Every week, RealRedskins.com blogger Rich Tandler answers a fan's question about the team from Twitter. This week, he answered mine.
@Rich_TandlerCSN #NTK So many unknowns still remain, but do you see the Redskins improving their win total from last year in 2015?
— Brandon Katz (@Great_Katzby) June 7, 2015
With a handful of quality free agent additions and a very solid, albeit un-sexy, draft, I wanted to know if Washington would be able to increase their win total from last season. Redskins fans don't expect the team to starting competing for the playoff this year. But incremental progress under new general manager Scot McCloughan would offer a morsel of hope for a downtrodden fan base.
"I supposed I could give a yes or no answer here and take the rest of the morning off but the boss might catch on and get mad," Tandler wrote. "So let's take out the mythical $100 in casino chips here and bet them on various propositions for the Redskins this season. In case you need to be reminded, they had four wins in 2014.
"0-4 wins, $15-I think with the improved personnel, particularly on defense, it would take some awful luck and/or a rash of key injuries for the Redskins to win four or fewer games. Some changes could be made if they take a step back.
"5-6 wins, $45-One or two more wins might not seem like much improvement but not note that the Redskins were outscored by 8.6 points per game last year. That put them 29th in scoring margin. They could play quite a bit better and not have it show up in the wins column.
"7-9 wins, $35-To get to this level, somewhere near a break-even or winning record, I think they would have to get competent play out of Robert Griffin III (or Kirk Cousins or Colt McCoy) and get some surprise seasons out of a few players. I'm talking about events like Matt Jones chipping in 500 rushing yards and eight interceptions out of Dashon Goldson. Getting some surprise career years like that is the key to a winning season.
"10 or more wins, $5-Maybe after seeing them in training camp I might take five or ten bucks from the lower win totals and move it here. But right now, double digit wins seems to be a bridge too far."
I agree with Tandler's assessment. The most likely outcome is Washington winning five to six games this year. Despite the improvements they have made this offseason, this roster is still littered with question marks. The secondary may not be much better from last year and the offensive line needs to improve as well.
But most importantly, we still have no idea what RGIII can bring to the table. It's been a long time since he dazzled fans as a rookie. Since then, it has been a combination of injuries and ineffective play. Will that continue in 2015? We'll have to wait to find out.
