The CounterTrey 2014 Redskins Season Preview

This will be quick. The Redskins defense and special teams will be significantly better than just about everyone expects, and certainly much better than last year when the D and special teams were atrocious. That, combined with a prolific offense, will propel the Skins into the playoffs, possibly with a bye. No one thinks that the Redskins are a playoff team today, certainly not at NFL.com where ten of the eleven analysts have predicted that the Eagles will win the NFC East and that the Redskins will fail to make the playoffs.

Offense:
I find it laughable that there is so much "concern" about Robert Griffin III and his ability to pass from the pocket and digest Jay Gruden's offense. I find it hilarious that many think that RG3, the quarterback with the best rookie passer rating in history, somehow forgot how to pass the ball properly.

RG3 came out of college with passing statistics that the Wall Street Journal noted were huge predictors of success in the NFL: Namely, combined he had one of the highest completion percentages and yards-per-attempt of any quarterback coming out of college in the past thirty years or so (I looked for the info graphic the WSJ published before RG3's rookie season in 2012 in order to paste it here but could not find it).

The WSJ displayed those two passing stats in a Cartesian plane and demonstrated that the QBs in quadrant II, the upper right with the highest numbers in both categories, were known to have the most success in the NFL. Griffin's (x,y) point in that plane was better than almost all QBs coming out of college in the last thirty years. It was another data point that proved the WSJ correct because Griffin had the best rookie passer rating (not rushing rating) in NFL history. RG3 didn't just inch past the others in passer rating history, many of which turned into NFL greats, RG3 blew them away. Did I mention that his passer rating for a rookie quarterback was the best in NFL history and was almost 9% better than Dan Marino's rating? There are a couple of $100 million QBs on this list.

Highest Passer Rating (Qualified), Rookie Season
Rk	QB	Year	Team	Cmp.	Att.	Pct.	Yds	TD	INT	PR
1	Robert Griffin III	2012	WAS	233	351	66.4%	2906	18	4	104.2
2	Ben Roethlisberger	2004	PIT	196	295	66.4%	2621	17	11	98.1
3	Dan Marino	1983	MIA	173	296	58.4%	2210	20	6	96.0
4	Russell Wilson	2012	SEA	208	330	63.0%	2492	20	9	94.9
5	Greg Cook	1969	CIN	106	197	53.8%	1854	15	11	88.3
6	Matt Ryan	2008	ATL	265	434	61.1%	3440	16	11	87.7
7	Cam Newton	2011	CAR	310	517	60.0%	4051	21	17	84.5
8	Charlie Conerly	1948	NYG	162	299	54.2%	2175	22	13	84.0
9	Charlie Batch	1998	DET	173	303	57.1%	2178	11	6	83.5
10	Andy Dalton	2011	CIN	300	516	58.1%	3398	20	13	80.4
11	Joe Flacco	2008	BAL	257	428	60.0%	2971	14	12	80.3

But, now after a leg injury in the playoffs in 2012, after RG3 carried a team on which his coach had given up, he forgot how to pass the football. Enough said.

The Redskins probably have the best collection of offensive weapons in the NFL. The trio of starting WRs have Santana Moss and Aldrick Robinson as BACKUPS. Both backups would start on half the teams in the NFL. Jordan Reed had an explosive 9-game rookie season at TE with many clutch catches and will dominate if he can stay on the field. And, of course, like most Redskins teams, the running game is one of the best in the NFL. In the last two years, only Adrian Peterson gained more yards on the ground than Alfred Morris, yet no one talks about Morris as one of the best in the NFL. The more they ignore the Redskins, the better are the odds that they will sneak up on teams.

Defense:
When Joes Gibbs came back to coach, one of his first decisions was hiring a strong defensive coordinator in Gregg Williams. One of the first things Williams did was make sure the Skins signed middle linebacker London Fletcher. Fletcher was a sideline-to-sideline tackling machine. If he put hands on you, you would go to the ground. Fletcher was an undrafted free agent from a DIII school who became the fifth leading tackler in NFL history, but only got voted to the Pro Bowl two times, and even then it seemed it was out of pity at the end of his career. The last two years, it was apparent that Fletcher had lost a step. Whereas before he could go all the way to the sideline to get a sweeping ball carrier, get his head in front, and make the tackle, in the last two years that head didn't get in front so often, and then even when it did, he often uncharacteristically failed to bring the carrier to the ground.

Given the huge importance of a middle linebacker, it was understandable why the Redskins went from a perennial top-ten D since Gibbs' first year back in 2004, to one of the worst last year. It was more than Fletcher but the MLB spot was important. This year the Redskins have a young LB crew with Keenan Robinson taking over for Fletcher. Robinson was outstanding in preseason, going sideline-to-sideline and making brilliant open-field tackles.

So, the Redskins front seven should be very good. They picked up a sack machine in Hatcher who bolsters a D line that get Jarvis Jenkins healthy. The front seven will make up for any deficiencies they have in the secondary, but there is improvement there too. Getting Ryan Clark back adds much needed leadership at safety. David Amerson now has a year of experience after a good rookie season at CB. Breeland, a rookie CB, received a ton of accolades in the preseason.

Special Teams:
When the Redskins signed Jackson at WR, it made it more likely that they would use Roberts in kick and punt returns. Roberts was outstanding at both in the preseason. When the Redskins lost ST coach Danny Smith's leadership before the 2013 season, their special teams became a joke. Gruden and new coordinator Ben Kotwica have stressed the importance of special teams and the players seem to have figured it out. That and the threats of losing jobs seems to have made many much more enthusiastic for special teams than in 2013.

Outlook:
I see the Redskins winning at least 10 games, which should be good enough to win the division. The quicker that RG3 demonstrates that he is close to the RG3 we saw in the NFL in 2012 and at Baylor before that, the greater that win total will be. If we see that RG3 in week one, 12 wins is very possible. If it takes until week 8, it could be only 8 wins. But, I suspect the greatest rookie QB in NFL history, the one who not only graduated college but graduated in three years, will figure it out pretty quickly.