Washington Redskins: Still Many Questions On Offense

In "Skinsland" where there is absolutely no off season, most of the questions right now are for the defense. Where will first round pick Brian Orakpo play? Was Albert Haynesworth worth his mammoth contract? It’s a little surprising that this defense, which was somewhat lethargic down the stretch, is raising the most questions this off season.

Yes we had trouble pressuring the quarterback, and yes Jason Taylor was another one of our famous busts, but for now I am comfortable with the Redskins depth on defense.

I am far less comfortable with our offense though, but the only question the media seems to ask is if Jason Campbell can get his confidence back.  My bigger question is what have we done to help him?

On a team that drafted with an emphasis on defense, have we somehow forgotten about our anemic offense? This is a team that averaged 320 yards a game, 19th in the league. The more telling figure is that with a myriad amount of mistakes last year down the stretch, the Redskins finished 26th in the league converting on 3rd down, moving the chains only 35 percent of the time.

It's no surprise that with guys like James Thrash actually given 3rd down time and Antwaan Randal El invisible in about half the games he apparently played, the Redskins were 28th in what I think is the most important stat in the end. Through the 2008-09 season the Skins averaged 16.6 points per game. Want to know how bad that is? Detroit averaged better than us!

But outside of hoping that Devin Thomas can learn the playbook and Malcolm Kelly is ready to play after being injured all of last year, so far we have done very little to improve our offense. 

Our receivers are exactly the same, and while I am a fan of Santana Moss, no one is going to give the guy his daddy’s shoes and make the 5’10" speedster anything less than a non-factor on plays near the end-zone. That means teams can key in on the one guy who is tall and can catch, Chris Cooley, so it will be key for the Redskins to see if they can at some point find a tall possession receiver. However we are starting to run out of time.

We have bigger issues though. Are you seriously going to tell me that Jon Jansen, who is getting more decrepit by the day is still our starting right tackle? That’s a joke. If you don’t remember, Jansen is the guy who got his Mr. Freeze on, remaining sedentary against a onrushing Steelers blitz and allowing Campbell to be sacked.

Chris Samuels is still solid and Derrick Dockery is a decent addition. Still Randy Thomas is starting to really show his age and Casey Rabach is below average. So while it would be easy to simply blame Jason Campbell every time the wheels fall of the wagon, the simple truth is that his supporting cast is less than stellar, even with Clinton Portis.