Fantasy Football

Regardless of what this team does on or off the field, Dan Snyder will undoubtedly be the face of it. For better or worse, their success and failures are married to his wallet and whether or not he’s actually getting value out of his regular unabashed spending. Most would suggest that no, he hasn’t, since the Redskins have yet to make it to the second round of the playoffs since he purchased the team, much less win a Super Bowl.

Pretty much every season this team has managed to surprise a few naysayers, most notably after the unfortunate and untimely death of probably the hardest hitting safety of my lifetime, Sean Taylor (My friends and I used to joke about how we’d rather pick a fight with Ray Lewis over Taylor, if for no other reason than Lewis might eventually show some mercy, and we meant this in the most complimentary way possible). In 2007 the Redskins managed to sneak into the playoffs because collapsing down the stretch is what NFL teams do in a parity driven league, and winning four straight from weeks 14-17 will get you in the post-season if you stayed respectable in weeks 1-13. This left everyone with false high hopes going into 2008.

I say false because 2007 was such a flash in the pants. In 2008 they were going up against the returning Super Bowl champs in the Giants, the presumably loaded Dallas Cowboys, and the most resilient team of the decade in the Eagles. Hoping to get into the playoffs against that line of competitors is daunting at best, and impossible with Jason Campbell as your starting quarterback at worst. The fact they finished 8-8 was a testament to the deep pockets of Snyder and a parity driven league.

That said, this team is resilient in their own right. Of the eight losses they accrued last year only two of them were by a double digit margin (Steelers 23-6 and Giants 23-7). They also never gave up more than 27 points all season, and with the addition of Albert Haynesworth the defense should be even more stifling. Portis and Betts are still manning the backfield and despite my earlier ribbing, Jason Campbell was more than serviceable in 2008. If anything, the constant speculation around the draft that they wanted to trade up to draft Marc Sanchez is going to drop his productivity more than any lack of capability on Campbell’s part.

Outside of a lack of size at receiver and a shaky offensive line, there really isn’t a god explanation for the Redskins shortcomings. But when every team is loaded yet flawed as the NFL is these days, your margin of error can’t be so great. You have to be able to score at will to be considered a Super Bowl threat. And when your QB is only throwing 13 TD passes a season, that speaks to a problem.

Can’t Miss (for what one could reasonably expect): Clinton Portis. 1,400 yards and 9 touchdowns is a great season for a second or third round pick, other than mileage accumulated over the years I don’t see why he couldn’t duplicate that season. Being the most overpaid player in the league doesn’t make you a bad fantasy pick, per say, but it does mean you bring too little to the table for what your paycheck represents. Cris Cooley is another player you want on your fantasy roster. His statistical output isn’t that much worse than Gates, Witten or Gonzalez, yet you can get him about three or four rounds later than all of those guys…Alright so he only had one touchdown last season, I would bank on an improvement in 2009.

Also, the defense. If you’re looking for a team that doesn’t give up a lot of points and always has QB’s worried, the Washington is a safe, late round bet that you won’t have to over-draft.

At least he’s your psycho now, Redskins fans.

Tread Lightly: Just both starting receivers. When are Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle-El going to officially be “too old” so I don’t have to look at them on my draft board anymore, tempting me with their blinding speed but poor route running and efficiency. I wish both men well but really, that day can’t come soon enough.

Dark Horses: Ledell Betts only because he’s proven to handle the workload when Portis is injured, I don’t expect him to see any more carries this year than he did last year otherwise. Jason Campbell, obviously you don’t want him as your starter, but should something happen to your starting QB, he at least won’t cost you points, even if he’s only earning very few.

I don’t want to delve too deeply into this, but Washington’s backup receivers, if their college careers are any indication, have loads of potential. You can probably wait to pick up Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly off of free agency, but they both offer the size that neither Randle-El and Santana Moss are lacking, not to mention that they’re both twenty-two years old. I like them a lot as fill-ins should either one of them go down with injury, or if Moss just doesn’t feel like playing again.

Anyhow, since we know the defense is top ten, that the running game is perfectly suited to make a Super Bowl run and that Campbell is improving, I think that these might be the missing secret components to the Redskins success. If they move Randle-El back to the slot where he belongs and put Kelly or Thomas opposite of Moss, they should have a receiving corps that looks respectable, instead of a makeshift group of guys that consist of a flake (Moss), a modified QB (Randle-El) and a bunch of great college receivers being severely under-utilized.

Will they make a title run? I remain pessimistic. If for no other reason that this team seems absolutely jinxed in some way. No matter who they bring in or how much money they spend, it never seems to have much of an impact. But with so much uncertainty, everyone’s guessing and their really isn’t a good reason they won’t go 11-5; even though I can say the same thing about the possibility of them going 5-11.

This team, more so than any other one, is an absolute enigma. You’re better off guessing which totals are in the Deal or No Deal suitcases than you are accurately predicting the Redskins season. All we can agree on, is that their nickname is still absurdly racist, to a comedic and undeniable degree.