Tunsil was injured the overall quality of the room took a serious hit. Brandon Coleman is a serviceable Left Tackle. He’s started 15-games including three Playoff games. The Kansas City Chiefs lost two Super Bowls because their Tackles were awful. Patrick Mahomes could not perform with Defenders in his face constantly. These two Tackles are better than what Patrick had in front of him those two games. But, moving Coleman out to Left Tackle really took the depth away from the group.

Depth suddenly became an issue. Andrew Wylie is a Swing Tackle as is Trenton Scott. Wylie is the better of the two. Scott is a relief guy for a series. With too many snaps he’s exposed. The team decided to help the depth by adding veteran D.J. Humphries on a one-year contract. He’s here for depth. He’s not here to displace Coleman.

The problem comes back to the Center position.

What could go wrong did go wrong. In the NFL the answer is to adjust on the fly. Ask the Chargers. Their interior O-Line was godawful last year. Part of the solution was to pay for a Center in the discarded Biadasz. He’s now out for the year with a knee injury. Bad luck isn’t limited to the Washington contingent of the League.

What’s Next

Matt Gulbin will get his initiation to the League this week. After Friday’s game there are 17-days without a joint practice or pre-season game. If Gulbin lines up at the start of the September 13 game in Philadelphia across from Jalen Carter then things have gone seriously awry. Allegretti “should” be healed up by then. But, will he be in “Football Shape?”

Per usual operating procedure the WFT is linked to the highest profile Free Agent out there for the position: Graham Glasgow. He has 10-years in the League with 147-games under his belt. Like most interior Linemen he can play Guard or Center. In fact he was at Left Guard for years next to Lions’ mainstay Frank Ragnow. Last year was his one year of dedicated Center play. He’s still on the board. The “but” and it’s a big one is that he wants a Starter role. It says here it would not be a panic move to give him one. It would be reported that way, however.

He’s not a kid, though. He’s 34-years old and has a shoulder thing. Elegant fixes become harder to obtain when pressure is applied.