so... what?

[football]

the skins are obviously my favorite team ever to play team sports in the history of time. but i think that one year or another it would be nice if they were good. remember the 80's? such a glorious time. there was never a worry if they were going to be good or bad or a hopeless hope that maybe, just maybe they cant get a wild card playoff birth. so why, why, after all these countless years of thinking they will be good again is it just year after year of dissapointment. with modern nfl meaning there are no sure things and parity... with any given year any team can be good why is it the redskins are so consistently not good? every year a fan of any other team looks at their schedule and is glad to see that their team is playing ours. fans of other teams in the nfc east look at the skins as if we were the cardinals of the old nfc east(i know this living in ny as well as my bosses are dallass fans). after 3 seasons of the second comming of gibbs, not much has changed. does it matter who is coaching the team? does it matter what elite superstar players of whatever position we bring in make? it hasnt seemed to make more than slight difference so far. what makes this season different? i want to be optimistic about this season. but why should i be? tell me.. i need somebody to tell me that this season will be good and really believe what they say. i dont want to hear the same old blind optimisim. i want to know why i should believe this team will be different.
also... ive been drinking

[tribeofjudah]

Put down the bottle......son.....

j/k....... We bleed burgundy and gold.... That's why.

[Skins2daGrave]

we're going to be good this season because nobody is expecting anything from us, last year there was so much pressure, everyone was hyping us to go to the superbowl and we turned out 5-11.

this year there is no pressure. which is why im optomistic the Skins will be a sleeper team

[washington53]

were going to be good bc
offensively: all weve been reading about Jason Cambell is that he has had a termendous offseason, and has developed rapot with Randle El and Moss. We get portis back this year. The entire offense knows the playbook and can actually play football not think what they have to do technically on each play. if Mr.Wade can play guard as well or better than Dockery, then there is no reason why this offense shouldnt score 21 plus points a game
Defensively:
we got a real MLB in London Fletcher who is quite familiar with Greg Williams defense. We got got good old smoot back and springs plans to stay healthy (providing a much better Coverage than Rogers, and Wright did). and by drafting Landry, Taylor will be able to play more of a coverage saftey while Landry plays in the box. If our defensive line can put some pressure on opposing Qbs then our defense should be holding teams to 14 points a game..

and that is why we will be good this season. and as Skins2daGrave said, We will be a sleeper team

[HailSkins2007]

dude, I do ask myself that question all the time. I really think its not the coaching, I think we go threw too many changes. Like we went to the playoffs in 05 and then we decide to pick up a OC and change everything. we really just didnt need that at the time. All we needed was a WR to go with Moss. And we traded away some of best defensive players like Ryan Clark , which they never should have done. I think its about ownership . DS is always looking for that Super bowl team and that doesnt work .

[Gibbs' Hog]

Well, with that reasoning, what makes any season different?

Fact is, we have no idea right now if the Skins will go 5-11 (again) or 12-4 with an NFC Championship this year. How can anyone be sure the Colts will go all the way again? How do we know that the Raiders won't take it all this year? ...ok, scratch that last one...

We can only speculate. My reason for being optimistic is that I thought we had a viable team last year; numerous close losses, keeping Brunell in for too many games, injuries to key players, and an out-of-sync defensive backfield kept the Skins from achieving their goals.

This year, however, the Skins will hopefully return to form (from 2 years ago) with a more adjusted quarterback (as well as "QB situation" with MB at 2nd string), better end-of-game clock management (please...please...), key players staying relatively healthy through the season, and better communication in the defense.

None of us can know for sure what will happen, but I believe there are many reasons to be optimistic. Remember, we were in the playoffs two years ago. We can be again this year.

[Chris Luva Luva]

Cliff notes version?

[riggofan]

The 80s were great with all the SBs and everything, but I'd settle for just being a consistently competitve team instead of consistently bad.

[Redskin in Canada]

Let us take the shotgun blast one pelet at a time:

does it matter who is coaching the team?

You better believe it. People make all the difference. Talent, chemistry and character differentiate the good from the mediocre teams.

But when I say people, I do not mean the coaches only. I mean from the owner to the front office to the coaches to the players to the support staff.

If anything has been proven by the second tour of Joe Gibbs is that he ALONE can not make all the difference. Some of us feel that the Front Office led by the owner has had to go through a VERY LONG learning curve to put it mildly.

The discovery of inexpensive young talent has been a weakness for over a decade now. Joe Gibbs found a team in disarray when he came. I feel that this season will be key to judge the perforance of Joe during this second tenure.

does it matter what elite superstar players of whatever position we bring in make?

Yes, it matters who plays for the TEAM and who plays for himself (and not for the team). This is a TEAM sport, not a collection of individual stars mostly at the end of their careers.

Any new player must be chosen not only because he is great but because he fits the system and the role expected of him. He must have chemistry with the group. He must be effective and loyal, and that loyalty must be rcognised by the team in several ways, including contract negotiations.

what makes this season different?

Hear what G Williams, Al Saunders and Joe Gibbs have said and done since the end of last season. Hear their latest press conferences given at Training Camp. I like what I hear.

I am personally concerned about the health and effectiveness of our DL, which I consider a weak point in our defense but even this can play a more or less significant rle depending on the style of defense that we play this season. There are very encouraging signs. Our secondary is way better this season at CB and safeties, probably one of the best in the NFL.

i want to be optimistic about this season. but why should i be?

