State of the Franchise: Washington Redskins

The Situation:

Besides the economic crisis and job situation, the nation’s capital at least thought they were going to have a good football team to root and watch for on Sunday’s. Heck, even the Redskins starting quarterback Rex Grossman said the Redskins were going to win the NFC East before the 2011 football season began. Now come on Grossman, we all knew that your prediction for this year was a blatant lie, Grossman actually might want to look at maybe pursuing a career in comedy. He has been pretty good with his one liner jokes.

The Redskins are currently 5-10. The offense has been inconsistency and the defense has played admirably well. The main problem has been the inconsistency at the quarterback position where Grossman has struggled with avoiding turnovers. The defense has also had its shares of mental lapses and coverage breakdowns in the secondary.

What has gone right in 2011?:

Who would of thought that heading into the 2011 season that WR Jabar Gaffney would be the Redskins best WR. Gaffney is having a solid season with leading the team in receptions with 64 for 919 yards with one game remaining in the season.

RB Roy Helu has been a nice addition to the Redskins running game leading the team in yards from scrimmage with 966 total yards. Helu has 635 yards rushing in 5 games started this season. The Redskins running game as a whole has been pretty good this season.

DE/OLB Ryan Kerrigan is a candidate for Defensive Rookie of the Year Award. He has had an outstanding rookie season with 7.5 sacks and 61 total tackles on the season. The thing I like about Kerrigan is that his motor doesn’t stop and he has shown flashes that he will be a relentless pass rusher for years to come.

Honorable Mention: MLB London Fletcher: All he does is continue to make plays even at the ripe age of 36 and he leads the NFL with 163 tackles. Will somebody get this man one last big contract?

What Went Wrong in 2011?:

The QB play has been inconsistent. Rex Grossman has looked good at times but then there have been times when the game was on the line Grossman would make the big turnover mistake. On the season Grossman has 15 touchdowns and 19 interceptions with one game remaining, you best believe another interception is coming before the season ends.

The CB coverage of DeAngelo Hall and Josh Wilson has been spotty at best. We all know how I feel about Hall who I believe is the NFL’s all time biggest over-rater CB to ever play. I’ll say it again and again, “DeAngelo Hall, if you can’t play man to man coverage when you were in Oakland then you need to be out the league”. Hall at best can be a solid nickel corner and is definitely not a starting corner in the NFL.

Many Redskin fans were praising the signing of free agent corner Josh Wilson this off-season, but I wasn’t. Although Wilson had a solid season last year in Baltimore, I had my concerns with not only size but his coverage skills. This season Wilson has 56 tackles on the season with 2 interceptions. But his play for the most part this season has been up and down. Wilson struggles with bigger receivers and locating the ball sometimes.

WR Santana Moss had a significant injury that kept him out of 6 games. Grossman missed and needed his best WR this whole season. Moss is the Redskins best big play WR.

Honorable Mention: OLB Brian Orakpo: Hey Brian why don’t you wait til the off-season to do your commercial career. Its sad that your commercial career this year has had more success off the field then you making plays on the field.

The Solution:

It’s real simple draft a franchise quarterback this upcoming season. We all know Grossman is not the answer. The Redskins will be drafting in the top ten of next year’s NFL Draft. Baylor QB Robert Griffth, maybe?

Also it is time to cut ties with CB DeAngelo Hall. He even mentioned that his play this season has been suspect and he wanted to be released.

The Redskins need to be healthy on the offensive line and draft some more quality lineman.