Franz Gone

[Schneed10]

Losing key players is not necessarily a driver of wins and losses, see the Pittsburgh Steelers. They lose players every single year, and yet they went to the AFC Championship this year.

Signing big-name guys is not necessarily a driver of wins and losses. We know that pretty well, look at 2000. Deion, Jeff George, Mark Carrier, Bruce Smith, and we were mediocre!

The driver for wins and losses is coaching and teaching in today's NFL. You have so much player turnover these days that whoever can most effectively get their players on the same page is a step or two ahead. That takes a great coach, and you need stability in the coaching staff in order to get players on the same page, look at Belichick, Reid, and Cowher, all been with their teams for several years now. I think we've got the coaches, they're proven. Now we just need some time.

It also helps to be able to draft talent and otherwise unearth it cheaply. It remains to be seen how effective we'll be in that department.

I think the Skins will be better this year regardless of which players were brought in and which left. They'll be better because they're in Gibbs' second year, they have the same D coordinator as last year, and Ramsey has a year of experience in Gibbs' offense.