5 NFL teams poised for a fall in 2016
By John Buhler
The 2015 Washington Redskins went 9-7 to win the NFC East and earned a home game in the Wild Card round of the NFC Playoffs. While it was a surprisingly strong season for head coach Jon Gruden’s Washington professional football team, there are a handful of reasons 2015’s success might be fleeting.
Not since the first Joe Gibbs era in D.C. has Washington been able to rattle off a string of successful seasons on the gridiron. While the Redskins were the best team in the NFC East in 2015, that division has been notoriously weak since 2002’s realignment.
While Washington could repeat as division champs, the Dallas Cowboys should be exponentially better with a healthy Tony Romo at quarterback. Even the fledgling New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles are more than capable of hovering around .500 to contend for the division crown.
It took a rare year where the Redskins were the least dysfunctional team in the NFC East to win the division with new starter Kirk Cousins at quarterback. While the Redskins are probably the favorites to repeat as division champs, they’ll have to prove that 2015 was no fluke with their amped up schedule.
Washington has six NFC East games, plays the entire AFC West, the entire NFC North, and draws the Carolina Panthers and the Arizona Cardinals in this year’s slate of games. The Redskins will be decent again in 2016, but will it be enough to still win the NFC East? They aren’t sneaking up on anybody this fall.
Next: 4. Indianapolis Colts