You should not.

You should be CAUTIOUSLY optimistic. Injuries and other factors can actually change the course of the season for any team in the NFL. Our opponents have improved their personel considerably and all three of them in the NFC East had better records than we did.

You may start throwing CAUTION away if the Jason Campbell connection with his receivers clicks as well as we hope.

i want to know why i should believe this team will be different.

You should not.

You should only expect that they will play their hearts out for us. You should expect that they will never give up. You should expect to be proud of them win or lose.

also... ive been drinking

Obviously not enough to still make sense and pose the right questions.

Hail!

RiC

[cleg]

the skins are obviously my favorite team ever to play team sports in the history of time. but i think that one year or another it would be nice if they were good. remember the 80's? such a glorious time. there was never a worry if they were going to be good or bad or a hopeless hope that maybe, just maybe they cant get a wild card playoff birth. so why, why, after all these countless years of thinking they will be good again is it just year after year of dissapointment. with modern nfl meaning there are no sure things and parity... with any given year any team can be good why is it the redskins are so consistently not good? every year a fan of any other team looks at their schedule and is glad to see that their team is playing ours. fans of other teams in the nfc east look at the skins as if we were the cardinals of the old nfc east(i know this living in ny as well as my bosses are dallass fans). after 3 seasons of the second comming of gibbs, not much has changed. does it matter who is coaching the team? does it matter what elite superstar players of whatever position we bring in make? it hasnt seemed to make more than slight difference so far. what makes this season different? i want to be optimistic about this season. but why should i be? tell me.. i need somebody to tell me that this season will be good and really believe what they say. i dont want to hear the same old blind optimisim. i want to know why i should believe this team will be different.
also... ive been drinking

Because, like others have said we are flying under the radar this year, its the second year of the new offense with the same folks, Mark Brunell is not the starting QB, and I think the Eagles and the Cowboys are way overrated this year.

[LORD GIBBS]

The 80s were great with all the SBs and everything, but I'd settle for just being a consistently competitve team instead of consistently bad.

Cry me a river be happy we have smelled the the sweet times.You know could always be worse You could be a eagles fan GO SKINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOVE EM WIN OR LOOSE........

[Chris Luva Luva]

Cry me a river be happy we have smelled the the sweet times.You know could always be worse You could be a eagles fan GO SKINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOVE EM WIN OR LOOSE........

I haven't smelled nothing but the stench of losing. Cept for 2005.

[BnGhog]

I think that Stench is coming from the front office.

[Mursilis]

what makes this season different? i want to be optimistic about this season. but why should i be? tell me.. i need somebody to tell me that this season will be good and really believe what they say. i dont want to hear the same old blind optimisim. i want to know why i should believe this team will be different.

I could write some long, objective response talking about how Player X will be better this year, or Coach Y has learned from last year’s debacle, but others have already done that, so I won’t. But more importantly, it’s also beside the point. Instead, I’ll tell you this season will be good because I’m a fan, and this is my team, and as a fan, I have hope. And if you can’t have hope now, at the beginning of the season, when everything is fresh and new and exciting, and the team hasn’t lost a single game, then you need to look at yourself, not the team. Because there’s always something to pin your hope on at this time of year, and a fan will find it. A fan will look at the history of the league, and see how teams like the Saints went from the cellar to the conference championship game in one season, and think, hey, that could be us this year! Why not? Someone’s got to win each game! Why not us? Sure, history, other teams’ fans, “media analysts” and outsiders may say otherwise, but not a fan; a fan just knows.

At the start of last season, Justice Hog wrote an eloquent post about how great this time of year is, before a single game has been played and every fan of every team is still filled with hope that this year will be THE year for their team. Somewhere out there there’s a Browns fan thinking Brady Quinn is the next Peyton, and this is THEIR year. Somewhere there’s a Lions fan who’s certain Calvin Johnson is going to stun the league this year. Somewhere there's a Cardinals fan who thinks Coach Whisenhut is all that was needed to finally turn things around out there in Arizona. And here, there are a whole bunch of ‘skins fans who just know Gibbs has got it all figured out, and all of JC’s homework is going to pay off, and everyone’s finally healthy and hungry and angry enough about 5-11 last year that's it’s all going to come together. And if you can’t see that, you need to look harder for the bright spots. A fan always does.

[Redskins Rule]

Personally, Football...............I really don't care about winning or losing. I don't care that teams like to play us. I don't care about being in the cellar for the last decade. All I care about is beating those 'gosh dang' Cowboys! Anything past that is a bonus.

[HardDawg]

Pain is only weakness leaving the body! Put the women and children to bed because the GREATEST TEAM ON EARTH has returned!

[football]

ok guys, i can feel what you are saying. i appreciate the responses. i am very anxious about the start of a new season. its the same feeling i got as child on christmas eve. i think all the points everyone have made are encouraging but i guess we cant predict what the season has in store. we will just have to hang on for the ride and enjoy it.
since writing my babbling piece last night though, i guess my only really big concern is the injuries... is it too early to gauge the severity of them or will the shuffling of the o line and nagging injuries to portis bring the team down?

[LORD GIBBS]

Pain is only weakness leaving the body! Put the women and children to bed because the GREATEST TEAM ON EARTH has returned!

Amen My redskin Brother