“Stay the Course”
By Richard Rogers
The Washington Redskins organization is positioning itself to enter into a critical offseason. Kirk Cousins is the topic “du jour”. Pierre Garcon is openly campaigning to remain a Redskin. Desean Jackson is a free agent, and there are some other players the team has to make decisions on. But it seems like every offseason for as long as I can remember is always a “critical one”. As fans, we create this “win or else” mentality. Not only do we seemingly put our head coach or one of our coordinators on the hot seat every season, we draw sweeping conclusions on the health of the franchise around this time of year.
But here’s some perspective. We just witnessed, perhaps, the greatest quarterbacking performance in back to back seasons in this franchise’s history. Let that sink in. In the 2012 draft, Kirk Cousins was an afterthought for me, and I’m sure for most fans. Think about it – after years of mediocre quarterback play, this organization has found a more than competent signal caller. I remember Jason Campbell. He held the ball too long. I remember Mark Brunell. By the end of his time here, he couldn’t throw the ball 20 yards downfield. Patrick Ramsey was spooked out his mind behind a rotten offensive line. Kyle and Mike Shanahan staked their reputations on John Beck. Rex Grossman couldn’t throw it consistently to a player on HIS team. Danny Wuerffel needed a glove to grip the ball because his hands were too small. Robert Griffin III can’t read NFL defenses. Look how far we’ve come. Kirk has warts, but he’s by far the best we’ve had in a generation. This is not a “fluff piece” about Kirk Cousins, but a perspective on how far we’ve come as an organization.
There have been years of “leaks” and “unnamed sources”, rumors of coaches packing their belongings after a playoff loss. Then there’s the one about Dan Snyder leaving vanilla ice cream outside Mike Nolan’s office to protest his defensive play calls. There have been sightings of the owner dining or bowling with star players on the team and parents and spouses of star players having full access to the team facility. Those days seem to be gone. There were definitely trials and befuddling times on the 2016 Redskins, but the leaks never appeared. The only “juicy” tid-bits we got were a couple of lineman yelling at the defensive coordinator on the sideline during a game. I’m telling you folks, times are changing for the better.
It’s hard to say whether this is a good organization yet. I think this offseason will go a long way towards providing that answer. We don’t even know if this is a good team. It’s good sometimes and bad others. This team has not learned how to win consistently, and we still have players that seem to need someone to “motivate them” to play well in a “win and in” game. This team squandered many opportunities this season.
The Giants loss will not soon leave me, but for two consecutive seasons, we were relevant until the end. If it sounds like low expectations, it may be, but I remember years of 3-6, 2-7, and sub five-win seasons. Call me a homer, but I’m all in on Kirk, Jay and Scot. Scot’s done it before, twice. Kirk’s shown that his arrow is pointing up, and Jay has shown growth and that he belongs in the “big chair”. There’s tons to critique and all good organizations do that in an effort to get better, but based on where we’ve come from, I’d say we’re on the right track.