NFL.com's Redskins Season Preview

[roth74va]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

Well, let's be honest with ourselves -- we finished up as an 8-8 team. And we did basically nothing to upgrade the obvious weakness, which was offense.

Im seeing this differently, I do think we upgraded, actually in several ways.

Dockery is one upgrade, along with Jansen being gone, hopefully Heyer can continue to improve. But I think the biggest upgrade would be the 2nd year development of the young 2nd rounders, along with JC being in the 2nd year of a system for the first time in a long time. I think sometimes no turnover is a good thing, the weapons are there, hopefully everyone can jell and make this year something special.

Im gonna go with 10-6, hail to the Redskins!

[Hail to the Redskins]

Well let's break it down game-by-game (my predictions):

at NY Giants - Loss
St. Louis - Win
at Detroit - Win
Tampa Bay - Win
at Carolina - Win (flip a coin here w/ Delhomme vs our D)
Kansas City - Win
Philadelphia - Win
at Atlanta - Loss
Denver - Win
at Dallas - Loss
at Philadelphia - Loss
New Orleans - Loss
at Oakland - Win
NY Giants - Loss
Dallas - Win
at San Diego - Loss

That's put us at 9-7... starting 6-1, but finishing 3-6. Obviously, any of these games could go either way, but this is what my logic says in these games.

We lose the Carolina game, but win all of the other ones I said would put us at 8-8 just like the "experts" say.

Question is, if we finish 8-8, is Zorn our HC next year & is JC our QB next year?

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by roth74va

Im seeing this differently, I do think we upgraded, actually in several ways.

Dockery is one upgrade, along with Jansen being gone, hopefully Heyer can continue to improve. But I think the biggest upgrade would be the 2nd year development of the young 2nd rounders, along with JC being in the 2nd year of a system for the first time in a long time. I think sometimes no turnover is a good thing, the weapons are there, hopefully everyone can jell and make this year something special.

Im gonna go with 10-6, hail to the Redskins!

Well, we haven't exactly seen that yet.

Yes, they seem to be more involved this preseason. But if Kelly or Thomas can't supplant Randle Friggin' El, then we're back to square one.

So the point remains, we're counting on the same guys who couldn't produce last year to find another gear that nobody's seen.

[44Deezel]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

Well, we haven't exactly seen that yet.

Yes, they seem to be more involved this preseason. But if Kelly or Thomas can't supplant Randle Friggin' El, then we're back to square one.

So the point remains, we're counting on the same guys who couldn't produce last year to find another gear that nobody's seen.

Wasn't the team pretty good before the O line started falling apart? Even if the talent was exactly the same as last year, as long as the O line stays healthy, Samuels in particular, the Skins should at least be as good as they were during the 6-2 start.

And if the Defense is better and gets more turnovers and sacks and actually scores every now and again, the Offense will benefit and the points per game will go up. If the Skins averaged 3-5 points per game last year, they would have been in the playoffs. The Offense only needs to be marginally better then they were last year, and even if they're only as good as they were during the 6-2 start, they're still a playoff team.

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by 44Deezel

Wasn't the team pretty good before the O line started falling apart? Even if the talent was exactly the same as last year, as long as the O line stays healthy, Samuels in particular, the Skins should at least be as good as they were during the 6-2 start.

And if the Defense is better and gets more turnovers and sacks and actually scores every now and again, the Offense will benefit and the points per game will go up. If the Skins averaged 3-5 points per game last year, they would have been in the playoffs. The Offense only needs to be marginally better then they were last year, and even if they're only as good as they were during the 6-2 start, they're still a playoff team.

See above with regard to the health of the O-line. But no, I don't agree that if the rest of the talent stays the same, we'll be just fine. We MUST get help from Thomas and Kelly. Moss, Cooley, and Randle El just aren't enough to get the job done through the air. They have to be more than "marginally better". Even during the 6-2 run we weren't exactly a scoring machine.

Defensively, yes, we bet the house on Haynesworth and Orakpo to add the missing dimension of quarterback pressure. All I'm going to say is that they better be as good as advertised.