Vision Quest: Ten Things I look forward to seeing the Rest of the Season

As the Redskins failed to come back against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday reality set in. The Redskins playoff hopes and 2006 season was thrown over the dock with a bunch of lead weights tied to it. And perhaps it is for the best, because thinking of what could have been is painful and depressing.

For a team that had so much hype in the off season to be reduced to 4-9 and assured last place in the NFC East. This is the worst of the three Redskin teams assembled under Gibbs II, and will rival the 2003 team as the worst Redskin team in the Snyder era. That’s the reality of the situation. All the money, all the upgrades, all the talk of vertical passing games and attacking defenses are all gone. And we are left with a redskin team that will now play out the string of games left with no hope of changing their fortunes this year.

That is why I plead with the Front Office and Joe Gibbs. Treat these next three games as the first pre-season games of 2007!!!

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating tanking games or playing all your scrubs in the second half to assure losses. I, and Redskin Nation, will be much happier if we win three in a row to end the season 7-9 then losing 3 in a row and being 4-12. Sure we will have a lower draft spot, but one player is not going to fix our team for next year. And picking at #4 or #5 as opposed to 311 or #12 will not be that big a difference.

There are things we can do to get ready for next year that will not affect our abilities to win in the present, and in fact may actually enhance them. We have already started some of them. Campbell has come in for Brunell, Golston is starting over Big Joe, and Betts was resigned to a long term extension guaranteeing the duo of Portis and Betts will be back next year.

Hope Springs eternal in the NFL and there is no doubt a team can go from worst to first in any given off season. However for that to happen changes need to be made and information needs to be gathered. In 3 short weeks the Redskins coaches will start sifting through the players to resign and the players to let go. Contract decisions will be made, free agents targeted, and draft preparations will begin. We fans will face what we have faced 12 of the last 14 years, a long winter and other teams fighting for the Super Bowl.

So the three remaining games should be looked at as a chance to forestall the long winter a few more weeks and peer into the crystal ball for what may be in 2007. With that in mind I give you 10 things I am looking forward to seeing the rest of this season:

1.) Progress of Jason Campbell. Finally the fan base is starting to see why we traded with Denver to get the ability to select this young man. Sure he will make his share of rookie mistakes, like the first interception against Philadelphia and the flip interception in Atlanta. However he has not only shown he can make every throw on the field, he has battled back from adversity each game. He has won the starting job for the foreseeable future and Gibbs is going to build the team around him. It may be a little late in coming but these last 7 games, a full off season and training camp as the #1 guy will be immeasurable in his future success.

2.) Randle El’s Role in the Offense. Finally we are starting to see Randle El emerge as a receiving threat. Up till now Randle El has been used as a gimmick by Saunders in reverses and punt returns. Not that I mind that, he excels at both, but he also excels at wide receiver. Hopefully JC and Randle El can develop a rhythm and get a healthy mix of looks between all the receivers and not just lock on Moss each play.

3.) Signs of Life from the Defense. Anything would be nice here really. This defense has not put together a consistent game all season long. They have the talent and they have relatively few injuries now. They need to produce. If not the future is bleak as we will get the same coach back next year in Gregg Williams and most of the starters will be back as well, just older. GW needs to find a way to get these guys to produce.

4.) Rocky getting some action on defense. And GW can start by putting Rocky in there for the remainder of the year. Maybe he can not beat out Holdman for a starting spot, but he should at least get 1 quarter of play each game on defense. To do anything less is either neglect by the coaching staff or an admission that Rocky may not have been a good draft choice. I am hoping against the latter, so I want him to play and show us what he can bring to a football team.

5.) Evaluate our depth on the Offensive Line & Defensive Line. On the defensive line Golston has already won a starting spot over big Joe, and that is great news. However Montgomery is inactive for most games despite earning a start a few weeks ago. Salave’a is playing his last few games as a Redskin in my opinion, his active spot needs to go to Montgomery and let the young guy get some work in on live action. Both Jon Jansen and Casey Rabach seem to be hobbled by injury. It would be the perfect scenario to sit Jon Jansen and let Jim Molinaro or Todd Wade play and see if they can earn their roster spot. Jansen needs to get healthy for next year. Rabach is a little touchy because he is a center, but perhaps Puccillo should get some opportunities there as well.

6.) Better decision making by the Coaching Staff. Clock management, play calling, and substitutions during a game have been a plague all year. This has to get better. The problems may be a direct result of too many foremen and not enough workers. This last game we got a penalty because an injury happened and two subs came in for him and took a timeout to decide to kick a routine field goal. I don’t have any solutions here because I can’t see what is going on in the coaching rooms and on the sidelines, but it amateur hour out there and this more then anything is hurting the reputation of our hall of fame coach.

7.) Is Suisham for real? Hard to tell so far. I was a Nick Novak fan but the Redskins made absolutely the right move here, if for kickoffs alone. The kid has leg and we win the field position battle each time he kicks off. He has not had many opportunities at FG kicking in pressure situations though. I would like to see what he would have done with the seconds counting down against Philadelphia but the defense could not get us the ball back. This is his 3 game audition for 2007. He should make the most of it.

8.) Find a role for Arch and use him. I am not on the blame Arch for everything bandwagon. Arch was suspect on coverage and I understand many of the fans frustrations with him. However he has not been used properly all year long and that is not his fault. He was the surest tackler in run defense when he was in there and actually led the team in tackles for the first part of the season. With this coaching staff, once you are in the doghouse, you just don’t play…ever. I don’t understand the logic of starting him one week and demoting him to 5th string or whatever the next. Arch was a good player in the league the last few years, and we gave him a huge contract with long term implications if we get out of it. A role should be found for him this season.

9.) Run Betts Run. For those of you who were stunned at the Duckett trade like I was the last few weeks has been vindication of sorts. Betts has proven he is a reliable backup to Portis and an ideal compliment for the offense. He has a realistic shot at breaking 1,000 yards this season, despite being a backup for almost half the season. It is one of the few good front office moves this season and will give us solid depth and potential 1-2 punch for years to come.

10.) Hope for the future. The last thing I want to see is this team quit at the end, like the team in 2003 did. Wins and losses don’t really matter if they are in the games and trying hard the rest of the way. The redskins still have a lot to play for, if for the opportunity to ruin the playoff chances of the Giants on the last game of the season. They could play for us, the fans. And show us why we should spend money and time following them next year. But most importantly they should play for themselves. Because no contract in the NFL is guaranteed and Snyder and Gibbs find more ways to eat dead cap space each year. I would hope players not playing hard will be let go in the off season.

Even if a few of the list above come true we can have hope for the holidays. If not next year could be just as bad.