More buzz, courtesy of FOX Sports, that the Washington Redskins will make a move for San Diego's disgruntled bad-boy wide-out Vincent Jackson. (Hat tip to Extremeskins for pointing me to this story.)

Say what you will about Jackson's off-field judgement, but his stat line has improved in each of the past three seasons. With the addition of Donovan McNabb and a pair of new tackles, wide receiver was the next questionable area of the offense.

Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly may yet pan out, but Skins fans have seen enough of Vinny Cerrato's other talent decisions to leave us queasy about those two. Perhaps Mike and Kyle Shanahan feel the same, enough to push GM Bruce Allen to work harder to land Jackson after making no play for Anquan Bolden.

Adam Schein says it's practically a done deal for a second round trade pick. That would leave the Redskins with practically nothing to do after the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft. A third or fourth round pick goes to the Eagles for McNabb. The remainder of the two goes to the Saints for T. Jamaal Brown.

Any deal for Jackson should make the Skins more open to a second or third round draft pick in exchange for Albert Haynesworth.

Wouldn't  it be ironic if the Redskins receiving corps was boosted by a Norv Turner cast-off? Turner coaches a Down Field Offense scheme where Jackson is considered a deep threat. Jackson would come to a West Coast Offense that tends to favor quick strikes to the perimeter and yards-after-the-catch.

Sarcasm Alert: Everybody knows that players are interchangeable parts in these schemes and are only too happy to adjust because they can be equally effective in anything.

Terrell Owens (6-3, 224) and Brandon Marshall (6-4, 230) are archetypal West Coast receivers. Jackson (6-5, 230) fits that physical profile.

There wouldn't seem to be room on the roster for Thomas and Kelly if Jackson comes. So which of those two would be squeezed out by Jackson's arrival? The coaching staff is mum about that, and they should be. But if I were Malcolm Kelly, I'd be very nervous now.

Over the past 24 hours, the sports world turned its attention from football, both American and foreign, to Lebron James. ESPN took a page from the NFL's playbook to air a 60-plus minute special for LeBron's 30 second announcement that he is leaving Cleveland for the Miami Heat. Here are seven Hog Heaven thoughts about LeBron:

LeBron's Smart Set-Up--LeBron did what I wish more athletes would do. He signed a two-year deal with the Cavaliers in 2008 to set-up the auction for his services in 2010. Veteran athletes tend towards long-term deals, often to become dissatisfied when their performance outruns their pay. That's where the spectacle of Terrell Owens or Albert Haynesworth come from. Those guys clamor for the certainty of income while passing the injury and performance risks to their team. Then try to pout their way out of their deal if they become unhappy.

If athletes want the flexibility to max their future income or leverage their performance against their team, then take a short term contract like LeBron did. Worried about injury? That's why you buy insurance. LeBron didn't go to college and he's figured this out. Kudos to him.

The Cult of LeBron--James has yet to lead his team to a championship, yet his fans call him The King. The whole promotional campaign around his decision has been masterful. Let's not be too critical here. Pro-basketball encourages personality cults. Basketball fans seem to crave it more than in other team sports. (My opinion only. Comment if you disagree.)

Why not just name the team after the biggest star? Hasn't Cleveland been more about LeBron than Cavaliers? It's just a matter of time before some clever Miami pr type starts referring to LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosch as the "James Gang."

$100 Million Club--If a teen-age athlete asked my career advice, I'd push him towards basketball, baseball or even that Euro football thingy if he wants in on the $100 million club. Pro football players have shorter careers, earn less money and have higher risk for life-long affliction from the game than players of either of the B-ball sports. It's rare in the NFL for anyone other than quarterbacks to get nine-figure contracts. There is that one deal with that one defensive player. (Down here in Washington, we don't speak his name except to spit on it.) For every other NFL player, it's a rare deal.

