Tag: Jack Del Rio

Report: NFL teams have inquired about trading for Redskins’ LB Ryan Anderson

With the Redskins trying hard to find a spot for Ryan Anderson, a report has surfaced that other teams have inquired about a potential trade.

Over the weekend, we highlighted a player on the Washington Redskins defense who could work to find a new role this upcoming season and try to transition to a new position in a 4-3 scheme that is being brought in by Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio. His name is Ryan Anderson, and he had some great showings in 2019. Because of the scheme change, his position might be in question, but with both Rivera and Del Rio’s propensity to bring up his name this offseason, it seemed that there was a spot for him somewhere on the defense.

Or maybe has it been a tactic to boost his trade value? The Athletic’s Ben Standig seems to think it should be, as he’s recently called for the Redskins to trade away Anderson and bring in a position of higher need. According to Standig, other teams have inquired about a potential trade for Anderson.

I’m not proposing adding anyone—the opposite. Specifically, and after conversations with league sources, they should trade Ryan Anderson.

This angle isn’t casting doubt on the fourth-year linebacker, who played inspired football for stretches last season – though he remains a position enigma. Rather, after considering several factors, it’s about acknowledging a reality: Anderson won’t play here in 2021.

With the ability to play on both the defensive line and as an outside linebacker, there are several places where Anderson could fit in, but few where he’d likely rise to the top of the depth chart. He wouldn’t sniff a starting spot at DE with Chase Young, Montez Sweat and Ryan Kerrigan taking up much of the workload, and the linebacker spot is pretty well occupied as well. It may be tough to find playing time if he were to stick around, simply for no other reason that the Redskins are strong enough at the positions not to need him.

Where they do need help is anywhere else on the field. Wide receiver, left tackle, and tight end come to mind, and while they likely won’t receive a viable starter at any of those positions with an Anderson trade, they at least could get something valuable in return for a player that is little more than excess production at this point.

If he sticks around in Washington, Anderson has the skillset to be able to contribute to the defense and find spots to make his presence felt. However, we saw in 2019 that when he’s been given the opportunity, he usually takes advantage of it and puts up numbers. There may be more of an opportunity for Anderson to grow outside of the Redskins organization, which could leave everyone better off down the road.

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Will Reuben Foster play for Washington in 2020?

Former Alabama LB Reuben Foster has had an interesting last two year which consisted of off-the-field incidents and injuries.

Former Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster has had an interesting time traversing through his first three seasons in the NFL after being drafted No. 31 overall in the 2017 draft by the San Francisco 49ers.

After a couple of off-the-field incidents he hit the waivers and was picked up by Washington. It was there where he has not yet played a snap due to injury, and his injury concerns may lead to a second seasons on the sideline.

Washington picked up Foster along with his rookie contract and decided to not pick up his fifth-year option for 2021. This will make him a free agent after the 2020 season concludes.

When hitting the market, a player would hope to have the opportunity to make a solid case for their next deal through their performance on the field. However, with Foster not seeing the field since 2018, there’s a chance his contract value won’t be great.

After suffering a knee injury in the offseason heading into the 2019 season, which required surgery and left permanent nerve damage, Foster has been on the sidelines. Though now may be the time for him to make a return.

Former Oakland Raiders head coach, and new Washington defensive coordinator, Jack Del Rio spoke to reporters on a video conference with the media regarding Foster’s health and commitment to the team.

“I think he’s done a good job of trying to be involved in the meetings and we’ve approached it as though he’ll be there. Then we’ll see whether we get the clearance or not for him to actually go.”

Del Rio’s answer keeps the field open. He may return, he may not.

NBC Sports Washington’s JP Finlay states that Foster likely would have had a guaranteed starting job in 2019 before his injury, but will now have to compete in 2020 if he is cleared to play.

Finlay’s belief is corroborated by Del Rio’s mention of Foster’s effort to learn the defense, a clear sign of someone looking to prove that they will do what it takes off the field to have the biggest impact on the field.

“In terms of the mental approach and in terms of his participation in the meetings, being up to date with the install, getting the coaching and all of that, he’s been on point with that. The part we can’t impact right now, is where he’s at with his rehab and whether he gets the clearance to go.”

Though we are still awaiting medical clearance, the fear of the nerve damage affecting him lingers. Could there be a possibility the Alabama product is medically cleared, but doesn’t get to play?

If that scenario occurs, Foster might end up on another team to play out his final season under his rookie contract.

Roll Tide Wire will keep you updated on Reuben Foster’s health and what the future holds for him in 2020.

Coveted starting spots on defensive line will be decided through competition

With 7-8 players who would start on any other defensive line in the NFL, the battle for a top spot in Washington is going to be contentious.

