ESPN: Experts rank Redskins as tops in NFC East for the next three years

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,701
Experts rank Redskins as tops in NFC East for the next three years
8:51 AM CT
John Keim
ESPN Staff Writer

For the "Washington Redskins never get respect" crowd, this is how it works: You don't receive respect until you earn it. And the Redskins for many years earned very little. But coming off a division title and with a solid base of young talent, they’re now earning legitimate praise.

In this Insider's piece, ESPN’s panel of experts -- Louis Riddick, Mike Sando and Field Yates -- ranked the Redskins as being in the 12th best shape for the next three years. They were tops in the NFC East, ahead of the New York Giants (16th), Philadelphia Eagles (24th) and Dallas Cowboys (26th).

It’s not a big surprise. I wrote about their young talent in May (excluding the rookies, but clearly some of them will be on this list a year from now). At the end of the 2014 season, their young talent was in need of a major boost. General manager Scot McCloughan’s first free-agent class didn’t help -- only Ricky Jean Francois remains from among the key signings.

But the first draft class produced four players who will have prominent roles this season: guard Brandon Scherff, linebacker Preston Smith, receiver Jamison Crowder and running back Matt Jones. Safety Kyshoen Jarrett would have, but he’s still dealing with the nerve issue in his arm and there’s concern about his future. Still, as Riddick said, the Redskins are one dominant pass-rusher away from having high-quality players at the most important positions -- quarterback, tackle, receiver, defensive end/outside linebacker and corner.

The 2014 class, which wasn’t McCloughan’s, has produced two starters (tackle Morgan Moses and corner Bashaud Breeland) and might produce a third (guard Spencer Long). Trent Murphy, their 2014 second-round pick, was switched from linebacker, but it’s too early to say how much he’ll contribute -- at best he was a fourth linebacker.

It’s obviously too early to say what the current rookie class might do, but the additions from the last two years have helped increase the young talent base.

A lot of the Redskins' success over the next three years depends on how quarterback Kirk Cousins performs. If his play doesn’t drop off, then the Redskins really are set for several seasons. If it does then they’ll be back in the market for a starter at the game’s most important position or at the least wondering what they’ll get from the position each week. But they do so with a solid base of talent around quarterback.

They will have two high-profile offensive free agents after the season: receivers Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson. It’s conceivable the Redskins see which one is still productive and re-sign that player or they could opt to let both walk. But even then, they’d have tight end Jordan Reed and receivers Crowder and Josh Doctson, this year’s first-rounder, to build around.

They have an offensive line in which four of the starters this year will be 28 years old or younger.

Defensively, to maintain team success in the future, the Redskins still need to add young talent -- especially along the line. The Redskins have one projected defensive starter under 25 years old (Breeland), unless Smith also starts. (If Junior Galette is healthy and effective, then Smith, as of now, would be their third outside linebacker but still play quite a bit.) And they have just three who are younger than 28, including linebackers Will Compton and Ryan Kerrigan.

When you’re looking at success over the next three years, it’s really about having players just entering their prime or having young talent to develop. That’s why more work is needed defensively when it comes to success beyond 2016. But the young talent they have offensively allows the Redskins to focus more on defense in upcoming offseasons. One concern, cited by Sando, is making sure McCloughan remains in the job for a good while, unlike previous stops in San Francisco and Seattle.

Regardless, the perception of their future has changed dramatically in the past 18 months. The key will be making sure it stays that way after this season.
 

Simpleton

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
17,413
And last year we were one of the top teams in the league and the Redskins were universally picked to finish last.

The vast majority of NFL fans/writers don't understand that every year is it's own unique, compartmented existence, in many ways completely independent from the previous year. Everybody just looks at the previous year, looks at the personnel additions/subtractions and then gauges to what extent those additions/subtractions will effect what happened the previous year.

The Redskins won 9 games in the worst division in the league last year with each of the other 3 teams crumbling around them. They did not beat a single team with a winning record and had the luxury of playing as an unnoticed underdog. What happened in the playoffs when the media started debating whether or not Kirk Cousins was better than Aaron Rodgers (lol)?

They had their asses summarily beaten up and down the field.

Let's see what happens when Romo/Dez are playing, when the Giants and Eagles aren't playing out the string under a coach soon to be fired and when the Redskins don't have the luxury of flying under the radar all year.
 

Smitty

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
22,488
Dallas has literally everything the Skins were just praised for in that article.

Im in favor of getting a young QB in here as much as anyone, but it's like people are assuming Romo is already done.
 

L.T. Fan

I'm Easy If You Are
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
21,689
Dallas has literally everything the Skins were just praised for in that article.

Im in favor of getting a young QB in here as much as anyone, but it's like people are assuming Romo is already done.
That's correct. Romo has a lot of football left if he doesn't get injured but everyone assumes he will. Injury is something that can happen to any player at anytime. There is no way to successfully eliminate injuries in the game. What is important is having depth for reasonable continuity.
 

Genghis Khan

The worst version of myself
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
37,470
That's correct. Romo has a lot of football left if he doesn't get injured but everyone assumes he will. Injury is something that can happen to any player at anytime. There is no way to successfully eliminate injuries in the game. What is important is having depth for reasonable continuity.
Romo in the past 5 seasons has only missed significant time in one season (2015), and only twice in his decade of starting. He does get banged up a lot but his being injury prone (as in major, season ending injury) is a good deal overblown. The vast majority of his career he's played in at least 14 games.
 

Cowboysrock55

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
52,454
Romo in the past 5 seasons has only missed significant time in one season (2015), and only twice in his decade of starting. He does get banged up a lot but his being injury prone (as in major, season ending injury) is a good deal overblown. The vast majority of his career he's played in at least 14 games.
I don't have a lot of faith in Romo's longevity but to be fair I don't really have that much faith in Cousin's longevity for other reasons either.
 

L.T. Fan

I'm Easy If You Are
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
21,689
Romo in the past 5 seasons has only missed significant time in one season (2015), and only twice in his decade of starting. He does get banged up a lot but his being injury prone (as in major, season ending injury) is a good deal overblown. The vast majority of his career he's played in at least 14 games.
Correct.
 
Top Bottom