July 14, 2015

10 reasons the Redskins will be a dumpster fire this season

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Richard Lipski/AP

RGKnee

The dumpster fire series is back! Over the next few days, we'll take a look at each of the Eagles' divisional enemies, in detail. To note, we will not be talking about the positives of any of the Eagles' NFC East rivals, because, well, that's no fun. This will be 100 percent vitriolic. Also to note, this will be published in the Eagles Almanac, which you can pre-order here.

1) The Redskins score fewer points than their opponents

The Redskins lost nine games in 2014 by at least 10 points. They lost five by at least 20. Three of those 20-point losses came to teams with six or fewer wins. My analysis: Scoring fewer points than your opponents is a poor strategy.

Here were the NFC teams' point differentials in 2014:

Team	Point differential	Team	Point differential
Seahawks	+140	Saints	-23
Packers	+138	Rams	-30
Cowboys	+115	49ers	-34
Eagles	+74	Panthers	-35
Lions	+39	Falcons	-36
Cardinals	+11	Bears	-123
Vikings	-18	Buccaneers	-133
Giants	-20	Redskins	-137

And here's what they were in 2013:

Team	Point differential	Team	Point differential
Seahawks	+186	Packers	-11
49ers	+134	Rams	-16
Panthers	+125	Bears	-33
Saints	+110	Giants	-89
Eagles	+60	Vikings	-89
Cardinals	+55	Falcons	-90
Lions	+19	Buccaneers	-101
Cowboys	+7	Redskins	-144

Is that bad, Dan Snyder?

Nevermind, Dan. Don't hurt yourself.

2) The Redskins hate possessing the football

Over the last two seasons, the Redskins have a combined turnover differential of -20. That was good for 3rd worst in the NFL.

Team	Turnover diff - 2013	Turnover diff - 2014	TOTAL
Seahawks	+20	+10	+30
Patriots	+9	+12	+21
49ers	+12	+7	+19
Chiefs	+18	-3	+15
Panthers	+11	+3	+14
Cowboys	+8	+6	+14
Packers	-3	+14	+11
Bills	+3	+7	+10
Colts	+13	-5	+8
Cardinals	-1	+8	+7
Rams	+8	-2	+6
Broncos	0	+5	+5
Eagles	+12	-8	+4
Buccaneers	+10	-8	+2
Bengals	+1	0	+1
Bears	+5	-5	0
Dolphins	-2	+2	0
Falcons	-7	+5	-2
Browns	-8	+6	-2
Ravens	-5	+2	-3
Steelers	-4	0	-4
Lions	-12	7	-5
Texans	-20	+12	-8
Chargers	-4	-5	-9
Titans	0	-10	-10
Jaguars	-6	-6	-12
Saints	0	-13	-13
Vikings	-12	-1	-13
Giants	-15	-2	-17
Redskins	-8	-12	-20
Raiders	-9	-15	-24
Jets	-14	-11	-25

Take that, Raiders and Jets!

RG3) The Redskins' QB isn't good

In games Robert Griffin III played the majority of the snaps in 2014, the Redskins went 1-6. He threw four TD passes on the season, was picked off 6 times, fumbled 9 times and was sacked 33 times.

And yet, the Redskins found it necessary for some reason to name him the starter... in February! Why would they do that, you might ask? It probably has something to do with the Redskins' front office structure.

4) The Redskins' defense as a whole isn't good

The Redskins have surrendered more touchdowns than any team in the NFL in each of the last two seasons:

Team	TD allowed - 2013	TD allowed - 2014	TOTAL
Seahawks	22	27	49
Chiefs	34	26	60
Panthers	21	44	65
Ravens	37	30	67
Cardinals	35	32	67
Bills	42	28	70
Lions	38	32	70
Bengals	32	38	70
49ers	30	40	70
Patriots	39	32	71
Dolphins	33	42	75
Chargers	40	38	78
Saints	33	47	80
Steelers	41	40	81
Browns	46	36	82
Texans	48	36	84
Rams	44	40	84
Colts	38	46	84
Jets	41	46	87
Giants	42	45	87
Broncos	47	41	88
Buccaneers	42	46	88
Titans	40	48	88
Packers	51	40	91
Eagles	43	48	91
Cowboys	51	43	94
Vikings	57	38	95
Falcons	49	46	95
Jaguars	53	45	98
Bears	56	49	105
Raiders	54	51	105
Redskins	59	53	112

The Redskins added a "party deck" to their stadium a few years back. This was unnecessary, as there is already plenty of celebrating going on in their end zones.

5) The Redskins' defense is old

The Redskins' defense isn't just bad -- It's old. The Redskins have the fourth-oldest projected starting defensive backs in the NFL, and the fourth-oldest projected starting front seven. As a whole, it is the second oldest defense in the NFL, behind only the Colts.

6) The Redskins' special teams are always awful

The Skins' special teams rankings in each of the last seven seasons, via Football Outsiders:

Year	Football Outsiders ranking
2008	25th
2009	23rd
2010	25th
2011	21st
2012	28th
2013	32nd
2014	29th

In the last two years, the Redskins have given up eight special teams TDs. They've scored none.

7) The Redskins' offensive line went from bad to inexperienced

In 2014, the Redskins gave up 58 sacks, which was second worst in the NFL, behind only the Jaguars. While the quarterbacks were the culprits on many of those, the OL still gave up a ton of pressure. Trent Williams is awesome at LT, and first round pick Brandon Scherff might be awesome some day, but the projected starters at RG (Spencer Long) and RT (Scherff) have a grand total of 18 career NFL regular season snaps between them.

8) The Redskins have almost no really good young players

As noted above, the Redskins have the second oldest defense in the NFL. But it's not even that they're old. They don't have any good young pieces that they can build around. When the season begins, the Redskins will have just six projected starters under 27 years old: Spencer Long (18 career snaps), Brandon Scherff (zero career snaps), Jordan Reed (can't stay healthy), Robert Griffin (isn't good, as noted above), Trent Murphy (2.5 sacks as a rookie), and Alfred Morris (the only actual productive "young" player).

9) The Redskins' one productive young player might not even be a strength

As noted above, RB Alfred Morris might be the Redskins' only productive starter under 27 years of age when the season begins. He has racked up 3962 rushing yards just three years into his NFL career. However, a whole lot of running backs have had a whole lot of success in Mike Shanahan's zone blocking scheme, then fizzled out in a new offensive scheme. Is that what we saw out of Morris last year under first-year head coach Jay Gruden? Here are Morris' stats the first three years of his career:

Year	Att	Yards	YPC	TD	1st (%)
2012	335	1613	4.8	13	83 (24.8%)
2013	276	1275	4.6	7	57 (20.7%)
2014	265	1074	4.1	8	48 (18.1%)

In a new scheme, Morris posted his lowest numbers in attempts, yards, yards per carry, first downs, percentage of runs going for a first down, runs of 20+ yards, and runs of 40+ yards (he had none).

I'm not yet ready to add Morris to the "Mike Shanahan All-Stars" alongside guys like Olandis Gary, Reuben Droughns, and Mike Anderson, but he could be on his way.