Too Many Cooks: Redskins 2006 Season in Review Part One

Any coaches meeting in 2006

Following a playoff season in 2005, the Washington Redskins had high expectations for 2006. Super Bowl high. Those expectations were unmet as the team finished a miserable 5-11, good for last place in a division that placed its three other teams in the playoffs. This is the story of how it happened...

The Curly R is proud to present the first annual Redskins Season in Review, a three-part series looking at the chronology of the Redskins 2006 season and into 2007.

Part 1: 2005 Postseason, 2006 Offseason & 2006 Training Camp
Part 2: 2006 Regular Season Games 1-13
Part 3: 2006 Regular Season Games 14-16 & 2007 Offseason Outlook

Other Curly R Redskins Seasons in Review: 2007

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2005 Postseason
2006 started so well for the Redskins. After a 5-0 run to end the 2005 season, the Redskins had won a playoff game in Tampa Bay in January (recap / box) and narrowly lost another in Seattle (recap / box), a game in which Cornelius Griffin sent NFL MVP Shaun Alexander out of the game with a concussion. The Redskins just were out of gas.


2006 Offseason
Five days after that loss, the Redskins announced the team had lured Al Saunders, another Don Coryell veteran in the Joe Gibbs school, away from the Kansas City Chiefs. Dick Vermeil had retired (again) and top lieutenant Saunders was passed over for former Chiefs defensive backs coach (under Marty Schottenheimer) Herm Edwards. Saunders was expected to bring the offensive genius he showed in Kansas City and St. Louis (who won the Super Bowl with his offense in 1999) to Washington. With Saunders, Joe Gibbs and returning defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, the Redskins had one of the best coaching staffs in the NFL, maybe ever. Even as recently as September, Joe Gibbs would say this about Al Saunders:

Al handles everything.

Turning to player acquisition, it had become obvious by the end of the 2005 season that the entire passing game went through Santana, and doubleteams had become so common that the Redskins went out in March and nabbed not one but two prime receivers, Brandon Lloyd from the 49ers and Antwaan Randle El from the Steelers. They added Todd Collins, veteran quarterback intimately familiar with Saunders' system, Andre Carter, a pass-rushing defensive end from the 49ers, Christian Fauria, a blocking tight end to complement Chris Cooley and Adam Archuleta, safety signed from St. Louis for the richest contract ever to that position. All the Redskins really lost in the offseason were LaVar Arrington, fallen from favor with the coaches, Ryan Clark, safety and apparently in lower regard than Archuleta and Patrick Ramsey, discarded quarterback. This was already looking like a team ready to compete for a championship.

In April for the 2006 draft, the Redskins, lacking a first round pick from the trade to move up and select QB Jason Campbell in the 2005 draft, selected LB Rocky McIntosh, linebacker from University of Miami, in the second round (number 53 overall), along with DT Anthony Montgomery (5th round), FS Reed Doughty (6th round), DT Kedric Golston (6th round), OG Kili Lefotu (7th round) and LB Kevin Simon (7th round). Lefotu and Simon were cut before opening day. McIntosh did not register three tackles in a single game until his first start in week 16. Kedric Golston was an impact player, earning an early start due to injury, eventually replacing nine year veteran Joe Salave'a in the starting lineup after the bye week. Anthony Montgomery also made one start due to injury, but crept back into his hole and did not play in 11 of the team's 16 games. Reed Doughty played very sparingly, never starting and registering only 11 tackles in a year when free safety was generally a solid position with Sean Taylor and strong safety was a complete trainwreck with Adam Archuleta benched after the bye (he would not appear on defense again until the very end of the final game against the Giants) and Troy Vincent and Vernon Fox holding the position.


2006 Training Camp
As training camp loomed, the Redskins had a positive and confident attitude. With Patrick Ramsey jettisoned to the Jets for a draft pick (a sixth, not exactly great return for the first round pick spent on him in 2002) Mark Brunell was the unquestioned starter, looking to return to his 2005 form of 3000 yards, 23 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. There would be a spirited competition for the #2 spot between quarterback of the future Jason Campbell and system expert Todd Collins. Mark Brunell even said the 2006 Redskins were Super Bowl or bust! The Redskins had Super Bowl Fever.

Things first started to go awry when Clinton Portis dislocated his shoulder in the first quarter of the first preseason game, making a tackle after a Mark Brunell interception. He would not play again in the preseason. Then Shawn Springs, already nursing lingering injuries from the end of the 2005 season, had surgery to reattach his abdomen to his pelvis. He was projected out three to six weeks, with a probable return in game two at Dallas, but did not return until game six at Indianapolis, and was not consequential until game seven vs. Tennessee. The final insult was Pierson Prioleau, sparkplug and nickel defensive back, falling, untouched on the opening kickoff of the regular season. He tore his ACL and missed the entire season.

Going into that first regular season game, the final Redskins roster looked different than expected at the beginning of camp. Kenny Wright, an extra cornerback signed in the offseason and not projected as a starter, was pushed into a starting job. Mike Rumph, a cornerback who had played five total games over the 2004 and 2005 seasons due to foot and leg injuries, was acquired from the 49ers in a trade to rid the Redskins of the final vestige of Steve Spurrier, former University of Florida receiver Taylor Jacobs (who did not catch a pass for the 49ers until week 13). He was also suddenly a starter.

Then, bizarrely, the Redskins entered into a three-way trade with the Broncos and Falcons sending the Redskins' 2007 3rd round pick to Denver, disgruntled receiver Ashley Lelie from Denver to Atlanta, and gruntled big-guy running back TJ Duckett from Atlanta to Washington. At that time, the Redskins already had five backs on the roster: Clinton, Ladell Betts, Rock Cartwright, Nehemiah Broughton and Jesse Lumsden, not to mention Mike Sellers. To cement the notion that the Redskins were in Bizarro World, Dan Snyder announced a partnership (Curly R take) with Tom Cruise, recently canned by Paramount for being creepy, and Joe Gibbs announced a half-baked plan (Curly R take) where Todd Collins would be the #2 quarterback, but so would Jason Campbell. This plan was a success inasmuch as Mark Brunell never went down to injury and therefore the logic of the plan was never fully tested. And thus the Redskins took their 0-4 preseason and the high expectations of their fans into the 2006 regular season...


The Curly R 2006 Season in Review continues tomorrow with part 2.



One or Two Too Many Cooks: hand-colored etching by David Bigelow