[sportscurmudgeon]

Defensewins:

You are on the mark here, my man. The reason this team is 1-4 this year - after a wonderful 5-11 season last year - is that the players on the field are not good enough to be 5-0. The coaching is better; the players as a whole are better but they are still not anything special.

Much of the frustration on this board comes from the knee-jerk reaction of too many fans to take any trade or draft or signing by the Redskins and look at it so unrealistically that expectations cannot possibly be met. Yes, I know, that's what fans always do. But if you temper the reactions just a tad, you don't have to go into a depression when expecations are not met.

Look at the players on this team as if you were the GM of another team that thinks it is only a player or two away from a conference chammpionship or a Super Bowl championship. What Redskins' players would you be frothing at the mouth to add to your team? Don't hyperventilate here:

Receivers: None. Coles is far and away the best of this lot and he is not likely to be the guy to put a team in that state "over the top".

Tight Ends: None. Maybe - I said MAYBE - some day Cooley fits that description but not now. There are 16 NFC teams. As of this weekend he might be the 10th best TE.

Offensive Linemen: Jansen. That's it; that's the list. And Jansen isn't playing this year.

QB: None. No discussion needed here.

RBs: Portis. End of message. Anyone who begins to type out a response that has the word "Rock" or "Sultan" in it is dreaming.

Defensive linemen: None. Do not tell me how much better someone on this line is when compared to the Easter Island Statues who played there last year. None of these guys are difference-makers. None.

LBs: Arrington and Washington. If you already had three good linebackers on your team and thought you needed a 4th as a back-up to get over the hump, you could put Pierce on this list too. But Pierce is not the guy to carry a team to the Super Bowl.

DBs: Smoot (maybe) and Springs (maybe). Both guys play hard and both can have good games but I'm not sure they are guys other teams would be frothing at the mouth to sign.

Safeties: None. Not even Ade Jimoh. Sean Taylor has potential but sadly for Redskin fans this year, "potential" means he hasn't achieved anything yet.

So, you have a 53 man roster and on that squad you have about 4 guys that other teams ought to go after with gusto given the chance and another 4 or 5 who would not be bad guys to add to an already good team. That's why the team in 1-4.

And the reason it hurts a lot of folks so much is that they drank the Kool-Aid when:

Ramsey had a good game last year and then they anointed him as the 2nd coming of John Unitas and

Chris Samuels went to the Pro-Bowl even though he wasn't really that outstanding and

Sean Taylor intercepted two passes in an exhibition game from a QB and to a receiver who may never take a snap in a real game and

Bruce Smith/Deion/Jeff George brought their gaudy stats from long ago to town.