Yahoo: 2016 NFL Preview: Will a tougher schedule upend the Redskins?

[pjfootballer]

I think the Skins getting into the playoffs with 8-8 or 9-7 will be very unlikely this season. A lot of things will have to go right for that to happen. 2015 turned out to be one of those years where a confluence of events met to allow the Skins to capture the division with 9 wins. Dallas lost their two brightest offensive stars (romoSUCKS and Bryant) for much of the season. The Giants literally gave away at least 3 games. The Eagles were playing for a coach who appeared not to understand that when his offense uses the rapid-pace no huddle format, his defense will be on the field longer than any defense in the League. It was no accident the Philly defense collapsed late in games and late in the season. It is unlikely that any of those things will happen again in 2016, much less all three. Moreover, it will be Dallas, not the Redskins, with the last-place scheduled this time. So, I just can't visualize anything less than 10 wins as having a shot at the playoffs.

Please don't think that I am a Cowboys fan. But, losing these guys on injury isn't the same as losing romoSUCKS and Bryant. Where would the Skins be if they are without Cousins and Reed for much of the season?

You realize it got so bad, we had a "tackle" playing TE most of the year and had to drag two guys off the street just to field enough players in our secondary the last few weeks. All those players are key to the team. They just as vital or even more vital then star players. This isn't the NBA where stars determine whether you win or lose. It takes all 53 in the NFL.

[goskins10]

I don't think it's too far fetched for a super bowl contender with romoSUCKS and Dez to suck without them. Especially when that super bowl contending team has to start BRANDON FREAKIN WEEDEN. That's enough to take a 12-4 team and bring it back to crappy. It just means they're a super bowl contender ONLY if their starting QB is playing. Take New England for example: there's no doubt they're a super bowl contender year in and year out. If Brady gets hurt and misses the whole season, not even they would get to the super bowl, no matter how great they are.

 

Please read it more carefully. I never said they should still be a SB contender. But they should not go from 12-4 to 4-12, which is what I actually did say. Brandon Weedon was good enough for Houston to help them win a few key games to help them win their division and make the playoffs.

 

And thank you for pointing out NE - please see Matt Cassell to make my point exactly. They were 11-5 without Brady the entire season. That's what a SB contending team does when they lose a major player, still win some games, not turn into a dumpster fire.

 

No matter how someone tries to put it, losing romoSUCKS and dez is not worse than losing more than 10 starters a game!!! And if it does have that much impact then you did not have that good team to begin. So losing them was just a symptom, not the disease. They still would have not been very good.

 

Last but not least, whoever they started in romoSUCKS's place, it was their choice! They thought that was the best option they had to replace him if he gets injured! Not sure why people want to give dallast a pass here! Or poor dallast they lost romoSUCKS and dez, they would have won the SB if not! Bull****! They maybe win 8 gms with them, maybe!

 

And BTW: Not aimed at you, but **** dallas!

[HanburgerBum]

"Last place schedule" is literally a difference of two games. Good lord can people stop spewing that non sense?

 

Sorry, can't agree that the difference of two games between the 1st place and last place schedules is nonsense.  As I spelled out my reasons in post #45 of this thread, 2 NFL games are the equivalent of 20 MLB games.  And, in a typical NFL season, at least one playoff spot is decided by a tiebreaker.  If you have any specific reasons to support your position, let's see it.

[HanburgerBum]

We were the 2nd most injured team in the NFL and forth in starter games lost due to injury at 188 -more than 10 injured players a game! So yes, losing all those guys is a much bigger deal than losing room and dez. More importantly, if they were truly the SB contender they were supposed to be, losing room and dez should not have caused them to go from 12-4 to 4-12. That just shows a very weak team.

 

I am not disputing your take that the Redskins were among the most injured teams in the NFL in 2015.  But, there are varying degrees of importance among injuries when it comes to how they affect the team's performance.  To me, raw numbers without any nuance does not give the real picture.

 

Let's take a look at the 8 Skins injured players listed in that post.  Only DJax, Lichtensteiger and Lauvao were starters.  And, DJax was able to return for the 2nd half of the season.  Galette had not played a down for the Redskins and apparently had missed time the previous year.  So, it would be hard to gauge his worth as a Redskin.  Paul, Paulsen, Spaight and Ihenacho are not exactly elite players. 

