NFL.com's Redskins Season Preview

[irish]

I agree with the assessments, this is an 8-8 team. If they get some breaks they could get to 10 wins but if they stumble then they could only get to 6 wins. Either way, I think 8-8 is a pretty fair prediction.

[FRPLG]

I think the line between a 8-8 team and a 12-4 team is pretty thin. Mostly I think that line is made up of experience, chemistry and confidence. It takes one good season to start putting those three things together. We have talent to win 12 games (healthy). We're probably an 8-8 type team though. We could also fold up and win 4 games. It really comes down to just doing it.

[MTK]

I'm still amazed that some don't see Dockery as an upgrade over Kendall, who at 36 is still a serviceable lineman, but he's also one with arthritic knees and is undersized at 285. Dockery gives us much needed beef up front and he's definitely an upgrade in my book.

While no big moves on offense were made that doesn't mean there won't be any improvements this year. The continued development of Thomas, Kelly, Davis, and Heyer is what is going to pay dividends, and of course JC finally having a 2nd season in the same system should reap some benefits as well.

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

I'm still amazed that some don't see Dockery as an upgrade over Kendall, who at 36 is still a serviceable lineman, but he's also one with arthritic knees and is undersized at 285. Dockery gives us much needed beef up front and he's definitely an upgrade in my book.

While no big moves on offense were made that doesn't mean there won't be any improvements this year. The continued development of Thomas, Kelly, Davis, and Heyer is what is going to pay dividends, and of course JC finally having a 2nd season in the same system should reap some benefits as well.

I absolutely agree with this post. Didn't Kendall have to take Wed practices off? Not saying he was not good at his position, but if Samuels, Dockery, and Rabach practice together every day, the cohesiveness of the unit has to improve, imo.

Also, our 2nd year players have shown very good signs this preseason, so we should see good things there. I really think that our schedule gives us another advantage. After the Giants, we play a lot of teams that will likely not be contenders. This will give our team more time to get "on the same page". It should almost be like a real-time pre-season.

On my wishful days, I would hope we could blow out the Lions and Rams and Chiefs, and be resting some of our starters, like Samuels, Haynesworth, and CP some in the 4th quarters. I know blowout and Redskins hasn't been very synonymous recently. But I hope so.

I think we should be no less then 5-2 at our bye, and I hope maybe even a little bit rested.

[roth74va]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

I'm still amazed that some don't see Dockery as an upgrade over Kendall, who at 36 is still a serviceable lineman, but he's also one with arthritic knees and is undersized at 285. Dockery gives us much needed beef up front and he's definitely an upgrade in my book.

While no big moves on offense were made that doesn't mean there won't be any improvements this year. The continued development of Thomas, Kelly, Davis, and Heyer is what is going to pay dividends, and of course JC finally having a 2nd season in the same system should reap some benefits as well.

This was my point exactly, couple seasons ago and Dockery was the prize LG free agent. I like his run blocking more than anything, if he can just keep the penalties to a minimum I think he will return to his old form. As for the receivers, we have no where to go but up. We know they contributed pretty much ZIPPY last year, so anything we get from them will be more. Receivers are notorious slow starters in the NFL, its just the way it is. Campbell being in the same system is huge IMO, having familiarity with an offensive scheme is vastly underrated. I dont know if we even ran some of those plays we saw against NE. And to build from this, Zorns playcalling should be improved as well. It seems like he is calling plays that do cater to JC's abilities, as others have mentioned. Overall....I agree its only a couple plays between 6-10 and 10-6, hopefully we can stay healthy.

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

I'm still amazed that some don't see Dockery as an upgrade over Kendall, who at 36 is still a serviceable lineman, but he's also one with arthritic knees and is undersized at 285. Dockery gives us much needed beef up front and he's definitely an upgrade in my book.

Originally Posted by roth74va

This was my point exactly, couple seasons ago and Dockery was the prize LG free agent. I like his run blocking more than anything, if he can just keep the penalties to a minimum I think he will return to his old form.

Alright, I know this will be taken as "hate" for Dockery, it isn't, but let's remember how shocked we all were when the Buffalo Bills put up an unbelievable sum of money to lure Dockery away from us. After he left, the consensus was that he was a good player, not a great one. Now he's older, he bombed out in Buffalo, and suddenly he's a "huge upgrade" ??

Yes he'll likely be more durable than Kendall was going to be. He'll hold his own, and be a solid contributor. But I don't agree that Dockery represents a boost in overall talent/skill or that he is going to be some sort of key to a more dynamic offense.

