Outlook For 2014 & Beyond

[cdskins26]

Sorry to create another thread but wasn't completely sure where to post this in one.

This season was as depressing and bleak as any season I have ever experienced as a Redskins fan, with 2009 being the only reasonable comparison. At the same time, examining our team from top to bottom, this team is a lot different than the types of rosters inherited by Mike Shannahan in 2009, Jim Zorn in 2007, or Joe Gibbs in 2004. All of those teams were marginally more successful by record compared to this one, but all of them were teams in perennial cap hell, lacking a franchise quarterback or stuck believing in a guy who was unlikely to become it, and were heavy on overpaid underachieving guys.

What makes this time any different? Well we have a franchise quarterback who health and system permitting is as good a bet to be our "guy" for the next 8-10 years as anybody, not to mention the backup who fans would be clamoring to start over Donovan McNabb, Mark Brunell, etc. Along with this, we also have a young, talented running back who we didn't have to criminally over-pay for in a trade to get (Portis), as well as a Pro-Bowl Left Tackle. We have a solid 1B/2A receiver who despite everything put up great numbers this season, and a young Tight End who looked like a huge weapon for us before going down with a concussion.

Defensively we could use a lot of help fixing the patchwork secondary we rolled out, and I would prefer not even to go into detail about Special Teams, but that is what Free Agency is for. At this point I am looking at the Salary Cap penalty as a blessing in disguise, as without it, we would have spent all of that money last offseason, leaving Gruden with a lot less roster flexibility coming in.

In summary: We've got our quarterback, we've got our running back, along with some useful weapons on both sides of the ball. We have a young head coach that we seem to think really highly about, and we have a ton of flexibility this offseason with money, something we really enjoy spending. Basically we have all the things we never had under the old regimes, the pieces that are a little bit harder to acquire, and with good coaching and intellegent free agent choices, we have a lot more reasons to be optimistic today than we have in years past.