The Inmates are running the NBA asylum--That's the impression left by "the decision." News accounts in the lead up to LeBron's announcement said that James met with Dwyane Wade and other free agent players to coordinate their contract demands and more. Wade and Chris Bosh signed with the Miami Heat before James' announcement. Season tickets for Heat games sold out in half a day, also before James' announcement. So roster decisions are set by a cabal of players rather than teams. If James, Wade and Bosh were companies instead of individuals, their actions would have been an illegal conspiracy in restraint of trade.

How is this good for the NBA? Live by the sword, die by the sword. The NBA fosters player cults more than a sense of team or even of titles, or defense. The average NBA team is valued at $350 million or so. Its top stars have contracts worth one-third of that. Those same stars have endorsement deals that may match the value of their contracts. The league lives by player cults, but the players aren't as dependent on the NBA as in the NFL. That doesn't strike me as healthy business climate.

More of these nine-figure contracts for the NBA's biggest stars mean lesser deals for the grunts who fill out the roster.

How is it that the LeBron James and not the NBA promoted that whole ESPN show? I can't image that the NFL, and certainly not a Daniel Snyder, would have let that golden goose slip through its fingers.

Poor Cleveland--LeBron leaves a legion of heartbroken fans in Cleveland, for whom I feel genuinely sorry. But how could the Cavaliers leave themselves so vulnerable? Crain's Detroit Business suggests that the Cavaliers will lose $250 million in value simply by losing LeBron. James was the one positive face Cleveland put out to the world. There's no Brady Quinn to fill the void. Eric Mangini is a void from an image standpoint.

How could a well-managed team have it's value so tied up to a single player and lose him? How can Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who couldn't win a title in seven seasons with LeBron, guarantee to win a championship before LeBron gets one in Miami?

Would Tom Izzo have made a difference? Uh, no. Gilbert is a Michigan State grad. For a brief moment, the Cavaliers dangled the head coaching job in front of Spartans men's basketball coach Tom Izzo who wisely declined. Gilbert is a big supporter of Spartan sports, I bet. So Izzo would have had to talk to Gilbert as a courtesy if nothing else. But Izzo reportedly couldn't get LeBron to return his calls at the moment the king was orchestrating his future. It seems that neither Gilbert nor any coach he brings in factored in LeBron's thinking.

I like the effort. but it was a waste of effort.

Sigh! Twenty more days 'til training camp.

Point After: profootballtalk.nbcsports.com--LeBron situation brings player-to-player tampering into focus

Or not.

It's too soon to say. That doesn't stop sports handicappers from projecting how the NFL 2010 season will end. Football tout Vernon Croy is the latest to offer something, in this case his final standings of the NFC East:

1. Dallas Cowboys -- 10-6
2. Philadelphia Eagles -- 10-6
3. New York Giants -- 8-8
4. Washington Redskins -- 6-10

I never heard of Croy. Even if he's the smartest man in football, isn't it too soon to say?

The Cowboys had the best finish in 2009. The Redskins made the best moves of the offseason. But that's just on paper. Football isn't played on paper. It's played on television.

Can we, like, see a preseason game before we project how the regular season will play out?

I like a lot of the moves of Dannyhan's first season. Oh yes, boys and girls, the Danny is still in the background. But Washington hasn't paid stupid money to another over-hyped star from somebody else's team who will save the season. They have brought in a lot of older players who might be role contributors, or who might be another bust.

For my part, I'm going on the assumption that the moves thus far brought the Redskins back to level ground; meaning the Skins have a shot at 8-8. It's not like we're saying Super Bowl for sure. Nor are we saying that they sure won't be there either.

We just want to see these guys on this roster run plays from this playbook in a game before drawing any conclusions. Until then, we don't know jack.

The Redskins have thrown a lot of resources at their putrid offensive line from the last two years in a desperate attempt to make it seem not quite so awful this year.  Their efforts landed them G Kory Lichtensteiger and G-T Artis Hicks in free agency, and then T Trent Williams, G Erik Cook, and T Selvish Capers in the draft.  They they traded a pick or three for T Jamaal Brown.  If you're keeping track, that's six offensive lineman who weren't on the team next year, of which the team is likely to keep five for the season, which could be more than 50% of the entire line.

