NFL: Projecting final records for all 32 teams
By Brad Rowland
Washington Professional Football Team
Pop quiz: Do you remember that the Washington Professional Football Team won 3 games last season? Everything went wrong for Mike Shanahan’s club, and as a result, they moved on to Jay Gruden for the 2014 season, even amid the turmoil of the nickname and the Robert Griffin III circus.
On the field, Washington should be markedly better this season. RGIII appears to be healthy, DeSean Jackson is in the mix alongside Pierre Garcon, and Alfred Morris has been a blessing since his arrival as a late-round pick. The team ranked 23rd in offensive DVOA a season ago, but much of that can be attributed to Griffin’s ugly play at times, in addition to a heavy leaning on Garcon through the air. Those can both be reasonably projected as areas of improvement this season.
The defensive side of the ball brings the addition of Jason Hatcher and Ryan Clark while losing only the ageless London Fletcher. Again, they were a bottom-10 group in 2013 (that is how you “get” to 3 wins), but in a perfect world, the personnel would indicate this could be an average unit across the league.
If Robert Griffin III suddenly returns to his rookie form, this projection is too low, but until we see a guy who runs with explosion and heaves an accurate deep ball, we cannot assume that he still exists.
The Pick: 6-10