NFL.com’s Elliot Harrison designated the Washington Redskins the 11th-ranked team in NFL preseason rankings.
Games are played on the field and not on paper. Preseason rankings are cursed by recency. Analysts draw straight-line projections from the way last season ended into next season. The Cowboys were ranked highest in last year’s preseason rankings.
Blah! Blah! Blah!
This preseason ranking does prove one thing. We are not league laughing stocks anymore.
Here is how Harrison ranked NFC BEast teams.
- Redskins, #11
- Cowboys, #15
- Giants, #16
- Eagles, #24
Harrison cited continuity at head coach and quarterback for ranking the ‘Skins so high.
No NFC East team has won back-to-back division titles since Andy Reid’s Eagles dominated the division in the early 2000s. Early opinions prove nothing, but this is fun to read.
Link: NFL Power Rankings, March 24, 2016.
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RGIII is every team’s Plan B
Robert Griffin III is not on the roster now. Hog Heaven is reluctant to write leading stories about him. We wish him all the best. We also wrote that where ever he lands, he will not be in as favorable circumstance as he was here.
Reader reaction was … interesting.
RG’s fans are learning the same lessons that he is now. Where ever he goes, there is another Gruden or Shanahan waiting. Most NFL coaches think more like Gruden than like Art Briles. Pro coaches don’t seem to know what to do with RGIII.
Sixteen days into free agency, his only known team visits have been to teams with African-American head coaches. Call that coincidence for now. Teams linked to Griffin (Cowboys, Texans) by SWAG guessers have moved in other directions.
The Jets have made plain their preference for Ryan Fitzpatrick. Harrison tagged the Jets #25 on his power rankings without Fitzpatrick. He says they are a 10-win team when he returns. (Yes. Fitz will eventually bow to reality and sign with the Jets.)
Maybe there are talks going on between Griffin’s people and the homeless Rams. Jeff Fisher has already shown his preference for a Nick Foles kind of guy. (We wonder is memories of Vince Young have anything to do with that.) The 49ners prefer Colin Kaepernick, if he gets over his snit.
That leaves Cleveland, the cellar-dwellers on Harrison’s Power Ranking that may have a genuine interest. The Browns are a hot mess. They repeat Daniel Snyder’s every blunder of the early 2000s.
UPDATE: Browns sign Griffin
Browns sign former #Redskins QB Robert Griffin III.
📚: https://t.co/lLSFIBFycq pic.twitter.com/aKbFPFiYdY
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) March 24, 2016
There may be a silver lining for RG, if that’s his landing spot. Griffin needs another season of development to emerge as a pro-style pocket passer. He spent last season inactive on the Redskins’ roster, but sat in QB meetings led by NFL coaches, worked out in an NFL weight room, practiced in an NFL facility.
The ‘Skins did him a real favor to keep him around, contrary to his fans’ beliefs. He put the work in. Now he needs a team to give him 16 starts. Cleveland isn’t going anywhere in 2016. There is less pressure on Griffin to win and less pressure on Coach Hue Jackson to swap QBs to save a season.
Griffin has never completed a full 16-game season.
The Redskins play a home game against the Browns this season. Some diehard RGIII fans have made plain that they will root for Griffin to beat the Redskins to prove something to Jay Gruden.
The ‘Skins are no longer laughing stocks, but they still draw controversy.
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