Hot Wheels and Sticky Fingers

Needs new cleats after every play

In March 2003, the Redskins signed restricted free agent Laveranues Coles to an offer sheet. The Jets declined to match the offer, and the Redskins had what they thought was the burner they needed to stretch the field in the Ol' Ball Coach's system, because Jacquez Green and Chris Doering just weren't, you know, getting it done.

And Coles came on board, at the cost of the Redskins' 2003 first round draft pick. For 11 games in 2003, he was awesome, catching balls in traffic and squirting around defenders. Then he got a mysterious toe injury that never seemed to heal, and that he never seemed to want to talk about and he just wasn't the same going into 2004.

Looking back at his numbers, they were not bad (player card). 82 catches for 1200 yards in 2003 and 90 catches for 950 yards in 2004. His TD production and his average yards per catch went down in 2004. That was Coach Gibbs' first year back, the team was trying to find an identity and Laveranues just never clicked with the team. Laveranues was unhappy with the conservative nature of Gibbs' offense that year ('max protect'). The Jets got him back in a trade (TimesSelect) for Santana Moss (player card) in March 2005, and I was one Redskin fan wondering what the hell was going on.

Both Santana and Laveranues work fine as the stretcher in the Gibbs' system, but the Jets had already decided not to match Laveranues' offer in 2003, when they saw the terms of the deal. Now they were reversing that decision, and dumping another University of Miami headcase on the Redskins. To me it was pretty clear case that the Jets thought they were playing the Redskins for fools. After all, they knew about Laveranues from the previous go-round, and he had been an asshole to Herm Edwards on the way out the door, accusing him of reneging on a promise to re-sign him, and instead just shipping him out, and I imputed that the Jets must have decided Santana was not everything he was cracked up to be (1st round, 16th pick by the Jets in 2001), and to them Laveranues was looking good again.

Boy am I happy to be wrong about that trade. All Santana has done in Washington is kick ass, catch balls and run fast as hell. Last season, he had 84 catches for *gulp* 1483 yards, at nearly 18 yards per catch. Last season saw Santana come out on Monday night against the Cowboys, catching two Mark Brunell touchdown passes in under four minutes to steal a badly needed win. In week six at the Chiefs, the Redskins lost 28-21, but not because of Santana. He caught 10 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns, or two-thirds of the Redskins points that day. In week 16, he helped avenge the week eight shutout by the Giants by catching five passes for 160 yards (a gaudy 32.0 ypc average) and three touchdowns.

It looks like Santana might be ramping back up for another great season. Last year, the Redskins were starved for help at receiver with Patten gone and James Thrash average at best. By the end of the year, teams were double covering Santana on every play, and his catches per game went down a bit as the season progressed, but his yards per catch went up. Opponents would cover him tight, and if he could get his hands on it, *bwoop* juke move and in the open.

Looking at his numbers so far, Santana already has 17 catches for 326 yards. Extrapolate that out and it's 68 catches for 1200+ yards. Keep in mind that with Lloyd and Randle El, there are more mouths to feed on offense. I won't be surprised if his catches are down, but if the Redskins have success, I don't think he'll mind one bit.

If you did not see Les Carpenter's piece on Santana today, go read it.

Oh, and it's his jersey I wear on game day.


Santana Moss: Newsday.com