Why The Washington Redskins Should Contend For A Playoff Spot

Call me crazy, but I say that if the Redskins do not make the playoffs in 2010, it has to be considered a disappointment. As a matter of fact, barring injury problems and other things beyond the control of the players and coaches, anything less than 8-8 would be considered a failure.

What about the Albert Haynesworth distraction you ask?

Well, the Redskins want Haynesworth, but don't need him. Despite what is commonly reported, the Redskins want Haynesworth to play defensive end, not nose tackle.

The reason is that in the Pittsburgh Steelers' version of the 3-4 that they will be running, NT is not a pass-rushing position but right-defensive end (RDE) can be if you have the right player.

The Redskins are very intrigued to see if Haynesworth is that sort of player, and create nightmares for teams who would have to block him at RDE and Brian Orakpo at left outside linebacker.

They want to try it badly enough to wait and see if Haynesworth will eventually report. If he doesn't, the Redskins have options to plug a traditional RDE in his spot.

So call Haynesworth a bonus, but not a need.

Moving on from there, this is how I arrive at the fact that the Redskins will contend for a playoff spot. Last season, the Redskins won four games. This is not because the Redskins were absolutely dreadful of bereft of talent. Instead, the Redskins were lacking competence and leadership in key positions: head coach, offensive line and quarterback.

Now at QB, I admit to being a supporter of and apologist for Jason Campbell, and believe that he will do well for himself in Oakland, where his early reviews have been positive. But in Washington, his play and leadership just wasn't good enough, often because he seemed to be trying to make sure that if the team lost he wouldn't get blamed for it.

So, in critical situations he wouldn't get rid of the ball quickly enough and wouldn't throw down-field. He seemed content to allow the problems with the OL, WRs and play-calling suffice as excuses as opposed to trying to overcome those problems with his play.

But in Donovan McNabb, the Redskins have a legitimate Pro Bowl caliber QB who has been overcoming things like bad WRs, an even worse running game, overrated and under-performing OLs and questionable play-calling and strategy for basically his entire career.

So many people seem (or want) to forget that McNabb only had Terrell Owens for ONE of his five trips to the NFC championship game, that he only had a healthy, productive Brian Westbrook (who actually only had a couple of decent seasons actually running the football to begin with) for 3 of his 7 trips to the playoffs, or that the defense that allegedly "carried this team " fell apart after the 2004 season.

So though I still think that Campbell will wind up being a good NFL QB, in McNabb he was replaced by a QB who already IS a six time Pro Bowler, a QB with 32,873 passing yards and 216 TDs against 100 INTs (by comparison Jay Cutler has 63 INTs already!), and who has at least 5 good years left in him.

Where Campbell needs a good team around him to be effective, McNabb made the Eagles better for his entire career, and will have the same effect on the Redskins.

Next there is the offensive line. The Redskins' OL has suffered from neglect throughout the entire Snyder/Cerrato regime, and this removed any chance of any QB or RB that the Redskins have played during this time of having any sustained success.

You just aren't going to succeed without time to throw the football or holes to run the ball through, and it also keeps an offensive coordinator from being able to put in or execute a realistic or effective strategy.

And last year, an already bad OL hit rock bottom due to injuries, which was no surprise as the Redskins had been trying to get by with aging or injured players for years.  The Redskins' OL has been completely remade in one season.

Though he was something of a reach at No. 4 in the draft, he was still definitely a top 10 talent, and Trent Williams will be the starting LT. The 'Skins traded for the above average Jammal Brown to be the starting RT. And versatile free agent signee Artis Hicks will be the RG. Holdovers Casey Rabach and Derrick Dockery were pretty good at C and LG, and with better players around them will be even more effective.

Former undrafted free agent Stephon Heyer and the aforementioned Mike Williams go from being liabilities at starting LT and RT last season to being reliable subs, and the Redskins added a couple of rookie late round draft picks that are perfect for their scheme.

So, the OL has gone from being the worst in the NFL to being an adequate, almost average OL, one that is certainly about as good as McNabb played behind in some of his Philadelphia playoff runs. (By the way, the idea that McNabb played with a dominating OL in Philadelphia needs to be challenged. Jon Runyan and Tra Thomas were very good, not great at OT, and they had a revolving door at the interior OL spots.)

Then there is the WR corps. Regrettably, the Redskins were unable to upgrade this position appreciably through the draft or free agency, and this position actually took a hit when the serviceable Antwaan Randle-El returned to Pittsburgh. Also, it does not appear that Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly are responding to Shanahan's system.

Just as before, Kelly lacks the speed, quickness and route-running to get open and Thomas has poor work habits. So, this is a position that Shanahan will address in the draft and free agency in future years. However, focusing on OL this year frees them up to concentrate on WRs going forward.

Also, let us not forget that McNabb went to three NFC title games with guys like Todd Pinkston, Freddie Mitchell, James Thrash and Charles Johnson at WR, and his final NFC title game with rookie DeSean Jackson and Hank Baskett as his top two WRs. And remember, this was generally without a running game. Santana Moss is as capable as DeSean Jackson, so either Thomas or Kelly only need to be as good as Baskett.