Change is much welcome to a unit that never really seemed to get any better...or even to be all that interested in a sustained improvement.  Out are the veterans who couldn't stay healthy (Chris Samuels retires, while Randy Thomas is likely to retire after being released), and who started this whole mess.  Also gone is Levi Jones, whose contract has expired after playing in just ten games with the Redskins.

Furthermore, the team pushed out...actually, that's it for players pushed out by the Redskins.  They got rid of three players, all veterans, one of whom a 6-time pro bowler who retired, most recently making the pro bowl way back in 2008.  Everyone else is back.  Casey Rabach and Mike Williams both contributed to the line's struggles last year, but at least offered the saving grace of expired contracts.  They've been extended, each for three...more...years.

Despite the change to the roster, this is pretty much the same interior group that played last year: it's going to be Derrick Dockery, Casey Rabach, and Mike Williams in the middle of the line.  Dockery and Rabach work well together, at least, though neither is as valuable as was Pete Kendall just two years ago.  Williams offers some upside at guard: he's only 29 and was at one point considered to be an elite LT coming out of college -- it's still possible he takes to the Right Guard position and dominates like he was always supposed to.  But overall, that's just not very good on the interior.  Dallas probably has the best interior OL in the division, but what the Redskins offer isn't even comparable to the three guys on the interior of the New York Giants line.

Where the Redskins make up their ground on the NFC East, and the rest of the conference, is at the tackle position, where there just aren't very many good offensive tackles.  The Redskins should have great confidence that between Doug Free, Jason Peters, and David Diehl, it's not going to take Trent Williams long to establish himself as the premier LT in the division.  And at right tackle, where the Redskins had been starting Stephon Heyer, there is now no discernible advantage for any of the four teams between Kareem McKenzie, Marc Columbo, Winston Justice, and Brown.  That might sound a little like I'm underselling Brown, but that's a huge improvement to cut down that gap at RT between the Redskins and the NFC East to meaningless: one that probably makes another 0-6 record against division opponents unrealistic based on the similarities in the roster.

Position by position -- or how most fans try to compare offensive lines -- the Redskins don't appear to stack up well against the rest of the NFC East.  However, offensive lines tend to function more as units than as a group of individuals, which is what makes player evaluation so difficult for the untrained eye.  For every person who thinks, on paper, that Jamaal Brown is a better player than Kareem McKenzie because he has played in more pro bowls; ignoring, of course, that the pro bowl honor is biased towards the left tackles in a high powered offense, is failing to understand the evaluation of single players.  But evaluating offensive lines is so much more than knowing that "the Giants have better players, so they have the better unit".  Injuries disproportionately affect the quality of offensive lines versus other positions.  So when you have a heavily injured OL unit, you don't just lose the talented first stringers.  You lose the talented first stringer that gets hurt AND the combined value of his relationship with both of his linemates on either side.

If Randy Thomas gets hurt in Week 1 (imagine that), the Redskins have to replace Thomas with Will Montgomery, a large downgrade in skill, they also lose all the accrued value that Thomas has with Rabach and that Thomas has with Stephon Heyer in working the same blocking scheme.  Montgomery has none of that.  If he had, instead, gone through the whole offseason as the starting RG, he would have had value with Casey Rabach and value with Stephon Heyer, despite a lack of talent.  This is a big principle that Vinny Cerrato was leaning on when he built the lines the last two years: if less-than-talented players can stay healthy and play together, he can get more out of the whole than the sum of its parts.  When Thomas got hurt early, those ideas were brought into question.  When Samuels got hurt, they were crushed.  When Joe Bugel and Jim Zorn failed to agree on a starting RG...well, the offense never did find it's stride.

