NFC East Follies

Seriously, the ‘skins have to, simply have to, release Taylor today. Bang. Gone.

Yes, Taylor is a very good player- with years of quality play ahead of him. But c’mon- he is a safety- probably the most unimportant, easiest-to-fill position on defense in the NFL. Very few teams in the NFL suffer from incompetent safety play. Even if you downgrade the position from very good to marginal, I would argue the effect on your total defense effort is minor. Bottom line: normally it is not smart to spend a lot of money or institutional indulgence on safeties; you can get quality play at the position cheap from a lot of people.

And Taylor has now moved from distraction to cancer. Worse, he plays for an organization that is completely incapable of dealing with anarchy. The Redskins not only feature cancers again and again, but they have proved definitively they cannot extricate themselves from these sorts of internal distractions. Someone now has to say "enough”.

Call Rosenhaus right now and say you don't care if you ever see this bum again. You know, FredEx talks too much- but he ain't a thug. This guy is.

The Post today says the team has somewhere between $18-$40 million in this guy? How stupid is that? In the one year Taylor has been in the NFL, he skipped league's mandatory rookie symposium, fired two agents and hired Rosenhaus, and repeated drunk driving arrests. He has humiliated- humiliated!- Gibbs again and again, and now sports multiple felonies.

I thought Gibbs was the great, revered asset this franchise has? Did I miss something? Why does the front-office let him be repeatedly embarrassed by a 22-year old thug? Can you imagine, in a million years, this happening in Philadelphia under Reid? Unfortunately, the Redskins have a reputation for using and then embarrassing good football people- again and again. Of course, Gibbs knew this when he signed on- so he deserves zero sympathy. Fall in with such vapid people, then don’t be surprised if you are tarred by the same brush. Just look at the Redskins’ fans: increasingly bored and undemanding in their gilded palace.

But in the Redskins’ bubble, this sounds like just the sort of guy you want to leverage you entire cap against. And again, for a safety….

Still, now he has to go. I guarantee it won’t be crippling to the on-field product. Frankly, this team isn't going to win more than six with, or without him, anyway. Or in 2006 either probably- when Gibbs quits at the end of this season. In fact, Taylor might being going to jail until 2007. In fact, he probably is. Move forward.

Some good news in all this! Wilbon delivers a shout-out- describing just how classy the Eagles franchise is operated and how much character the team possesses. See here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/05/AR2005060501277.html