As I continue my rigorous pre-training camp reading regimen (which really is not all that rigorous), I’ll keep bringing you interesting items as I come across them.
Today’s nugget comes from Pro Football Weekly’s Eric Edholm, who ranks last season’s cellar dwellers and their prospects of making a significant improvement this fall.
Edholm considers the Redskins to be the third most likely to enjoy a major turnaround, putting their chances of improving on 2011’s record of 5-11 at 65-percent and their chances of making the playoffs at 35-percent.
The reasons? Edholm points to three in particular:
*The addition of potential big-play threats Robert Griffin III and receivers Pierre Garcon and Josh Morgan.
“The Redskins’ longest rushing play last season was 39 yards, and they had exactly two (two!) pass plays that went for 50 yards or more,” he writes, in part. “The team needed offensive juice – badly – and addressed it …That should help a ton.”
*Some “soft spots” in the schedule that includes four last place opponents. Those teams are: St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Minnesota and Cleveland. (It should be noted, though, that only the Vikings are coming to Washington.
*And, finally, a young defense that’s on the upswing.
“When you consider that the defense is in pretty good shape and that the Redskins beat the Giants twice last season and lost three other divisional games by one score, the chances for a bump is there,” Edholm writes.
I can’t argue with any of those reasons (mostly because I’m a glass-half-full-kind-of-guy). But, like Edholm, I also subscribe to the school of thought that believes the Redskins’ fortunes in 2012 will mirror RG3’s.
“RG3 still must prove himself amid sky-high weekly hype, the pressure of playing in D.C. and in a division that remains a gauntlet,” EdHolm concludes.
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