By getting rid of their oft-injured linemen, the Redskins decrease their terrible OL attrition rate, and give themselves a better chance to outperform teams in their division over the course of the year.  Derrick Dockery and Casey Rabach are hardly ever hurt, no matter how much each struggles individually.  Jammal Brown misses games but he also has multiple 16 game seasons in his career.  Trent Williams was a college workhorse.  Mike Williams is the wild card here, of course, but he might lose his job to Artis Hicks.

Based on this, even though they hardly have the most talented offensive line, they have a durable one, and have invested enough in improvements for this year to really make a difference in the hierarchy of NFC East offensive lines.  To be ranked number one in the division at year's end is something that probably won't be achieved.  It's much more likely, however, than just a year ago.

There will be incremental improvement in the offensive line -- and at least the opportunity to be very, very good.

Today's column by Washington Post sportswriter Mike Wise points to a statistic you won't read on sports pages:

"...78 percent of all NFL players go bankrupt or are in financial duress just two years into retirement."

Whoa! That's the kind of thing you expect to hear about boxers. Don't NFL guys go to college (classes)?

Wise says that Joe Gibbs quietly returned to Redskins Park last month to coach a few players on money management and financial savvy. It's like Gibbs to do that sort of thing. And the need is so great.

Wise points out that Albert Haynesworth is the target of several lawsuits. Mark Brunell filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after investments went bad. Gibbs himself faced a similar situation in 1981when he naively allowed others to commit him to bad business obligations. He was too busy trying to win Super Bowls. Read Wise's story at washingtonpost.com.

Here at Redskins Hog Heaven, we spend a lot of time in thoughtful analysis about this team. Today we're just pointing out that NFL teams are no different than other large employers who make their bucks through a talent-rich workforce. The Redskins failings in the Snyder era rise from poor organizational management. This may be one thing they are getting right.

It's hard to find good help these days. It's more costly to replace elite talent than to keep it. Whether you are a football team or consulting firm, when your high revenue players face trouble, you try to help them before you think about firing them. That's a pure business calculation.

That's why Albert Haynesworth is still here, though I'm not sure he wants to be helped. (No, he was not at the Gibbs sessions.)

It's why the Washington Redskins are taking a chance with Larry Johnson who was every bit as disruptive to the Kansas City Chiefs last season as Haynesworth is now. Hey, General McChrystal was fired for making similar comments about his civilian bosses as Johnson's did about his KC coaches. Both McChrystal and Johnson suffered similar fates.

Brandon Lloyd was an untalented diva. It was worth giving him two seasons to make a go of it in Washington. Clinton Portis was a talented diva; "was" being the operative word, we hope.

Employees are going to mess up. If they are worth keeping, they are worth helping, whether it's for money management skills, or for a life out of control.

That's just good management.

[hype]

Don Coryell, 85, one of the bright minds of modern football offense, passed away. Tributes about him will mention the mentor relationship he enjoyed with Joe Gibbs. Few will mention how deeply Coryell's coaching tree was embedded in the Washington Redskins' DNA until purged by Daniel Snyder in 2008. Fewer still will mention that Coryell was a menace to the Redskins before he was our friend.

The NFL Beast owes its reputation as much to Coryell as to George Allen and Tom Landry. Allen was one of the few coaches who never had a losing season while with Washington. Yet Allen's Over-The-Hill-Gang won but one uncontested division title. Coryell made the contest an annual three-way race between the Redskins, Cowboys and the once woeful St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis took the division in 1974 and 1975.

The '74 Cardinals and Redskins finished 10-4. Coryell swept Allen that year so the Cards took the title. Allen and Coryell split their series in '75. The Cardinals finished the year atop the Beast at 11-3. Washington finished at 8-6 for division third place.

Escaping notice in the brouhaha were Coryell assistants Joe Gibbs, offensive backfield coach, and Jim Hanifan, offensive line coach. As offensive backfield coach, Gibbs mentored Terry Metcalf who ended his pro career in Washington in 1981, Gibbs first year as head coach.

