MVN - Most Valuable Network

Just How Good were the Redskins DB’s Last Year?

Among some legitimate reasons for Redskins fans to temper their expectations for the upcoming season is that the defensive backfield is thin, tragedy ravaged, and aging. For an analyst that is unfamiliar with the team, it could be forgiven if a quick glance at the roster shows a unit which is deeply void of talent.

After all, merely a year before last, the Redskins DB’s set all sorts of records for blown coverages, missed tackles, and yards/points against. But when we start to dig deeper into the pieces and production of the 2007 Redskin DBs, we find that what occured last season was perhaps the greatest rebound by a single unit in NFL History.

Sean Taylor

In 2006, Sean Taylor was pretty good against the run, for a safety, but horrible against the pass.

In 2007, Sean’s numbers against the run regressed, likely due entirely to the philosophical switch that kept him in deep coverage most of the time.

That switch must have done some good, because in 2007, Sean Taylor was — for half a season at least — unquestionably the best safety in all of football.

Opposing quarterbacks who targeted Taylor (foolishly, but perhaps based on 2006 scouting reports), something that happened 18 times in 2007, were rarely successful. Taylor ranked 2nd in the NFL in Stop Rate among safeties, creating a ’successful play’ 68% of the times he was targeted. Taylor picked 5 of those 18 passes off, and allowed 2.7 yards…per play when he was targeted (remember, dude was a safety), firmly making him the best statistical safety in the NFL last year.

Taylor’s rebound was the most significant reason for the team rebound, but certainly not the only one, as evidenced by the team playing shutdown pass D down the stretch without him.

Shawn Springs

In 2004, Shawn Springs signed a 6 year contract with the Redskins. No one expected him to play it out, but here we are in the 5th year of the deal, and not only is he still around, but he’s the best CB on the team. In fact, that doesn’t nearly begin to do him justice.

Springs was a pro bowler in 2004. In 2005, he was the NFL’s best CB, per Stop Rate. After an injury riddled 2006, Springs returned to the lineup last year, and again led the NFL in Stop Rate for CBs, pitching in a Taylor-esque 62. He also held opposing receivers to 6.0 yards per pass attempt, which ranks him in the top ten in the NFL in that metric.

All of that is even more impressive when you consider that Springs was targeted 94 times by opposing QBs, most on the entire team.

Thing was, if the first seven games of the season were any indication, Springs wouldn’t have been the best CB in the NFC last year if not for one injured knee to a teammate.

Carlos Rogers

When I referred to Rogers as the “X factor of the 2007 Redskins”, I had no idea that he would perform so well, and yet, have his season shortened by half.

Rogers, in seven games, was targeted 37 times by opposing QBs (not enough to qualify for the leader’s rankings), and posted a 66% stop rate, and gave up a stingy 5.7 Y/A against. That stop rate was the best in the entire NFL, and had he qualified for it, that 5.7 Y/A against would have ranking him as a top 5 corner in the NFL, just behind Nnamdi Asomugha and Champ Bailey.

The fact that his season was cut short means you have to take those statistics with a grain of salt regarding Rogers: perhaps given more time in the lineup, those would have evened out. Additionally, we may never see Rogers perform at this level again, being that he’s coming off major knee surgery.

But at the very least, Gregg Williams is off the hook for that draft pick. Rogers has clearly shaken the bust label, and although he may never play at this level again, he should become a fixture in the starting lineup for years to come.

Fred Smoot

When Rogers went down for the year, the oft hurt but never silenced Smoot jumped right into the lineup, and just happened to produce the best season of his career. For so long, Smoot’s biggest knock was that he was soft against the run. So, I guess it’s ironic that when his team needed Fred Smoot the most, his biggest impact on the game was his run defense: Smoot was the best corner in the league against the run last year, giving up a paltry 2.1 yards per carry when opponents attacked him on the outside. 90% of the time, those runs were charted as “unsuccessful”, by far the top percentage in the league for a corner.

Smoot was money against the pass as well. Teams that through against Smoot averaged 5.6 Y/A, third best in the NFL among cornerbacks.

Reed Doughty

Reed Doughty was the biggest surprise of the season last year. He’s got a reputation as a run stuffing safety, and the numbers certainly suggest that’s his craft: No. 2 among all safeties in yards allowed per rush attempt (3.8). The team probably feels he can be a run stuffing dynamo (thanks, Mel Kiper) for the next ten years for them.

Where Doughty was more surprising was against the pass, where he actually had the numbers of a top no. 2 safety. Doughty ranked 26th in stop rate last year and 29th among safeties last year with 6.6 yards per attempt against the pass.

LaRon Landry

Landry gave up 4.4 yards per pass in which he was targeted last year, which places him at 6th in the NFL by that measure among safeties. Here’s the fun part: the guy was a rookie who played his best football after he didn’t have Sean Taylor to show him the ropes any more.

Landry wasn’t all that great against the run last year, which was a bigger problem when he was at Strong Safety than it was after he moved to free. However, there’s no reason to think that Landry won’t be a pro bowler in the very, very near future.

Review

The Redskins, despite all the luck that went against them last season, clearly struck gold as they tried to fix the defensive backfield from it’s 2006 performance. In the process, they found tons of optimism for the future. Though a lot of that optimism was squelched along with the death of Sean Taylor, there are still building blocks in this backfield. Rogers, Smoot, Doughty, and Landry will create a great core for the team to build around, in both the near and distant future.

Sean Taylor may have gotten the pro bowl nod from this group, but in essence, his selection was indicative of the job this entire unit did last season, turning the mess that was 2006 into a playoff run in 2007.

Source:  Pro Football Prospectus 2008

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Shawn Springs, Fred Smoot, Reed Doughty, Washington Redskins Off-Season, Washington Redskins Defense, Carlos Rogers, LaRon Landry, Sean Taylor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.