With a new head coach, new head coordinators on both sides of the ball, a new offense for a quarterback in his third year, and a retooled offensive line, the Redskins are in for a rough year.
Jim Zorn has never been an offensive coordinator in the league, much less a head coach, and his surprise promotion to the top position may speak more to the Redskins disorganization as a team more than his abilities as a head coach.
An interesting note is that the offensive and defensive coordinators were in place before Zorn's arrival, an unorthodox, even foolish, method of putting together a coaching staff.
The strengths of the team include running back, where Clinton Portis has been a stalwart the last couple of seasons, and has the opportunity to have a big year with the return of Jon Jansen to the offensive line.
Wide Receiver seems to be a fairly set position, with Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle-El holding down a unit sure to be bolstered by the upcoming draft.
As a complete unit, the now departed Gregg Williams coached an extremely solid Redskins defense, which allowed only 305.4 yards a game, good for seventh in the league.
If we look a little deeper, however, we see that this number is skewed by the Redskins' outstanding run defense, which covers up the very average pass defense.
Another weakness of the Redskins' front seven was quarterback pressures, with the Redskins finishing in the middle of the pack in terms of sacks and overall quarterback pressures.
This could also be due to the injuries sustained by the linebacker corp, which saw some surprising potential in both Chris Wilson and H.B. Blades, who shone at the end of the season.
The Redskins offense, while improved from the 5-11 season, was still the weak point of the team.
The arrival of Al Saunders saw little in the way of offensive explosion and dominance expected when compared to the fearsome Kansas City and St. Louis offenses he orchestrated in years past.
Jason Campbell went down with an injury in the middle of the season, but has fully recovered and expects to be in training camp by all accounts.
In the draft, with the three compensatory picks received, the Redskins have a total of nine picks, four of which are in the first three rounds.
Expect the Redskins to try and snag a big wide receiver, Malcolm Kelly and Devin Thomas being the obvious targets.
Also look for the team to address its aging defensive line and spotty secondary by shoring up with a defensive tackle, defensive end, and a safety.
Despite the weaknesses in the team, it is in fairly good condition to make another run at the playoffs in a weak NFC dominated by NFC East teams.
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