Further, the Redskins do have two very capable TEs in Chris Cooley and Fred Davis. The key is knowing how to utilize them, which was a major failure of both Jason Campbell and especially of Jim Zorn.

Where Campbell was determined to lean on a bunch of under-performing WRs, McNabb remembers from his early days in Philadelphia how to lean on his TEs. And as for Zorn, he was too rigid to abandon the West Coast Offense and simply play Davis and Cooley at the same time. As a matter of fact, Davis emerged as a player only because: a) play-calling was taken away from Zorn by Vinny Cerrato and b) Chris Cooley got injured.

Mike Shanahan is no Zorn, who was so bad that by the end of his tenure players like Clinton Portis were openly defying his authority. It was not all Zorn's fault, as he was stuck with a bad roster, and he was originally hired to be the offensive coordinator/QB coach and not the head coach.

Still, similar to Jason Campbell, Zorn was content to stick with his offensive scheme and blame the players (and implicitly Cerrato and Snyder for assembling the team) when things didn't work rather than doing his best to use the players that he had to win football games.

For instance, Zorn kept Devin Thomas and his size, speed and natural ability on the sidelines because "he didn't know the playbook," preferring to stick with guys who weren't getting open in Antwaan Randle-El and Malcolm Kelly. And Zorn refused to play TEs Fred Davis and Chris Cooley at the same time, even as a response to the Redskins' OL, WR and QB problems. Again he blamed it on Davis allegedly not knowing the playbook, but the real reason was that 2 TE formations are rarely used in the West Coast Offense.

Zorn also refused to try to come up with game-plans that Campbell could actually execute but stuck with things that exposed his weaknesses and didn't utilize his strengths, basically hanging a QB that was already unpopular with the fans and front office out to dry.

Campbell didn't take off, becoming the player that the Raiders ultimately traded for and the Bills and Panthers inquired about (the Panthers would have traded for Campbell had Jimmy Clausen not fallen to them) until Zorn was stripped of his offensive coordinator duties.  Upon taking the job, Mike Shannahan immediately declared Devin Thomas as the starting split end, knowing that his ability to actually get open and stretch the field makes him by far the best of a bunch of bad options to start across from Santana Moss.

And the Redskins have worked all off-season on what Zorn refused to try for two seasons, which is packages where Davis and Cooley are both on the field at the same time, including a look where Cooley—and not Malcolm Kelly—lines up at slot WR.

In addition to being a far superior game-planner and strategist whose vertical scheme fits McNabb's talent better than did Andy Reid's BYU-style offense ever did anyway, Shanahan will give McNabb the one thing that he never had in Philadelphia even in the Super Bowl season when he had Terrell Owens at WR and a couple of very good TEs: a real running game.

Brian Westbrook, for all his abilities catching the football, returning kicks and breaking long runs, was an oft-injured third down back. Westbrook only surpassed 620 rushing yards 4 times in his career, and one of those was a season which McNabb was injured. Oh yes, and McNabb didn't even have Westbrook during his entire tenure in Philadelphia.

But with Clinton Portis and his various backups in addition to the Shanahan scheme, McNabb will have a running game that sets up the pass, gets tough yards inside, can convert important third and short and red zone carries, and can pick up the slack when the passing game is ineffective.

In this, McNabb will have what he hasn't since early in his career when he was the Eagles' best runner, what Kurt Warner had during his two Super Bowls with the Rams, what Ben Roethlisberger had with the Steelers when he won a Super Bowl with a lowest-ever 22 rating, and what Peyton and especially Eli Manning have had.

Some insist that Clinton Portis and Larry Johnson are shot; those are the ones who do their best to ignore just how bad the Eagles' running game was at times. But no matter, even if Portis and Johnson are ineffective—which is unlikely—just place tailback as priority No. 2 on the Redskins' off season list.

Yes, the Redskins won four games last year. But add a Pro Bowl QB to the mix, and that win total should increase by at least three. Otherwise, McNabb is not that much of an upgrade over Jason Campbell. Adding a future Hall of Fame head coach who won a Super Bowl as offensive coordinator of the 49ers and two as head coach of the Denver Broncos (making him a better coordinator AND head coach than Zorn) should increase the win total by at least three.

Otherwise, either Shanahan isn't that good or Zorn wasn't that much of a disaster. And adding three NFL capable players to the worst offensive line in the NFL should be worth two games.

Now I am not suggesting that the Redskins will or should go 12-4 next season. For one, the Redskins had an easy schedule last season. Their four wins last year, for instance, came against the Rams (barely), Bucs (barely), Broncos and Raiders. Oh yeah, and they lost to the Chiefs, Panthers and Lions.

Also, the teams that they played last year that they also play this season, i.e. their division rivals, will be better. Granted, they went 0-6 in the division last season, but it will be even harder to actually beat the Cowboys and particularly the Giants than it was last year. But if the improved QB, coach and OL don't add up to 10-6, it is a disappointment, and anything below 8-8 will be a failure.

Otherwise, having a Pro Bowl QB, a Hall of Fame coach, and OTs who can actually play in the NFL aren't worth a whole lot.