[artmonkforhallofamein07]

On the Dockery agruement. When Doc was here in his last stint with the Redskins, we had one of the best lines in football. Doc was a very important peice of that puzzle. One of the problems is still the age. None of our guys got any younger, but iwth that said I do believe that if we get out to another good start that the lessons learned after last years break down in the second half of the season will help the team.

I believe we will have a good football team this year. Last year before the collapse the team was ranked by all of the major Power pols in the top 5 from week 3- 8.

If we can keep this thing together and everybody steps up i see no reason why in a wide open NFC that we don't have a chance to be a major factor and contender for the NFC east title and beyond. This team has talent. I am very optpmistic and I like alot of what this team has done in the last few off-seasons. We are building depth and continuity. Let's get behind this football team, and not listen to all the guys who relly don't know what we are building here.

I can see us at 11-5 by years end. Hopefully 12-4. Realistic chance of this guys! HTTR!

[NWFanMan]

Punter/Holder is an upgrade....HOw many games did we put ourselves into bad situations at the end of games due to poor Special Teams....punting & field goals. I bet we lost 2 games because of it.

11-5 is my prediction...including Week 1 win over Giants!

What's up with Osi Uman...whatever and is walking out of practice....will he miss 1st week do to disipline?

[CRedskinsRule]

I think it's funny that the "experts" slam the Skins every year for the off-season Superbowl comments, but when we rely on program development, and players improving in our system, the comment is that we didn't "do anything" to improve those areas. Its one of those no-win situations. I doubt any moves we could have made would have changed our supposed position in the division.

I personally think we should be a 10+ win team, and at the bye we will be leading the division.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by CRedskinsRule

I think it's funny that the "experts" slam the Skins every year for the off-season Superbowl comments, but when we rely on program development, and players improving in our system, the comment is that we didn't "do anything" to improve those areas. Its one of those no-win situations. I doubt any moves we could have made would have changed our supposed position in the division.

I personally think we should be a 10+ win team, and at the bye we will be leading the division.

Correctamundo on the "no-win" situation. The only way to change that is to win on the field. I think we'll do that this year at least 10 times.

Bring on the New York Dwarfs! HTTR!

[53Fan]

Originally Posted by CRedskinsRule

I think it's funny that the "experts" slam the Skins every year for the off-season Superbowl comments, but when we rely on program development, and players improving in our system, the comment is that we didn't "do anything" to improve those areas. Its one of those no-win situations. I doubt any moves we could have made would have changed our supposed position in the division.

I personally think we should be a 10+ win team, and at the bye we will be leading the division.

I agree. And with the lack of production we got out of our 3 2nd round picks last year, if they step up as it looks like they're going to, that's like adding 3 players this year. Add Mitchell to the list and how is this not an upgrade? Granted they haven't done it in the season yet, but they wouldn't have to do but so much for it to be an upgrade over last year. And Dockery is definitely an upgrade over Kendall with the beef he brings.

[#56fanatic]

I really honestly can not get over the fact that some/most of the Redskin fans here really think we are better than what these guys have said. Look back and we haven't done anything to justify someone calling our names in the playoff picture. We have made the playoffs twice in the last 10 years, and took to miraculous runs at the end of the season to make it. Every year we are around 7-9, or 8-8. We have HUGE question marks at QB and receivers, and the O-line. Stop being delusional and look at it realistically for once. Dallas may be over hyped a bit, but their QB play is going to be better, the one two punch with Barber and Jones is pretty damn good. They have questions at receiver, but the D should be decent. The Giants are the Giants. Good running game, QB play, and very good O-Line and excellent D Line, and probably have one of the better D's in the league. The Eagles have one of the best playmakers in Westbrook (if healthy) and two explosive WR and good TE, plus McNabb. I would say 3rd or 4th in the division is a fair assesment, that is until we start playing consistant football every year.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by #56fanatic

I really honestly can not get over the fact that some/most of the Redskin fans here really think we are better than what these guys have said. Look back and we haven't done anything to justify someone calling our names in the playoff picture. We have made the playoffs twice in the last 10 years, and took to miraculous runs at the end of the season to make it. Every year we are around 7-9, or 8-8. We have HUGE question marks at QB and receivers, and the O-line. Stop being delusional and look at it realistically for once. Dallas may be over hyped a bit, but their QB play is going to be better, the one two punch with Barber and Jones is pretty damn good. They have questions at receiver, but the D should be decent. The Giants are the Giants. Good running game, QB play, and very good O-Line and excellent D Line, and probably have one of the better D's in the league. The Eagles have one of the best playmakers in Westbrook (if healthy) and two explosive WR and good TE, plus McNabb. I would say 3rd or 4th in the division is a fair assesment, that is until we start playing consistant football every year.