The Washington Redskins have an embarrassment of riches on the defensive line, bolstering a depth chart that includes five first-round picks. While it will be entertaining to watch that group go to battle once the season finally starts, it is also going to be intriguing to see which players step up in training camp this year, and earn their way into a starting spot.

The fact of the matter is that not all of those players will be able to share the field at the same time, and a few will likely get knocked down a rung in the process and forced to fill a rotational or back-up role. They’ll still have an impact on the game, but obviously not as much of one as they’d like.

Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio’s solution for this is competition.

We’ve projected that the starting front line will likely consist of Chase Young, Montez Sweat, Daron Payne, and Jonathan Allen. However, it’s pretty easy to guess that any one of those spots is up for grabs. Could Ryan Kerrigan show out one again in training camp and prove that he still has some good years left? Absolutely. Will Matt Ioannidis continue to build off of his stellar 2019 season and force Payne or Allen to take a step aside while he stakes his claim on the front line? I’d buy it. In the end, this group of 7 or 8 guys will be pitted against each other early on, forced to grit and grind their way to a starting spot. Because of that, everyone will be better for it, and we’ll get the best product possible when all is said and done.

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Jack Del Rio says defensive line will thrive in switch to 4-3 scheme

The Redskins plan to switch to a 4-3 front, allowing the front line to attack more instead of filling gaps, which will be fun to watch.

If you have a prize-winning heavyweight fighter, you don’t gameplan for him to dance around the ring and tire his opponent out — you tell him to attack and do what comes naturally.

The same should go for the Washington Redskins, who have one of the more talented defensive lines in the NFL. Instead of asking them to sit back and operate a 3-4 scheme, new defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio is implementing a 4-3 approach that will allow the front four to get upfield and attack the quarterback, down after down.

With Daron Payne and Jonathan Allen working the inside while Montez Sweat and Chase Young work to get around the edge, it will be fun to watch how Washington is able to force opposing QB’s into big mistakes, allowing the secondary to clean up.

The defensive front may have always had the talent necessary to be good, but now they’re getting to focus on doing what they do best, and we’re all the better for it.

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Top quotes from DC Jack Del Rio’s video conference with Redskins media

Jack Del Rio sat down on a video conference with local media members on Thursday to discuss his plans for the Redskins defense in 2020.

Though nearly everyone in Washington is excited about Ron Rivera being hired as the Washington Redskins head coach, there is also a large group of people who were through the roof when they heard that Jack Del Rio would be joining the team as the defensive coordinator.

While he has found some great success as both a DC and HC in his career, Del Rio has made his mark the most when working with young pass rushers, molding them into league superstars. Luckily for Washington, they have Chase Young. On Thursday, Del Rio sat down on a video conference with local media members to discuss the upcoming season, as well as what the transition to Washington has been like. Here are the best quotes from the interview.

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Are Redskins bringing back the ‘All White’ uniform combination in 2020?

Jack Del Rio’s response to a tweet about bringing back the all-white uniforms in Washington has the fanbase excited for the season.

Washington Redskins defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio sent out a tweet on Tuesday that got a lot of the fanbase fired up for Week 1. It had nothing to do with the matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles or the gameplan for how the Redskins might take down their division rivals, but rather it had everything to do with what Washington might wear while trying to do so.

It looks like the Redskins could be bringing back the all-white jersey combinations sometime this year. Whether that happens in Week 1 — which seems unlikely, considering the first game of the year is at home, where the Redskins usually wear their classic Burgundy tops — or not is yet to be seen, but we can feel confident that at some point this year, we will see something different from the same old thing when it comes to Redskins uniforms.

Our friends over at DC Sports Experience took the opportunity to show us what a current player in all-white would look like, and it’s pretty special.

Let’s hope we see this look often in 2020.

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Jonathan Allen is excited for switch to 4-3 defensive scheme

Jack Del Rio will be bringing a 4-3 defense to the Redskins, which will likely better highlight their personnel in the front seven.

A lot has been made about the Washington Redskins addition of defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio this offseason. With his decades of NFL experience and time working with some of the best defenders in the game’s history, the thought of him replacing someone like Greg Manusky is borderline enthralling.

Not only will Del Rio bring some competence to the defense’s gameplan week-in and week-out, but he also is planning to transition the Redskins to a 4-3 defensive scheme, rather than the 3-4 that they have been running for the past several years. This will allow the defensive line to focus more on getting to the pass rusher via the edge and give the linebackers a bigger role in coverage.

While some have questioned how this transition will go in the first year, Redskins defensive lineman Jonathan Allen doesn’t foresee there being much of a learning curve.

If the linebacking core can be competent, headed up by Cole Holcomb, Thomas Davis, and Jon Bostic, then the defensive line will really be able to thrive in this new defense. With Montez Sweat and Chase Young out on the edge, the possibilities are endless.

