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What happened to the 2000 Washington Redskins?


Championshiporbust

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Mediocre head coach (Norv Turner). Underwhelming QBs (Brad Johnson and Jeff George). Overreliance on aging players. WR corps ended up being mediocre after the young guys expected to lead it were either injured or regressed and the old guys were too old. 

EDIT: And Jeff George tanked their season.

Edited by jrry32
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The hype was a mixture of the fact that 1999 Brad Johnson was actually an effective pro-bowl level QB. Stephen Davis looked like the next big thing at RB. Larry Centers continued to be the best receiving FB in the NFL. Albert Connell and Michael Westbrook both had 1000+ yard playmaking seasons, with huge yard per catch totals, and both were young, so obviously they would build on their successful seasons. The '99 Redskins had the 2nd best scoring offense in football due to the above, along with a decent OL that had Chris Samuels coming in to solidify as by far the best offensive lineman in that year's draft. All they needed was a defense, and Snyder went very aggressive enticing aging vets to come and finish their careers together in Washington. You had Darrel Green, Deion Sanders, Dana Stubblefield, Bruce Smith, Marco Coleman, and Mark Carrier all as aging contributors, most added in either '99 or '00, to go along with the young talent of Shawn Barber, Lavar Arrington, Dan Wilkinson, Derek Smith, and Champ Bailey. And it worked! They allowed 108 fewer points in 2000 than they did in 1999. They went from 24th in scoring to 7th. They had built, in an aggressive offseason or two, a high quality defense.

Unfortunately, Brad Johnson proved to be who we all remember Brad Johnson to be, which was not a particularly good QB. Michael Westbrook got hurt. I'll be surprised if anyone actually remembers Albert Connell, but he quickly showed the bad sides of being an inconsistent big play threat with attitude problems and an unwillingness to be coached, as he maintained his high yards per catch...while catching 38% of passes thrown his way. Stephen Davis remained productive, but far less efficient behind an OL hurt by youth and injuries. Every bit of progress the defense made, the offense took back. Rising 17 ranks in scoring D is awesome, but now when you fall 22 in scoring O.

 

tl;dr, basically, the offense showed promise in '99, so they went all in on building the D, but the entirety of the offense's success in '99 was a mirage. Johnson, Westbrook, Connell, Tre' Johnson, all had career years they'd never get close to again. Even Stephen Davis never really had another year as good as that first one.

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Looking at the roster for the old guys comment and 22 year olds Champ Bailey and LaVar Arrington, 23 year old Chris Samuels and 24 year old Jon Jansen was such a building block base and Washington Washington'd.

Thinking how hard it would be to pass on Bailey, Sanders and Green with Bruce Smith rushing I figured it would be a bunch of low scoring games and they only gave up 30 once. They gave up 9 points to the Giants (who I think was a SB team that year or maybe I'm a little off), and they lost.

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They focused on building the 1992 All-Pro team in the year 2000 instead of trying to actually build an up-and-coming team with any longevity.

Side note: while looking deeper into the team that year, they drafted a QB in the 6th round... 3 spots after Tom Brady. The great Todd Husak would go on to complete 2 passes for -2 yards in his career. Obviously not their fault they missed out on Brady, but still, ouch.

Edited by HerbertGOAT
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Another reason for their failures was the kicking game. It goes back to the 1999 season.

Washington had David Akers, but they cut him that year. The Eagles picked him up and allocated him to NFL Europe. Then, in 2000, he becomes their kicker, and is a revelation. He would go on to kick until 2013, making six Pro Bowls, two first team All-Pro honors, and a spot on the NFL All-2000's team.

The 2000 Redskins started 6-3, and then their kicking deficiencies caught up to them. In Week 10, Kris Heppner missed a 33-yard FG in the fourth quarter of a one point loss to Arizona. Then, two weeks later against the Eagles, David Akers reared his ugly head. He was perfect on all his kicks, and veteran Eddie Murray missed a 44-yard FG with 1:21 left that could have tied the game.

Then, in Week 14 against the Giants, they were let down by the veteran again, as he missed two FG's, including a 49-yarder with 56 seconds left.

If they kept David Akers, they probably end up 11-5 that year, and win their division.

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