The Ashburn Redemption

May 14, 2019

by Eric Hill

“Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.” – Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding, The Shawshank Redemption.

When the Washington Redskins walked off the field for the last time in 2018 after a 24-0 loss to the Eagles, the insanity of hope was the last thing fans needed to worry about. The hope that sprang from a new quarterback, Alex Smith, and blossomed with a 6-3 start had crumbled under the weight of injury and inconsistency as the team went 1-6 down the stretch to finish under .500 for the second year in a row.  The front office had splintered after season-long tensions boiled to a head over the acquisition of troubled linebacker Reuben Foster. Team President Bruce Allen won a behind-the-scenes power struggle that resulted in the ouster of the majority of the business operations staff. The bad guys, it seemed, had prevailed and any spark of hope had been snuffed out.

It’s always the same.  New season, fresh hope, disappointment, despair, rinse, repeat.

Why do we do this every year?

Fast-forward to early May and hope has returned, with the help of a solid draft and free agency period and a little bit of good fortune in the way of Foster being cleared of wrongdoing by the NFL.  The Redskins have a retooled roster that is stocked with youth and speed and a front office that has an air of competency hitherto unseen under Daniel Snyder.

The rest of the NFC East is doing its part to fuel our optimism. The Cowboys won the division by attrition in 2018 and haven’t done much to improve their team. They are on the brink of overpaying the remarkably average Dak Prescott and may have to choose between retaining wide receiver Amari Cooper or running back Ezekiel Elliot. The Eagles bolstered their talent at the skill positions but lost backup quarterback extraordinaire Nick Foles and must now rely on Carson Wentz to play 16 games, something he has never done. And then there’s the Giants, ah, the Giants. They seem to have taken the Redskins’ place as the rudderless ship of the NFC East.

Last weekend’s rookie minicamp provided a glimpse of what’s to come as Dwayne Haskins showed off his cannon arm and Montez Sweat flashed his speed in front of the media for the first time. Sure, Haskins underthrew a few passes and Sweat was battling a blocking dummy, but it’s May and we see what we want to see.

In the coming weeks, OTAs and minicamp will give us an expanded view at what the team might look like in 2019, with the rookies and free agents practicing with the veterans for the first time. A competition will commence between Haskins, Case Keenum and maybe Colt McCoy for the opportunity to throw to a retooled group of receivers. Wunderkind Kevin O’Connell, fresh off a promotion to passing game coordinator, will begin to put his stamp on the offense. A young free agent and two draft picks will battle it out to see who will be the solution at the perennially weak left guard spot. A young, fast defense led by some of Alabama’s finest will begin its journey toward dominance.  2018’s long list of walking wounded is now healthy. Hope once again springs eternal.

How will 2019 end? Most likely in disappointment, as it does for 31 out of 32 teams, but let’s worry about that in December.  Right now it’s time to focus on the hope that we’ll come out clean on the other side of the sewer pipe we’ve been crawling through for the past 20 years.

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” –Andy Dusfresne, The Shawshank Redemption