 

More to the point, the players the Skins lost were far easier to replace than players of romoSUCKS's and Bryant's caliber.  In fact, the Skins were able to discover hidden quality depth (Long, LeRib) after Lich and Lau went down.  The Oline was very good overall--especially in pass protection.  The Skins also discovered W Compton and Foster at ILB, and nobody missed Paul and Paulsen when Reed was able to stay healthy for most of the season.

 

I don't think you are going to argue that QB is the most important position in football, and that romoSUCKS has been a good QB.  Thus, the only valid comparison to draw for the Cowboys losing romoSUCKS and Bryant would be the Skins losing Cousins and Reed.  Do you think the Skins would not take a nose dive if they lost Cousins and Reed?

 

I do agree with your point in another post that perhaps the Cowboys themselves should be blamed for not having an adequate replacement for romoSUCKS or Bryant--particularly the former.  But, that's a different issue.  The issue we are dealing with right now is how much did injuries hurt Dallas and hurt the Skins in 2015, not whether the GM did a good job of providing depth in case of injuries.

[HanburgerBum]

You realize it got so bad, we had a "tackle" playing TE most of the year and had to drag two guys off the street just to field enough players in our secondary the last few weeks. All those players are key to the team. They just as vital or even more vital then star players. This isn't the NBA where stars determine whether you win or lose. It takes all 53 in the NFL.

 

Putting a tackle at TE for a few plays doesn't define a season.  Yes, the Skins had a lot of injuries in 2015, but not to a critical position like QB.  As I pointed out in post #54 of this thread, some of the injuries actually allowed the team to discover hidden quality depth (Long, LeRib, W Compton Foster, Dunbar, etc), at several positions.  If the Skins were able to win 9 games and the division while losing Cousins and Reed to injuries, then that would be a big deal.  That is what Dallas lost in romoSUCKS and Bryant.

[pjfootballer]

^^More than just a few plays.

But hey, I'll just bow out of this. Really not worth the time and keystrokes anymore. It's obvious you agree with the media. Good luck with that.

[goskins10]

I am not disputing your take that the Redskins were among the most injured teams in the NFL in 2015.  But, there are varying degrees of importance among injuries when it comes to how they affect the team's performance.  To me, raw numbers without any nuance does not give the real picture.

 

Let's take a look at the 8 Skins injured players listed in that post.  Only DJax, Lichtensteiger and Lauvao were starters.  And, DJax was able to return for the 2nd half of the season.  Galette had not played a down for the Redskins and apparently had missed time the previous year.  So, it would be hard to gauge his worth as a Redskin.  Paul, Paulsen, Spaight and Ihenacho are not exactly elite players. 

 

More to the point, the players the Skins lost were far easier to replace than players of romoSUCKS's and Bryant's caliber.  In fact, the Skins were able to discover hidden quality depth (Long, LeRib) after Lich and Lau went down.  The Oline was very good overall--especially in pass protection.  The Skins also discovered W Compton and Foster at ILB, and nobody missed Paul and Paulsen when Reed was able to stay healthy for most of the season.

 

I don't think you are going to argue that QB is the most important position in football, and that romoSUCKS has been a good QB.  Thus, the only valid comparison to draw for the Cowboys losing romoSUCKS and Bryant would be the Skins losing Cousins and Reed.  Do you think the Skins would not take a nose dive if they lost Cousins and Reed?

 

I do agree with your point in another post that perhaps the Cowboys themselves should be blamed for not having an adequate replacement for romoSUCKS or Bryant--particularly the former.  But, that's a different issue.  The issue we are dealing with right now is how much did injuries hurt Dallas and hurt the Skins in 2015, not whether the GM did a good job of providing depth in case of injuries.

 

 

I have never said that 1 to 1 losing room and dez is not a bigger loss. But at some point, volume counts. Again, w lost 188 starter gams due to injury! Not just back-ups, but starter gams! I respect your position, but I am sorry, I am just tired of hearing how bad dallast had it when we lost an average of 1/2 our tame for every game! We overcame, they did not, Too bad for them! They only have themselves to blame!

 

Just because we had better depth does not mean they had it worse. And if they did it's their fault. Just for the record, Tom Compton was in over 200 snaps - 20% of all offensive plays.

 

We have beat this to death. Time to move on ---           Can't wait for September!

[TheItalianStallion]

I am not disputing your take that the Redskins were among the most injured teams in the NFL in 2015.  But, there are varying degrees of importance among injuries when it comes to how they affect the team's performance.  To me, raw numbers without any nuance does not give the real picture.