Kinda funny how you can quickly point out positives for everyone else, but for the Skins all you can point out is the question marks and you feel the need to downplay any success they've had.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by #56fanatic

I really honestly can not get over the fact that some/most of the Redskin fans here really think we are better than what these guys have said. Look back and we haven't done anything to justify someone calling our names in the playoff picture. We have made the playoffs twice in the last 10 years, and took to miraculous runs at the end of the season to make it. Every year we are around 7-9, or 8-8. We have HUGE question marks at QB and receivers, and the O-line. Stop being delusional and look at it realistically for once. Dallas may be over hyped a bit, but their QB play is going to be better, the one two punch with Barber and Jones is pretty damn good. They have questions at receiver, but the D should be decent. The Giants are the Giants. Good running game, QB play, and very good O-Line and excellent D Line, and probably have one of the better D's in the league. The Eagles have one of the best playmakers in Westbrook (if healthy) and two explosive WR and good TE, plus McNabb. I would say 3rd or 4th in the division is a fair assesment, that is until we start playing consistant football every year.

- Two playoff appearances in the last for years

- How are you so sure the Cowboys QB play will be better, yet ours won't?

- Cowboys "have questions at receiver, but the D should be decent"...you can say the same about us

- "The Giants are the Giants" True, but they probably have the most questions at WR. Still, thy should be a lock to win the division

- "The Eagles have one of the best playmakers in Westbrook (if healthy) and two explosive WR and good TE, plus McNabb. "...But Westbrook doesn't stay healthy, one of their explosive WRs has yet to do a thing in the NFL (Maclin), we have a good TE as well, the Eagles still have to figure out how to use both Vick without upsetting McNabb and if they continue with a 3:1 pass to run ratio I could see them losing some key games

I think after the Giants, the other three teams are all in pretty close contention for 2nd place and a wild card spot. We only finished 1.5 games behind the 2nd place Eagles last year and we've done as much as they have, if not more, to improve our team. So it's not crazy to think we can pass them

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by #56fanatic

I really honestly can not get over the fact that some/most of the Redskin fans here really think we are better than what these guys have said. Look back and we haven't done anything to justify someone calling our names in the playoff picture. We have made the playoffs twice in the last 10 years, and took to miraculous runs at the end of the season to make it.

As Smoot said, if you want to stretch a point you could say 2 in 10, but reality is 2 in 4, with a playoff win. Cowboys haven't done that.

Every year we are around 7-9, or 8-8. We have HUGE question marks at QB and receivers, and the O-line. Stop being delusional and look at it realistically for once.

Realistically, our worse case should be 8-8, as we are playing a similar schedule to last year(actually easier) and we did not alter our team for the worst in any area(maybe secondary, but that's to be seen)

Realistically Dallas may be over hyped a bit, but their QB play is going to be better, the one two punch with Barber and Jones is pretty damn good. They have questions at receiver, but the D should be decent.

Wow, so a 9-7 team, that has missed the playoffs 2 times in the last 4 years, with NO playoff wins. Has declined each year with WP at coach, lost once to us. Made no visible addition to their roster last year while releasing their most productive receiver. That team is now a lock to be above us in the standings, when if we had won the SF game we would have drafted after them. hmmm

The Giants are the Giants. Good running game, QB play, and very good O-Line and excellent D Line, and probably have one of the better D's in the league.

The Giants are the Giants, we have not beaten them in two years. I believe that will change this year, but ok. they get the nod.

The Eagles have one of the best playmakers in Westbrook (if healthy) and two explosive WR and good TE, plus McNabb.

Didn't we beat them twice last year, plus lost their DC, their MLB, their "heart" SS. hmmm

I would say 3rd or 4th in the division is a fair assesment, that is until we start playing consistant football every year.

I agree we have to play consistent football. And that starts by playing the same system two years in a row. The team should be more comfortable, confident, and if last year we were 8-8, we should at least win one more game this year, which would have put us 3rd. 2 games, and we are 2nd. and if one of those two are against the Giants, we are shooting for first. I think that is realistic.