A loss to the Redskins ended the Cardinals 1977 playoff hopes and Coryell's tenure in St. Louis. Gibbs spent time in purgatory as offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There he tried to run Coryell's offense without Coryell's players.

Head coach John McKay dispatched Gibbs to scout a bright quarterback prospect from Grambling University. Gibbs did so and returned raving about the guy, Doug Williams. Tampa Bay broke the color line when they drafted Williams as quarterback in the first round of the 1978 NFL Draft.

Williams made things better for the Buccaneers, but Tampa was still Tampa. Under pressure, McKay decided to call the Bucs' offensive plays for the 1978 season. Gibbs moved on the offensive coordinator for Coryell and the San Diego Chargers.

Air Coryell reached high art form with the Chargers. And it brought Joe Gibbs to Jack Kent Cooke's attention when The Squire went coach-shopping after firing Jack Pardee in 1980. Al Saunders replaced Gibbs as OC for the Chargers when Gibbs took the Redskins job.

Big armed Doug Williams was the hero of the 1988 Super Bowl. Jim Hanifan was the Redskins offensive line coach for the 1991 Super Bowl year when The Hogs O-line reached their highest level of performance.

When Gibbs stepped down from coaching in 1992, Cooke sought to duplicate the Gibbs magic by hiring Coryell disciple Norv Turner.

Turner inherited an aging team with salary cap problems and an ownership in turmoil after old Jack's death in 1997. Washington's top draft picks, Heath Schuler, Desmond Howard, Michael Westbrook, who looked so good on paper were never equal to the Down Field Offense Turner tried to run.

Gibbs returned in 2004. His wide receivers, Laveranues Coles and Rod Gardner, balked at Gibbs' offensive concepts. They thought it was too ground-oriented for a Down Field Offense. (Where do players get off criticizing coaching schemes?) Gibbs brought in Al Saunders hoping for the scortching offense Saunders ran in San Diego and Kansas City. He never let Saunders fully open his playbook.

Dan Snyder fired Saunders as soon as Gibbs stepped down after the 2007 season. That ended the 26 year influence of the Coryell system in Washington.

Redskins Hog Heaven offers our condolences to the Coryell family.

Point After: Read about Don Coryell's influence on Joe Gibbs in my 2006 story Joe Gibbs' Coaching Pedigree. 

[hype]

Knowing that the team is woefully incomplete, especially at wide receiver, ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that the Redskins are one of three teams sniffing around WR Vincent Jackson.  Jackson, who is a free agent, is tied at the hip to a Chargers team that has been slow to pay him by his restricted designation: it is past the deadline to accept offers from around the league.  Jackson can only sign his RFA tender with the Chargers or sign a long-term contract with the Chargers.  Jackson, who wants a long-term deal, isn't finding what he wants in San Diego, so he's holding off on signing his tender -- possibly into the season.

Strangely, the Chargers seem more willing to work with other teams at hammering out compensation than they are willing to work out a deal with Jackson.  According to Schefter, the Chargers are still asking for a 1st round pick and a 3rd round pick to trade Jackson.  They're not going to get that, as a team could have signed Jackson to a deal prior to the 2010 NFL Draft, given up the same compensation, and they wouldn't have to go through the Chargers.  Jackson is probably worth more than a first round pick -- he's just 27, but the Chargers might need to drop their asking price to a first round pick (or equivelent value) just to find a trade partner.

When the Chargers drop the price tag on Jackson, I hope the Redskins get involved.  He's exactly what this team needs.  But the Redskins need to lean toward creativity in coming up with a suitable trade package, rather than just loading up on picks to send over to San Diego in exchange for Jackson.  It's the team's top two 2011 draft picks that are more important than any player on the team right now, and can't be dealt as part of a Jackson trade.