 

Let's take a look at the 8 Skins injured players listed in that post.  Only DJax, Lichtensteiger and Lauvao were starters.  And, DJax was able to return for the 2nd half of the season.  Galette had not played a down for the Redskins and apparently had missed time the previous year.  So, it would be hard to gauge his worth as a Redskin.  Paul, Paulsen, Spaight and Ihenacho are not exactly elite players. 

 

More to the point, the players the Skins lost were far easier to replace than players of romoSUCKS's and Bryant's caliber.  In fact, the Skins were able to discover hidden quality depth (Long, LeRib) after Lich and Lau went down.  The Oline was very good overall--especially in pass protection.  The Skins also discovered W Compton and Foster at ILB, and nobody missed Paul and Paulsen when Reed was able to stay healthy for most of the season.

 

I don't think you are going to argue that QB is the most important position in football, and that romoSUCKS has been a good QB.  Thus, the only valid comparison to draw for the Cowboys losing romoSUCKS and Bryant would be the Skins losing Cousins and Reed.  Do you think the Skins would not take a nose dive if they lost Cousins and Reed?

 

I do agree with your point in another post that perhaps the Cowboys themselves should be blamed for not having an adequate replacement for romoSUCKS or Bryant--particularly the former.  But, that's a different issue.  The issue we are dealing with right now is how much did injuries hurt Dallas and hurt the Skins in 2015, not whether the GM did a good job of providing depth in case of injuries.

 

I see your point, but you're acting as if Bryant was gone for most of the year. He missed a similar amount of time (it might've even been less than) to what DJax missed. So really, I think you should leave Reed out of it, though the hypothetical absence of Cousins would've made a big difference.

 

I disagree that our OL was good. The replacements were clear downgrades from the injured players, and I think Kirk's pocket presence and quick decisions were a big factor in the pass protection looking good. For much of the year our opponents seemed to be keying in on our running game (it got off to a strong start, while Kirk was shaky early on) and daring Kirk to beat them. In the playoff game vs GB, they keyed in on stopping the pass and dared us to beat them by running, and we couldn't. We couldn't protect Kirk either.

[HanburgerBum]

I have never said that 1 to 1 losing room and dez is not a bigger loss. But at some point, volume counts. Again, w lost 188 starter gams due to injury! Not just back-ups, but starter gams! I respect your position, but I am sorry, I am just tired of hearing how bad dallast had it when we lost an average of 1/2 our tame for every game! We overcame, they did not, Too bad for them! They only have themselves to blame!

 

Just because we had better depth does not mean they had it worse. And if they did it's their fault. Just for the record, Tom Compton was in over 200 snaps - 20% of all offensive plays.

 

We have beat this to death. Time to move on ---           Can't wait for September!

 

We can certainly agree that the Skins did a far better job of gathering depth and discovering it than Dallas.  It is indeed almost malpractice for a team with Super Bowl ambitions to end up in a circumstance where there is not a semblance of adequate backup for a starting QB with an injury history.  And, it doesn't appear the Cowboys rectified that situation any this off season either.  They seem to be praying that romoSUCKS will stay healthy.

[HanburgerBum]

I see your point, but you're acting as if Bryant was gone for most of the year. He missed a similar amount of time (it might've even been less than) to what DJax missed. So really, I think you should leave Reed out of it, though the hypothetical absence of Cousins would've made a big difference.

 

I disagree that our OL was good. The replacements were clear downgrades from the injured players, and I think Kirk's pocket presence and quick decisions were a big factor in the pass protection looking good. For much of the year our opponents seemed to be keying in on our running game (it got off to a strong start, while Kirk was shaky early on) and daring Kirk to beat them. In the playoff game vs GB, they keyed in on stopping the pass and dared us to beat them by running, and we couldn't. We couldn't protect Kirk either.

 

I agree that losing Bryant wasn't nearly as devastating as losing romoSUCKS.

 

As to the Skins Oline, I disagree that it wasn't good in 2015.  Yes, Cousins' improved performance especially his quick decision making helped to reduce sacks.  But, it was clear to me that the Skins Oline in the 2nd half of the season had jelled when it came to pass protection.  To me, Kirk and the Oline were both critical components of our outstanding passing offense.

 

Even more important, the Skins found out that Long and LaRib can play.  I think for the first time in quite a while, the Skins have some quality depth at the Oline such that an injury or two will not torpedo the season. 

 

The Oline is not yet very good at the running game.  But, that is likely true of many teams, because passing is far more important than running nowadays in the NFL.  I would be satisfied if Matt Jones can hold on to the ball, and the running game is good enough to keep defenses honest.