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Jack Del Rio says it’s time to stop blaming Greg Manusky for Redskins’ struggles

Del Rio is in charge of Washington’s defense, and he wants to assure fans that he has it under control, and they can move on from Manusky.

When your team has been down in the dumps for as long as the Washington Redskins, it’s easy for the fan base to deflect blame onto certain people in the organization. For the past decade, it’s been mainly Bruce Allen who shoulders the load, but Jay Gruden also caught a lot of flack, as did Dan Snyder and a few others.

During the 2019 season, after Gruden was finally removed from his post as head coach, the overarching blame shifted to defensive coordinator Greg Manusky, who was failing with a talented defense week after week, unable to keep an unproductive offense in the game. Now that Manusky has been fired alongside much of the old regime, and Jack Del Rio has replaced him as the new DC, it’s time to let go of that ill-will, and move on.

Maybe Del Rio is trying to unite the fanbase and buy into the new regime. Maybe he is also quote tweeting this article to remind everyone how truly terrible Manusky really was. It’s probably the former, but there may be a bit of the latter sprinkled in there too. Whichever it is, a new day is on the horizon, and it’s been made clear that in order to fully embrace the new regime, getting rid of the old one is paramount.

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Chase Young has “more complete toolbox” than anyone Redskins D-coordinator Jack Del Rio has seen

Washington Redskins’ D-coordinator Jack Del Rio believes former Ohio State DE Chase Young has more complete toolbox than anyone he’s seen.

Washington Redskins’ defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio has seen some pretty good players come through the NFL. In fact, he’s coached a few of them. Guys like Julius Peppers, Vonn Miller, and Khalil Mack have all been guided by Del Rio in his over thirty years in the league.

So, what he communicates about talent should be noted, and what he says about the skill set of Chase Young is pretty remarkable. So much so that Del Rio has never seen anyone quite like the former Ohio State star.

“The best toolbox I’ve ever seen coming out of the draft,” Del Rio said in a piece by the Zach Selby of Redskins.com. “I haven’t seen a guy come out with that many tools. I’ve seen talented players come out, but not with a complete toolbox like he has.”

How exactly the Redskins plan on using Young remains to be seen, but based on comments made by head coach Ron Rivera, they are anxious to get him on the field right away. And with the change in scheme to a 4-3 base from a 3-4, it should play right into getting another edge rusher on the field to create chaos.

“You have to be realistic about that and know that there are certain times and situations where you’ve got to rotate him out,” Rivera told local media just after the draft. “So, what we’d like to do is get him out there, get him going, see where he’s going to fit and then from that point use him, but use him the right way.”

Washington has a deep and talented defensive line, so there’s a good chance he’ll be brought along in the right way, surrounded by other guys that can make the attention on him less.

“Chase could be in there with one group of guys and rotate, and the next thing you know he’s in with another group, but we’re going to use him to be a dynamic player,” Rivera said.

It should be pretty interesting and exciting to see how Young develops and becomes a big part of things in our nation’s capital.

 

How exactly do Redskins plan to use Chase Young in his rookie year?

We know that Washington will look to rotate Young in with different rushing groups this season, but how will they deploy him early on?

We all know that Washington Redskins DE Chase Young is a rare athletic specimen who has the ability to explode off the line and make life hard on the opposing quarterback, and we saw Ohio State use him well in 2019, spurring him on to a total of 16.5 sacks in 14 games. So how will the Redskins use him in the NFL?

That we don’t quite know yet.

While the coaching staff in Washington is obviously excited that they could bring Young to the Redskins with the No. 2 pick in the NFL Draft, they haven’t yet divulged how they plan to use him on defense. The team is in the midst of a scheme transition from a 3-4 front to a 4-3, and figuring out where Young fits there is a bit up in the air to the public at the moment, and the coaches won’t likely know the perfect way to utilize him until they get a chance to see him work in person.

“You have to be realistic about that and know that there are certain times and situations where you’ve got to rotate him out,” coach Ron Rivera said, via Redskins.com. “So, what we’d like to do is get him out there, get him going, see where he’s going to fit and then from that point use him, but use him the right way.”

One thing that the coaching staff does know, though, is that the embarrassment of talent they have on the front line will allow them to rotate in and out regularly, keeping players fresh while not missing a beat on the field. The Redskins depth up front consists of Young, Montez Sweat, Daron Payne, Jonathan Allen, Matt Ioannidis, and Ryan Kerrigan — that group with fresh legs deep into a game? Forget about it. So while he could stake his claim among the starters, don’t be surprised to see Young rotate in and out with the second unit as well.

“Chase could be in there with one group of guys and rotate, and the next thing you know he’s in with another group, but we’re going to use him to be a dynamic player,” Rivera said.

A dynamic player rushing alongside a dynamic defensive front, with arguably the perfect coach to overlook it all. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again — the 2020 season can’t come soon enough.

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