Here's how I would approach this: I would start my package for Jackson with a 2012 first round pick, which gives the Chargers the future value that they require in a trade, but doesn't kill the flexibility the Redskins absolutely need in next year's draft.  Right now, the Redskins hold 2 picks in the first 130 and are unlikely to receive additional picks.  The last thing the Redskins should be doing is forcing themselves into a single player in those rounds -- those two rounds are the surest things of all the draft rounds, and so the price tag on a player like Jackson needs to be wary of this.

The Skins can try to leverage the fact that while they are receiving a top talent, they are also are solving a problem for the Chargers with Jackson's contract issue, a fan base that is tiring of some off the field transgressions, and a looming 4 game suspension, and that there's a limited amount of suitors for a guy who is under team control this year, and has that baggage.

There are two things I've heard about a potential deal that would send Jackson to the Redskins.  The first, a news item, is that Jackson has been working out with Donovan McNabb at his camp in Arizona, which is probably the things that's fueling these rumors: these guys know each other.  Shanahan knows Jackson from his AFC West days.  The Redskins are sniffing around receivers of all sorts, and this deal just makes a bunch of sense for them.  This workout thing placing Jackson with the quarterback of the Redskins in the middle of the offseason is pretty benign, but because Jackson doesn't have a contract to tamper with, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that this meeting could have been both intentional and a precursor to a  transaction.  It's got no meaning to those who don't like a good conspiracy, it's actually just convienient.

That's one thing.  The other thing to keep in mind here is that San Diego plays a 30 front, meaning they will not be dabbling around one Albert Haynesworth.  Seemingly, that would limit the players that they would be interested in to recent Redskins draft picks, including a swap that sends a 2012 pick and Carlos Rogers or LaRon Landry, or possibly someone like Chris Horton or HB Blades on the defensive end, where the Chargers need the help.  You'd also like to offer the Chargers their pick of Malcolm Kelly or Devin Thomas in the deal, because they probably would not want to pay Santana Moss.

Those would be some creative trades, but Mike Shanahan has done better.  You probably remember that Jay Cutler was the 11th pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, after the Broncos entered that draft with two first round picks (one of which from the Redskins).  You might not remember that the Broncos didn't have to move the pick they received from the Redskins to move up.  Instead, they finagled a trade up from their own late draft pick 29th in the John Abraham trade -- even though they never traded, nor received John Abraham.  The Broncos played the intermediary party in a three way trade, giving up a second and a third rounder to go up about 15 picks in that round, putting them in position to get a quarterback they coveted.

In this case, a three way trade would allow the Redskins to move Albert Haynesworth in a trade that nets Vincent Jackson.  Although I wrote recently that Haynesworth wouldn't be traded because its not in the interest of the Redskins to move him, that trade value is relative.  If a team like Oakland or Seattle decides that they are better off with Haynesworth than a draft pick, they could opt to send that pick (or two) to San Diego in addition to a pick the Redskins throw in, in order to land Haynesworth in their 40 front.  Haynesworth's contract is a great incentive for those west coast teams to make that deal because the Redskins would be selling him at a major discount because of the timing: they are probably better off with Jackson than Haynesworth from a football standpoint, even though they are much better off with Albert than without him from the same perspective.  So the Redskins sell a really good contract at a discount, a team that's looking to get back to the postseason buys on him, and the Chargers receive multiple picks for a player they don't want to throw a long term contract.

It's that universal benefit principle that gives that rumor some legs, but the Redskins would have to find a suitor for Haynesworth, who is willing to grab a great contract, understanding that they need to accept the risk that Haynesworth comes in out of shape.

If the Redskins can pull Jackson from the Chargers, the effort put into making the trade would be well rewarded, but the team's past deals for far lesser veterans makes it difficult to again meet a rival's asking price for draft compensation.  It's unfortunate that the line needs to be drawn on a really good player like Jackson, but if the Chargers won't work with the Redskins to send him outside of the conference, the Redskins can't afford to make McNabb to Jackson any more than an offseason reality.