Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
August 29, 2003, Washington Post

Ready for Prime Time?

This week there is only one question for most Washington sports fans:
How about those Redskins?

The Redskins open their regular season against the New York Jets Thursday night. So let's analyze the team and see if the Redskins have a real chance to make the National Football League (NFL) playoffs for the first time since the 1999 season.

Quarterback: After switching quarterbacks almost every week last season, Coach Steve Spurrier will hand over his "Fun 'n' Gun" offense to Patrick Ramsey. I think Spurrier and Redskins fans might be expecting too much from the second-year player from Tulane. Remember, Ramsey started only five games in the 2002 season and was just so-so in those. Ramsey is really still a rookie. Spurrier will have to be patient with his young quarterback and give him time to learn from his mistakes if both Ramsey and the Redskins are going to improve this year.

Offense: The offense should be better than last year's unit that finished 20th out of 32 NFL teams. Free-agent wide receiver Laveranues Coles was a huge pickup. The speedy Coles will team with Rod Gardner to give Ramsey two prime-time passing targets. The middle of the line has some new faces and should do a better job protecting the quarterback. But I am not sold on the Skins' running backs. Sure, newcomer Trung Canidate is super-fast, but can he stay healthy all season? The rest of the Redskins' runners look run-of-the-mill to me.

Defense: To be any good, an NFL defense has to stop the other team from running the ball. Last year's defensive tackles, Daryl Gardener and Dan "Big Daddy" Wilkinson, are gone. Replacement Brandon Noble is out for the season with a knee injury. The Skins are hoping that a bunch of no-name linemen can plug up the running game. I'm not sure they can do the job. If they can't, the defense might be in big trouble.

Special Teams: Last season the Redskins' special teams were awful. There were missed field goals and other teams ripped off big chunks of yardage on kickoff and punt returns. Free-agent pickup John Hall should be a big improvement at kicker. He might be the difference between winning and losing some close games. And kick returner Chad Morton gives the Skins a chance to make some big plays on special teams. But the special teamers have to be better defending against other teams' returns.

Schedule: The bad news is that the first six games on the Redskins' schedule are brutal. They face five teams that made the playoffs last season, including the Super Bowl champ Tampa Bay Buccaneers and always-tough division rivals Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. The Redskins were 2-6 against playoff teams in 2002. After that, the schedule lightens up a bit. So if the Skins can survive the first six weeks, they might be able to sneak into the postseason.

Prediction: My guess is that the Redskins go 9-7 and that their streak of missing the playoffs reaches four years.