The Cardinals have a new coach, scheme and QB. That means extra prep work for Redskins.
Alex Smith warned against “chasing ghosts” as the Redskins get ready for the 2018 season opener against the Arizona Cardinals. But that’s kind of how it feels like preparing for an opponent with a first-time head coach and a new quarterback that has played all of four preseason games together.
Smith already has the challenge of taking over the Redskins, but now has even more work studying opponent game film than normal.
“A little bit of the unknown out there that you have to prepare for,” Smith said. “You try to touch all your bases and make sure you have your answers ready. At the same time, I think you can drive yourself crazy chasing ghosts and doing a lot of that stuff. You prepare the best you can. Try to hit all of it to a certain extent. Then go out there and, hopefully, you’ll find out pretty quick what the plan is.
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“I do think you let your fundamentals take over in situations like that, let your rules take over. Trust what you’re seeing. And then go and execute accordingly. A little bit like camp.”
The fact remains that it creates more prep work than normal. Steve Wilks is a first-time coach after spending the last six seasons in Carolina. He was the defensive coordinator in 2017 and the secondary coach the previous five seasons.
So, the Redskins had to study game tape of Carolina, but there will be different nuances even if the scheme remains the same. The Cardinals don’t have former defensive player of the year Luke Kuechly and three-time Pro Bowler Thomas Davis playing linebacker, but they do have seven-time Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Peterson and two-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Chandler Jones.
“We have to remember, basically, how those guys played when we played against them [in the past],” running back Chris Thompson said. “Kind of remember what we were dealing with as far as their personnel goes, how the guys play. … Then the other thing is, we have to go back and look at Carolina’s defense. … I guess you have to find a way to merge them both together.
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“It’s kind of hard to put it all together. … It’s more work.”
The defensive coaches have another challenge in studying for the offense. New quarterback Sam Bradford played just two games with the Vikings last year, but made 15 starts for Minnesota the year before and 14 starts with the Eagles in 2015. Running back David Johnson is the team’s best offensive weapon, having scored 20 touchdowns in 2016, but he played in just one game last year before suffering a season-ending wrist injury. New coordinator Mike McCoy spent four seasons as coach of the San Diego Chargers and five as the Denver Broncos’ offensive coordinator.
“Coaches know coaches,” linebacker Mason Foster explained. “[Defensive coordinator Greg] Manusky, all those guys, know how they run their schemes. You just watch where they were at before to get a feel for them. For the most part, teams add new wrinkles with different players and different weapons, but their core base is their core base.
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“You’ve got to shuffle stuff around, but for the most part, this is your job. This is what we do. … You want to watch as much stuff as possible until you get a good feel for it and go from there.”
Wilks said he doesn’t view the relative mystery surrounding his team’s playing style as an advantage.
“To be honest, you don’t really know what we’re going to do,” Wilks said. “You don’t know what they’re going to do. So, it’s all about trying to stick to your rules, your fundamentals and techniques.”
Wilks has been adamant about not calling his team’s situation a rebuild, but there’s no question the Cardinals are an organization in transition. The Redskins have the challenge of figuring out how that will translate to the playing field, and that includes researching several other teams. But they don’t want to over-prepare, either.
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“Sometimes you have too much film to look at,” Gruden said. “You’re not sure how they’re going to make all the pieces fit. You know, he doesn’t have the same personnel he had at Carolina that he has now. He’s got a talented football team, but it’s still a little different.
“I’m sure he’s made adjustments based on that, so it’s very important for our system to be sound no matter what we see and we have to adjust, possibly game time, at different looks we may have not seen.”
Read more on the Redskins:
Jordan Reed and Chris Thompson are cleared for Redskins’ opener versus Cardinals
Redskins’ 2018 schedule: Game-by-game analysis, plus win probabilities
Redskins sign former Browns draft pick Caleb Brantley
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