Draft and Divorce

I think it was Joan Didion who described divorce as "different faces, same problems." If you don't understand how to construct and respectively and collectively train the positions and relationships of a defense, the personnel don't matter. Do the Redskins have coaches who know these things? It's not clear to me that they do. Contrast with Jay Gruden and the offensive coaches, most notably Callahan, who clearly do understand how to construct and train a line, scheme passing plays, etc.

It's easy to see that the Redskins lack talent on defense, but that begins with coaching talent. The part that isn't talked about much because it's not as visible. Mediocre players well coached add up to more than the sum of their parts. That's what New England's history under Belichick teaches. By contrast, buying great talent fails more often than it succeeds. The Redskins have numerous examples from their own experience to prove this. Who on the Redskins understands how defense is supposed to be played? Is Jim Tomsula the DL's Bill Callahan equivalent?

This is why the opinion that is the exact opposite of what everybody thinks is probably correct: that the Redskins should focus on keeping their best offensive players, and keeping their offense as strong as possible. Because the Redskins already have a good defense. It's called their offense. They have a coach and players who understand how to move the ball, how to keep the ball, and how to score lots of points. That's the best defense they have for them right now and for the foreseeable future. Until they bring in someone who actually understands how direct defense actually works, the Redskins' best defensive players are Kirk Cousins and a tie between Jordan Reed and Bill Callahan.