At least this team got exposed early, before say, starting 6-2 and fooling the fanbase.....

[Fred Jones]

Reality is, we just plain suck. Unless we find a way to draft talent in every round, we are simply not going to get any better.

[DieselPwr44]

Devin Thomas has been the lone bright on Special teams with the exception of coverage units. He has yet to be stopped in side the 20.

Danny Smith: OK Devin. Catch the ball and run straight up the field like Cartwright used to.

Devin: Okey Dokey

Keenan McCardell: Devin, I want you to run a 9 route

Devin: What? What's that??

McCardell: Okay....how about a 6 route?

Devin: You want me to run 6 routes? I can't do that all at once........

McCardell: Coach Smith...he's all yours.......

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Good post NoCal...

I too still have faith that we have the right men doing the job. We just don't have the right players yet. I hope that we figure out which players we can build around and begin purging the rest of them this next off-season.

Less than a year ago we were being run by Snyder/Cerrato, our offense was being run by Zorn/Sherm, and our D was being run by Blache. The improvement isn't going to happen overnight and, apparently, we have to take a couple steps back to start moving forward as a team.

I just get discouraged because I thought that our new staff plus McNabb and last year's team could get to a point where we could outplay a bad, young team. I guess not.

[grhqofb5]

Mike Shanahan is about 1/3 of the way to purging this team of every single loser who was brought in during the Gibbs/Zorn era. Until we do that, the stench of loserdum will continue to permeate this franchise. This franchise needs to get rid of all of them (yes, even Portis, Moss, Cooley, Landry). The Redskins can't change the atmosphere until that's done.

[No_Pressure]

I like your post, it mirrors a lot of my thoughts exactly. I don't know what a lot of people expect out of our team. We lost to the Rams (did anyone honestly not see this coming?) we blew the game against the Texans, we have huge ups and huge downs. We've got guys who are supposed to be players on this team for years to come who are transitioning or being weeded out, we have guys who honestly don't belong on most NFL rosters who are playing here because I guess the coaches feel we don't have any better options for the time being.

I don't know what the long term plan is for our roster, but I do know that it is going to take more than one off season to fix the problems we were left with when Gibbs left. I mean honestly, this team of roughly the same people was so-so under Gibbs and terrible under Zorn. They're going to be so-so under Shanahan as well. 6-10 or 8-8 as a maximum is a realistic expectation for this team in 2010. I don't understand why so many fans seem to feel that we should go from 4-12 to 10-6+ in one season. Sure we have a much better QB, sure we have a better staff, I think we're a better team than we were last year but we're a team that has some massive hiccups at times.

In my opinion look for the skins to drop a lot of games early this season, and come on late in the year like they did under Marty in 2001. Only this time we need to keep the head coach, I feel as if Mike Shanahan is taking this team in the correct direction, and after a few weeks many of the parts that don't click will start to click. I also expect some of the dead weight to be cast aside in favor of young talent later this year.

Lower your expectations everybody, we had them too high for a last place team.

[OuterBanksTarHeel]

Thing is....I'm tired of the roller coaster EVERY SINGLE WEEK. I thought that maybe I could go without watching a game against a bad team....but EVERY GAME of the season it's a maybe we win maybe we don't stressful scenario and I might get a heart attack by the end of week 8....

I always saw every game as winnable and losable. If we lose(as most people would expect)...then it is what it is. If we win games we're not supposed to win...then everyone gets excited again. But then....we'll still have to worry about the games against bad teams :-/. Makes you wonder why we love this team so much

If you accept this team for what they are and don't delude yourself into thinking they'll be competing for a SB, your gameday experience will be much less stressful. That's what I do--I accept them for what they are, an old team that finished 4-12 last year. At least we get to watch an actual NFL QB lead the offense, so it's not as painful as last year.

My suggestion would be to stop following the team as often in the media--just cover the bare essentials--and turn the TV on when the game starts with no expectations.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

My suggestion would be to stop following the team as often in the media--just cover the bare essentials--and turn the TV on when the game starts with no expectations.

Sadly, that's not bad advice. It's to the point that I'm looking on the bright side of things like "at least we are fortunate to have a pro football team."

Oh well, I'll be cautiously optimistic again by Tuesday and expecting a win in Philly by Friday.

[Frostx08]

If you accept this team for what they are and don't delude yourself into thinking they'll be competing for a SB, your gameday experience will be much less stressful. That's what I do--I accept them for what they are, an old team that finished 4-12 last year. At least we get to watch an actual NFL QB lead the offense, so it's not as painful as last year.

My suggestion would be to stop following the team as often in the media--just cover the bare essentials--and turn the TV on when the game starts with no expectations.

Delude myself into thinking we're SB contenders? Not really?

I was never one of those people saying we were gonna steamroll the Rams. I expected a win..but I also understood that bad teams can play tough games. I always say no game is guaranteed in the NFL......the only thing is our games for the next 3 weeks are so tough that I have a wait and see approach. I want this team to be successful and will never predict a losing record because I expect more. So I'll watch the next 3 games hoping for a win...I just will be sure not to give myself too much of a heart attack