FanHouse ReedDoughty

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

The Redskins stormed out of the gate in Jim Zorn's first season as head coach, running their record to 6-2 at the halfway point. The second half of the season, unfortunately, was perfectly symmetrical -- they went 2-6 to finish 8-8.

They could have won three of those games in best-case scenarios, but the best teams come through instead of talking about what could have been. The reality is that the Redskins only played a half-season in '08.

Redskins safety Reed Doughty might be on injured reserve, but rehabbing a bad back hasn't affected his keen business sense. Or maybe he's just extremely lucky (other than not being able to play because he's hurt, obviously). Whatever, he's been a beneficiary of the club recently signing Shaun Alexander and DeAngelo Hall.

Alexander wore No. 37 in Seattle before his inglorious departure, and that just happened to be Doughty's number in Washington. One financial transaction later and Alexander had 37 and Doughty had moved on to 23. Fast-forward a few weeks, the Redskins sign Hall to a one-year deal, and he wanted to keep the number that brought him such good karma in Oakland.

Yep, that would be No. 23. Doughty dutifully obliged because, as he told the Sports Bog's Dan Steinberg, "I want to have my number, I like 23 ... But at the same time, we're building a house. I'd rather have furniture than a number." Fair point.

Meanwhile, Doughty's teammates' reaction ranged from incredulous to, well, just incredulous:

Redskins head coach Jim Zorn was the first Seattle Seahawks quarterback and played there for nine seasons. He also spent nine of the last 11 years as an assistant coach in Seattle.

Now you see why he went back to his roots to help out his current team. Today Washington signed three former Seattle Seahawks to fill in for injured Redskins.

The biggest name was running back Shaun Alexander. The Redskins signed the former MVP to back up Clinton Portis, who is having his own MVP-type season. Not only will Alexander rejoin Zorn but his former running backs coach in Seattle, Stump Mitchell. I'm not that thrilled of the signing, but I don't think it could hurt.

The Redskins also signed punter Ryan Plackemeier to replace rookie Durant Brooks. Plackemeier spent the last two seasons in Seattle but was, himself, cut after a poor showing in Week 1 of this season.

Last but not least, the Redskins added safety Mike Green. Green, the final pick of the 2000 draft, spent the last two seasons in Seattle. He missed all of 2006 with a lisfranc fracture and was a backup in 2007. He will replace Reed Doughty, who was placed on injured reserve.

If there was one highlight play in a very lackluster game last night, it was Brandon Jacobs bowling over LaRon Landry.

In the first quarter of the Giants 16-7 win over the Redskins, Jacobs got lose a bit and just blew up Landry -- who is known as somewhat of a big hitter himself. Well, Landry isn't going to live this one down for a while.

Of course none of the Skins' secondary will be giving him the business. Jacobs also jacked up Fred Smoot and Reed Doughty.

Okay. You just knew that the Washington Redskins couldn't resist dipping in the free agent pool. After being eerily quiet, there is finally a name out there of someone the Skins are targeting. It is ... Will Demps?

Safety Will Demps likely will be the first free agent to meet with the Washington Redskins this year when he visits Redskin Park later this week.

Demps, 28, played his first four seasons with the Baltimore Ravens before moving to the New York Giants in 2006 and the Houston Texans last season when he was a Pro Bowl alternate.

One of the Redskins holes is at the safety position. They need to find a guy to fill in the spot once owned by the late Sean Taylor. The 2007 first round draft pick LaRon Landry will most likely fill that role, but the team will need someone to take over next to him. Demps certainly could be that guy.

Washington used Reed Doughty last year and he played well. However, the depth at that position will most likely bolt via free agency.

All week I've been hearing and reading stuff about the upcoming Redskins-Cowboys game about how the Redskins secondary looked so bad against Minnesota that they should make Bledsoe look good again. The theory is that second-year CB Carlos Rogers won't be able to maintain T.O., let alone Kenny Wright or Mike Rumph.

Looking back at the Vikings game, Gregg Williams did not employ a lot of blitz packages. Brad Johnson was pretty much given a break because of the injuries suffered on our defensive side of the ball. With Pierson Prioleau going down early in the game and Shawn Springs still nursing his injury, that left zero depth in the secondary. If you blitz Rogers and Taylor, you have recently acquired Mike Rumph covering one-on-one with only Adam Archuleta covering the top. Not a good idea. The backup safeties are Vernon Fox and Reed Doughty, neither of whom has proven anything yet.

With Gregg Williams holding back on bringing the heat we're used to seeing, that left the pressure up to an injured Cornelius Griffin, Phillip Daniels and Renaldo Wynn. And where in the world is Andre Carter? Going against Steve Hutchinson, Matt Birk and Bryant McKinnie, you HAVE to bring some heat.